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Home | Pennsylvania | Below Average Costs

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Finding the Best Places to Retire Since 2006!

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Strasburg, Pennsylvania

In the Bucolic Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Historic Strasburg is Known as "Train Town, USA" and Draws Tourists from Around the Region

About 90 minutes west of Philadelphia, historic Strasburg sits in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country's pastoral Lancaster County. Huguenots and Mennonites founded the borough along the Great Congestoga Road in the early-18th century.

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Today, Strasburg may be best known for its railroad, a 62-ton locomotive that steams through a peaceful landscape to Paradise, Pennsylvania and back. The Choo Choo Barn, the National Toy Train Museum, and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania help cement the borough's reputation as "Train Town, USA" and draw tourists from around the region. The past, though, is never far away, as much of Strasburg is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Limestone, rough stone and log structures from the 1700s and 1800s still stand. Residential architecural types include Federal, salt box, traditional, farmhouse and more. Rails and Ales and A Day Without Thomas (a train engine) are a couple of the popular festivals. The Servant Stage Company is a very active community theater. The Speckled Hen is a coffee shop with rave reviews.

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Nearby Susquehannock State Park offers sweeping views of the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Reservoir. Down the road, the Amish Village is a living history museum with a farmhouse, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and family barn. Lancaster, the county seat, is only 10 miles north.

Population:  3,200 (city proper)

Age 45 or Better:  42% 

Cost of Living:  3% below the national average

Median Home Price: $400,000

Climate:    Summer temperatures are in the 80s and 90s, and winter temperatures are in the 20s, 30s and 40s.    On average, the area receives 45 inches of rain and 18 inches of snow per year. Winters are usually overcast.

At Least One Hospital Accepts Medicare Patients?   No, but Lancaster General Hospital is about nine away and accepts Medicare patients.

At Least One Hospital Accredited by Joint Commission?    No, but Lancaster General Hospital is about nine away and is accredited.

Crime Rate:  Well below the national average

Public Library:    Yes

Public Transit:   No

Political Leanings:   Conservative

College Educated:   25%

Is Pennsylvania Considered Tax Friendly for Retirement?    Yes

Cons:    None

Notes:  Much of the 1985 movie Witness was filmed on a nearby farm. The population has grown 6% over the last decade. Home prices have increased 7% the last year.

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Recommended as a Retirement Spot?    Yes

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Pennsylvania:

Established by William Penn as a sanctuary for Quakers, the Keystone State was the site of two Continental Congresses. The Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution became products of the second congress in 1775. Pennsylvania also played a decisive role in the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg gave General Meade with a key win and put an end to the South's Northern Invasion.

The Appalachian mountains are Pennsylvania's backbone. The state has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. Five regions - the Allegheny Plateau, the Ridge and Valley, the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Erie Plain - help provide a diversity of landscape and climate. Although Philadelphia, the state's most populous city, may experience some subtropical temperatures, the rest of the state can experience cold winters.

Pennsylvania's economy is one of the largest in the country and the world. It's a leading coal producer and the only state to mine anthracite. Fortune 500 companies based in Pittsburgh include U.S. Steel, PPG Industries, and H.J. Heinz. Locomotives for GE Transportation Systems are assembled in Erie. Mushrooms, apples, and Christmas trees are a few of the state's agricultural products.

Although it was the second state to enter the Union on December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania has recorded a large list of firsts. Betsy Ross made the first American flag in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is also the birthplace of the nation's first zoo. Titusville claims the world's first oil well.

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