The Best Montgomery County Neighborhoods Nobody Is Talking About

A homebuyer’s guide to the quietly excellent towns hiding in plain sight

If you’ve spent any time house-hunting in the Philadelphia suburbs, you already know the greatest hits. Ardmore. Bryn Mawr. Wayne. Conshohocken. King of Prussia, if you really love a parking deck. These places have their charms, and also their price tags, which have started to look less like home values and more like phone numbers.

But Montgomery County is enormous — nearly 500 square miles, 62 municipalities, and the kind of geographic variety where you can leave a stone Tudor on a tree-lined block, drive 25 minutes, and end up watching cows eat lunch. Tucked between the famous towns are neighborhoods that quietly check every box on the relocator’s list: walkable downtowns, train access, decent schools, real restaurants, houses that don’t require a second mortgage on your kidneys.

Here are six of the best Montgomery County neighborhoods that, somehow, nobody is talking about. Yet. Each one includes a live link to current homes for sale and a real-time market snapshot — median price, active listings, days on market — so you can see exactly where the numbers stand the day you read this.

1. Glenside — the under-the-radar foodie suburb with a train station

If Chestnut Hill and Ambler had a less-pretentious cousin, it would be Glenside.

Glenside sits just north of Philadelphia in Cheltenham and Abington Townships, and it has, against all odds, kept a small-town feel five miles from the city line. The downtown is roughly two blocks long, but inside those two blocks you’ll find the Keswick Theatre (a 1920s vaudeville house that still books real touring acts), a couple of stubbornly excellent BYOBs, a craft butcher, a coffee roaster that takes itself seriously in a good way, and a SEPTA Regional Rail station that drops you at Jefferson Station in 22 minutes.

What nobody mentions: Glenside is one of the few places in the region where you can buy a 1920s stone twin with original woodwork, walk to dinner, and put your kid on a train to Center City for a high school internship without ever opening the car door.

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: stone twins, Tudors, and Cape Cods, roughly 1900–1950, mostly $400k–$650k
• Schools: split between Cheltenham and Abington school districts — worth checking the exact block
• Commute: 22 minutes to Jefferson Station on the Lansdale/Doylestown line; ~25 minutes to Center City by car off-peak
• Best for: city workers who want a walkable train town without Main Line prices

See live listings & market snapshot for Glenside: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/[ID]/glenside

2. Jenkintown — the smallest big-deal commuter town in the county

Half a square mile, two train stations, one very long restaurant list.

Jenkintown is barely six-tenths of a square mile, which is roughly the size of a generous Costco parking lot, and yet it manages to pack in two SEPTA Regional Rail stations, an honest-to-god walkable downtown along West Avenue, and one of the better-rated small school districts in the county. Jenkintown Station alone hits four Regional Rail lines, which means you can get to Center City in 20 minutes, the airport in 50, and Doylestown in 35 without ever touching a steering wheel.

The reason nobody talks about Jenkintown is that it gets quietly absorbed into conversations about Abington and Glenside, both of which surround it. But the actual borough has its own personality: a pocket-sized downtown with a beloved sandwich shop, a couple of legitimately good Italian restaurants, a wine bar, a bakery, and a Saturday farmers’ market. Houses range from compact rowhomes to surprisingly grand singles on tree-lined streets, and because the borough itself is so small, you can walk from one edge to the other in 15 minutes.

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: brick rowhomes, twins, and 1900s singles, mostly $375k–$700k
• Schools: Jenkintown School District — small (one K-12 campus) and highly rated
• Commute: 20 minutes to Center City on multiple Regional Rail lines from Jenkintown-Wyncote Station
• Best for: train commuters who want walkability without giving up a yard

See live listings & market snapshot for Jenkintown: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/[ID]/jenkintown

3. Hatboro — the most walkable small town you’ve never heard of

A real Main Street, a real budget.

Hatboro is a one-square-mile borough up in the eastern part of the county, and its entire personality is built around a single fact: it has a real, honest-to-god, walkable Main Street. We’re talking a butcher, a baker, a taproom, two coffee shops, an indie bookstore, a hardware store, and a working farmers’ market on Sundays — in a town smaller than most college campuses.

What people miss is that Hatboro sneaks in under the radar of the more talked-about Bucks County border towns (Doylestown, Newtown) while costing significantly less and offering a Regional Rail station that puts you in Center City in roughly 45 minutes. It’s also home to one of the better community Fourth of July parades in the region, in case you’re into that sort of thing. (You should be.)

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: modest twins, Cape Cods, and small Colonials, mostly $325k–$525k
• Schools: Hatboro-Horsham School District — solid academics, well-funded extracurriculars
• Commute: ~45 minutes to Center City on the Warminster line; easy access to Route 611 and the PA Turnpike
• Best for: first-time buyers who want a town, not a subdivision

See live listings & market snapshot for Hatboro: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/[ID]/hatboro

4. Skippack Village — the date-night town disguised as a zip code

If you’ve never had dinner here, you’re missing the point.

Skippack is a strange and wonderful little corner of central Montgomery County. It’s technically just a village within Skippack Township, but the historic Route 73 stretch — a few blocks of restored 18th- and 19th-century buildings — has quietly become one of the better restaurant rows in the suburbs. There’s a steakhouse that locals defend with religious intensity, a wood-fired pizzeria, a creperie, a serious wine bar, and a half-dozen boutique shops that somehow stay in business.

Around the village, you’ll find newer construction, large-lot rural properties, and a growing number of young families who realized they could get a four-bedroom on three-quarters of an acre for what a Conshohocken townhouse costs. The catch is that Skippack is car-dependent — there’s no train — but if your work-from-home setup is solid, that math gets very interesting very fast.

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: a mix of historic farmhouses, 1990s–2010s colonials on real lots, and a few new builds, $475k–$850k
• Schools: Perkiomen Valley School District — well-regarded, growing enrollment
• Commute: 35–45 minutes to King of Prussia or Plymouth Meeting; 50–60 minutes to Center City by car
• Best for: hybrid/remote workers who want land, a real downtown, and zero HOA

See live listings & market snapshot for Skippack: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/[ID]/skippack

5. East Greenville & Pennsburg — the Upper Perkiomen secret

Borough living at prices that haven’t caught up yet.

Up in the northwest corner of the county, two adjoining boroughs — East Greenville and Pennsburg — form what locals call the “Upper Perk.” The downtown is Main Street, U.S.A.: brick storefronts, a 1920s movie theater that’s been lovingly restored, a couple of breweries, an excellent diner, and the kind of independent grocer that knows your kids’ names within a week.

The reason these towns are the area’s best-kept secret is purely geographic. They’re a real 60 minutes from Center City, and there’s no rail. But for buyers who don’t commute to Philadelphia — hello, anyone working in the Lehigh Valley, the 422 corridor, or remote — you can buy a charming Victorian twin in a walkable downtown for less than $300k. The school district (Upper Perkiomen) is rated competitively, and the surrounding scenery is genuinely beautiful: rolling farmland, the Perkiomen Trail, state game lands.

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: Victorian twins and singles in the boroughs ($225k–$400k); larger lots and farmhouses outside ($450k–$700k)
• Schools: Upper Perkiomen School District — small, community-oriented
• Commute: 45–60 minutes to most major job centers; ideal for hybrid or Lehigh-Valley-bound workers
• Best for: buyers prioritizing affordability and small-town life over a Center City commute

See live listings & market snapshot for East Greenville & Pennsburg: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/[ID]/upper-perkiomen

6. Collegeville — the western suburb that quietly grew up

A college town, a creek trail, and a restaurant scene that snuck up on everybody.

Collegeville used to be one of those places you only knew about because someone’s kid went to Ursinus. That has changed. Over the last decade, the Route 29 corridor has filled in with a genuinely good mix of restaurants, a couple of breweries, the Providence Town Center for the times you actually need a Wegmans run, and a steady drumbeat of new independent businesses. The Perkiomen Trail runs right through town, which means you can walk or bike from your front door to 20 miles of car-free creekside path.

The reason nobody talks about Collegeville is that it doesn’t fit a neat suburban template — it’s part old college town, part new development, part historic main street (especially if you wander into neighboring Trappe, which is technically older than the United States). But that mix is exactly what makes it work for relocators. You can buy a 1920s twin near campus, a four-bedroom Colonial in a 2005 development, or a renovated farmhouse on a real lot, all within the same school district and the same five-minute drive of dinner.

The fast facts for homebuyers

• Housing stock: a wide mix — 1900s twins near Ursinus ($350k–$500k), 1990s–2010s Colonials ($475k–$750k), and farmhouses on land ($600k–$900k+)
• Schools: Perkiomen Valley School District — large, well-funded, consistently strong
• Commute: ~25 minutes to King of Prussia; ~50 minutes to Center City by car (no Regional Rail)
• Best for: hybrid workers and growing families who want amenities, trails, and a school district that actually delivers

See live listings & market snapshot for Collegeville: https://ricksheppard.com/neighborhood/160789727/collegeville

So how do you actually choose?

The honest answer: by knowing what you’re actually optimizing for. Most relocators come in saying they want “good schools and a short commute,” which is true of approximately 84 percent of the inhabited surface of the earth. The neighborhoods above each pull a different lever:

• If train access and walkability matter most: Glenside or Jenkintown.
• If you want maximum house for the dollar with charm intact: Hatboro or the Upper Perk boroughs.
• If you’re working hybrid and want land plus a real downtown: Skippack or Collegeville.

And if any of these names were new to you: that’s the point. Montgomery County is bigger and weirder than its reputation. The houses your friends keep telling you to buy in Wayne are still going to be there next year. So is the bidding war. The neighborhoods above? Probably not, at these prices, for much longer.