Often overlooked in favor of more saturated residential areas like Center City and the Main Line, northern Montgomery County is a region boasting spacious yards and luxurious homes. Connie Berg, an Elkins Park native and a sales agent at Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors Jenkintown, notes that sales in Rydal, Upper Dublin, Abington, and Cheltenham townships have picked up in the early half of 2012: By May she has had 15 sales in the area, a marked improvement from early 2011. She attributes this trend to better mortgage and interest rates, and a fairer financial climate that has prompted homeowners to consider a move.

“I think people still feel that our area is undervalued compared to the Main Line,” says Berg, whose listings and clients are mainly drawn from her successful business referrals and marketing strategy. “You can get much better homes for the buck out here compared to the Main Line.” Homes on the Main Line are priced about 150 percent higher than comparable homes in the northern suburbs. One of Berg’s most recent listings was a three-acre, 7,000-square-foot property with a carriage house that went for $1.75 million—a covetable home that would fetch potentially $3 million on the Main Line.

Many of the area’s homes also have the same weathered charm as those houses in Radnor and Wynnewood. “We have a lot of older homes that are stone and have character to them,” Berg says. “It’s a beautiful location.” Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, 680 Old York Road, Ste. 200, Jenkintown, 215-887-0400