redsails2021

I rented here for 2.5 years in a block of units opposite Anzac Park. I regularly had the Sulphur-crested cockatoos fly and land on my balcony, lovely to have native wildlife so close.
The view across to the park was nice. less than 5 min walk to West Ryde station and also the 500X bus, so public transport is very good.
West Ryde market place is about 8 min walk on the other side of the station with a Coles, Woolworths and other smaller shops.
Some good cafes along Ryedale Rd.
Top Ryde shops is about 5 min drive or you can get the 500X bus there.
NBN is the HFC version (Foxtel pay TV cable network).
The most noise I heard was the buses, but nothing too bad. Some occasional drunk people across in the park at night so as per other reviews, be careful at night and maybe don't walk through the park, but apart from that, very safe during the day. A lot of families bring their kids to play in the park. Nice family friendly suburb.

I lived in Penrith for 6 years in what is commonly known as the Lemongrove area. Looking at some of the reviews on this page just makes me laugh and shake my head at the sheer lack of knowledge of the area to be polite.

The area is very convenient (walking distance) to most shops, Coles, Woolies and Aldi, Penrith Westfield - aka The Plaza and other smaller shops. Penrith station is a main station - all suburban and Intercity (Blue Mountains) trains stop there. Intercity trains take about 50 mins to Central, whereas the suburban trains can take up to 1hr, 15mins to Central. Depending on your family requirements, you could potentially do without a car and just Uber/Taxi or train/bus everywhere.

There are lots of good eateries especially along High Street.

Housing is more affordable compared to the rest of Sydney, but distance to the Sydney CBD is the trade-off (about 55kms). You can still get a good 3BR house for under $800k (roughly), and even under $700k if you are lucky.

Like with any suburb you get the occasional hoons etc, but I never felt unsafe and I used to walk home from the station late at night - no issues.
The weather out at Penrith is more extreme on both ends of the scale compared to inner Sydney - very hot in the summer - 40C+ deg. is common and can get down to very close to zero in the middle of winter - so consider that if you don't like extreme weather then maybe this is not the area for you.

Penrith is also very fortunate to be one of the few areas that got the real NBN - Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) - and it's brilliant.