Which Region of Hudson Valley to Live for Active & Homeschooling Family? (New York: real estate)

[kb22]

Hi!

We are actively looking to move to upstate NY this coming June 2017. We will be in NYC at the end of March for a family event where we’ll also have the opportunity to explore the Hudson River Valley area – which we ‘think’ is the area that might work for us – for about a week. But, since we’ve never been to the region, we’d love any advice or feedback on where we might best focus our efforts over a 5 to 6 day period.

At this point we are looking at these 3 ‘zones’:

- Albany up to Saratoga Spring area
- Hudson / Catskill area
- Beacon, New Paltz to Kingston area

About us and what we’re looking for:

We are a family of four currently living in a small, remote mountain town in western Colorado. The population of the greater area, a 40 mile stretch of high mountain valley, is around 20,000 – roughly 5000 per town. We love where we live but are setting out on a new adventure to find creative and fun new ways to expose our boys to more diverse and bigger world views.

The primary motivation behind the move is to homeschool our two boys, 10 and 12. They are both highly gifted, and one also has a learning disability. They are rapidly outgrowing our current public school programming and small town environment. So, we intend to setup a homeschool, project based learning environment, combined with some traditional elements, and lots of field trips to the major cultural centers of the region: Boston, NYC, DC, Toronto, Montreal, etc. From where we live right now, a 3 hour drive puts us in the middle of the desert or in Denver - we’ve done a lot of both! We are excitedly looking forward to big city exploring but prefer to continue day to day living in a smaller town environment. As a family, we also love enjoying outdoor activities together: skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, river rafting, fly-fishing, camping, etc. so are also very much looking forward to exploring those aspects of NYS and the North East too.

While my husband and I can happily survive pretty much anywhere, one of the most important considerations for this move is creating a positive social environment or our boys. Our kids are very outgoing, creative and active so we are looking for an area/town/city somewhere in the Hudson Valley region that has a large enough child population to support a variety of youth venues and extracurricular activities. The boys are currently into: theater, choir, band, art, skateboarding, competitive snowboarding, biking, swimming, archery, etc. Amazingly, we do have all of those actives right here in our own small valley. I would think they must also be available in smaller NYS towns too but am having a tough time finding programs online in each of the areas we’ve been researching.

Basically, we’re OK with living in smaller towns and/or more remote areas, but not if they are too rural to offer easy access to lots of youth oriented activities. Also, it would be really great to find an area/region with a strong homeschool community, which of course would be a wonderful opportunity for the kids to make friends – and for their parents too!

We do have the flexibility to live pretty much anywhere in the NYS region, as I work from home. However, I do need access to high-speed internet, which I’ve read can be a challenge in some areas of NYS.

My husband will be our primary homeschool teacher. He will not be looking for work any time in the very near future. However, he is just finishing his master’s in social work and needs to complete his practicum over the 2017/18 year. Having access to a regional center/services area where he can complete his practicum part time would be great but it’s not a have to have.

Thank you in advance for any and all insight and feedback!

[ckhthankgod]

I'd possibly include the Glens Falls/Lake George area as well. I believe there are the programs that you are looking for in that area and its close proximity to the Adirondacks doesn't hurt. Musical Theatre - Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area

Music - Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area

youtheatre

Children Museum In Glens Fall NY: International Youth Art Exchange | GO! Where Children Discover the World

Arts Villages - Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area

This may help as well: NYHEN: Local Homeschooling Groups

[EastreturnsWest]

I'm only speaking for your desire to live an active lifestyle. Of the three choices I'd go with the Saratoga Springs area. With Saratoga at exit 13/14 of the northway (I-87), you would have a base camp with easy access to the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the Green Mountains in Vermont, and the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Most would agree that these are the premier spots in the northeast for outdoor recreation.

While the other two areas you're considering also have numerous outdoor opportunities in the Catskills, the three areas I mentioned above are more vast, more wild, and higher in elevation. There's not much back east that compares to the Rockies, but the high peaks (4000 -5000+ feet) in the Adirondacks and the Presidential range in the Whites come close.

[Sally29]

I agree with the Saratoga Springs recommendation for you. I've lived here 8 years and my son has been in the schools here since 4th grade. I know you homeschool and there are a lot of those folks here too. Lots of activities for kids and 3 hours to Boston and NYC if you want to expose them to things there. I also work online from home and have high speed internet through TIme Warner which works just fine.
Good luck in your search!

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/mort...new-york-2015/

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not ok

[kb22]

Thank you all for your quick and thoughtful responses…I apologize for being so delayed in my return response. Once we read everyone’s recommendations to check out the Saratoga Springs/Glens Falls area, my husband and I immediately went into full Google mode and spent a ridiculous amount of time this past week exploring the entire area!

And, thank you all for the great links. They were super helpful and kept us focused on one region. We started finding out pretty quickly that so much of what we love, as individuals and as a family, is readily available in the greater Saratoga Springs/Glens Falls area. It looks like an amazing area really. We’re pretty excited to see it all.

We also found a lot of great kid’s related information that we had previously had missed – we missed it because we kept hoping from region to region on the real estate maps so missed some of the deeper links.

When we initially began researching, we had a small/maybe bigger freak out regarding real estate taxes in NY, which lead us on path to focus on finding the cheapest taxes. However, we now see, for us that is, that there’s a balance to find. We’re OK with a certain levels of taxation if the infrastructure we need is represented. We don’t want to find ourselves in too remote of an area just to avoid high taxes - certainly if in the end we spend the same or more value on gas/time/commuting just to get to the resources we’re after. HOWEVER, there is a crazy line (for us) between $5000 and $10,000 a year in property taxes, right? I wonder how we should prepare for tax increases in the family budget….

Anyway, besides the tax awareness question,... guess what? We think you all found the perfect area for us! The more we research the Saratoga Springs/Glens Falls areas, the more we’re seeing it as a great potential a fit for our family. We love the proximity to active outdoor adventures, easy access to the ‘big’ cities of the regions, as well as, easy access to the Albany area should we need that for my husband’s work. And, I am vary happy to hear that internet access works well in the area!

Also, the public school system in the region looks to be pretty great as well. Although we do plan to homeschool for at least the first year, we already have one 6th grader plotting defection from the program...sigh. Choosing a good district to live in is likely a wise choice to make at this point

So, thank you all for your feedback. We have reservations booked for an end of March visit. I’m sure the weather at the end of March is winter-iffy, but that’s pretty typical of where we live now so it’s something we know how to see past. If it’s a dreadful whiteout week…well, let’s just hope it’s not a dreadful whiteout week

Thank you all so much for your input!