Why Should We Move To Albany? (New York, Colonie: transplants, real estate, condos)

[StaceyB]

My family (husband and baby boy) is looking to move back east. Currently we are in Denver while my husband finishes acupuncture school. We like Denver but I want to be closer to my family who are in New York City. We've been mountain folk too long to be as far away as NYC from the mountains but Albany is with in reach of the Adirondaks.

We like being in a somewhat urban setting, being able to walk to some places having arts near by as well as a good public radio station, I know WAMC is great. Albany sounds like it might fit. What do you think?

[Sgoldie]

Good choice! There are mountians to the North, mountains to the East, and mountains to the South.

There's several colleges in the area, the Tanglewood Music Festival in the summer (home of the Boston Pops), the 'Egg' in downtown Albany for other cultural entertainment, and lakes and rivers to enjoy. There's the Saratoga HorseTrack, one of the oldest around, and good public transportation to NYC in a couple of hours.

Can't tell you about the urban walkability part. You may want to get specific input on that as there are good and bad sections for sure. I do remember a nice promenade not far from the capital building. Check into Saratoga. This is a really cool city that may be closer to what you're looking for. Lots of cute shops and restaurants.

[Manhattan-ite]

Why should you move to Albany? You shouldn't, in my opinion. It's a sad, decaying city with not much to do. The weather -always cloudy and rainy- adds to the depression. Albany keeps losing population to the surrounding suburbs and to out-of-state cities, and its crime rate is not as low as it should.

Many of the towns around (Rensselaer, Troy) are just as sad as Albany. Hit hard by the end of the industrial era and unemployment.

Poverty and population loss are a big issue in all of Upstate New York, but specially acute around Albany. You'll also find your share of bland average suburbs with subdivisions and malls and chain restaurants, of course.

Saratoga Springs might indeed be a good choice for you. Small, culturally strong and walkable. But it's way far from Manhattan and you probably won't visit the city often.

Personally, I would recommend the Hudson Valley towns. They're closer to New York City, cleaner and much more alive than the Albany area and with more cultural offerings.

Hudson, Poughkeepsie, New Paltz... They come priicier too, but it should be worth.

[ontheroad]

All I can add is in the 10 years I commuted to Albany from NYC for meetings, none of my married with children colleagues lived in the City.

Many commuted from Greenwich, Saratoga Springs, Hudson, Ballston Spa and even from as far away as Woodstock.

It leads me to believe that families did not find Albany agreeable.

[Sgoldie]

My fav on the Hudson is Rhinebeck with it's historical Beekman Arms Rest/Inn, cute shops, deli's, and walkable downtown. Just did a mansion tour along the Hudson this past fall which I'd recommend.

[missing the wilderness]

We have lived as close to Denver as Fort Collins, CO, but we have never lived in Denver. I'll give you our comparison based on that experience. We now live on a small farm (50 acres) 20 minutes from downtown Albany. We are here because of family reasons, but we plan to move back out west as soon as possible. Compared to Fort Collins, Albany is absolutely awful.

Since you mention your interest in the outdoors, I will limit my comments to that topic. The Adirondack Park's southern border is about 1 hour's drive north of Albany. When you get to the park, you will arrive at an area designated as a park that is 6 million acres of a mix of public and private land. I'm not able to think of any area in the United States that is not a mix of public and private land, so what makes this a park? It is a park because NY has decided to redefine the meaning of the work - park. In NY, a park has abandoned factories and active factories, crumbling small towns and cities, condos, expansive private hunting camps, lumber company holdings, trailer parks, lakes rimmed by massive summer homes and shacks, tee-shirt shops, power boats, and strip malls - but I don't think there is radioactive waste facility in the park, yet. These are not all pre-park phenomena. Much has been built since the park was established, and more condos and private homes are being built today. It is not clear to me what the Adirondack Park Agency (read big, expensive NY government make-work jobs at the taxer payers expense) actually restricts - maybe radioactive waste. It is not a wilderness area and there is no real motion to make it one. Instead, we NY did a dumb-down on the meaning of wilderness. Some of the bars can be wild. Does that count?

We have a joke in NY... An environmentalist is a person who doesn't own a camp in the Adirondack Park yet.

Fort Collins and Denver are an easy drive to Rocky Mt National Park, which we miss dearly. The Adirondack Park is a lie - sorry for the bluntness - but this Adirondack Park stinks as a park. It is not even as good as a national forest, which are so abundant in the western states. The "Park" was created for public relations reasons only. That isn't to say that there are not beautiful places within the Park, but the public and private areas are tangled together. A typical Adirondack lake will be rimmed with private property, so that you will often be hard pressed to find a place to have an on-shore snack or take a bio-break without trespassing.

Other topics to scare you include taxes and climate. My property taxes are a multiple of the taxes we paid when we live in Colorado and Wyoming, and working families do not get any benefits from the taxes. The benefit is for our expansive and growing population of freeloaders. Forget the sunny skies of Colorado. We usually don't get a winter - just 6 month of inclement weather - cold rain, ice, wet snow and gray skies. The biggest recreation of Albany is watching cable TV. Some people ski on the hills of NY - but the ski centers are better described as sloping ice rinks. I've retired from this sport until I return west.

[ckhthankgod]

You can try the Catskills too. It's closer to NYC and is beautiful.

As for the Adirondacks, it sounds like someone is frustrated with their time here and that is unfortunate. It is a pretty big park. So, it varies on what you see there. I wonder if the same poster has been to places like Old Forge, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Lake George, Tupper Lake, Indian Lake and many more places in the Adirondacks?

[Rumblebelly]

This is interesting. We moved from Fort Collins to Ballston Spa a couple of years ago to be closer to my wife's family... who just happen to live in the Adirondacks....

Downtown Denver is a lot different from Albany. Albany is smaller and the "scene" is kinda scattered. Denver seems more "focused", same goes with Fort Collins. You have Lark Street in Albany which has a nice nightlife, very cool brownstones, and there are some decent museums nearby in the downtown area. Lark Street is the closest thing you'll find in Albany to Denver's LODO which is much bigger and more vibrant. Everything else is scattered from the Pearl Street area to the NW end of Washington have in the Pine Hills area. These "cool areas" are kinda pinched between two not so great neighborhoods, neighborhoods that might remind you of east Colfax in Denver but even a little worse. The architecture in Albany is pretty amazing though and there are some great neighborhoods here and there.

Troy and Schenectady are in a little worse shape but River St in Troy is probably one of my favorite little spots in the area. Can you say, Brown's Brewery? There's even a pretty good and funky Mexican resturant on that street called Jose Mallone's.

The Albany metro area is much smaller and has less sprawl with those cookie cutter neighborhoods (I'm not saying there aren't any of those neighboorhoods, just a lot less). The area is pockmarked with some amazing architecture and colonial era structures you won't see out west. I feel like there is more to see and do in this area than Denver. Especially with the proximity to Boston, NYC, Vermont, and Montreal. Lot's of history and places to visit.

Saratoga Springs is a nice little city. The downtown is almost exactly the same size as Fort Collins' and just as vibrant. However, the scene is more adult affluent in appearance. Less down to earth and less casual than Fort Collins. If you wanna live there and work in Albany, it'll take you about an hour to get to work during rush hour. The Northway SUCKS that time of day. It's about as bad as the I25 traffic in Denver.

The Adirondacks are nice. Lot's of camping, hiking, and canoeing. I think the earlier poster hasn't tried hard enough to find out what it's all about. The Adirondacks are what attracted me to the area. I'm sure you know that the Colorado front range is incredibly dry. Some summers in CO it's illegal to even have a camp fire. Pretty much the Adirondack forests are like moose country in Colorado, around 10k feet, but at a much lower elevation. The Adirondack wilderness is vast if you know where to go. There are pleny of maps that show what is private and what is state land. The glacial lakes are amazing in the evening. It's unreal and calming...well, when the blackflies aren't around. Yes, the APA sucks but people learn to deal with them. It's almost impossible to devolope something in the park unless you are in well with APA board.

Regarding public radio, you can get two NPR stations in the Albany area.

Winters are harsher up here. The snow sticks around, especially this winter, and just builds up. If you like winter activies such as snowmobiling, snowshoeing, or cross country skiing, it's a pretty cool place to be. Summers are great. Cooler but more humid than Colorado.

Best of luck. Feel free to send a message if you wanna know more.

[mgibbons]

Love the Albany, New York area. I have lived in this area for 20 years and now sell real estate in this area.

Here is what I love about this area-culture,arts, theatre, close to the mountains, lakes and oceans, gorgeous Parks for hiking, biking, and of course a nice picnic. We have excellent education and hospital systems, close to NYC, Boston, Vermont, Mass, Lake Placid, Quebec, Montreal,etc. Of course, there are many who love the flat track in the summer at Saratoga. Job market is better then in many other areas of New York State and always has been.

The cost of living for what you have here is unbelievable in comparison to many places out West. I have many friends who visit and can not believe the housing prices here. Many often comment on how much our home would be worth where they live.

Okay, winters are tough but that is why they call it winter. Lots of places to enjoy skiing, and many other winter sports.


Most of all the people. I have found people in Albany, New York and the surrounding areas to be extremely kind to those of us who are transplants. I have met many people in this area in the last 20 years and I feel very fortunate to live and work in such a great region of New York State.

I love this area and am very happy here. I would suggest visiting for a bit and getting a flavor of the area if you have not been here before.

[riley131]

Just be careful where you choose... try areas directly outside Albany. I don't think Albany is a suitable place to raise a young family. Try Colonie.