Info on Buffalo (New York, Rochester, Syracuse: real estate, crime, houses)

[Smiths101]

Hi,

I hope this time I am posting in the right place.

Although I have heard about the high property taxes etc. But I love north east. Never been to that part of NY but would love to explore "Buffalo area". If I work at the Uni. at Buffalo, what areas would be affordable (housing around $ 300 K) with good middle & high schools? I have heard about Amherst, Williamsville? Any other suggestions?
What is gas and electricity bill during summer and winter for lets say 3000 sq ft house.
What is the avarage commute time to work from these places?
Can I find a relatively newer house in that region?

Your answers will be appreciated.

Thanks!

[xamsx]

If you work at UB Amherst, Williamsville (a village contained within Amherst), Clarence or Wheatfield would all be good choices. All those areas have a lot of new housing, and all will contain homes in the $300K range in very good neighborhoods. Buffalo Niagara Homes.com - Buffalo New York Real Estate, Homes, Property, WNY is the local MLS

School taxes are what get you in NYS. There is a small reduction through the STAR program . The reduction is based on amount of taxes paid, so our reduction was smaller in Buffalo than in the Williamsville school district.

Your commute time will vary depending on whether you work at UB city or Amherst. It will also depend on where you live, and the time you are traveling. If you live in one of the above mentioned areas, commute time can be as little as 10 minutes or as much as 30 minutes door-to-door.

Our house is quite a bit bigger than 3000 sq ft. We run two air conditioners in the summer and the pool filter is going constantly. Our electric bill is pretty high in the summer; between $200 - $400 depending on how cold we want the house. We must have a fairly well insulated house because our heating bill has never been above $250 in January or February, and we do have two furnaces. My house in Buffalo was 1500 sq ft and I thought it was well insulated, but I regularly had gas bills in that range. I will tell you that we keep the heat at 72° in the winter and 70° in the summer (I wear a sweater as my husband likes it cold).

[aka_mouse]

Originally Posted by xamsx

If you work at UB Amherst, Williamsville (a village contained within Amherst), Clarence or Wheatfield would all be good choices. All those areas have a lot of new housing, and all will contain homes in the $300K range in very good neighborhoods. Buffalo Niagara Homes.com - Buffalo New York Real Estate, Homes, Property, WNY is the local MLS

I still think its completely crazy to pay that much for a house anywhere in WNY unless its a mansion. or unless you are a millionaire. you're not buying more house at that point... and in general you are not buying a safer neighborhood, or better scenery.

You posted that link before to show prices.. and I went to it and checked again cause I was curious. I just did a search for homes in Amherst no min, no maxz price ... and you have to go 6 pages in before you even hit the $100k homes. Granted those are small homes.

Even large 3000sq ft homes in amherst, looks like tons of options in the $220k area. Check MLS #s 283751, 284530 or 279534 for examples. And this is the type of stuff the more wealthy in WNY buy or build. And its Amherst... go to any other town in the area and it will be like half that.

[clortho1]

I was born and raised in Buffalo. I can only offer you three words of advice: Don't move there!

If you're looking for some beautiful northeast towns, Check out upstate NY like Syracse, the state of Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts.

If you want to live somewhere that has no future job growth, low ethnic diversity, horrible winters, and an overall crappy area then Buffalo is for you. I left for a reason, and never plan on going back even to visit. The only thing they have going for them is Mighty Taco.

[aka_mouse]

Originally Posted by clortho1

and never plan on going back even to visit.

GOOD!
We don't want you back, even to visit!

[homeward bound]

I was raised in Buffalo too, proudly went to SUNY-Buffalo, and love to visit whenever I can.

While Buffalo has its many problems--well noted on this forum--it also has many virtues--also well noted on this forum.

In fact, you needn't confine yourself to the standard 'burbs to enjoy living there. Though I lived for quite a while in Williamsville/Amherst, and it is a fine suburb as suburbs go (the old village of Williamsville is particularly nice), you do have a lot of options. And you certainly wouldn't have to spend $300,000 to get a great house in a fine neighborhood.

Consider Hamburg, East Aurora, Clarence, West Seneca, Kenmore, and Snyder, too. All of these are a relatively short commute to either the old Main St. or the Amhest UB campuses, and all have a lot of great qualities: strong sense of community, good schools, very affordable older housing stock with character, good parks. In any one of these (in fact, within most areas of the city itself), you're relatively close to farmland/state land, Lake Erie, the westernmost Finger Lakes, etc.

There are also many smaller communities and farmhouses/land with acreage around these towns, allowing you to live in the country, with the peace and beauty that affords, and still be sending your kids to good schools while being able to commute into Buffalo for your job. Despite the apocalyptic cautions about weather and snowfall, they do a great job up there keeping the roads clear. Unless you're way out in the boondocks or there's a blizzard that's gonna paralyze transportation all around anyway for a few days, you can get from your home to your work in the winter.

That said, Rochester and Syracuse also have their virtues, and some very lovely surrounding towns and 'burbs. Check out the many threads and postings on these areas if you're interested in an Upstate NY city and have job options there.

[aka_mouse]

Originally Posted by homeward bound

That said, Rochester and Syracuse also have their virtues, and some very lovely surrounding towns and 'burbs. Check out the many threads and postings on these areas if you're interested in an Upstate NY city and have job options there.

I have nothing to say against Rochester or Syracuse, yet I find it hilarious that this person wants to *****-slap Buffalo on crime and future job growth while propping up Syracuse.

This is a person who moved all the way across the continent to California, yet settled in Sacramento . You already know this is someone who doesn't make good decisions. That, or they were just too dumb to make good money in the Bay Area or Los Angeles. Thats not a personal attack, thats categorical, empirical, fact. Should have just moved to Modesto and saved some cash.

[xamsx]

<sigh>

Smiths101 do some searching on this forum for more information about Buffalo and the surrounding suburbs. It is called "The City of Good Neighbors" for a reason. Most people are very friendly and nice.

Buffalo Place Inc. :: Downtown Buffalo's Premier Downtown Organization is a wonderful source of information

The weather in Buffalo is a very big perk. I travel constantly and HATE leaving in the summer (actually May -October). I've yet to find better weather anywhere in the US during those months. The fall is lovely. The winter is not very cold but the wind can be pretty bad making it seem colder. Unlike much of the north we don't get that cold. The hardiness map puts us at a 6 the same as parts of Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, etc. This is again due to the lake. Other parts of NYS go as low as a 3.

[Genghis]

Another thing you'll find about Buffalo is that there are some hard-core Buffalo fanatics who will try to spin the city in the most positive way possible, to counter all the naysayers. Not to suggest this is correlated with the last posting. The Buffalo Place Inc is run by people who have a financial stake in promoting the city. Another propaganda cybermag is "buffalorising.com".

This isn't to say that there aren't a lot of good things about the city, but beware of things like "The weather in Buffalo is a very big perk". I was without electricity for about a week in October due to a blizzard and the damage it caused, and this April we had 8 days where it didn't go above freezing even during the daytime, most of which had snow. This sort of thing has more of an impact on me than "the hardiness map", no doubt developed by the finest scientific minds in the country.

[aka_mouse]

Originally Posted by Genghis

Another thing you'll find about Buffalo is that there are some hard-core Buffalo fanatics who will try to spin the city in the most positive way possible, to counter all the naysayers. Not to suggest this is correlated with the last posting. The Buffalo Place Inc is run by people who have a financial stake in promoting the city. Another propaganda cybermag is "buffalorising.com".

This isn't to say that there aren't a lot of good things about the city, but beware of things like "The weather in Buffalo is a very big perk". I was without electricity for about a week in October due to a blizzard and the damage it caused, and this April we had 8 days where it didn't go above freezing even during the daytime, most of which had snow. This sort of thing has more of an impact on me than "the hardiness map", no doubt developed by the finest scientific minds in the country.

And the result of all this? Theres lots of people who won't go anywhere else cause they are hardcore into winter stuff like snowmobiling. Spring Summer and Fall actually mean something here. You live here, you know this. First day of nice weather after the winter - EVERYONE is outside, walking around, going places and doing stuff. The ENTIRE summer there is city wide events going on. Before the Sabres were out of the playoffs, you had 10000 people outside a sold out game enjoying the weather, having some beers, and watching the game on a giant screen (I was there everytime). Every Thursday we probably get double that or more for Thursday in the Square for big acts that come through. Shredd and Ragan's cruise night is now up to 5000-7000 people for a weekly car/motorcycle cruise night that goes from May till September. I couldn't even get into the Buffalo Brew Fest at the Central Terminal (in the middle of the 'worst part of town') last year cause so many people showed up for it they ran out of tickets. I cant count how many concerts and shows Ive seen already this year.. tons of small venues show, majors stuff at the Dome Theatre in NF and in Buffalo at the ICON

We have a 4 am last call and tons of restaurants all over the place.

I read a lot of these forums and talk to people whove moved and It seems to me a lot of times people don't have the time or money to enjoy anything about where they live anymore. They have huge commutes everyday and they have to spend all thier money to afford thier housing. Its like they'll get a great job.. but now they are salary and are working 60 hours a week. You can say cheap housing and low traffic is a symptom of problems, and you're right.. but so what? Buffalo has been like this since the 70's. We don't get shocked by anything and we don't face a 'crisis' when thing arn't going up rapidly. Ill take Buffalos very slow decline stretched over decades vs. the wild uncontrolled growth you see in places like Vegas and other hot spots. and whats the quality of life in those places? read these forums, you hear it all the time.. isolated cause everyones a transplant and rude. bad traffic, poor planning, nothing to do , etc etc.