Possible Move to LI from Northern Virginia - want family-friendly area (Babylon: house, neighborhoods)

[michgc]

We just found out 2 days ago that we may be moving to LI for my husband's job, which would be in Jericho. We currently live in Northern Virginia, outside of DC. We want to come up this weekend to check it out for a first pass-through scouting trip, but it's going to be a very quick trip so we'd like to narrow down "towns" to look at. This is what we're looking for (in no particular order):

--Family Friendly. We have 3 young children ages 3 through 8. So parks, sports leagues, libraries, etc. are important.
--NON-SNOBBY. I cannot deal with areas where the majority of people judge others on where they shop, what they do for a living, how many cars they own, etc. We want a DOWN-TO-EARTH kind of place. I like to shop at thrift stores and sell on eBay. Our cars are 10-years old. We don't want to be judged.
--Great schools. This is very important to us. They don't have to be the best, best schools - just decent schools where the majority of kids are there to learn and the parents are involved and consider education a priority (but are not over the top).
--Walkable downtown. If the place has a walkable downtown, I would consider this a HUGE bonus. Does not have to be big, fancy, or even quaint looking. But I'd love not to have to get in my car for every time I want to take my kids to the library or pick up a loaf of bread.
--45-minute commute to Jericho.
--We don't have a set-in-stone budget yet as we don't even know the salary yet, but I am thinking we'd like to keep it around $875K or less for a 4 BR 2 BA. But if we have to go up on that a bit, we probably could. I don't care if the housing is old or dated. I can deal with that. We live in a dated 1950's house now.

I have been reading through these threads intently for the past 2 days and have learned so much! This is where we were thinking of looking at. Please let me know if we are on the right track and if there are more areas/towns/hamlets/villages that we should look at:

Greenlawn - Harborfields seems like a good school district. Is there a central downtown?
Centerport - Is there a downtown here?
Huntington - Sounds like the downtown is great but schools are not as good as Harborfields. Can you be in Harborfields schools and still live in walking distance to the downtown commercial district of Huntington?
Babylon - downtown sounds wonderful. schools look iffy here?

Would any of these places be a 45-minute commute to Jericho?

Avoiding Cold Spring Harbor - too expensive and sounds too snobby.

Thank you for any additional direction you can give me. Oh, and if anyone up there is from or lived in the DC area (Maryland or NOVA side; I've lived in both) and can give me comparisons like McLean is like Cold Spring Harbor or something like that, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks so much!

[brucew]

Have you considered Rocky Point?

[michgc]

Originally Posted by brucew

Have you considered Rocky Point?

No, although I've seen it mentioned, I haven't seen much about it. Off to go look it up on the map.

[S.I.B.]

I'd probably go with either Babylon or Rockville Centre - both provide a great combination of schools and downtown.

Housing will be more expensive in RVC on average, but the schools are ranked higher. You're also a lot closer to Manhattan (if that means anything to you).

You'll find a "snob element" in most areas of LI that have upscale neighborhoods, however I feel that element would be in the minority in both Babylon and RVC.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by brucew

Have you considered Rocky Point?

Ignore him. He's joking.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by michgc

Greenlawn - Harborfields seems like a good school district. Is there a central downtown?
Centerport - Is there a downtown here?
Huntington - Sounds like the downtown is great but schools are not as good as Harborfields. Can you be in Harborfields schools and still live in walking distance to the downtown commercial district of Huntington?
Babylon - downtown sounds wonderful. schools look iffy here?

Harborfields is a very good school district. There is a quaint central downtown. Centerport, also Harborfields SD, does not really have a downtown area, but it is within minutes of Greenlawn and Northport (which is another village you should consider). If you are in Harborfields SD you would not be within walking distance to the downtown commercial district of Huntington (which we locally refer to as "Huntington Village".

[MikeyKid]

NOVA to LI? Someone alert BigMike!

To the OP - I think you're going to find plenty of options to get what you want. Good luck with your move.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

Ignore him. He's joking.

Thanks for letting me know. He could have put a smiley face or something. I had no idea.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by S.I.B.

I'd probably go with either Babylon or Rockville Centre - both provide a great combination of schools and downtown.

Housing will be more expensive in RVC on average, but the schools are ranked higher. You're also a lot closer to Manhattan (if that means anything to you).

You'll find a "snob element" in most areas of LI that have upscale neighborhoods, however I feel that element would be in the minority in both Babylon and RVC.

Thanks for the suggestion of Rockville Centre. I've definitely heard of it. I will need to look at it more closely.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

Harborfields is a very good school district. There is a quaint central downtown. Centerport, also Harborfields SD, does not really have a downtown area, but it is within minutes of Greenlawn and Northport (which is another village you should consider). If you are in Harborfields SD you would not be within walking distance to the downtown commercial district of Huntington (which we locally refer to as "Huntington Village".

Thanks for this info, Tom on Centerport. Northport sounds interesting. Sounds like they have a great downtown. Schools look fine - not as good as Harborfields, though, but still decent? I'm scared to keep looking farther out. We are not immune to traffic here in DC and I'd like to keep my husband's commute as short as possible while finding most of what's on our wish-list. Will definitely check it out this weekend. Thanks!