Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a nice forum with a wealth of information. After reading a lot of posts, I have decided to post to get opinions / facts about some areas.
We are thinking about buying a home and have a large amount of options. I am working for Canon in Lake Success, but I expect to move to the melville headquarters once its completed. My wife also works in melville. We are currently renting in Mineola. We have a daughter entering K with another on the way in 6 months. We are of Indian decent, but mingle quite well with people of diverse backgrounds.
Our annual household income is about 250k and we have about 150k saved up for downpayment.. We think we can afford a 750k house, but would rather stick to 650k or below so we can save up money for college and retirement.
Schools are top priority, hence the title question. I checked out many rankings and it looks like Jericho is the top school district in Long Island hands down. Many awards - 5 intel semi-finalists in 2010. The area is also conveniently located near the LIE, and the drive seems to be about 15 minutes to Melville in peak time. There are some homes available for 650k, but according to the listings, its on the lower end. Traffic seems to be heavy, but the residential areas were quiet in the evening times when we visited.
Three-Village seems to be on the radar as a good school district. The area seems more affordable, and reading about recent reviews here, Jericho seems like a better choice for schools. Three-village is also a 30 minute drive to Melville, but I am not sure what the traffic adds to that. But homes here are nice, and the real plus here is affordability for a nice home. We also like the proximity to university and the serene neighborhoods with hilly, winding roads as opposed to the areas near Jericho Tkpe.
Other areas we would like to consider are Plainview, Syosset, Herricks, Commack, Smithtown, and Half-hallow-hills school districts. Too many choices and homes, so we have our work cut out for narrow down the choices. But we are looking closely at Jericho and 3-village to see if that's a good fit for us. Any opinions / comparisons?
3V has the most charm of any of the places you mention, hands down. But as pp said, the commute could be a nightmare.
IMHO when you are talking about differences in the top school districts, you are talking about negligible differences. It's like talking about the physical difference between a child who walks at 10 months and one who walks at 11 months. Is one truly superior over the other? That's just MHO. I'm also not that impressed with the Intel science thing - yes it's wonderful, but if you don't have a science minded child, what difference is it really going to make? None at all. Maybe you and your wife ARE science minded and that will be big in your household - I've no idea.
If you're looking for a good education on Long Island you have to look harder to find a place where you WON'T get that than to find a place where you WILL. Again, just MHO.
I live in Stony Brook with children in the 3V. I am happy with the school district, but in terms of schools and commute to Melville -- Jericho would be the way to go. When I bought my house we were looking at either Stony Brook area or the south fork, so further west was never a consideration.
Depending upon the time you would have to leave to be in Melville, and where your potential home in 3V is situated, you could be looking at 45 mins -- easily.
You will be able to find updated homes in nice areas of the 3V for $650K.
Intel -- Ward Melville consistently has semifinalists and in recent years has had record amounts; this past year 2 seniors were finalists. We also have Siemens semi finalists and this year a WMHS senior took 1st place.
The district is large (this year's graduating class was 667) and economically it's a mix from super wealthy through blue collar. Many residents are employed by SBU; those I know are in upper administration with a few department chairs. There are many doctors as UHSB is in the district while St Charles & Mather are to the east and St Catherine's is to the west.
The university brings people from around the globe which in turn makes our area and schools a little more diverse than others. Politically, it is Democratic and liberal.
I don't know if this was helpful, or if there is something you would like answered in greater detail. If so, please send me a DM and I will try to help.
I live within the Jericho school district, and in talking with neighbors, one plus point of being in a small school district like Jericho is the accessibility of teachers and administrators. We were very impressed with stories about how curriculum associates personally attend to questions from parents and give individual attention to every student. Not sure if other schools are equally accessible, but with HHH that has over 1000 in its graduating class, it might be difficult.
I think the graduating class this year was about 250 students, with more than 50 going to Ivy league schools. The college acceptance list is posted here http://jerichoschools.org/community/AcceptanceReportClassof2010Rev1.pdf (broken link)
Another point about Jericho is that many parents here are wealthy and highly motivated to give the best for their children. I have heard many children also attend private coaching in addition to their school district classes - including academic summer camps etc. Not necessarily a bad thing, but that probably explains the high test scores.
you cannot go wrong with jericho. personally, given the distance, i wouldn't go for 3V. You can good districts for good prices much closer to the city so why schlep out so far?
herricks, as you probably know, is a majority Indian and Asian district so it could be a good fit for your family. they also should have homes in your price range. next door, east williston is an outstanding district but it might be hard to find a suitable home at your price range...
Syosset and HHH are also great as well...you're in a position to own a home in a premier district but just remember your child could have a terrible teacher in one of these districts so the district is not the be all and end all
Jericho !
What are you talking about ? 650K is decent for a 3-4 bedroom in Jericho.
Another thing is that if you can chip in another 30-40K for upgrades, you can buy an excellent house and make it mint ++ without shelling out $$$ for straightaway buying mint++ houses.
Thanks for all your inputs. I have no idea if my kids are going to like science, but I like schools that are good at science because there is merit to inculcating scientific thinking. We started out with degrees in science, but have since been promoted and are managers dealing with more business things now. But I see twingles point about rankings and the little difference between top schools.
There are 16 homes below 650k in Jericho school district out of more than 140 homes listed for sale. There are 2 homes listed for less than 650k in Cold Spring Harbor. We would like to have a nice granite kitchen, but it looks like that is not going to happen for 650k in Jericho.
How is Harborfields? Why do you think it is better than HHH or Commack?
Also, why are some sections of Jericho school district cheaper than the others. I saw a home listed for 500, but it had a westbury zip code. Why are the homes in North Syosset more expensive than south Syosset homes? Probably a real estate 101 question here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
