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Rockville Centre is somewhat out of the question becuase that is on the south side. I'd like to stay on north shore only (which is the reason for closing to LIE).
I actually researched a bit on Garden City, and have been to a couple of open houses in Roslyn, and Syosset. I do not know the area too well, and i just get the openhouse listing on MLSLI.com and go. These 2 areas seems to be a bit run down surrounded with houses around 600k. The open house i went to was a 995k and it just looks very "standout" with a 1M big house surrounded with 600k houses. I am not saying 600k houses are not good, but i also do not want to be in a situation your neighbors thinks you live in a big house and you are rich..etc.. So an area with even house price / income spread would be preferable.
For Garden City - i read on this website that it surrounds with West Hempstead (problematic) and the schools rating that i saw isnt too great also. One of the real estate agent told me she moved to Garden City from Bayside recently for the same reason - schools district. But with from research, it doesnt look like Garden City has a very good school districts. Am i wrong on this? If so, is there a particular area i should search for? (preferable walking distance to LIRR , if possible - and which LIRR station?)
And no, we dont have any religious reason nor special needs as a reason to attend Private school. I only thought of private school soley for the education itself. Thanks for clarifying that private school is not needed for me.
Thanks.
Your issue isn't West Hempstead (which is predominately Jewish btw), its Hempstead.... Which is predominately Black and Hispanic. That area has a bit of crime. There is a big difference between the two and they both have different high schools as well. If you would like to compare the two borders, i suggest a drive down Nassau Blvd which runs through West Hempstead/Garden City versus Franklin Avenue which runs through Hempstead/Garden City. Trust me, you will notice a huge difference between the two.
Regarding homes and schools, Garden City has a great high school- extremely sought after. Perhaps your agent doesn't live in Garden City proper and is zoned for a Franklin Square school such as Carey. Still a good school but not rated as high as Garden City. Most of my friends from Garden City have actually chosen to move back to their town once they started a family. I think that's a pretty good sign... Also, if you find a home for $1M with homes for $600K on the same block, i am most likely sure these homes aren't zoned for Garden City schools. There are many different areas of this particular town. Besides the actual village, their is GC Park and GC South. The village being the most expensive. If you want to be within walking distance to the LIRR, i would concentrate on homes centered around the GC stop, Nassau Blvd or Merillon. Good luck on your search!
Personally, I wouldn't obsess with school ranking. District 26 has pretty solid schools. Dist 26 has some pretty expensive homes especially with areas like Douglaston Manor which can go in the millions.
Houses in the areas you are looking on LI has wealthy households to very wealthy households. Are there snobs that come with that? Of course. I can tell you there are far more non snobs than snobs. From personal experience, the difference on LI is that residents tend to be much more involve in their school oppose to nyc schools....if you or your children aren't very social community wise, it can be potentially more difficult.
If you are that curious, I recc you go check out the schools in person oppose to reading all these rankings....the stats only tell you so much
We had the same concerns. I went to school in SD 26. Back in those days the elementary schools and JR. HS in Douglaston and Little Neck were among the top ranked in NYC much as they are now. I went to a specialized HS but Cardozo was my zoned HS and again back then it had a reputation as one of the better public HS in NYC. Numbers aside, I know friends who are staff at Cardozo and they tell much the same story, that academic standards have decreased dramatically there due to the de zoning procedures that went into effect a few years back. Friends who spent a lot of money to buy into the vaunted SD 26 now have to move because their children did not make a specialized HS and the standards at Cardozo have dropped so much.
Socioeconomic considerations aside, imagine if you purchased a home in an area like Herricks with top performing schools and paying top dollar to get them, only to learn a couple years later when your child was to start HS, that Herricks was going to drop zoning and allow students from Hempstead or Roosevelt to start attending the school? Again socioeconomic and political and racial discourse aside for the moment, this type of scenario would surely impact the average persons confidence on the school.
Rather than have our child go to a high performing yet massively overcrowded elementary school like PS 94 where there are 30+ kids to a class, then have to worry about what would happen if our kids didn't make a specialized HS, we just decided to move to LI. First we had the exact same concerns as the OP. We didn't want to be too far out. As we started looking and looking and looking some more, we realized that what we could get a little farther out from our previous cut off line of Roslyn, and get a much larger and nicer place for the money with similarly excellent schools.
We decided on Syosset/Jericho then fell in love with Woodbury then found Plainview and decided to settle down there. We ended up buying a place in Old Bethpage and we just love the general vibe of the people who live around here. Might just be our neighborhood but everyone is more or the down to earth variety that we like and that is exactly the type of people and environment we wanted our kids to grow up in.
That was the main reason we were turned off by the Great Neck/Manhasset vibe we felt when we looked around there. I spoke with a real estate professional buddy of mine who also moved from Bayside and who settled down in Jericho and expressed similar sentiments. Sometimes for better or worse, people with new money have more to "prove" and have the attitudes to go along with it.
It's all relative but from Roslyn on the LIE to Old Bethpage it's literally about another 15 minutes, less depending on traffic and that's just talking about points near the LIE. Live in the interior parts of Great Neck, Manhasset or Port Washington and other points North you are easily talking about another 15-20 minutes alone during rush hour. For our extra 15 minutes we get a much larger plot, bigger and nicer house and a community we love. Schools here are great and we subscribe to the opinion that school and the educators are the tools to help your child to achieve and fulfill their potential. But ultimately it's your own child's aptitude that will prevail. A difference in a 5-10 spot ranking is not going to make your 80 average child a genius.
I was reading through your post and it sounds very much like our current situation as well. We moved to New Hyde Park for the school district about three years ago but recently our commute to the city is taking somewhat of a toll on us. We have been considering moving back into the city but we know that the school district is very good in New Hyde Park and our first child will be starting Kindergarten in 2018. Thanks,
Portledge, Green Vale, Buckley, LI Friends, Westbury Friends, Garden City Waldorf. Attend the open houses and see for yourself if these schools are something you are willing to pay for.
Portledge, Green Vale, Buckley, LI Friends, Westbury Friends, Garden City Waldorf. Attend the open houses and see for yourself if these schools are something you are willing to pay for.
Adding East Woods to the above
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