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The title says almost everything.
I am trying to do a lot of search before moving to New York on how everything works, not to risk serious nuisances when it's too late.
My idea at the beginning was buying an apartment in a nice area of Manhattan, but as condominiums plus parking often costs an average of 2000 grands everymonth (and more), it scared me a little bit and so I found out how beautiful are independent houses with garden in Long Island which, as they are independent, allow me to cut monthly costs.
The neighboorhoods I considered are
Westbury and old Westbury
Glen Head
Great Neck
Manhasset
Roslyn
Woodbury
Syosset
The question is very simple; these are places of Long Island as close as possible to Manhattan. But, anyway, it takes from 40mins and up to a full hour to reach Manhattan itself, both by car and by train, so I'd like to know if there are many people who consider it normal to live this far and spend most of their day/evening in Manhattan or if once you live in Long Island, you feel "forced" to live the life of those small neighboorhoods and hit Manhattan just occasionally.
For instance, is it normal to hear two random people talking, one lives in Manhattan and one there in Long Island, and one of the two says "I'll come pick you up at 8 pm for dinner"? I mean, would it sound totally absurd to expect that one of the two picks the other one up as there is a certain distance, or is it acceptable? I know the questions may sound awkward but when you know none somewhere you are supposed to move to, you really ask yourself every odd kind of question.
Also, how is the life in one of those areas? Are there supermarkets, shops, cinemas etc.? Is there a little nightlife or absolutely nothing?
You will need to cross Old Westbury off your list if you can't afford NYC, as homes there are very expensive. I would suggest renting an apt. in Queens before purchasing anything. Many people commute to NYC for work and their social life revolves around the city. That said, you seem to have a preconceived notion about "living the life of those small neighborhoods" and before I would buy in an area I knew nothing about with that as the basis of my thinking I would rent.
By the way, once you factor in your mortgage and taxes, electric, cable etc. you may be pretty close to that number and you have not even added the commute to NYC yet, which will leave you with very few $$ to spare.
As far as Long Island goes, yet there are supermarkets and shops and movies and nightlife. It depends upon what you are looking for. It is different than NYC.
Thanks, actually the problem is not affording to buy a home - our budget is between 1m and 1.7m as it's a family home - so luckily I found interesting houses both in Manhattan and in those areas of Long Island for that price, BUT what worries me are monthly expenses. And actually, I found out monthly expenses of a villa (of a size that's not huge) in those areas is half the costs of a 2000sqft apartment in the best districts of Manhattan. That's why it caught my attention.
With "living the life of those small neighboorhoods" I did not mean to devalue places which are surely good, it is that I am moving as a 28 year old with a 20 year old sister and 59 year old mother, both surely would find it unpleasant to feel too isolated in the "country home" kind of life.
So, if it's considered normal and possible (and easy) to have home there but still live in Manhattan our choice would probably be the best in our specific case (we found houses to be much more beautiful and "healthy" looking outside Manhattan), but if it turns out to be too difficult/slow/weird to think to purchase something there and then want to spend most of one's time in Manhattan, we probably will have to accept to pay several grands monthly and be happy with a flat in Manhattan.
My biggest fear is that Long Island (and especially the suitable neighboorhoods I mentioned) is the typical family paradise; some kind of secluded place perfect for families with at least two kids in which there is mostly a father who goes to work, probably in Manhattan and comes back home in the evening, while the mother spends her time between kids and homely duties. Then the family may go to Manhattan all together once in a while or so as it's considered too far and out of their comfort zone.
But this is just a sensation people who live there could find wrong.
On that budget, you can almost do anything you want!
If you're concerned about your monthly expenses, why not buy a house below your price range and then budget the money that you would've otherwise have spent.
You can easily get a good home in a desirable area of Nassau for $600k.
Last edited by MemoryMaker; 12-18-2015 at 07:12 AM..
Thanks, actually the problem is not affording to buy a home - our budget is between 1m and 1.7m as it's a family home - so luckily I found interesting houses both in Manhattan and in those areas of Long Island for that price, BUT what worries me are monthly expenses. And actually, I found out monthly expenses of a villa (of a size that's not huge) in those areas is half the costs of a 2000sqft apartment in the best districts of Manhattan. That's why it caught my attention.
With "living the life of those small neighboorhoods" I did not mean to devalue places which are surely good, it is that I am moving as a 28 year old with a 20 year old sister and 59 year old mother, both surely would find it unpleasant to feel too isolated in the "country home" kind of life.
So, if it's considered normal and possible (and easy) to have home there but still live in Manhattan our choice would probably be the best in our specific case (we found houses to be much more beautiful and "healthy" looking outside Manhattan), but if it turns out to be too difficult/slow/weird to think to purchase something there and then want to spend most of one's time in Manhattan, we probably will have to accept to pay several grands monthly and be happy with a flat in Manhattan.
My biggest fear is that Long Island (and especially the suitable neighboorhoods I mentioned) is the typical family paradise; some kind of secluded place perfect for families with at least two kids in which there is mostly a father who goes to work, probably in Manhattan and comes back home in the evening, while the mother spends her time between kids and homely duties. Then the family may go to Manhattan all together once in a while or so as it's considered too far and out of their comfort zone.
But this is just a sensation people who live there could find wrong.
Nassau county is as far from isolated country living as you can get. It's the opposite actually, densly populated suburbia. And yes there are a ton of families here of all different types, and in most cases both parents work. Another myth is that most people here work in Manhattan, that is also false.
Thanks, actually the problem is not affording to buy a home - our budget is between 1m and 1.7m as it's a family home - so luckily I found interesting houses both in Manhattan and in those areas of Long Island for that price, BUT what worries me are monthly expenses. And actually, I found out monthly expenses of a villa (of a size that's not huge) in those areas is half the costs of a 2000sqft apartment in the best districts of Manhattan. That's why it caught my attention.
With "living the life of those small neighboorhoods" I did not mean to devalue places which are surely good, it is that I am moving as a 28 year old with a 20 year old sister and 59 year old mother, both surely would find it unpleasant to feel too isolated in the "country home" kind of life.
So, if it's considered normal and possible (and easy) to have home there but still live in Manhattan our choice would probably be the best in our specific case (we found houses to be much more beautiful and "healthy" looking outside Manhattan), but if it turns out to be too difficult/slow/weird to think to purchase something there and then want to spend most of one's time in Manhattan, we probably will have to accept to pay several grands monthly and be happy with a flat in Manhattan.
My biggest fear is that Long Island (and especially the suitable neighboorhoods I mentioned) is the typical family paradise; some kind of secluded place perfect for families with at least two kids in which there is mostly a father who goes to work, probably in Manhattan and comes back home in the evening, while the mother spends her time between kids and homely duties. Then the family may go to Manhattan all together once in a while or so as it's considered too far and out of their comfort zone.
But this is just a sensation people who live there could find wrong.
I can address Glen Head. I'm originally from there. Roughly 32% of households have school-aged children.
So you see not every household is Mom/Dad/kids.
Zip code 11545 encompasses a wide area. You have the central "hamlet" area of Glen Head where the post office is located......then there's Old Brookville (with minimum 2 acre lot size), Brookville, etc which are served by the 11545 Glen Head post office.
The further you are from "central" Glen Head, the more removed you'd feel. With such large lot sizes there's not a "neighborhood" feeling.
BTW, there are also the neighboring communities of Glenwood Landing (not a lot of homes come on the market) the Village of Sea Cliff with it's beautiful victorian homes.....and Roslyn Harbor.
given your complete unfamiliarity with the area, I would suggest renting for a year in Manhattan so that you can get a feel for the area and figure out where you'd like to live more permanently.
Then the family may go to Manhattan all together once in a while or so as it's considered too far and out of their comfort zone.
But this is just a sensation people who live there could find wrong.
I don't think many people living on LI go to Manhattan as a family more than 3x a year at most (save for Knicks/Rangers games). Other boroughs like Queens/Brooklyn are visited more because of convenience. We're doing our first of the year into Manhattan next week. By proximity, it's close, but people make a day of it since there's a lot of planning involved with the commuting/parking and events/sights to see. It's not like you can walk the entire city, and going to just a couple places while having the family out isn't entirely worthwhile. I think you'll fall into this category if you move to LI.
Spending most of your day/evening in Manhattan when you live in Nassau County will get old quickly. Its just too far for this kind of lifestyle. If you want to spend most of your day/evening in Manhattan, you should live in Manhattan, or if not, than in certain areas of Brooklyn or NJ that are VERY close to Manhattan. It seems like urban living is fine for you based on your original post - you just don't want to to buy an expensive place in Manhattan and than deal with huge monthly carrying costs. You should look at Hoboken. Great place to hop in and out of Manhattan from, and with your budget you will be able to afford something nice, and the expenses you are worried about are less. And Hoboken has a cool restaurant/bar scene in and of itself, and a real nice vibe to it. Jersey City may also work for you. Overall its not as nice as Hoboken and has some more rundown areas, but it has many upscale residential buildings with tons of amenities, where the residents (some families, some not) work and play in Manhattan. Both of these places are right across the river from Manhattan. I know some relatively young people and families who did the upscale Jersey City thing when they had high powered Manhattan jobs and loved it. They basically never saw Jersey City. All amenities (gym, ect.) were in their building, and all they did was sleep there.
I never had to commute to NYC for work. When I lived in Nassau, I'd go into the city once or twice a year, if that.
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