Best Place for a young family on Long Island (Babylon: 2009, rental)

[TheBS19]

Hey all-

I'm a native Long Island-er, as is my wife. We both moved to Boston to go to college there and have wound up staying up here for the short term and recently had our first child. I work in the financial district up here, but we have recently decided that by summer 2009, we would like to move back to the Island to be closer to both of our families (I was born in Smithtown, she in Stony Brook).

I am a financial consultant and I would stay with my current company but transfer to the their NYC office which is in Times Square, so proximity to the city is important to us. Being both from the North Shore of Suffolk, the towns we are most familiar with would currently be unreasonable both in a cost sense and a proximity to the city.

We were wondering if anyone here knew of a good area for us to begin focuses our search on. Our main criteria would be obviously a low crime rate (our son is currently 10 months old and we plan to have more upon re-arriving on LI), good school systems, proximity to both NYC for my commute and to the eastern part of the Island so we can be close to family (aka, we're not considering like North Jersey, Westchester county, or Queens/Bronx area), but at the same time, we would probably rent initially with looking to buy in the area if we're comfortable there within 2-3 years (we currently pay 1500/month plus utils for a 2br up here in Boston...my wife is finishing grad school and I just started out so our disposable income and budget will increase significantly over the next year). If anyone has any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!! And oh yeah, we're young (23 each) so an area that caters more to a young professional type crowd would be preferred, but the family concerns are more important.

[GCGuy]

Garden City. I won't ramble...I've posted about this a number of times. I think overall, it's the best place on LI, at least in Nassau.

[Jrprofess]

Originally Posted by TheBS19

Hey all-

I'm a native Long Island-er, as is my wife. We both moved to Boston to go to college there and have wound up staying up here for the short term and recently had our first child. I work in the financial district up here, but we have recently decided that by summer 2009, we would like to move back to the Island to be closer to both of our families (I was born in Smithtown, she in Stony Brook).

I am a financial consultant and I would stay with my current company but transfer to the their NYC office which is in Times Square, so proximity to the city is important to us. Being both from the North Shore of Suffolk, the towns we are most familiar with would currently be unreasonable both in a cost sense and a proximity to the city.

We were wondering if anyone here knew of a good area for us to begin focuses our search on. Our main criteria would be obviously a low crime rate (our son is currently 10 months old and we plan to have more upon re-arriving on LI), good school systems, proximity to both NYC for my commute and to the eastern part of the Island so we can be close to family (aka, we're not considering like North Jersey, Westchester county, or Queens/Bronx area), but at the same time, we would probably rent initially with looking to buy in the area if we're comfortable there within 2-3 years (we currently pay 1500/month plus utils for a 2br up here in Boston...my wife is finishing grad school and I just started out so our disposable income and budget will increase significantly over the next year). If anyone has any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!! And oh yeah, we're young (23 each) so an area that caters more to a young professional type crowd would be preferred, but the family concerns are more important.

Massapequa comes up often in these chats. Market has cooled considerably which might help you in finding a rental and/or a home there. It is further east than you might desire, but the express into Penn is about 52 minutes. Your Times Square location might make it reasonable. The Babylon line has a great schedule and a number of express trains. Might be worth the tradeoff. I am out in your Smithtown neck of the woods and while I no longer have to do the city commute, I think it is one of the best areas in Suffolk. Good luck to you and your young family.

[nancy thereader]

Huntington and Northport Villages are nice, also. Very homey also is Greenlawn (the village part). Good luck!!!

[Chrisk327]

Merrick Bellmore Wantagh are good areas 45 min from Penn station. levittown is a little cheaper.

I would definately rent for a year or so to get the feel of the areas before purchasing

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by TheBS19

Hey all-

I'm a native Long Island-er, as is my wife. We both moved to Boston to go to college there and have wound up staying up here for the short term and recently had our first child. I work in the financial district up here, but we have recently decided that by summer 2009, we would like to move back to the Island to be closer to both of our families (I was born in Smithtown, she in Stony Brook).

I am a financial consultant and I would stay with my current company but transfer to the their NYC office which is in Times Square, so proximity to the city is important to us. Being both from the North Shore of Suffolk, the towns we are most familiar with would currently be unreasonable both in a cost sense and a proximity to the city.

We were wondering if anyone here knew of a good area for us to begin focuses our search on. Our main criteria would be obviously a low crime rate (our son is currently 10 months old and we plan to have more upon re-arriving on LI), good school systems, proximity to both NYC for my commute and to the eastern part of the Island so we can be close to family (aka, we're not considering like North Jersey, Westchester county, or Queens/Bronx area), but at the same time, we would probably rent initially with looking to buy in the area if we're comfortable there within 2-3 years (we currently pay 1500/month plus utils for a 2br up here in Boston...my wife is finishing grad school and I just started out so our disposable income and budget will increase significantly over the next year). If anyone has any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!! And oh yeah, we're young (23 each) so an area that caters more to a young professional type crowd would be preferred, but the family concerns are more important.

Someone else brought up Massapequa. I would suggest Massapequa Park -- several of my friends who are with investment firms live that way. They walk to the trains and it is a very reasonable commute, good schools, nice community.

GCguy brought up Garden City. I don't know much about it other than it is a very nice place closer to the Queens line than Mass Park.

Good luck with your move!