Long Island - HELP finding place (Islip, Babylon: home, new construction, middle school)

[baobao]

Any suggestions on places to consider in Long Island?
Commute to downtown manhattanshould be at most about 1 hour door to door;
Schools must be very good - 3 elementary/middle school age children.
House price range should be $800-$1.25 M - I highly prefer new construction because 1) renovation is huge hassle (dont have time/energy/know how) 2) builders often have room for negotiation;

BTW - we are also considering NJ: Paramus, Hillsdale, Tenafly, Woodcliff Lake, but I'd like to educate myself on Long Island.

Advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[potroast]

I would consider Syosset, Jericho or Woodbury. Great schools but it is expensive. There is also Muttontown, Cold Spring Harbor. Again, these are all very expensive but nice.

[JustSayNo]

Agreed about the districts, but with LIRR, even an express, and then the 1,2, ect. to downtown on the Subway will not be made in an hour. 1.5 hours on a good day. The subways from Penn. to WTC, or wherever they stop now are CROWDED, you rarely get the first train in. I used to go from CSH to WTC, door to door, home to work that is, in about 2 when all was said and done with parking, waiting for LIRR, getting to the subway connection, getting on a train, walking tooffice front door-130 Liberty Street.

So, the compromise is the commute time, as it always is on LI.
To truely do that commute in 1 hour, Manhasset, Port Washington is as far east as one can go!

[GCGuy]

Originally Posted by baobao

Any suggestions on places to consider in Long Island?
Commute to downtown manhattanshould be at most about 1 hour door to door;
Schools must be very good - 3 elementary/middle school age children.
House price range should be $800-$1.25 M - I highly prefer new construction because 1) renovation is huge hassle (dont have time/energy/know how) 2) builders often have room for negotiation;

BTW - we are also considering NJ: Paramus, Hillsdale, Tenafly, Woodcliff Lake, but I'd like to educate myself on Long Island.

Advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome, Garden City, Rochville Centre (Oceanside SD), Jericho, Woodbury, Syosset, Northport, Manhasset Hills, North Hills, East Hills.

You should also read some other threads. This is discussed in some other areas.

As I said before, I like Garden City the best.

Not sure about the whole new construction thing, though. Perhaps newly renovated.

[baobao]

What about Scarsdale,NY? Seems like the commute to downtown manhattan would be longer than 1 hour for most of these areas?

[GCGuy]

Originally Posted by baobao

What about Scarsdale,NY? Seems like the commute to downtown manhattan would be longer than 1 hour for most of these areas?

Scarsdale is supposed to be nice, but that's in Westchester County.

[kaka-kong]

So many great places with great schools as the above posters listed. I have worked in teaching for the past 12 years on the Island, and the districts mentioned are very good to exceptional. One thing about Rockville Center (which was listed)... they're going through some construction issues and have students in portable units this year. Naturally, they're trying to resolve that.

Since you ask for a recommendation, then I'd consider NJ... there is still a lot of space left there. Jersey's nice!

[LIPumpkin]

Frank...there is no way this person is moving that far out if they work downtown...

[S.I.B.]

Originally Posted by LIPumpkin

Frank...there is no way this person is moving that far out if they work downtown...

also, there's no way this person is going to read his post considering it's over two years old.

ban this guy!

[barbk]

Many places on Long Island fit that description. Long Island is like no other place in the country. You may wish to consider places like Merrick, North Merrick, Masspequa, Massapequa North, Massapequa Shores, Babylon, and West Islip. All great schools, and all and hour or less to the city.