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I'm having a conundrum and want to see what direction you guys point me in. For full disclosure, I posted a similar thread to this over on the Connecticut forum. Within the next 3 years I'd like to purchase a home in either Long Island or CT. However I can't decide between the two and I really need to give it some serious thought, and this may be a springboard for getting some general ideas. This would be a weekend/summer home so I won't be there all the time.
Long Island
Pro: I'm from NYC so Long Island is close to my friends and family. I really, really love Long Island. It makes me happy.
Pro: I'm very familiar with Long Island because my parents have a house in Sound Beach. There is a possibility I might purchase their home, but it's a small one as I'm looking for something with more land (anyone looking for a house literally less than 500 feet from the water? It's adorable, lol).
Pro: Long Island is beautiful and familiar.
Con: LI is more expensive by and large than CT and I might not be able to afford what I really want.
Con: What I can afford will probably be a sad, older but recent ('50s and newer) build on not so much property.
Con: Much higher property taxes on some parts of LI than CT.
Connecticut:
Pro: CT is cheaper for what I want than Long Island.
Pro: CT is not that far away...
Con: ...but it could be a 2-3 hour drive back to NYC in some areas.
Pro: The architecture in CT is stunning. I could get a gorgeous historic home in 2+ acres of property and not far from the water for literally half or less than what it would cost on LI.
Con: The drive between NYC and CT could be taxing to do so often.
Am I over-generalizing LI? Are there any things I should know about living on LI that perhaps might deter (or attract) me? One important detail is I don't have kids and will not have kids, so school ratings don't matter for me.
You've left out exactly what you are looking for - just a piece of land that is like an oasis from the city, or do you want to be close to a beach and if so what kind of beach (ocean/sound)? Also, where will you be commuting to this house from? Obviously if you want to be close to the ocean LI is a better choice. But if I were just looking for a nice piece of land and some quiet, I'd probably pick CT.
I'm coming from Queens, possibly Manhattan. But mostly Queens.
I would like to have a relatively large-ish property (.75 to an acre but would be very happy to have more) and be 15-30 mins from the water. I really love historic homes and New England falls, but I also really love Long Island too. It's a tough decision.
When you say "water," for what purpose? Boating,Fishing, Swimming? Beaches on Long Island aren't free and when you say 15-30 minutes, I assume that's by car. That means parking and maybe paying for parking, as well as getting a parking spot during peak times.
When you say "water," for what purpose? Boating,Fishing, Swimming? Beaches on Long Island aren't free and when you say 15-30 minutes, I assume that's by car. That means parking and maybe paying for parking, as well as getting a parking spot during peak times.
Swimming, just visiting, hanging out, etc. I don't boat and while I love fishing, I probably won't be fishing. I do love crabbing too but probably won't be crabbing much.
I'm having a conundrum and want to see what direction you guys point me in. For full disclosure, I posted a similar thread to this over on the Connecticut forum. Within the next 3 years I'd like to purchase a home in either Long Island or CT. However I can't decide between the two and I really need to give it some serious thought, and this may be a springboard for getting some general ideas. This would be a weekend/summer home so I won't be there all the time.
Long Island
Pro: I'm from NYC so Long Island is close to my friends and family. I really, really love Long Island. It makes me happy.
Pro: I'm very familiar with Long Island because my parents have a house in Sound Beach. There is a possibility I might purchase their home, but it's a small one as I'm looking for something with more land (anyone looking for a house literally less than 500 feet from the water? It's adorable, lol).
Pro: Long Island is beautiful and familiar.
Con: LI is more expensive by and large than CT and I might not be able to afford what I really want.
Con: What I can afford will probably be a sad, older but recent ('50s and newer) build on not so much property.
Con: Much higher property taxes on some parts of LI than CT.
Connecticut:
Pro: CT is cheaper for what I want than Long Island.
Pro: CT is not that far away...
Con: ...but it could be a 2-3 hour drive back to NYC in some areas.
Pro: The architecture in CT is stunning. I could get a gorgeous historic home in 2+ acres of property and not far from the water for literally half or less than what it would cost on LI.
Con: The drive between NYC and CT could be taxing to do so often.
Am I over-generalizing LI? Are there any things I should know about living on LI that perhaps might deter (or attract) me? One important detail is I don't have kids and will not have kids, so school ratings don't matter for me.
Ok no kids means you don’t have to think about a school district ? Then how about resale is that important at all? if so, a good school district is crucial to resale value.
I may be able to contribute some insight, because at one point I considered going from LI to CT (for budgetary purposes) and was looking for something similar to what you describe. Here's what I discovered as a result of multiple house hunting visits from here to there. (and like you, school district wasn't a factor; it would have been my retirement home so also didn't care about resale)
* Traveling to CT via either Route 95 or the Merritt Parkway can be hellish. Of course it depends on what time you go, but even weekends are no picnic. Being in western Suffolk I did some trips via the Port Jeff Ferry (which is now $60 each way) and some by driving all the way. There was no way I could ever make any of the trips in less than 2.5 hours each way, regardless of method. Maybe it can be done in less time if you are making the trip between 11 pm and 3 am, LOL, but....
* If you are used to having a public water supply, odds are what you'll have in CT is a well on your property instead. There are not that many areas outside of the immediate city-area suburbs that have public water. I didn't want a house with well water and so that eliminated a whole lot of listings right off the bat.
* Radon is a front-of-mind issue in CT if the house is anywhere other than right along the coast. It's a total non-issue on Long Island.
* At the time I was looking, my budget was in the $500K range. Everything I saw in any area that I was interested in, in that price range, was just as old (or older) construction than on LI. Yes, the property sizes were larger, in and in some (not all) cases the houses were a bit larger but not tremendously so. Every one of them would have needed updating that would have broken the budget ceiling. And the larger properties would have entailed more expense for upkeep.
* Many areas of CT used to have heavy industry, especially along the river(s.) As a result you will find more brownfields and Superfund sites than you expect. Some towns, such as Southington which was originally on my radar, have a disconcerting number of them. I wasn't comfortable with that.
* CT has a personal property tax. NY doesn't. This wouldn't apply to you because it would be a second home, but because I was considering relocating there, it would have applied to my car. If I ever chose to operate a business in CT, it would apply to pretty much everything associated with the business.
In the end I decided to stay here, for multiple reasons.
Why presume that CT is father away than LI. It depends on where in CT vs where in LI. Both are very big, and both have extensive areas that are very far from Manhattan/Queens.
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