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Really nice area with good size lots. Town of Smithtown but Hauppauge School district which means your taxes are 20-30% cheaper because of the Hauppauge industrial base. Very wooded and quiet area.
Based on my friends living there it is a mish-mosh. Mostly turning over to younger families. Of the 5 families that I know in the area, 2 are jewish, 2 are catholic, and one could give a crap . Of course my anecdote is not even close to scientific. All of them are in the Pines elementary which is very well regarded. I am in Smithtown schools and view Hauppauge as on par, just a little smaller. Best part about the Pines from a location standpoint is the quick off and on the Northern State. Makes me jealous. Love the area for being tree-lined and quiet. Good luck in your research.
Sure you probably bought a house by now, but I've grown up in the Pines and I agree with the older posts here, but I've seen over the past couple of years, things are changing. Neighbors are not as considerate - I have 3 now that allow their barking dogs out at all hours of the day and night. I have complained to the Town and to police about one specific dog that will bark its head off in the middle of the night even in the freezing cold and like 4 years later, this dog is still barking its head off. As for "demographics" - They converted a nearby old hotel to some type of low income or "affordable" housing that's up on Jericho, a short distance west of Old Willets. This has led to "out of character" types who you'll see walking around, especially on Old Willets Path (presumably to get to the bus station). Based on how many homes were decorated for Christmas just this year, I'd say it's still predominantly Christian. When you go a few blocks over to Commack is where you'll see people walking to Synagogue on Saturdays - you don't see that in this area. Also, about two years ago I inadvertently scared off an intruder from my next door neighbors back yard when I went to take my dog out before the sun had come up. Then last year I heard someone trying to break into my house - as I was coming down my stairs to investigate, I heard someone outside say "I told you someone was home!" Not sure if these instances have something to do with the people living in that old hotel. About 4 years ago I worked with a girl who lived in Hauppauge whose younger brother was a high school student at Hauppauge High School (where the Pines kids go). He was slashed/stabbed with a utility knife by another student (the student had stolen it from some type of class - art or woodworking or something). This other student technically should not have been a student in the district - apparently he (his family) was playing a game by claiming he lived in the district but it was actually a relative's address they used. Hard to believe, but he was not expelled from the school. I believe others have done (and do) the same because whenever I'm driving in the area when the busses are picking up or dropping off, I'll see people parked and a child(ren) will get into or out of the car when the bus arrives. Once or twice, okay, maybe the parent was just leaving the house and decided to take the kid, but when it happens day after day you know these kids don't live in the district and these people are using someone else's address. I'm sure all areas change over the course of almost 40 years, so it could probably be a lot worse. Lastly, thinking back to when I was a kid, this is not really an area that's child-friendly in the sense that the streets are very narrow (two cars barely fit) and the whole area is very hilly. I was hit by a car right in front of my house while riding my bicycle as a child. The hills with crazy drivers is also dangerous because if you're walking up or down one of the hills and some moron is driving too fast, they could kill you if you're in their blind spot as they're just coming over the top of the hill. Then there's the problem of driving with ice. Make sure the house you choose has flat access to and from it. Like, there's at least one section of Ledgewood Drive (where the fire house is) that if you live up there, you have no choice except to deal with a huge hill. I cannot tell you how many times in icy/snowy weather you'll hear tires skidding out because people are trying their darnedest to get up the hill because they want to get home. Or, they lose control trying to get down when the hill is icy but they need to get to work (bosses don't care if you live up a hill). There was a lot of black ice today around noon - I came home during lunch and was literally detoured 4 times due to accidents and even I skidded out trying to get down one of the smaller little slope hills in the area that I was detoured to. Two of the accidents were on that section of Ledgewood - one at the upper part of the hill and the other happened at the bottom by the time I had gotten around the first two detours. Also don't be deceived by driveways that have a downward slope - people don't realize that those are just as hard to get out of when icy as it is to get down a hill. People just see that it's not a hill, they don't realize it's actually a reverse hill so you now need to drive up the hill to get out. A good part is that neighbors tend to keep to themselves. There's the polite wave and hello if you see them outside, but otherwise people don't really mingle. And, after all these years, I have yet to witness a single "block party". To me, these are plusses, but if you're the type who likes to know and talk to everybody, that's really not this area. Like I said, I grew up here and all of our neighbors had school age children - nobody's parents were "friends". Cordial, of course, but again, people kept to themselves. Another bad part - the Town is a pain in the butt when it comes to permits. If you see a house and start thinking of how you'll put in a pool, a fence, a shed, a patio, remove trees, whatever - you should check with the Town first to make sure they'd even allow it. Compared to other areas, I guess it's still a decent place to live especially with the property taxes being fairly reasonable.
You may want to check out traffic noise (if that's a concern for you) during weekdays if the house you're considering is within a couple of blocks of either Jericho Tpke (in the northern Pines) or Vets Highway (on the southern end).
Also if you're adjacent to either of those boundaries, make sure your house is rodent-proofed. Between the tons of oak trees (mice love acorns) in the area and the proximity to food establishments such as the deli, pizzeria and restaurants at the corner of Vets Hwy and Wyandanch Blvd, there are a LOT of rats in the area. If you feed the birds, you're putting out a smorgasbord/welcome mat for them.
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. Of course my anecdote is not even close to scientific. All of them are in the Pines elementary which is very well regarded. I am in Smithtown schools and view Hauppauge as on par, just a little smaller. Best part about the Pines from a location standpoint is the quick off and on the Northern State. Makes me jealous. Love the area for being tree-lined and quiet. Good luck in your research.
