Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Currently live in Syracuse.
Job offer is in Tarrytown.
Would need to sell Syracuse house before we could move into home downstate, as I don't want to hold two mortgages or one mortgage and one rental. The tentative plan is for me to move down there, rent a one bedroom apartment while wife stays in Syracuse to sell house. Once we are out of our Syracuse mortgage that will free us up to upgrade into renting a 3 bedroom condo for a few months while we get ourselves organized and acclimated to area. Ideally, we would then build a house, or buy one that was built in the last couple of years.
My questions are:
Do not want to go over 2k for the condo rental (need 3 bedrooms) and want to stay under 500k for the house. Any thoughts were to do this? I am fine with a 45 minute commute to tarrytown but would like to avoid anything farther than that.
Any thoughts on Orange Co? Westchester seems too expensive for too little. I have looked into Orange Co. and the areas around Monroe and Woodbury look affordable for both homes and the short term condo rental.
Anyone familiar with Woodbury Junction in Orange Co. as a possible place to settle? Looks affordable and commute is not bad. Plus we want a new neighborhood with lots of young families.
Finally, wife is a nurse, any hospitals in the area?
Thanks in advance for help on any of these questions.
Sounds like you are well on your way to a successful move!
You will do just fine anywhere in the county with your budget. I think Monroe/Woodbury/Harriman is a good place to start. Some other spots worth looking into: Washingtonville, Chester, Goshen, Town of Wallkill (Middletown), Central Valley...
Thank you so much for the reply. That hospital sounds perfect for my wife. Other questions that I have:
daycare: are there a lot of facilities in the area? and are there options for part time. In Syracuse the cost seems to be around $200 a week for a good center. Is that comparable down there?
culture: I love Syracuse to death (originally from LI), but one thing that always bugged me was the negativity people had towards the area. Are people in Orange co. happy to be there?
weather: it snows a lot in Syracuse. The weather is obviously better in orange but is there a marked difference? less snow would be nice.
Shopping: Syracuse has places like erie blvd, route 11, Fayetteville town center, and others around town. Are there comparable areas in orange? My only worry is that after living in the city of Syracuse and in the near suburbs, orange may be too rural for us.
You are going to be fine for retail in orange county. You won't have Carousel Center but you'll have in its place the Woodbury Commons outlets. The palisades mall is enormous and not that far away. Middletown has plenty of retail a la Erie Blvd. If you are in eastern Orange County there is close access to Wappingers Falls/Fishkill across the river.
Thank you so much for the reply. That hospital sounds perfect for my wife. Other questions that I have:
daycare: are there a lot of facilities in the area? and are there options for part time. In Syracuse the cost seems to be around $200 a week for a good center. Is that comparable down there?
culture: I love Syracuse to death (originally from LI), but one thing that always bugged me was the negativity people had towards the area. Are people in Orange co. happy to be there?
weather: it snows a lot in Syracuse. The weather is obviously better in orange but is there a marked difference? less snow would be nice.
Shopping: Syracuse has places like erie blvd, route 11, Fayetteville town center, and others around town. Are there comparable areas in orange? My only worry is that after living in the city of Syracuse and in the near suburbs, orange may be too rural for us.
Thanks for any and all help.
Good points from the person above me.
There are plenty of daycare facilities here; in some cases, both mother and father work in Manhattan, so daycare is a must. While I have no firsthand experience, I imagine cost is comparable.
I would say that on the whole, people are happy to be in Orange County. You are 50 miles from the biggest city in the world and 50 miles (or less) from an incredible mountain range.
There is a massive difference in climate. Syracuse receives 120 inches snow/winter whereas the average locale in Orange gets just 40. There is no lake effect snow to speak of. Temperatures run about 6-8 degrees above Syracuse's pace, on average, annually. The Hudson Valley is the sunniest place in the whole state of New York, on average, due to the modestly high terrain that surrounds it on both the east and west sides.
I'd compare Monroe, Woodbury, Central Valley, Chester, Goshen, Washingtonville, Middletown, etc. to Clay, North Syracuse, Fayetteville... The only difference is that the city is about 50 miles away instead of 10.
There is also world class shopping available about 30 miles south in Bergen County New Jersey at The Garden State Plaza.
Great information here, thanks. Orange Co. sounds like it is perfect for us. One of my concerns is with the commute though. Looks like my office in Westchester is about a 40 minute drive. I'm fine with 40 but how bad is the bottleneck for the tappan zee? My hours will be typical 9-5. At those hours is my commute closer to an hour with traffic? My other concern is with the tolls. Looks like even an ez pass only cuts it down to 8-9$ round trip. I've been in central ny so long that paying tolls again is kind of a culture shock.
Oh and I don't hunt, listen to country music or like racing/engine talk. Although I have no problem with those that do, I just have different interests. Those seem to be the big things for a lot of people in cny. Is that the culture of orange as well? I also realize that it is impossible to generalize an entire county of people, but cny seems to really slant towards the more "country" lifestyle.
On the worst days it can take you 30 minutes to cross the Tap. That is the exception, not the rule, as far I as I know. I would imagine that the 9-5 hours don't help too much, since the rest of the world is commuting in at that time. The good thing is that the Tarrytown exit is the first after the bridge. In general, I would expect to spend about an hour traveling each way (perhaps on your first day you budget just a little more time, say leave at 7:45 a.m.). You'll pay $1.25 to hop on the Thruway in M/W and $5 to cross the bridge. No toll for the bridge on the way home, but Thruway toll at M/W is another $1.25. Things are a little more expensive down here...
Culture of Orange is mixed. Most affiliate themselves with the big city more than the country. It is a diverse county -- the Cities of Middletown and Newburgh (and Poughkeepsie for that matter) can seem like mini-NYC-north's. However once you cross into the extreme western fringe of the county, over the foothills of the Catskills, and into Port Jervis -- well, the best description of that place I can give you is Fulton, NY. The county to the north, Sullivan, is seismically different than Orange...more of a country lifestyle.
For what its worth, the county is a bit more liberal than conservative; but Rockland and Westchester are more liberal than Orange.
Hi,
I currently live in Rockland County. 15 minutes from the Orange County border and I work in White Plains. In a few months I'll be moving to the Monroe-Woodbury area and I much prefer it over Rockland County. And I am originally from Long Island and have been living in the area for 13 years now. But I will tell you that my commute from North Rockland isn't bad at all but I leave by 6:15 because I want to avoid the traffic that starts building up which by 7 it does. If you go far up into Orange, expect to leave early. Monroe-Woodbury has good schools and depending on where you are, you can be close to 287 which takes you right over the bridge.
For the tolls, they have a Tappan Zee commuter plan. It's $50 or $60 a month and definitely worth it.
Your daycare costs will vary. If you do a family daycare, around $30 a day (but I pay that for morning and after school care, PT). For a center, it would be more. Probably double. My rate was for three children. Downstate in general I believe is more expensive on anything, including these costs.
As far as culture, it depends on where you go as in any place. Even where I am now you will find that. And as far as liberal/conservative goes, I find my area of Rockland to be more on the conservative side. But Rockland as a whole is liberal.
Our situation has changed however, and I will not be working in the tarrytown office as originally planned but have instead been offered to work in the Madison ave offices (I absolutely love manhattan so this is a good thing).
We still love orange county and particularly Monroe woodbury area. So, commute wise, how crazy is it from Monroe to midtown east? I understand the train requires a couple of transfers and 1 1/2 hour commute - longer than I think I can stand. What about the bus? From what I hear its an 1hr 10 from orange to port authority. Is that accurate and has anyone done this commute?
Plenty of people do the commute from Monroe everyday. You can take the train (MNRR/NJ Transit) from Harriman to Secaucus Junction, about an hour. Then you'll transfer at Secaucus for service into New York Penn, another 20 minutes. Depending on how far up on Madison you work, you may have to take the subway from Penn.
Shortline is the main commuter bus service, clocking in around 1.5 hour commute time
Given your budget, you'd be able to afford something in Westchester or Rockland Counties, getting you a little closer in.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
