moving from UK to Rockland County (New York, New City: sales, real estate, to rent)

[Empire44]

We are moving from the UK, back to Rockland County to be near my husband's family. I have been on some of the other forum areas- we've been considering Boston, Rhode Island and New Hampshire but have decided on NY.


We are probably looking to get our kids (12 and 14) into Clarkstown South High School so will be looking to rent a house in that area. We visit his family there (New City) every year so it is a familiar place but of course living there is different!

Other than New City, can you recommend other areas within the school district, to live? We're looking to rent a 3-4 bedroom house, rents from $2000-$2400 I guess, maybe less.

Does any one have experience of Clarkstown South High School, and /or Clarkstown North High School?

What would the middle/ junior high school be? Would my 12 year old (13 in January) be in middle school still?

Does anyone know of a ballet school in that area, for a 13 year old? My daughter is at aballet school in the Uk and is hoping to study dance professionally at some level in the future, so finding a ballet school for her is crucial. I have googled but haven't found a lot.

Thank you guys...will really appreciate your help.

[SuburbanDweller]

Hi,

I live in the area and hope that maybe I can help.

Clarkstown Schools have two high schools, North & South. New City is the only town that is actually 'divided' where residents of New City either go to North or South. All the other towns in the Clarkstown district either only go to North or to South. So if you are really pushing for South (both North & South are awesome schools, being that they are in the same district and share the same educational courses, I would go with whichever the house you love is zoned for) you have to make sure that the location in New City is zoned for South.

I attended North very recently. I can tell you that school work is very highly stressed (almost to a fault), colleges are very important, and it's very very competitive in both the academics and the social aspects. I'm sure the same is true for South.

The area is expensive and renting isn't that large of a percentage of the market so it might be hard to find, but I'm sure there are houses out there.

Aside from New City, Clarkstown is made up of: Congers, West Nyack, Bardonia, and a tiny part of Nanuet (for schools, town lines have more). New City makes up the majority of Clarkstown.

West Nyack & Bardonia are solely 'Clarkstown Southers', if you live anywhere within West Nyack & Bardonia (and the tiny part of Nanuet - literally really small, I think it's only a condo complex on the right side of the street) you go to South. Southern New City goes to South as well.

Congers & Northern New City goes to Clarkstown North.

Clarkstown has one Middle School, Felix Festa. All Clarkstown elementary schools are fed into Felix Festa, it's a very large school that is divided into 'wings' (pretty much 'mini-schools'). It sounds like your child would be perhaps a 7th or 8th grader there.

There is a very good and well respected ballet studio in the area, in Nanuet on Route 59 - it's called Coupe. It's excellent and very popular.

Let me know if you'd like any additional information.

[Empire44]

Surburban Dweller- thank you so much! This really helps- and I'm so pleased to have info about a dance school, I was getting worried! It looks exactly what we're looking for.

Do you know of any 'rental agencys' in the area? I am not sure what you call them in the US.

I know that it is quite an expensive area....is there any difference in expense between clarkstown south and north? Are there any areas you would avoid?

Is there anything negative about New City, Bardonia or West Nyack? Apart form the high taxes and high rents?! (Inexpensive compared to where we are in the UK though.)

Thanks again.

[SuburbanDweller]

There are many real estate agents in the area - and I stress many.

I think that cost of living in Clarkstown is basically the same within the town but I know that parts of Northern New City have outrageous property taxes - more so than the norm because of the size of the homes and the large lots of property they are on.

There aren't any areas in Clarkstown I'd avoid at all, I honestly cannot think of one. I don't just say that because I live here! (it was just reported today that Clarkstown is the 2nd safest city in the entire United States - so that says a lot).

I can't really think of any negative aspects of living here if cost of living is not so much a factor - it's the one thing that keeps many people away.

New York City is a 25 mile straight run on the Palisdaes Parkway away. Access to great shopping, dining and entertainment. Plus it's safe. The schools are AWESOME. Clarkstown has awesome parks. You can drive 10 minutes over the border to New Jersey to get cheap gas (you'll quickly see that we routinely pay about 50 cents a gallon more here than it sells for in New Jersey). Plus there is no state sales tax (unlike here) on clothing & shoes in New Jersey.

The library system here is amazing, too.

The only thing I would mention about (either North or South) is that it's super competitive. Many, many students place into Advanced Placement courses in high school. Everyone in my graduating class went on to college (Cornell, Princeton, Boston College to name a few - very impressive places for a public school).

I would remind myself that the kids here often have a lot of time and money on their hands and perhaps not enough parental supervision - underage drinking is a problem. It's typical for a kid not to work an afterschool job, focusing more on school. Money doesn't seem to be an issue for a lot of people and that can cause some problems. Sports aren't super huge here, however. They are still active, but there isn't a super big following like there is in some other communities. There are a lot of cliques within the schools and it can be intimidating - I can't say how it is now but when I was there (5 years ago) you were really judged about what kind of car you had & what kind of clothes you wore. Let's just say it's not uncommon to see a 16 year old girl driving a brand new Lexus SUV & high end designer handbags. That being said, I would rather that be the 'negative' aspect of life than other things.

Hope that helped more!

[Empire44]

You are a find of information- it's great to hear someone else's persepective on this! Thank you.

How about Nanuet Senior High School? Any thoughts on that, in comparison to Clarkstown?

What is day to day shopping like in New City/ Nanuet/ West Nyack? I don't mean the malls, I know Palisades pretty well! I mean for groceries, pharmacies, stationery etc...is it all pretty much nearby and easily accessible?

Also, we have a dog...are there areas in New City/ West Nyanck/ Nanuet etc to walk dogs? And country parks/ hiking trails?

Thanks

[SuburbanDweller]

Nanuet schools are really well respected too. It's a much smaller district and there is only one high school. Nanuet is technically within the town of Clarkstown so you get access to whatever the town of Clarkstown offers (parks, camps..) Nanuet just isn't a part of the Clarkstown schools. I don't think one is better than the other. They are both really good districts and well respected. While I am not familiar with Nanuet, I would imagine since it's smaller it wouldn't offer the range of courses in HS that perhaps Clarkstown would be able to offer - but I am only saying that out of speculation you'd have to confirm it.

There are a ton of shopping options. New City and Nanuet are the major retail centers here. ShopRite is the major grocery store (one in New City, one in West Nyack) here and DeCicco's is a smaller grocery store with great quality. There are both independent and retail chain pharmacies here (ie: Clarkstown pharamcy/Drug World & Rite Aid/CVS) I'm sure you will not have any problem finding what you are looking for here.

The only store people ever comment about not having is a Wal-Mart. We don't have a Wal-Mart in Clarkstown at all, the nearest one is about twenty minutes north in Suffern. That Wal-Mart is very small and does not sell groceries. It's about the smallest Wal-Mart you'll ever see. A lot of people here aren't fans of Wal-Mart anyway!

Clarkstown does however have two Target stores. I can't begin to list all the stores we have but we pretty much have everything or it's within a half an hour drive to Westchester or New Jersey.

There are a few state parks here, namely High Tor State Park in New City & Rockland Lake State Park in Congers. High Tor is mostly a summer spot and Rockland Lake is year round - it's very popular with runners/joggers/bikers because it's a large park with a 3 mile paved loop around the lake. The hiking trails in both of these parks are beautiful. If you climb Rockland Lake on a clear day in the summer, you can see the New York City skyline. Otherwise, it's a great view of the Hudson River & the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The parks run by Clarkstown are beautiful. They are very well kept and they offer a ton of activities. There are many parks, I think 8 or so. They are really, really popular in the summer because of the pools. Germonds park, Lake Nanuet & Congers Lake all have pools opened in the summer. Germonds also has mini-golf. Congers has a rollerblade skating rink & a skateboard park. All of the parks have baseball/soccer fields and walking trails. The parks are open only to town residents and you can't bring animals. There are smaller parks scattered through the town with playgrounds and stuff.

Here is a link to more info about the Clarkstown parks: Town of Clarkstown

You have to buy a season pass to use the pools, however. They are only for use by Clarkstown residents but you have to go to Clarkstown and buy a pass from them to use them. The passes for a family of 4 for the entire summer is about $1,000.

Clarkstown also offers different summer camps for Clarkstown school children. They range from half day to full day and they take the kids to the pools and on trips to amusement parks and things.

There is a beautiful trail along the Hudson River in Nyack, Nyack state park. I think they let dogs there.

[Redrock5]

You want hiking trails? Just head north or west, 15 minutes north is Harriman State Park with over 200 miles of marked trails and some beautiful views.
I came here from the UK myself over 25 years ago and currently live in Tappan, it's a relatively easy commute into NYC via the GW bridge if you commute there by car, parking will be expensive though. The local train service to the city is simply awful, about 15+ stops to Hoboken (an hour or so) then the PATH train under the Hudson into the city. So if you go that route reckon on a two hour commute each way. My daughter takes the express bus which is relatively cheap & quick.

The winters do seem to stretch on forever, spring arrives about a month later here than it does in southern England. I was trying to explain this to someone here once, finally she says "Well, they are 5 hours ahead of us" (?!?)

[Empire44]

Surburban Dweller and Redrock, thank you; you guys are a great help!
And your season-realted story has me laughing out loud Redrock!

Someone has just suggested Tappan to me- am i correct in thinking that is near the Jersey border, and Palisades Mall? They seem to think it is a very nice family area, good schools but less expensive than New City/ Nyack.

Any thoughts? Thanks again

[Redrock5]

Yes, Tappan is right on the state line. I like it here, it's more of a 'village' than the rest of the suburban sprawl around here, it dates back to the revolution, old for here, but not for where you're from. There are a few decent restaurants in the village, a great little wine store, and a pharmacy that will actually fill your prescription while you wait. Someone once told me the church here has the oldest continuous congregation in the US, never checked it out though. Freight trains are noisy if you're too close to the tracks, but I believe they're trying to do something about that though.

The schools here are much smaller, the people a little more laid back, possibly a little less competitive than N.C.

It's a little less than 10 minutes to the Palisades Mall (I hate the place), and about 20 minutes to the GW bridge. The house prices are less than New City, but they won't have as much land, and will probably be older construction (smaller too). The county didn't really start to get built up 'till the 60s after the TZ bridge was finished, so alot of the older stuff is in the southern corner, close to the river.

[SuburbanDweller]

Empire, have you considered Piermont or Grandview on Hudson?