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We are considering to move from Westchester county to Dutches county. The Red Hook area seems to be one of our prior options for its 'good' school district (we have a preschooler - soon to be a kindergardener) and cost/quality of living.
I get that Red Hook is a bit cheaper than Rheinbeck while offering a similar kind/level of amenities. But what about Milan? It's hard to find any community reviews about Milan. It seems that it's an higher income range place with higher living cost (according to city-data-com) than Red Hook. Is that true? Are there any good restaurants, artsy and children-oriented scenes?
Red Hook's schools are more highly ranked than Rhinebeck's and are some of the best in the state outside of Westchester/LI. Red Hook is generally known as being more low key than Rhinebeck.
Red Hook's district covers portions of a number of towns/zip codes. You can live in Red Hook, Tivoli, parts of Rhinebeck, Clermont, Germantown, Milan, Elizaville. However, most of Milan is in the RH school district - I think a small portion of it is Pine Plains/Rhinebeck.
The town of Milan is extremely rural. If you live there, Red Hook and Rhinebeck are your downtowns and all of your amenities will be in one of those two towns. Both towns have art programs, a number of good restaurants, playgrounds, sports programs, etc.
There is some beautiful scenery and housing stock - a fair amount of second/weekend homes are located in Milan. It does tend to be a higher income area because of the scenery and the lot sizes as well as the relative quality/desirability of housing stock - you will find some really neat contemporaries and historic homes whereas Red Hook tends to have lots of your standard ranches, split levels, colonials on half acre lots.
I believe the prop taxes are on the high side in Milan relative to some other local towns. There are also some high voltage power lines cutting through the town - which people have varying opinions about.
Be prepared to drive 10-15 minutes to everything. Also don't expect to find a ton of housing in neighborhoods - homes will typically be on small cul de sacs or county (double yellow line) roads, although set back from the road.
Last edited by hvexpatinct; 03-14-2014 at 09:17 AM..
Reason: clarification
There is nothing wrong with Pine Plains, and it is a more affordable location for sure. It is a much smaller district - I think there are still two elementary schools, but just one junior/senior high school. It is much more rural in nature.
Red hook and rhinebeck schools are more desirable for a variety of reasons - greater variety of amenities, academic rigor (particularly at the high school level).
Outside of my district (New Paltz in Ulster County) Red Hook is the only district in the Mid-Hudson Valley I would send my own children.
What about Onteora, Saugerties, Spackenkill or Rhinebeck? Is this due to quality and/or other factors?
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