low-budget weekend house in Ulster? (New Paltz: apartment, buying, school district)

[insearchofzen]

Hi, I am relatively new to this forum, and this is my first posting. I don't see an Ulster or Orange County forum, so perhaps the people from Westchester will tolerate an interloper

My husband and I have been pondering a move out of Manhattan, but at this point the timing is off. We still want a backyard for our kids, though, and the possibility of easy access to weekend soccer/little league/swimming/skiing. So, we are considering buying a weekend house. Challenge is, to find a place we can afford without selling our apartment in Manhattan. We are looking at the Ulster County area, particularly around New Paltz, because it seems like half-way from Manhattan to the downhill skiing. But I have heard the taxes are relatively high.

I have two main requests:
1) advice on where to look that is within a 90-minute drive from northern manhattan, still on the path to downhill skiing, with some decent recreation facilities/swimming/little league, but where we can find a nice 2BR with 1/2 acre for less than 200K.

2) advice on how to figure out the taxes. I go to the county sites and they list all these different figures. I just want to get an idea of the relative tax from town to town. I was also told I need to figure out both property and school tax. Since the kids won't be in school in the town, I guess we can forgo a decent school district if necessary.

Thanks so much!