North Syracuse neighborhoods? (New York, Clay, Mattydale: cul-de-sac, middle-class, best neighborhoods)

[lilbear]

I've posted in the Syracuse forums before. We're needing to move out of South Carolina where we are now and it's gonna be south east Michigan or Syracuse area. If we move to Syracuse we will end up buying a house if not right away, eventually.

So right now I'm asking what the neighborhoods are like in the North Syracuse area. I'm looking at home $100k and under.

Any information is helpful, thanks.

[lilbear]

Oh, and if possible, some figures on taxes.

[Classicalguy]

Well, Michigan and Syracuse may be one of the few places left in the US where you can buy a single family house for under $100K! Taxes are high - 6-7% per year maybe? That's a blanket guess - you'll get more info from the real estate agent in the area. The north side has some interesting stocks of older houses.

[lilbear]

Yeah, I was happy to see some decent homes under $100k in NY. MI has it's issues going on too right now which there's pros and cons to that.

I think there's more jobs in Syracuse than south east MI but we're comparing right now.

Homes with basements in the Syracuse area or northern and Clay area, are they decent?

[bellafinzi]

The North Syracuse area is very diverse in terms of housing stock and neighborhoods. There are neighborhoods built in the 1950s all the way to new developments built within the last year. The Village of North Syracuse has the oldest housing stock. Many were built pre-1950. Since the Syracuse suburbs have grown so slow over the last 50 years, you'll see a neighborhood built in the 1970s located right next developments built in the 1990s. Due to the wide range of housing stock and the central location, you'll encounter almost every type of person living in the North Syracuse area.

A home under $100,000 will get you a home built before 1980. So you should be looking at neighborhoods built in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Neighborhoods built in the 40s and 50s are generally built in a grid system with straight roads and small homes on small lots. Starting in the 1960s and especially in the 1970s, the neighborhoods are more sprawling with cul-de-sacs with lager yards. IMO, the best neighborhoods are located just west of the Village of North Syracuse....off Allen Road, off Bear Road, and off Buckley Road.

The North Syracuse school district has some of the lowest property taxes and home prices in the Syracuse area.

I consider the North Syracuse area the real hub of Central New York since the city (Syracuse) looks like a ghost town compared to the northern suburbs.

Pictures of the North Syracuse area. Hope they help you get a general feel for the area: (the first half of the photos are from 4 years ago, the second half are more recent)









































































































There are numerous more neighborhoods/areas I did not photograph....for example, neighborhoods built in the 1950s and 1980s. I'll have to get out there and shoot more of North Syracuse.... especially the older parts and neighborhoods off Bear Road.

[lilbear]

Thank you very much for the information and the photos! It looks like my kind of town. Reminds me of home in MI.

If you're able to get those other neighborhoods, especially the older ones, that'd be AWESOME. I don't know when we can pay a visit yet.

But thanks so much for posting.

[Classicalguy]

$100,000 is on the low end for sure, but there are nice smaller houses for that price (yes, older). I don't understand why people like brand new houses in this area, because the cost of constructing a new house is very high in relation to what older houses sell for. Old houses have more character, IMO. Of course, in the suburbs, most of the housing stock is newer (except in the villages), and more expensive. There are other nice areas in Syracuse too. I'm not sure why you've narrowed your question to north syracuse.

[lilbear]

We're not too interested in living too close to what can be considered bad neighborhoods. I'm a suburbs kinda girl, husband is a country boy so living 2 inches from our neighbors isn't comfortable for us.

We like older homes, as long as there isn't major TLC to be done. Move in ready, update and do what we want after that. We're pretty handy in that aspect. We're coming from poor SC so in turn, we don't have a ton of money so yes, that limits us but we can manage.

[RestonRunner86]

Thanks for the pics, Bella! It was especially nice to see an Eckerd Drug Store in the mix since they've now been taken over by Rite-Aid. My mother actually used to work for the old Fay's Drug Store chain here before Eckerd took them over. We now have two Rite-Aids in our town since the new takeover. I'm actually very shocked to see so many older vehicles in your photos though for what appears to be an upper-middle-class suburban area. Here in Scranton, a supposedly "poor" area, I'm pretty much the only person I know who drives a vehicle older than 2000. I don't know if people here are just in debt up to their eyeballs in order to afford to tool around in such nice vehicles on shoestring budgets or if people in Syracuse just don't care about driving newer vehicles because they give more to charity or what, but that was just a shocking difference I have found between our two cities in our respective photo tours. I mean, there are a LOT of 1990s-era vehicles in your photos wheras even the tours of the city proper down here are replete with not only brand new vehicles, but many luxury SUVs as well. I'm only 21, and I drive a 1999 sedan, which is the oldest and most modest of all of my friends' vehicles (even though I'm apparently the highest-earning at nearly $20,000 per year). What's your insight into this? Why do folks in Syracuse drive such beat up cars? The snow/salt? Prefer to spend their money on less materialistic things? This is probably being too nosy on my part, but it's just odd because everyone here in Scranton whines "I'm poor," yet they all drive $25,000 vehicles. What am I doing wrong financially? LOL!

[ckhthankgod]

in nearby Mattydale, which is a very affordable suburban community in the North Syracuse school district. You can get a nice house in the 80,000 range here and it is pretty quite and safe. Houses might be a bit on the small end, but they have enough room and yard space for an average family. All of the other posts were pretty much on point.

Liverpool is another area next to North Syracuse to consider as well. To some it is nicer and it is a more "diverse" area too. Good luck......