Moving out to Westchester and looking for a place to raise a young family

[bg7]

The Ryes are Rye Brook, Rye and Rye Neck. While all have good schools, I personally would say Rye Brook and Rye are really very far from a city mentality, and isolation is quite possible. Rye is generally older money with lovely homes, but some might find it suffocating. Rye Neck is in Mamaroneck (next town up from Larchmont). Larchmont is lovely, but I find it a bit twee and homogenous (having just come from Brooklyn myself). The Expats there tend to be French due to the French American school. Also, its easy to get a seat on the morning train at Mamaroneck, but one stop closer in at Larchmont there's always a scrum (though you will still 9 times out of 10 get a seat). Mamaroneck main street has some of the options you might like - it has a diversity of restaurants, outdoor seating, a cinema. The town also has a waterfont harbor park as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools, skating rink and a new library with an excellent kids section. Plus, it was founded way back (for America at least) and has plenty of bendy lanes, mature trees and older homes (which was a plus for me). Rye Neck schools are top notch but not the very, very top (which seems to fit your criteria). Plus 1 mil will go plenty far in the Rye Neck school district (basically that would be the part of Mamaroneck north and east of the Mamaroneck river). I live there of course, but I was in your situation jst 6 months ago. We had always been city dwellers and were very careful when chosing our suburb. Suburbs vary widely just like citys do. The river towns are your other good options.

[bg7]

Oh btw, the 37 min train ride adds up to just under an hour commute for me, 10 mins to station (includes 2 mins buffer time!) and 8 mins Grand Central to office. Thats about as much as I'm prepared to put up with - but the one seat commute means I'm getting much more reading done that I did commuting on the subway.

[Patrick2011]

This is great - thank you all so much. I really appreciate you all taking the time to respond. I think we sort of know that the river towns would suit us but Larchmont sounds like a very interesting option and clear has a number of big fans. We will take some time to visit both areas over the summer. I had not considered Pleasantville, but having taken a look at it now, it certainly looks like a place we should look into. Thank you also for the explanation of the various "Rye"s - all makes perfect sense to me now!

[lak29]

I agree that renting homes in desirable school districts is very expensive and you are subject to the whims of a landlord who can decide to sell his house at the end of your standard 1 or 2 year lease term. Anyhow, I digress b/c it doesn't seem like you really asked for an analysis of the buy versus rent question.

We have been house hunting the past year and it seems like Larchmont definitely fits your requirements. For 1.1 million you should be able to get a 4 bedroom house in the Murray or Chatsworth school districts. Larchmont also has a decent expat population. I also like how Larchmont, although a very affluent town, seems to attract more people who do not flaunt their wealth and are more understated compared to other towns.

[bg7]

I'd also recommend driving down main street in your chosen town to see if it fits the bill - during the day for shopping or during the evening for dining and atmosphere.