Westchester moving questions (White Plains, Scarsdale, Dobbs Ferry: for sale, real estate, 2014)

[NYCUWS2]

Hi All,

My wife, two young children, and I are interested in moving from NYC to Westchester. My wife works in the city and I work in a very strong school district - we can send our kids there without living in the district. We were primarily considering Hastings (and having the kids attend there), but we've had trouble there with the limited inventory. More recently, we've been checking out White Plains and Hartsdale. We recently saw 143 Lakeview in Hartsdale, which we are considering.

Two questions:

Would you advise waiting for something in Hastings since it was our first choice and since it has stronger schools than Hartsdale (thinking about resale)?

Is the house in Hartsdale fairly priced?

Our oldest doesn't go to kindergarten until September of 2014.

Thanks for any constructive responses.

[Forest_Hills_Daddy]

You should compare the public schools in WP and Greenburgh (Hartsdale) to other towns. Also, while taxes in Hartsdale are lower than other areas, they don't appear to be that cheap - still >$10K.

If you were interested in Hastings, have you considered Irvington or Dobbs Ferry?

[streetsmart]

I personally would buy in a school district where I was comfortable sending my kids, as I would NEVER assume that I would continue to be able to send my kids to school in the district where I work. You never know when the budget ax will fall and that benefit will be eliminated. Then what?

If I had to choose I'd go with White Plains over Hartsdale any day. And I'm not sure how anyone ever moves to Hastings because I've never seen a decent house for sale there (okay, so I don't look much, but when we were looking for 6+ months nothing good came on the market). I'd look into Dobbs Ferry too if you prefer the Hudson side.

[AliciaN]

Do you need the train? If not, add Ardsley to the list.

[john70]

I would be careful about Hartsdale. Woodlands schools are not very good by westchester standards. Even WP is better and that is not saying much. Hastings is a better school district, as is Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and Irivington if you are conisdering Rivertowns. Have you considered the Edgmont section of Scarsdale - great schools.

[ponytrekker]

Remember the 3 rules of real estate. Location, location, location.

I would buy in the best school district possible because (1) you have an alternative option to the SD you work in and (2) it will be easier to sell the house when you do.

[NYCUWS2]

Hi All,

Many thanks for the useful and constructive responses. My wife and I have been intrigued with a few other towns with stronger school systems at this point. We're going to be patient.

Thanks again!

[plucks]

Originally Posted by AliciaN

Do you need the train? If not, add Ardsley to the list.

I had the same issue with The Rivertowns having limited inventory. just LAST NIGHT our offer was accepted on a place in Ardsley! So i would also be ok with adding this location to your list.