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Hello! This is my first post, and I'm hoping you can help illuminate a few things for me.
My husband and I are moving back from DC to New York and need some advice. Before we moved to DC, my husband spent his entire life in Manhattan, and I'd lived there for six years. Now we're married, and my husband is a little baby crazy, so we're trying to decide if we should move back to Manhattan or to Westchester when we move back to NY this year.
1) We're looking for at least a 4 bedroom/2 bath for under $1.5 mil in an area easily accessible to grand central. Bonus points for a large yard, and I have a soft spot for victorian style houses. What areas in Westchester would you recommend? Are there areas to be wary of?
2) Do you have any advice for how to see if we would like an area before we actually move there? I grew up in the suburbs in California, but my husband has never lived in anything other than apartment buildings his whole life. I guess I'm skeptical that just spending an afternoon in a town would be particularly enlightening. For instance, neither of us has ever had to shovel a sidewalk.
3) We're the first of our friends to move out of Manhattan to the suburbs. Do you think this is something we should worry about? Any anecdotal stories to put us at ease or convince us to spend a few more years in the city?
1) New Rochelle or White Plains. Close commute and "big" city so it won't be as much of a shock. You should also be well under budget, but you won't be in what most perceive as a top tier school system.
2) Best way is to rent first. Other than that all you can do is visit for a weekend, but that won't do much for you.
3) never done what you are doing, but I would say it's hard for two reasons. First, it's hard to make friends in Westchester until you have kids. Second, it will be hard for your friends to travel to Westchester when there is so much more to do in Manhattan.
You are committing a very serious change of lifestyle imo. You should have strong reasons to do so. I would definitively rent in westchester for a year before I made a purchase.
I'm assuming quality schools are an important concern? What's the longest commute you'll tolerate to GCT? I would recommend you look into:
Rye Brook
Larchmont
Harrison
Pelham
Irvington
Bronxville (may be be out of budget)
Rye (most likely out of budget)
Those are all towns in Southern Westchester. If you can tolerate a longer commute to GCT, Northern Westchester will have some wonderful options for you.
Hello! This is my first post, and I'm hoping you can help illuminate a few things for me.
My husband and I are moving back from DC to New York and need some advice. Before we moved to DC, my husband spent his entire life in Manhattan, and I'd lived there for six years. Now we're married, and my husband is a little baby crazy, so we're trying to decide if we should move back to Manhattan or to Westchester when we move back to NY this year.
1) We're looking for at least a 4 bedroom/2 bath for under $1.5 mil in an area easily accessible to grand central. Bonus points for a large yard, and I have a soft spot for victorian style houses. What areas in Westchester would you recommend? Are there areas to be wary of?
2) Do you have any advice for how to see if we would like an area before we actually move there? I grew up in the suburbs in California, but my husband has never lived in anything other than apartment buildings his whole life. I guess I'm skeptical that just spending an afternoon in a town would be particularly enlightening. For instance, neither of us has ever had to shovel a sidewalk.
3) We're the first of our friends to move out of Manhattan to the suburbs. Do you think this is something we should worry about? Any anecdotal stories to put us at ease or convince us to spend a few more years in the city?
Thank you in advance!
If your budget is in the area of $1.5mm there's probably no need to worry about shoveling driveway, grass etc. You'll almost certainly get services for that stuff.
I'm assuming quality schools are an important concern? What's the longest commute you'll tolerate to GCT? I would recommend you look into:
Rye Brook
Larchmont
Harrison
Pelham
Irvington
Bronxville (may be be out of budget)
Rye (most likely out of budget)
Those are all towns in Southern Westchester. If you can tolerate a longer commute to GCT, Northern Westchester will have some wonderful options for you.
I think the longest commute, door to door, would be an hour. His job is across the street from grand central, so it's easy on that end, but I'm concerned about the commute to/from the train on the other end. I think I could probably push an hour slightly, but it would be a stretch - especially since none of our friends would EVER come visit us if the commute was much longer than 60 minutes. Ideally we'd like to be less than 1.5 miles from a train station, if feasible.
1) New Rochelle or White Plains. Close commute and "big" city so it won't be as much of a shock. You should also be well under budget, but you won't be in what most perceive as a top tier school system.
2) Best way is to rent first. Other than that all you can do is visit for a weekend, but that won't do much for you.
3) never done what you are doing, but I would say it's hard for two reasons. First, it's hard to make friends in Westchester until you have kids. Second, it will be hard for your friends to travel to Westchester when there is so much more to do in Manhattan.
You are committing a very serious change of lifestyle imo. You should have strong reasons to do so. I would definitively rent in westchester for a year before I made a purchase.
My husband has heard that New Rochelle doesn't handle their taxes well? That they're very high and the money is not used properly. Any validity to these rumors?
As for the lifestyle change, I completely agree. I grew up in the suburbs in CA so I at least have some idea of what we would be getting into, but I think it's going to be a huge adjustment for my husband. We'll see how it all falls together.
My husband has heard that New Rochelle doesn't handle their taxes well? That they're very high and the money is not used properly. Any validity to these rumors?
As for the lifestyle change, I completely agree. I grew up in the suburbs in CA so I at least have some idea of what we would be getting into, but I think it's going to be a huge adjustment for my husband. We'll see how it all falls together.
Taxes are very high everywhere. With your budget you are could be facing a 30K tax bill.
I have not heard anything about New Rochelle wasting money. In fact, they did a wonderful job renovating the North Avenue corridor from Iona College to the south. That used to be a disgusting hell hole. Their downtown is spotty, but it's been spotty since the 1970's. But it's not terrible.
Rye is known to have relatively low taxes. But you pay much, much more for your house, so it could be a wash.
In New Rochelle, you can get an incredible 1920's house for say $1,200,000. In Rye that gets you not much.
Last edited by rubygreta; 07-21-2014 at 05:31 PM..
You will get more for your money in Pleasantville or Chappaqua than you will in Bronxville proper (most expensive place in Westchester), Rye, Scarsdale or Larchmont (runners up).
$1.2 to $1.5 you can find something nice with a yard and less than one hour communte to GCT.
If schools are not a concern and you are into victorians, take a look at Armour Villa. Its a 5 minute walk to Bronxville train/village with Bronxville address but is just over the border in the City of Yonkers. No big yards but its a lovely area with lots of charm. Taxes 1/2 of Bronxville proper but you do pay additional City of Yonkers' taxes. His commute would be less than 45 mins door to door...and that includes the walk to the train from the house.
Greenwich CT. Taxes are much lower than Westchester and it is a 45 min train ride to GCT.
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