Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would agree but you still have to be able to afford the cost of living in that area until you make it. Most of these communities are affluent and the Wall Streeters can absorb the costs, but most middle class families cannot.
The ones I've recently known to move to Westchester have been working at least 10 years in Wall St. and made it to VP. Prior to that, they started in entry level jobs in banking/finance, maybe law - they started out renting in NYC. Recently professionals in creative careers with 10+ years experience have been migrating from Brooklyn to Hastings and Dobbs Ferry. Occasionally I've met younger women who marry men 10+ years older and can therefore afford the housing prices in Westchester.
I think its ok to have affluent areas within a community but we cannot leave behind the people that make tha community work, those who teach, those who serve and protect, the nurse who may give up her/his nights and or weekends keeping families healthy and safe.
Wall Streeters dont really make anything, they dont build shelter, teach a child, heal the sick. The people that do do those things should also be able to afford to live in the community in which they call home and proudly serve.
We need more diversity and housing thats affordable for someone makng 75,000 a year for example.
Thank you all for your responses, but we digress... What's happening to the housing market? Or is it always like this? Or is Ardsley undesirable by Westchester standards bc it doesn't have a train station ?
Thank you all for your responses, but we digress... What's happening to the housing market? Or is it always like this? Or is Ardsley undesirable by Westchester standards bc it doesn't have a train station ?
No, I wouldn't consider Ardsley undesirable at all. It's not that far from the train station in Dobbs Ferry. The housing market is down throughout the country. I'm just guessing but it's probably even worse in the most expensive places in the country. Westchester being one of them. It sounds like you don't plan on staying there for that long. I don't blame you for that. But if that's the case you would have been better off renting. I never looked at owning a home as an investment. It's a place to live. Especially when you add up all of your mortgage payments, maintenance, property taxes etc. When it comes time to sell more than likely you'll never get all that back. However on the bright side you will get something back. Renting you will get nothing back.
In order to sell your house it has to be priced right. Most people think that their homes are more valuable than they really are. That's where a good real estate agent comes in. We went through all this crap when trying to sell our house. It took us 3 years and that was back in 2010. We were over priced and lived in Peekskill one of the least desirable cities in Westchester. After going though a couple of real estate agents we finally found an excellent one who priced our house just right and the house sold within 4 months. Sure it wasn't what we thought it was worth but it did sell and we were able to move on with our lives. We were able to buy a home in Arizona that was twice the size, twice as nice and in an area similar to Briarcliff Manor which is one of Westchester's better areas.
Just about everyone aspires to be in that category. However no matter how hard you work not everyone will get there. There are plenty of blue collar workers who work their asses off, some holding two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Not everyone has the smart's or capabilities to become wealthy no matter how hard they work. Or just plain luck. Just as a lot of wealthy people don't have the capability to change a light bulb. But they sure know how to make money, a lot of it. They can afford to pay someone to change their light bulbs. That's the guy who works two or three jobs and can fix damn near everything. Different skills for different folks. That's just how it is.
It might be the asking prices. We currently live in Dobbs Ferry and it took over a year to find our house, mostly due to competitive bidding wars which we repeatedly lost. When we were looking, it seemed that anything that was priced in a competitive range (usually after a price adjustment) sold within a week or less following multiple bids. Some under-priced homes (e.g. one we liked and bid on in Briarcliff) sold above asking price the same week it listed. Same for another nice single family in Tarrytown. It was actually pretty tough. We ended up getting a home we liked, but it was a tough, frustrating experience.
There are a few homes in our immediate neighborhood currently for sale but they are overpriced, and the owners seem unwilling to entertain lower offers. It seems like the owners are trying to recoup the same (or greater) purchase price than what they invested, which may have been during the housing bubble and is more than the market will bear.
Ardsley is a really nice community though, and I don't think there's anything about it specifically that would make it undesirable to a potential buyer that isn't shared by the other towns nearby. People entertaining the prospect of moving anywhere in the area should already be aware of the taxes, so I doubt that has much to do with it.
The negatives for Ardsley are high taxes, no train station, not a great town center, very hilly, and a housing stock which mostly consists of post war raised ranches, splits, etc., not necessary desirable by Westchester standards. As other have mentioned if these negatives were priced into the house they would sell in 72 hours.
Take a look at the thread below, which recently discussed similar themes. It was specifically with Pleasantville in mind, but the posts around pricing and inventory are probably equally as applicable to Ardsley. Pleasantville's Inflated Prices
I think its ok to have affluent areas within a community but we cannot leave behind the people that make tha community work, those who teach, those who serve and protect, the nurse who may give up her/his nights and or weekends keeping families healthy and safe.
Wall Streeters dont really make anything, they dont build shelter, teach a child, heal the sick. The people that do do those things should also be able to afford to live in the community in which they call home and proudly serve.
We need more diversity and housing thats affordable for someone makng 75,000 a year for example.
The real high-end communities in Westchester get much of the attention, but there are still towns in Westchester, and Rockland as well, that mix affluent financiers and Wall Streeters with the family with two working parents who both make low 6 figures (say a cop and a nurse).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
