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My husband and I have outgrown our Sunnyside home and would like to sell and move to Westchester. We’ve narrowed it down to northern westchester as it seems you get more land/home for the price. We have a 1 year old and will hopefully have 1-2 more children so a great school district is definitely a top priority. I’m familiar with southern westchester as I went to college in Bronxville. Not very familiar with northern westchester but we seem to have narrowed it down to Yorktown and Katonah (100% open to other areas as long as the SD is good) We’re in our early 30’s so we would like a neighborhood that has somewhat of a nightlife, or at the very least is within a few minutes drive to good restaurants. We’d like to stay under an hour’s drive from the GWB. Any help is greatly appreciated! Also, (and this may be better asked in a new thread) is it more feasible to purchase land and build new? There are a good amount of lots for sale in Yorktown.
It would be easier to make a recommendation if we knew more about the type of community you want to live in (i.e. close to work, on a train line, schools, nightlife/walk-able etc.) and housing budget. From what you listed so far, I think Katonah would be the better option, Yorktown although nice, does not offer a downtown or down-like environment (similar to what you find in Bronxville).
If you're looking for nightlife/a walk-able neighborhood, you should look much further south (ex. Rye, Larchmont etc.) The towns you've listed are on the quieter side of the county.
I love Yorktown and I loved living in Sunnyside (1990's).
We have a great Greek restaurant - Pappous Greek Kitchen, a Himalaya restaurant - Jewel of Himalaya. Yorktown Bar and Grille and lots of Italian. For anything else, we drive to (15 to 20 minutes) to Peekskill for the Birdsall House, Iron Vine, Gleason and Taco Dive Bar. All good! Mount Kisco has a world class french bakery - L'Anjou Patisserie Francaise. Somers has Il Forno and The Muscoot Tavern and most of all - King Kone ice cream.
If you are commuting into NYC - Yorktown is a ten minute drive to Katonah train station. The Katonah train station has more parking available, but it is a longer commute with less frequent trains.
A Croton Harmon is twenty minutes away from Yorktown. It has express train is under an hour. Express trains are pretty frequent during rush hour. However, you'll need to be on waiting list for parking. While you wait, there is a Beeline bus from 7-11 (1949 Commerce Street) to Croton-Harmon train station for rush hour commutes.
If you are commuting into NYC, look into Croton as well. The train station is right there and it has some restaurants too.
Muscoot Farms is nearby https://www.muscootfarm.org/ John Jay Homestead (which has a summer camp for middle school kids) and in Summer, John Jay has a Farmers' Market every Saturday John Jay Homestead
About land in Yorktown - Yorktown can be hilly - like deep gorges. Level land in Yorktown is more expensive. The most important aspect is to make sure you can get city water. Many houses have city water and septic (I do) which is fine. However, well water and septic water can seep into each other - which is not good. The hook up to city water is important. This is true whether you decide to move.
Thank you for the insight! I should mention that we both will be driving to work - me to the GWB and my husband to the bronx, so being near a train does not matter to us. We aren’t looking for a “bedroom” community which I’ve heard some of the river towns can be. To put it simply, our top priorities are: good schools, comfortable lot size (at least .5 acre), not a far drive to good restaurants/ shopping and a diverse demographic (old, young, families, singles, born and bred and new transplants). Our budget is 850k at the max. and we are open to building.
From what you've told us so far, a couple of towns/cities that come to mind are Eastchester, White Plains (Highlands Section) and Bedford. All three are very unique and different in their own way. The great thing about each of them though, is that they have great in town shopping and dining options and are within a 20-40 minutes drive from your work places.
I’ll look into these towns, I’ve heard great things about Eastchester although it seems the home sizes for the price are smaller than more northern towns. The commute to the GWB would be good though from Eastchester.
If you want land and great prices - Yorktown, parts of Cortlandt Manor, Buchanan, Montrose, Croton (outside of the "downtown area). Beware that taxes are likely to go up due to the close of Indian Point.
If you want more amenities with competitive prices - White Plains (Battle Hill area), maybe White Plains (Highlands area). YMMW on land area/home square footage.
Also, parts of Mount Kisco and Katonah (the prices vary depending on how close to the train station). (If you don't care about public transportation, then you don't care).
All are good-great school districts (relatively speaking, not the "same league" as Scarsdale).
White Plains is a nice trade-off because you are right near 287, so getting across the Hudson and into Western NY and NJ is super easy and NOT having to cross the GWB will be your best bet (and cheaper/less traffic/less of a headache than the GWB).
Last edited by ThatCareerGuy; 05-17-2020 at 07:26 PM..
Thank you, visited Katonah, Yorktown, Croton and Pleasantville today. Still have a few more neighborhoods to visit but so far really liked Yorktown and Katonah.
You picked the right place! At least Westchester isn't like Long Island with the territorial, exclusionary stuff they do on Long Island. You'll be more welcomed at any of the towns the other posters mentioned than on the south shore of Nassau and Suffolk.
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