Best town in WC for us? (White Plains, Rye: mortgage, property taxes, income)

[movingtowestchester]

Hi, my husband and I are 32 and 33 years old and currently live in Manhattan. We are expecting babies later this year and would like to move to a nice WC town to raise our new family. My job is divided between White Plains and Manhattan. My husband's job is currently in Westport, CT but he would like the flexibility to one day change to a Manhattan job too. So we need something from where we can commute to Manhattan, White Plains and Westport, CT.

We are both very active- my husband plays soccer and runs and I like to swim, bike, run and hike. We both like tennis and other sports too.

We make $350 K per year and have about $100 K we are ready to put down on a house. According to the CNN money housing calculator, we can afford a house in the $1.2 MM - $1.4 MM range.

Based on our age, hhi, family stage, and geographic requirements, do you have suggestions on which towns in WC might suit us? We are completely unfamiliar with WC and don't know where to start exploring.

[Tofusensei]

Can you share some of the things you guys enjoy to do? (Boating, golf, going out, etc.)

[movingtowestchester]

We are active, between us we play soccer, tennis, run, hike, and swim. We would probably bike more if we had access to good trails. We like to go out to dinner, cultural events, movies, sporting events etc. Since we are starting a new phase of our lives with kids, we will be interested in more family type outings. We don't need to be near tons of bars or nightclubs. Also, since we don't know anyone in WC and our friends from Manhattan may not end up commuting much to see us, we want to find a welcoming community of other young couples/families like us who we can become friends with.

[jdf718]

Regardless of what the CNN money calculator may or may not say, that's a dangerous stretch on your income with the high-level of taxes in the tri-state area. I'd aim for 900K or less to be safe and maybe less, especially if you are having kids in and you are of the workforce for any length of time.

[Marie1249]

You might consider Rye, Harrison, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, and Scarsdale. They're all beautiful areas that are convenient to the areas where you'll be working.

[movingtowestchester]

thank you to both the posters.

jdf, i had input property taxes of $15 K per year with a 6% mortgage rate into the calculator. do you feel that even with that taken into account, a $1 MM + home is out of reach? we definitely don't want to live beyond our means.

[mfenimore]

property taxes on a $1.2 million home are going to be a lot more than $15k in most places with good schools, more like $30k

[movingtowestchester]

thank you- that's great input about taxes. do you feel that it's important that we buy in an area with good schools, since the kids won't attend schools for another 5 years? are there otherwise good areas without the premium for good schools or do good areas and good schools go hand in hand?

[mfenimore]

I would opt for the good schools unless you know you will only live there less than 5 years. Areas with good schools are always going to have higher value and better demand. Of course there are some nice areas without good school systems also so it really depends what your long term plans are. For us I wanted to lock into a good school system even though I had no kids at the time since I knew I would be in the house for a while or would want to move within the same town.

[movingtowestchester]

what would be a good area in westchester without good schools? we are are fairly sure that we will move around the 5 year mark.