possible moving to Westchester - suggestions please (New York, Bedford: houses, neighborhoods)

[greenwichvillage]

Thinking of moving to Westchester and plan on spending some time on Saturday driving around and getting a feel for some of the area's.

I plan on visiting Irvington, Bedford, Armonk, and Chappaqua.

What is the downtown area for the above and do you have any recommendations on what I should try to see?

What are your opinion's on the area's and are there any others that you would suggest?

[havoc315]

Those are all nice areas, but not sure I would focus on anything being a "must see." Get a feel for the downtown areas. Get a feel for the residential areas. Drive through the neighborhoods that are closest to your price range. Going up to Bedford from Chappaqua and Armonk, you might want to pass through Mount Kisco and Katonah, just to get a sense of some of the commercial hubs. Although there are more open houses on Sundays, you can often get a feel by attending some open houses. Gives you a chance to ask realtors questions about the neighborhoods, etc.

[ArtScinta]

Pelham! Don't miss our town. Great architecture, most homes within walking distance of train station, neighborhood schools and great people and a sense of community. Moderator cut: No links to individual agent sites, per TOS

[hubble]

Manhattanite for 20 years - husband and I have been driving around the county for the past 6 months getting the feel for each town, working with broker, going to open houses. Just purchased a super nice house. Did not go north of Sleepy Hollow - MetroN commute >40 was not considered (subway adds another 20 mins). Saturdays - mad busy - everyone is out for "family time." Depends on if you don't mind the traffic to get a sense of the weekend vibe in the towns - we drove around mostly on Sunday - most people selling houses don't want to give up their Sat. We liked Pelham, Larchmont, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, TarryT, Sleepy Hollow (affordable pretty homes with good schools) - some beautiful homes in parts of Bronxville & Scarsdale.

[Walter Greenspan]

greenwichvillage, in case you are unfamiliar with the local geography:

What people refer to colloquially as "towns" are actually villages and hamlets, which are within actual towns; and, because villages and hamlets are referred to as "towns", then, many times, the error is compounded when actual towns are referred to as "townships".

Also, many colloquially refer to a "downtown business district" in a hamlet as a "village".

http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-y...-glossary.html may be of some help to you in understanding the geography of "New Yawk".


You can get a fact sheet for any city, village or hamlet in New York by going here American FactFinder and input the name of the city, village or hamlet for "city/town" (leave out the ZIP Code) and New York for "State", and then click "GO".

You'll get a lot of demographic, and some economic, statistics for the city, village or hamlet you selected, and if you click on "Reference map" (it's on the right hand side), you'll get a map.


When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP or Census Designated Place is the Census Bureau equivalent for a hamlet in "New Yawk".)

And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.