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We are trying to relocate to somewhere in upstate NY. Long story short, we were thinking about the region around Albany. I've driven past Albany before, on the thruway, but never really explored the area. We'll be driving up within the next month or so to take a look around, but want to have some idea of where to start.
1 - Our house budget is hovering around 150K, but could go up slightly. For the perfect house we could go up to 250 or thereabouts but we'd rather not take out a mortgage. I know for a fact this budget is do-able in other parts of NY (WNY, etc.) and totally NOT do-able for points further south - is this reasonable for the Albany area? I don't mean IN the city - I mean outside of it. I don't really trust real estate sites anymore, I'd prefer to ask people who actually live there.
2 - We want maybe a couple of acres, a rural "feel". It doesn't have to be way out there in the country (it can be, that's fine, as long as it's not an insane drive to the hospital) - but we definitely want to have a bit of space and privacy, room for a garden, possibly a horse, that sort of thing. We're kind of homebodies anyway, so we don't need to be near the bustle. Beautiful scenery is a plus.
3 - As I wrote above, we need to be able to "easy access" the VA Hospital - even in winter. Husband has appointments several times a month (sometimes even more often) and we definitely don't want to be doing crazy winter driving all the time. I don't even know anything about the hospital there in Albany - is it centrally located? Any good? Anyone know?
4 - We plan on homeschooling but in case that ends up not working out long-term, we'd like to factor in a decent school district.
Erm, yeah. So, with those considerations - should we keep looking into the area or look into a different region, in your opinion? TIA!
I can tell you I home school my son because we moved here last year and I had no idea about the schools and I had been doing it last year (Grade 7) as well.
Apparently this area is home school friendly with various groups but we only have one car so I am 'doing it alone' like I did last year.
Where are you moving from? We currently live in a town east of Albany and it is a big culture shock from NYC because EVERYONE smokes here. While that is not a problem for many people, the laws are so strict in Southern NY and to come here and see kids, teens, elderly and adults all puff away is somewhat unsettling.
We try hard to stay healthy and don't want to deal with second hand smoke on this level.
I do not want this to influence my son so we are also researching other parts of the area to move to this Spring. Saratoga seems like a more educated area (but maybe snobby/pricier?). We've been as north as Glens Falls and Queensbury (both nice but lack of jobs). We are now concentrating on the towns just north of Albany.
You could live out this way (Schodack area/Rensellear) and still have 'rural' with some land and not be more than 20 minutes from Albany.
The shopping in the whole capital area is very good in my opinion. There are Walmarts, Superwalmarts (the biggest is in Albany), Aldi, and many dollar stores. There are also malls and other stores you will find all over NY. You can definitely comparison shop. It beats where I lived in New England where we had to drive 40 minutes to Super Walmart.
[quote=MarysPoppins;22404884] Saratoga seems like a more educated area (but maybe snobby/pricier?). We've been as north as Glens Falls and Queensbury (both nice but lack of jobs). We are now concentrating on the towns just north of Albany.
QUOTE]
Saratoga Springs is pricer, but there are outlying areas, possibly 10 miles east, like Quaker Springs area, Schuylerville not particularly in town, Town of Saratoga, Northunderland, Moreau, Ballston Spa etc. Niscayuna is also nice but more suburban.
We are in Quaker Springs area and have several acres. People have horses and farms. It takes us 45 minutes to Albany airport and an hour to Albany (Everett Rd).
Thanks for the links. I think we can get a bit more for the money on the southern tier, but if we don't fall in love with the area we'll head on up to near Albany, too.
There are probably other areas where you can get more for your money. It's a difficult combo $150+acreage+good schools+close to VA hospital. You could go for a very rural site, but it might take you 40+ minutes to get to Albany, the drive might be on windy, hilly roads vs. a well traveled, well plowed road - a big consideration in my book for winter. How many minutes to the VA is a reasonable drive to you? I'm not sure how far you'd feel comfortable driving, maybe once a week to the VA. Sometimes around here depending upon the road and how well it's maintained, 10 miles can seem like a quick trip or a long commute. Also the hilltowns can get more snow compared to in town.
That first place you liked, you could always put an addition on later? How many bedrooms/bathrooms? How much acreage? I'll look for a few more south & east of Albany.
Well, that house is one acre and it's 21 minutes to the VA Hospital on Mapquest... so again that's perfect. Maybe not big enough for a horse but it's big enough for a garden and for the kids to play (assuming the acre is actually usable).
We have a Civic and don't plan to upgrade to a SUV or anything (new car and we plan to have it for a long time) so the hilly snowy roads are a big turn-off, unfortunately. If we didn't have doctors appointments we'd pretty much stay at home all winter and it wouldn't matter to us, we'd be happy with that. But unfortunately, while sometimes he can go a month without an appointment other times he has like four a week. And if you're late they push your appointment back another month or more - so the winter driving is a big deal, can't just stay home if it's snowy. =/
The square footage doesn't matter as long as the layout is good - we lived quite happily in a 900 square foot place and it was perfect for us - and there was less to clean, too. And less to heat...
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I can't think of a nicer home. Well, maybe if it was a TAD bit bigger, 1000 sq feet is a little on the low side, but eh. Still love it!
