Advice needed on apartment (Albany, Colonie: apartments, school, utilities)

[HunterYeoh47]

Hi All,

We will be moving to the area in May. We are a family of four (2 children, ages 1 & 3). My wife has a job near Rensselaer Amtrak station and I will be working in Schenectady. We are looking for suggestions on apartment/location to live. I read earlier posts in this forum and we identified several locations; Menands, Colonie, Latham, Delmar, and East Greenbush.

Here are my questions:

1. Any other suggestions beside these area?
2. What the utilities cost for a 3 bedroom apartment will be like? My wife insisted that the room temperature should be at roasting 70F! So I guess we will need to have that on for at least 10 months in a year.
3. Is the plane noise a concern if we are living in the location near the airport? Both our children (and myself) are light sleepers.
4. How bad is the traffic if we stay north of Albany and she has to drive through Albany to go to Rensselaer for work?

Thanks in advance.

[mls012]

I don't have many suggestions but my sister-in-law lives in the Oak Hill Apartments in East Greenbush. It's a nice area from a visitors perspective. Newer developed complex, with a small playground and community pool along and gym. This area funnels into a stellar school system- which is why she lives there. Easy commute to Albany- would be very easy for your wife and close to major highways which will help you. The things I've heard her complain about....had mice a few times over the last few years and apparently it's common there (?), not allot of green space/play space for older children and the space that is there is dominated by dog poop. Her children are much older than yours, so some of this wont have any effect on you. Good Luck

[ckhthankgod]

Perhaps you can look into the Guilderland, Delmar/Bethlehem and Niskayuna areas as well. Niskayuna is a suburb of Schenectady, while the other 2 are suburban areas south/SW of Albany.