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Anywhere east of Stamford is out of the question, unless you plan to drive and work very strange hours. Given your income, it would seem that you could afford more than $700k, depending on the rest of your debt load. Not that I'd encourage doing so, but you could probably get a mortgage for at least $750-850k with those numbers, which with 20% down puts you at $1mm or so.
That said, given the size home you mentioned and your silence on the importance of schools, you should be fine in Stamford. If you push your budget up a bit you could probably find a house just under 1800sf in Greenwich, but it would almost certainly be old and not in a great part of town. If schools and prestige are not a huge concern, you should do Stamford.
If you move to Fairfield, Westport, or anywhere in CT. I recommend you take the Merritt Pkwy down instead of I-95, because I-95 can get really ruff at times. The Merritt can to, but usually the Merritt is always moving, but I-95 can be a mad house at times.
This is not sound advice. The Merritt is horrible at rush hour going into NYC from Fairfield.
700k is going to be tough within 90 minutes of Tribeca. If the job was in midtown, that would open up a lot more options in CT, but since it's all the way toward downtown, you're limited to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, etc. These are some of the most expensive towns in the country.
I know you said you like CT, but the area you're looking at is extremely expensive and will take up the entire 90 minutes. Tribeca is more convenient to New Jersey - have you looked into that area? It will likely be just as expensive as CT but you'll save in commute time. Towns like Montclair and Nutley are nice, are in your price range, and they are an easy commute to Tribeca. Just a thought.
If Fairfield is too expensive or you prefer a cheaper town, look at Trumbull, Shelton, or Stratford. They are a bit lower class compared to fairfield, but still good upper class towns.
Or you could even consider Westport if you want to be closer to NYC. Again its not as high class as Fairfield, but its still good. If you have any questions PM me and I will be more then happy to answer.
Shelton, which is a small city, does have some upper class neighborhoods, but also has a lot of middle class/blue collar neighborhoods. Pretty much the same could be said of Stratford, there is a lot of economic diversity there, too.
Westport has a higher median income with higher median priced homes than Fairfield. Perhaps you and I have a different definition of "upper class", and "high class"?
At any rate, I think a commute from Shelton or Stratford would be be very long.
Thanks everyone for the advise. What it seems like is that my expectations were indeed unrealistic. I was focusing our search on Fairfield, CT since I love that area of the state very much, but based on your feedback it seems like that would put my commute way over the 90 minutes mark?
I have never been to New Jersey, but based on what I'm reading here it might be worth considering it as an option. Are there towns that are more or less similar to Fairfield there? Maybe this is a question for the New Jersey forum...in any case, I really appreciate your help!
By the way, I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but living in a good school district is indeed important for us, since we have a baby on the way.
Would you consider Westchester county? There are more areas available that meet your 90 min commute requirement.
Absolutely, we're open to anything. Really what we are looking for is a safe, spacious, suburban area. Ideally a good school district, and we know that the trade-off is going to be commute vs budget. Either we accept a longer commute or we increase our budget.
I was focusing on Fairfield because its one of the few areas I'm familiar with in the NYC metro, and I've always considered it a place where I would love living.
A lot of Westchester is pretty unlike Connecticut in a lot of ways--denser, newer, not as pretty. Some of Northern Westchester might be similar to the Fairfield area. I'm thinking towns like Chappaqua, Bedford, Pound Ridge. I can't comment on the commute, though I imagine it's roughly comparable to Greenwich or Stamford but a bit longer. You definitely get more house for your money than you would in Greenwich, but the property taxes are as much as 2-3x what you'd pay in many CT towns, so it may ultimately be a wash. (E.g., an additional $10k in property taxes per year is another $150k or so in mortgage payments.)
Lower Westchester is somewhat a different story. Scarsdale has a renowned school district and is an easy commute but is out of your price range. So are Rye and Larchmont. Purchase is doable, but it's very unlike Connecticut and not particularly attractive.
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