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I would to move to New Fairfield. They have good schools and nice louses for that price. The commute to NYC by train will be done on the Harlem Line (top speed of 70MPH), which is much more modern than the New Haven Line.
With a max of 1 hr 15 minutes door to door, you're limiting yourself to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, and maybe New Canaan. You're pretty much priced out of those towns, except for Stamford, where the schools aren't ranked as high.
If you can push your maximum commute to 90 minutes, I would suggest you look into Wilton. You can get a little more for your money and it's a great town.
Another issue to point out is that some of these towns may have years waiting lists for parking passes. May be beneficial to be within walking distance to a station.
Some stations have decent daily paid parking though.
With a max of 1 hr 15 minutes door to door, you're limiting yourself to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, and maybe New Canaan. You're pretty much priced out of those towns, except for Stamford, where the schools aren't ranked as high.
If you can push your maximum commute to 90 minutes, I would suggest you look into Wilton. You can get a little more for your money and it's a great town.
They said 1:15 on train alone, which would be about Fairfield Metro with the recent slow down. Fairfield Metro also has plenty of parking. Fairfield could be a pretty good option.
We spent the last year figuring out where to move to for your exact scenario and ended up choosing Fairfield. I even have a 5 year old and a baby :-)
Don't forget to go to MTA.info and look at train schedules. Fairfield has more trains and some express trains. You can park at the station but permits take years to get. The Fairfield Metro station has availability - though its further, your 650K will go further that part of town.
I love Fairfield - it has great beaches, a great town center, and people are actually nice!
why don't know look for westchester county, more tax but less expensive house.
If you want the better schools in Westchester - Scarsalde, Chappaqua, Bronxville, etc - you're going to be paying as much as New Canaan or Darien, most likely. And, if you get up into 7 figures in NY, you get that wonderful mansion tax added.
Wow Raliny, I thought I posted this until you mentioned 2 kids! LOL. We are also moving from LI to Fairfield and looking to buy in the the same price range ($600-675K). We have kept our eye on the market for the past 2 years while we waited for home values in our area to come back up (they have and we will be closing on our home soon...woohoo!). We listed later in the Spring and started our house-hunting (in Stratfield) later than we would have liked. We have decided to rent for now and familiarize ourselves with the area and wait for Fall/Spring when there is more inventory. We love the Stratfield area (Sturges too, but that is way out of our price range) for the antique homes and leafy streets - it seems to be such a great little community. Prior to the opening of the new Metro station it would've made for a less than ideal commute across town for the train into NYC but the new station has been a game-changer for us and since we also work from home 2-3 days of the week, it is almost ideal (great town/community, homes we like, closer to family in central CT, less taxes and great schools!). Best of luck to you and do let us know where you end up!
Thank you all for the suggestions. We spent the weekend in CT and checked out New Fairfield but it is too long of a commute. We liked Ridgefield but it's hard to find a decent house for 600K, so we will keep looking. CT felt quieter and less active than LI, I am hoping that it wont be boring, especially in the beginning when we will not know any people.
Thank you all for the suggestions. We spent the weekend in CT and checked out New Fairfield but it is too long of a commute. We liked Ridgefield but it's hard to find a decent house for 600K, so we will keep looking. CT felt quieter and less active than LI, I am hoping that it wont be boring, especially in the beginning when we will not know any people.
Smart choice. Commuting to NYC from New Fairfield by train is certainly doable, but it is absolutely exhausting. It's about 1 hour 15/20 minutes on train alone, plus travel time to train. Plus waiting time. Easy 1 hour 40 minutes just to GC. And then if you have a commute after GC, add that on too. Not fun! I do it ocassionaly, but would never do it on a regular basis. Some people do though -- not quite sure how.
Ridgefield is better, but still rough IMO (train ride = about 10 minutes less; travel time to station is the same).
Last edited by Lalalally; 07-01-2014 at 12:18 PM..
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