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I'm living in Commack now (temporarily) and while it is a great school district, I have a hard time justifying the price of buying here in relation to other towns. Plus, it seems like Commack is the haven for split level homes - they are everywhere.
This is so true. To this day I am still trying to figure out why house prices are so high in Commack. Like who wakes up and says? hmm I think I'll spend crazy money and pay crazy taxes on a house in the middle of nowhere when I can get the same house in a town on either shore with a beautiful downtown!
Yet that seems to be just what so many people (or at least enough people) want -- to live in an area with no sidewalks or very few sidewalks, practically no useful walkability, no street life, no city-like grid of streets and dense development, et al. That is, they actually WANT their home life to be utterly peaceful, quiet and tranquil and therefore choose to live a totally car-dependent existence. They actually choose to live "in the middle of nowhere". Hence, they choose Commack or Dix Hills over living in Smithtown Village or Huntington Village or East Northport or Farmingdale Village and the like.
My parents lived in Dix Hills for 37 years (adjoining Commack) and there is absolutely nothing there but forests and woodlands with housing developments spread throughout it. No civic life whatsoever . . . nor in its neighbor Commack. The adjoining East Northport has a downtown area, as does Northport Village. As does Smithtown Village. But they are all "too urban-like" for that mindset of people. They'd rather live in as remote a way as they can or as is reasonable.
Yet that seems to be just what so many people (or at least enough people) want -- to live in an area with no sidewalks or very few sidewalks, practically no useful walkability, no street life, no city-like grid of streets and dense development, et al. That is, they actually WANT their home life to be utterly peaceful, quiet and tranquil and therefore choose to live a totally car-dependent existence. They actually choose to live "in the middle of nowhere". Hence, they choose Commack or Dix Hills over living in Smithtown Village or Huntington Village or East Northport or Farmingdale Village and the like.
My parents lived in Dix Hills for 37 years (adjoining Commack) and there is absolutely nothing there but forests and woodlands with housing developments spread throughout it. No civic life whatsoever . . . nor in its neighbor Commack. The adjoining East Northport has a downtown area, as does Northport Village. As does Smithtown Village. But they are all "too urban-like" for that mindset of people. They'd rather live in as remote a way as they can or as is reasonable.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess!
Dix Hills is much too small compared to Smithtown to compare them fairly.
The whole area in Smithtown, east of Landing Ave, west of the river is not at all 'urban-like' and much nicer than Dix Hills by virtue of proximity to or housing on the river. Dix Hills is not unlike a lot of post WWII LI with it's development homes only on larger lots. That's what sets Dix Hills apart from Commack -- the size of the properties and the winding roads.
Dix Hills doesn't have 'forests' and 'woodlands' but does have some nice parks.
Dix Hills is much too small compared to Smithtown to compare them fairly.
The whole area in Smithtown, east of Landing Ave, west of the river is not at all 'urban-like' and much nicer than Dix Hills by virtue of proximity to or housing on the river. Dix Hills is not unlike a lot of post WWII LI with it's development homes only on larger lots. That's what sets Dix Hills apart from Commack -- the size of the properties and the winding roads.
Dix Hills doesn't have 'forests' and 'woodlands' but does have some nice parks.
I'm not saying that the whole of Smithtown is "urban-like". I was specifically referring to Smithtown Village and saying that living within a walk of the various downtowns or villages in Long Island such as Huntington Village, Smithtown Village, Farmingdale Village, Babylon Village, Bay Shore Village, and the like (with their urban-like street grid layouts, denser commercial development, wholesale walkabiilty, a prevalent street life and a prevalent civic life) is still deemed as "too urban-like" for the mindset of those people who would rather live wholly remote from all that (such as in the hamlets of Commack or Dix Hills or in the Town of Smithtown [outside of Smithtown Village]). They don't want to have other people on top of them and easy walkabilty for all. They want and prefer more remoteness and isolation (and hence they embrace a wholly car-dependent existence).
And of course Dix Hills has forests and woodlands! Its residential developments are nearly all carved out of or inserted into the prevailing forests and woodlands. (Heck, my parents' former home has a vast forest behind it and partly surrounding it. Drive along Vanderbilt Parkway between Commack Road and Deer Park Ave. From Deer Park Ave., drive west along Wolf Hill Road (which I did to visit the Dix Hills Water District office on Caledonia Road). You are SURROUNDED by forests. Dix Hills Park itself is carved out of the forests and woodlands.
I'm not saying that the whole of Smithtown is "urban-like". I was specifically referring to Smithtown Village and saying that living within a walk of the various downtowns or villages in Long Island such as Huntington Village, Smithtown Village, Farmingdale Village, Babylon Village, Bay Shore Village, and the like (with their urban-like street grid layouts, denser commercial development, wholesale walkabiilty, a prevalent street life and a prevalent civic life) is still deemed as "too urban-like" for the mindset of those people who would rather live wholly remote from all that (such as in the hamlets of Commack or Dix Hills or in the Town of Smithtown [outside of Smithtown Village]). They don't want to have other people on top of them and easy walkabilty for all. They want and prefer more remoteness and isolation (and hence they embrace a wholly car-dependent existence).
And of course Dix Hills has forests and woodlands! Its residential developments are nearly all carved out of or inserted into the prevailing forests and woodlands. (Heck, my parents' former home has a vast forest behind it and partly surrounding it. Drive along Vanderbilt Parkway between Commack Road and Deer Park Ave. From Deer Park Ave., drive west along Wolf Hill Road (which I did to visit the Dix Hills Water District office on Caledonia Road). You are SURROUNDED by forests. Dix Hills Park itself is carved out of the forests and woodlands.
Contrary to what you would like to believe, Dix Hills is not in a forest, does not have a forest. Human development and inhabitation destroyed that. You might see wooded areas along the roadside, but it is not forest in the truest sense.
You do realize that the trees on Wolf Hill buffered the backyards of all the development homes from 231 to Caledonia?
Very similar in most aspects. School rankings are similar, demographics similar although Commack has a higher Jewish population, Commack is a little more densely populated. There is virtually no violent crime to speak of in these areas. There is a drug problem with some kids but that is going on all over LI.
IMO Smithtown has nicer looking areas, especially, on the east/north end, and what you could call a legitimate downtown, where as Commack is pure unadulterated sprawl.
Keep in mind that areas of St. James, Nesconset, and Smithtown go to Smithtown schools.
Areas of Smithtown go to Hauppauge schools.
Areas of Northport go to Commack schools.
So you should specify if you are talking about just those specific towns/zip codes/Hamlets/whatever, or the school districts.
On LI, school district is huge. The same value house in Smithtown Hamlet but in Hauppauge School District, may have 2,000 a year less in property taxes for an equal or better school.
I think it's East Northport , not Northport that goes to Commack schools. The boundaries are : Clay Pitts Rd on the north, Larkfield Rd on the west, Town Line Road on the East, Burr Road on the south....
Make sure you get a school district map. No matter where yo are, towns fit into different districts along the edges. On my road here, in a stretch of 4 miles, a kid is in the same town and you can be in one of 4 districts. Even where I grew up down there, my district in the town had 2.
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