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Hello,
I was on this board more than a year ago asking for advice on where to buy a house on LI. I got many helpful responses, but unfortunately, I'm still renting.
Last time around we looked at Levittown, Hicksville and Westbury (East Meadow SD).
I ended up disliking Levittown for the difficult commute to NYC and the lack of basement.
Hicksville was just too industrial and grey.
Westbury wasn't all that great either.
Back then we were trying to keep our budget under $350K. We have a two year old, so we need safety and the best school we can afford. And decent sized rooms (not like in Levittown's capes!).
So we've decided to up our budget to $400K and for that matter, look somewhere else closer to NYC. From my preliminary research, these are the finalist cities:
Mineola: looks good on paper, but today we drove around and while some neighborhoods look nice, some look pretty run down (by Old Country Road). What is the general opinion on Mineola? I like the stores and the LIRR close by.
Franklin Square: looked worse than Mineola on paper, but then the houses looked nicer when we drove through it. The bad is there is no train close by. And Hempstead Trnpk looked kind of ugly.
Other places that have some homes under $400K are Floral Park, New Hyde Park, and some surrounding areas, but I haven't really dug school info yet.
I even considered the better Valley Stream, but I worry about the many negative comments against it. I also would like to explore Stewart Manor.
If you had $400K and a 2 year old girl, where would you go? Which school district?
Can anyone go as far as listing the SD of the towns and villages I've mentioned in order of best to worst?
If it matters at all, I'm Italian and would love to find somewhat of an Italian community here in LI (I live in Brooklyn, but all the Italians are gone!), but of course is not a priority.
Stewart Manor is very pretty, boarders Garden City, there are currently two Duplex's for sale at 429K, you can definitely get them for under 400K. Taxes are going to range from 10K to 11K.
Problem with Stewart Manor is that it is in the Elmont school district, you can send your child to the Stewart Manor elementary school but forget High School. You do not want to send your child to Sewanhaka High School.
When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP, or Census Designated Place, is the Census Bureau equivalent for a hamlet in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.)
And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.
A small part of the Village of Stewart Manor is in the Garden City Union Free School District.
This is true, but it's only one street (Fernwood Terrace)....and those homes go for a premium. But if you could find one in your range, go for it. Agree with pp about Stewart Manor....it's great till your kids go to middle school. Another issue with S.M. is many people who live there send their kids to St. Anne's...so you might feel kind of "odd man out" if you do public school. BUt it's a great little community.
Franklin Square, people keep their homes up nicely....but there are a million renters and driving around the streets is like playing a continuous game of chicken because of all the cars parked on both side of the road leaving one driving lane. Heavily Italian. Hempstead Tpke looks bad and is getting worse....when we visited over the summer we couldn't believe how much it had gone downhill in just one year. Depending on where you live could be a tough commute.
Mineola has some really nice homes, especially south of Old Country Road, again not sure of that price range there.
New Hyde Park is nice enough....also not sure of the pricing structure there. Seems to be no bad areas.
FP - my guess is if a house is going for under $400K there is going to be some work involved.
With the exception of FP/SM, all of these areas are without "downtowns" so you are left with main drags (read, little charm) for your shopping experiences. SM only has Covert Ave but they do a nice job of giving that a "downtown" feel.
Franklin Square, people keep their homes up nicely....but there are a million renters and driving around the streets is like playing a continuous game of chicken because of all the cars parked on both side of the road leaving one driving lane. Heavily Italian. Hempstead Tpke looks bad and is getting worse....when we visited over the summer we couldn't believe how much it had gone downhill in just one year. Depending on where you live could be a tough commute.
The only thing that has changed in Franklin Square in the past 30 years are the stores. Still all Italian and Most people still keep up there properties nicely. Obviously the main road of the town in ANY town is hard to keep perfect. I Fail to see where this "down the hill" is. Maybe you are confusing it with neighboring Elmont, Which is like a 3rd world country now.
To OP - Franklin Square is a nice upper middle class town , You should encounter no major problem.
The only thing that has changed in Franklin Square in the past 30 years are the stores. Still all Italian and Most people still keep up there properties nicely. Obviously the main road of the town in ANY town is hard to keep perfect. I Fail to see where this "down the hill" is. Maybe you are confusing it with neighboring Elmont, Which is like a 3rd world country now.
To OP - Franklin Square is a nice upper middle class town , You should encounter no major problem.
I gotta agree with savaged. Hemp tpke is pretty mundane looking from Farmingdale to the Cross Island. It was never really nice or anything. I don't get what "went downhill so much in one year" means.
I mean Jericho Tpke. Should never post on a Sunday morning. Thanks.
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