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Yes, depending where you live it may be 8-12 miles to get anywhere, but upstate you can do that in 10 minutes. On LI the 8-12 mile trip can take 30 minutes. LI is nothing but strip malls and asphalt. There is nothing you can do on LI that you can’t do here, except maybe swim the ocean.
So you grew up in LI, hated it, moved to UpState, hated it, moved back to LI, and then back to UpState and now are thinking of LI again?
Though you didn't ask for an opinion on it, what do your kids think? Obviously, you have no clue exactly what you want, so do what is best for them.Just moved here from Alabama. I do like it. After taxes, houses are not that cheap, though compared to LI standards they definately are. The city is a perfect size, large enough for amenities without being so big a person needs an hour to commute each way.
((Hi there,thanks for your reply,No i didnt hate longisland i loved it!!! its just soo expensive to live ,there.
There is Howes Caverns, Whiteface mountain (north of albany), western MA and the Berks should be a little less than an hour from you.
Shopping is not so bad in Colonie - which is west of Albany off Wolff Rd..there are some good resturants up that way too.
If you want some casinos then you have Syracuse area about 2 hours to your west. I have never been, but I think the actual casinos are about 1/2 hr north on a reservation. Of course there is college basketball at Syracuse, and there are several area lakes which are popular tourist attractions.
Lake George for summer sightseeing and walks around town. I believe they do boating out there unless things have changed a lot since I was last up there. It is a very pretty area. It is roughly 1 hour north of Albany, in the southern Adirondaks.
Hunter Mountain and Tannersville are about 1 hour south east of you, off I-87. There is skiing at Hunter, and scenic driving through the Catskills. It makes for a nice day trip.
Most of your activity and attractions are going to be outdoors stuff, like Ausable Chasms, which is near Lake Champlain (another nice travel destination).
The reason so many people fail to become happy in their new towns is that they don't want to let go of where they moved from and never thoroughly look into new activities in their new hometown.
Most of my activities in your area were guided by my parents - even to this day I rely on them for taking us around. But you can easily do a search over at Amazon or Barnes and noble online and find a good travel guide on the area, some maps too. If you want to make this work you are going to have to put in some research, relax and see if this lifestyle is a fit. It usually (at least for me) takes more than a year to ease into your new area and even longer if you are fighting it. Take this from someone who has lived in 5 states in 10 years - NY, PA, MA, TX, NM....not including a pit stop in AZ LOL! I was born and raised in the Lower Hudson Valley, and went from there to TX overnight. So I do really empathize with culture shock.
P.S. picking up an at home hobby is also a big help. When I moved to NM I took up crochet to help ease me through the transition. I started a garden. In PA I have started learning how to cook different dishes and landscaping. Just a thought!
I am trying to decide between Fairport, n.y. and Ma. Any thoughts? Can only afford to rent, husband is a recruiter and wants to open an office in or near a city and good schools with family neighborhoods is important. Pittsfield and Pennfield seemed much more reasonable as well as a beautiful area with a city close enough. I know Boston already having lived in Lexington for a year. This will be a permanent move with our teenage son going into High School. He is used to living in beautiful areas with good schools and upper class families but not a real family neighborhood or environment (we live in So. Cal) Help!
By Pittsfield I'm assuming you mean Pittsford correct? Or were you actually talking about the city in MA called Pittsfield? Either way, Pittsford NY has excellent schools, some of the best in the state, but is a little more espensive. Fairport is just east of Pittsford and also has good schools while being more affordable. I'm not sure how easy it will be to find a home for rent in those towns, because the overwhelming majority of people own their own homes; but I'm sure if you look hard enough you could find what you are looking for.
Puffle- if you are talking about Pittsfield MA- it is a very nice town with affordable property and taxes. It is very scenic and somewhat secluded. The Berks are beautiful and the area is the more conservative area of MA.
Towns surrounding the Pittsfield area are incredibly safe, family oriented with safe schools. You have roughly 45-60 minutes to Albany depending on where in the Pittsfield area you settle. There are outlet stores off exit 1 or 2.. You can get an EZ pass for the MA Pike, which last I knew was free from exits 1-6 (springfield).
I have never actually lived in Pittsfield but I did live a little east of there in the Pioneer Valley and went through the area frequently and we did househunting up that way. Many of my coworkers lived in the area and until we moved to NY we were thinking of getting a home out in the Becket/Middlefield area so we did quite a bit of research into that.
If I had a choice between living in Fairport NY and living in western MA I would most likely steer towards western MA. Lenox, Adams, Stockbridge, Washington, Middlefield are nice towns to start with for the Pittsfield area.
MA, while having the nickname "Taxachusettes" actually had lower overall taxes than NY - who leads the nation in overall average tax percentage at 13% of total income! MA has lower sales tax, it was cheaper to register and license my vehicles in MA, even with the dreaded excise tax.., it was also less painful at tax time. NY really can suck the blood out of you at tax time LOL! And the dreaded DMV...well the "RMV" in MA was sooo friendly and helpful compared to the 3 trip massacre I encountered at the DMV in Goshen, NY. Never have I had a more NASTY experience getting a simple driver license in my entire life..
I am sure the rochester area is quite nice, but do check out the MA towns I mentioned as well. I would even mention the Pioneer Valley as a possible place to relocate, but it seems the Berks fit your criteria better.
Oops! I meant Pittsford,N.Y. or Brighton compared to like Newton area of Ma. Sharon,Ma. is a possibility but seems a little to sedate. How is the weather in the Pittsfield area other than lots of snow? Are the summers similar to Boston in humidity and mosquitos? Is it grey for months on end starting in the fall like my brother who went to Cornell says? It just seems that even though taxes are much high than in Newton,Ma. the homes in Pittsford are half the price for much more property and the dollars spend per student is about $2,000 more as well. Thoughts?
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I was born and raised in the Lower Hudson Valley, and went from there to TX overnight. So I do really empathize with culture shock.
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