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I have not been on this site in a very long time and one of my last posts in 2009 was asking for advice on renting an apartment. I come back 9 years later looking for advice on towns in Suffolk County to buy a home.
I grew up and lived in Oceanside for 25 years. Spent a few years in Merrick, Levittown and even Howard Beach in Queens. I can certainly say I'm very familiar with Nassau but my fiance, 2 kids (9 and 12) and I have decided that we want to move into Suffolk. Unfortunately I don't know anything about Suffolk other then a few not so nice towns based on word of mouth.
For starters, we are pre-approved with a max budget of 700,000 but ideally would like to stay around 650,000 or lower. We have 4 specific things that must be included with the house. 1)A nice size piece of property with a large backyard (We don't want to be on top of our neighbors). 2)Minimum 1 but ideally a 2 car garage either attached or detached. 3)In-ground pool. 4)Maximum 50-60 miles from Brooklyn (think of the end of the Jackie Robinson Parkway) Reason #1 is why we think Suffolk is the place to go based on the amount of money we have to spend. Schools are obviously important as well.
When these filters are applied to any of the popular home websites the amount of homes obviously shrink tremendously. We have found homes in the following towns that we like and fit our criteria but we are not familiar with the towns. Northport, Kings Park, Smithtown, Farmingville, Centereach, Hauppauge, Medford.
We would like to stay on the North Shore or even Central Long Island and avoid the South Shore. I certainly do not want to come off the wrong way but we would like to live in a primarily white neighborhood. But honestly, diversity is fine as long as its a nice neighborhood.
So to sum it up, I am looking for opinions on those towns that I listed for raising a family and I'm definitely open to suggestions or opinions on different "nice" Suffolk towns that fall into the above criteria.
EDIT - As far as taxes are concerned....Ideal taxes would be in the 10-13k range utilizing the upper end of our 700k limit. However, if the taxes fall into that 20k range but the house is 600k or a bit lower then that would be fine also.
I have not been on this site in a very long time and one of my last posts in 2009 was asking for advice on renting an apartment. I come back 9 years later looking for advice on towns in Suffolk County to buy a home.
I grew up and lived in Oceanside for 25 years. Spent a few years in Merrick, Levittown and even Howard Beach in Queens. I can certainly say I'm very familiar with Nassau but my fiance, 2 kids (9 and 12) and I have decided that we want to move into Suffolk. Unfortunately I don't know anything about Suffolk other then a few not so nice towns based on word of mouth.
For starters, we are pre-approved with a max budget of 700,000 but ideally would like to stay around 650,000 or lower. We have 4 specific things that must be included with the house. 1)A nice size piece of property with a large backyard (We don't want to be on top of our neighbors). 2)Minimum 1 but ideally a 2 car garage either attached or detached. 3)In-ground pool. 4)Maximum 50-60 miles from Brooklyn (think of the end of the Jackie Robinson Parkway) Reason #1 is why we think Suffolk is the place to go based on the amount of money we have to spend. Schools are obviously important as well.
When these filters are applied to any of the popular home websites the amount of homes obviously shrink tremendously. We have found homes in the following towns that we like and fit our criteria but we are not familiar with the towns. Northport, Kings Park, Smithtown, Farmingville, Centereach, Hauppauge, Medford.
We would like to stay on the North Shore or even Central Long Island and avoid the South Shore. I certainly do not want to come off the wrong way but we would like to live in a primarily white neighborhood. But honestly, diversity is fine as long as its a nice neighborhood.
So to sum it up, I am looking for opinions on those towns that I listed for raising a family and I'm definitely open to suggestions or opinions on different "nice" Suffolk towns that fall into the above criteria.
EDIT - As far as taxes are concerned....Ideal taxes would be in the 10-13k range utilizing the upper end of our 700k limit. However, if the taxes fall into that 20k range but the house is 600k or a bit lower then that would be fine also.
Hauppauge, if you can afford it (its been a long time since I looked at housing prices personally) might be a good choice. Especially on in the western end, for instance "the bird section". Hauppauge is miles wide so since you are going to be traveling to Brooklyn, try to get in the western end of Hauppauge if possible. It is right where the Northern State Parkway begins which eventually turns into the Grand Central Pkwy and then you can branch off onto the Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn.
Plus Hauppauge is also near the Long Island Expressway. But best of all, all those businesses parks in Hauppauge help to keep property taxes down compared to other Long Island communities.
PS. Make sure you check out the Hauppauge School District, I believe it is pretty good but I am not sure.
Also, I wanted to say mention one community on the South Shore.
I know you mostly want Middle Island or North Shore (make total sense if you are going to be taking the Grand Central/Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn), but there is one South Shore community that might be an exception and I believe has a good school district (again do your research).
West Islip.
West Islip is right on the North-South parkway route in Suffolk (Sunken Meadow - Sagtikos - Robert Moses Pkways). This means that you can take Ocean Parkway along Jones Beach and out to Robert Moses and then north right next to West Islip. Sort of a secret passage when the LIE and the SSP is backed up, especially when the weather is bad. Kind of the long way to go but at least you are moving and the scenery is nice.
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West Islip or East Islip are good.
South shore but worth looking into.
Northport or Kings Park for north shore.
All mostly white with good schools in your budget.
Kings Park is still well priced with decent taxes; better "bang for your buck" than Northport as far as property size is concerned.
There's also Commack--have you looked into that?
We moved to Smithtown a couple of years ago and bought a house in the Forestwood section. It's a nice town and the Smithtown schools are well rated. Most of the houses in this area are 4 bedroom / 2+ bath colonials that were built in the 60's. The properties are about 1/2 acre, many have pools. The houses appear to sell pretty quickly and most are in the 550 - 600 range. One to the best features of the neighborhood is that it is surrounded by parks which makes it pretty quiet.
We also looked at homes the Smithtown Pines area and Commack. Both were also very nice.
Greenlawn, Commack, Smithtown. Anything past Greenlawn will be a hellish commute, IMHO, my best friends has lived in Greenlawn for 25 years and commuted to Brooklyn for a couple of years. No fun at all. Traffic hasn't gotten any better. She commuted at off times too - usually leaving around 5 a.m. and coming home well after 6. Permanent traffic jams abound.
Stay out of Brookhaven township. It's the worst. While I like where I live, the roads suck, it's dirty, and godforbid you actually need something from the town.
Hauppauge, if you can afford it (its been a long time since I looked at housing prices personally) might be a good choice. Especially on in the western end, for instance "the bird section". Hauppauge is miles wide so since you are going to be traveling to Brooklyn, try to get in the western end of Hauppauge if possible. It is right where the Northern State Parkway begins which eventually turns into the Grand Central Pkwy and then you can branch off onto the Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn.
Plus Hauppauge is also near the Long Island Expressway. But best of all, all those businesses parks in Hauppauge help to keep property taxes down compared to other Long Island communities.
PS. Make sure you check out the Hauppauge School District, I believe it is pretty good but I am not sure.
I see that Hauppauge borders Brentwood and a part of central Islip. Ive heard some nasty things about Brentwood. Thoughts? Even though the 2 homes we plan to visit are located in the northern section of Hauppauge, I would like to stay away from bad towns that closely border where I would like to live. Maybe trying to find something centrally located in a good neighborhood with surrounding decent towns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LINative
Also, I wanted to say mention one community on the South Shore.
I know you mostly want Middle Island or North Shore (make total sense if you are going to be taking the Grand Central/Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn), but there is one South Shore community that might be an exception and I believe has a good school district (again do your research).
West Islip.
West Islip is right on the North-South parkway route in Suffolk (Sunken Meadow - Sagtikos - Robert Moses Pkways). This means that you can take Ocean Parkway along Jones Beach and out to Robert Moses and then north right next to West Islip. Sort of a secret passage when the LIE and the SSP is backed up, especially when the weather is bad. Kind of the long way to go but at least you are moving and the scenery is nice.
Ill look into it. Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl
West Islip or East Islip are good.
South shore but worth looking into. Northport or Kings Park for north shore.
All mostly white with good schools in your budget.
Leaning more towards these two
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti
Kings Park is still well priced with decent taxes; better "bang for your buck" than Northport as far as property size is concerned.
There's also Commack--have you looked into that?
Good to know, thanks
As far as commack is concerned, we didnt find anything that fit our search criteria and was appealing enough to visit at this point
Quote:
Originally Posted by katsmah
We moved to Smithtown a couple of years ago and bought a house in the Forestwood section. It's a nice town and the Smithtown schools are well rated. Most of the houses in this area are 4 bedroom / 2+ bath colonials that were built in the 60's. The properties are about 1/2 acre, many have pools. The houses appear to sell pretty quickly and most are in the 550 - 600 range. One to the best features of the neighborhood is that it is surrounded by parks which makes it pretty quiet.
We also looked at homes the Smithtown Pines area and Commack. Both were also very nice.
We found a very very nice home listed close to 700 in smithtown near the smithtown landing gold course (not sure what the area is called). It looks perfect to us and has everything we want. I love the tree lined streets and no sidewalks with grass everywhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzook
Stay out of Brookhaven township. It's the worst. While I like where I live, the roads suck, it's dirty, and godforbid you actually need something from the town.
I had to google the towns in Brookhaven to find out what it covered. I see it covers the following towns that we are looking at.....farmingville, miller place, centereach
Anyone have info on Miller Place? Taxes are pretty high
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