Young Family With Two Kids - Manhasset vs. Port Washington vs. Elsewhere? (Plainview: real estate, foreclosures)
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I live in Port and we love it here. We looked in Manhasset as well but were also turned off by the snobby, lacrosse bro vibe. Port tends to be more liberal for what its worth (if you care about that) and definitely more diverse which was important to us. We have been very happy with the schools as well. Baxter estates is great, would also highly recommend the PW Heights / PW Estates section. They are walkable to the train, main street and the water. Lots of beautiful old homes. Also check out Beacon Hill which is very beautiful.
I live in Port and we love it here. We looked in Manhasset as well but were also turned off by the snobby, lacrosse bro vibe. Port tends to be more liberal for what its worth (if you care about that) and definitely more diverse which was important to us. We have been very happy with the schools as well. Baxter estates is great, would also highly recommend the PW Heights / PW Estates section. They are walkable to the train, main street and the water. Lots of beautiful old homes. Also check out Beacon Hill which is very beautiful.
Great Neck is the most liberal place in Nassau County.
Great Neck is the most liberal place in Nassau County.
Thanks for the replies! Personally don't care too much about political views either way, but I think the PW vibe, Manhasset to a lesser extent is more consistent with our values than GN. Though definitely acknowledge it's another great place with incredible schools.
Your kids will do well in either school district assuming they're good students and hang out with and have friends who are at the top of the class and are nice, good kids (no drugs, etc.) - either Pt. Wash. or Manhasset. Any school district will have problems with drugs, and there are always the bad apples in the class. It's like that all over unfortunately - private schools included. Sometimes worse at private schools.
I wouldn't sweat the sports thing - not everyone has the inclination to be Joe-Jock(ette). Your kids will find their way. I know lacrosse is big on LI, but there's always tennis, golf, etc. - lifetime sports worth at least trying. They'll have some of that in phys. ed.
My kids were more academically inclined than sports minded out in Three Village (not recommending since it's way too far out for you guys), and their graduating classes were very large - 560 students in my daughter's graduating class and 660 for my son. Both my kids did very well (Bucknell, Dartmouth and Harvard Business School) despite the large amount of students, but the class caps were around 28, and they hung with the academic crowd.
Personally I like Pt. Washington over Garden City. Pt. Washington is North Shore, and as far as I can tell it's not near any so-so/crummy areas. Whereas Garden City as another poster mentioned is a little too close for comfort near Uniondale, Hempstead, etc. Have to watch the school district borders there, as well as risky/sketchy areas.
One other thing: I just noticed your budget - A house buyer will need all of $1 million to get a so-so house in say Baxter Estates or a nearby neighborhood like Beacon Hill for example in Pt. Wash. You have a healthy budget, and it wouldn't hurt to look in Sands Point to see what you can get there. Remember: you can always change the house, but you can't change the location.
When you decide on the town, take a few days and drive around all (truly all) of the neighborhoods and see what appeals to you. It will give you a much better feel for the area than just looking on the internet.
We are finding the Manhasset houses to be very old ...with potentially higher running costs due to maintenance, etc. Also turned off by the waspy vibe, as we literally are the least waspy, pretentious ppl we know (self- made, thrifty, high net worth but v low key...think millionaire in $10 T-Shirt and Sneakers type).
Garden City we find the lirr commute more of a hassle..
That all makes sense. I just try to take it into account when comparing the costs of Manhasset vs. PW (also taking into account the lack of sewers in much of Manhasset, which I think makes property taxes there a bit lower as % of value). We are in the same boat and have been turned off by all the luxury cars we see in Manhasset...but there are a bunch of pluses there too.
We've mostly ruled out Garden City mostly since we just prefer the North Shore proximity to nature, beaches, etc. I don't think the LIRR commute is meaningfully worse though every few minutes do matter and it is nice not having Jamaica on the PW branch. I commuted from the South Shore (near GC) into NYC for a while and it was ok.
I lived in Garden City as a kid. My dad worked in the city and even though he grew up on the North Shore he chose GC for the commute.
It's a nice town. And the somewhat walkable downtown is a bonus. Don't listen to the people who say it's near sketchy areas. LI's are an afraid and peculiar bunch. GC is completely safe and great for raising a family.
The Mott area is nice as is the area north of Stewart Ave near the Stratford school.
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