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Hi, which website did you use to get this data? I was looking at USNews 2021 list:
pview 10% 10% 1521 students
syos 9% 7% 2112 students
jerich 13% 10% only 1104 students
CSH 3% 3% Super small district 1600 kids.
HF 16% 14% 1050 students, this looks like it's even smaller than CSH
commack 12% 2159 students
smithtown E 7%
smithtown W 10% (combined these 2 schools have 3150 students)
hauppague 13% 1166 students
ward melville 3VSD 11% 1,656 students
elwood 19% and this is smallest at 682 students but despite high number of "poor" students, this school has higher graduation rate.
For example Smithtown West has 94% graduation rate, this seems really low to me now that I think about it, while east has 99%.
When I said 1600 kids in CSH that's district wide. US news is just showing kids in the HS. HF has around 3k students.
Your really over thinking this. Commack, Smithtown, Happauge, 3 village, Elwood, HHH are all fine. Sure some are "considered" better than others. You should find the house you like the most with lowest taxes and buy it. You won't even know what kids are from low income households anyways. All the kids have Jordans and fancy crap poor and rich it doesn't matter.
Thanks gx, I really didn't mean to turn this thread into another school district discussion, hence I specifically asked for other than school district- I already broadened my search so much that we are looking 10-20 miles further to find the house that's closest to our dreams, it's been very difficult but I think we'll get there eventually.
My main concern when starting this thread was to find out how to learn more about an area without driving 1,5 hr one-way on a weekend just to see a house, at least get some suggestions on what to watch for. We've also given up on several things such as style of the house, for example while I would love to have a center hall colonial with classical touches, its getting harder to find colonials that have master suite because certain area colonials tend to be older and it seems like master bath wasn't a thing back then, same with splits and some of the high ranches. With lack of floor plan on most listings, and no sqft (even the agents somehow can't comment on sqft, they rather waste time showing it to us only to find out bedrooms are 10x12)
Also there was a debate on oil vs gas, and I always wanted gas, but with lack of houses we had to drop that requirement but one thing I don't want to give up is central AC. Lived many years with wall units and the noise, draft or moving it in and out, I just want to leave that behind. Someone said we can get split units, but even those are not as efficient as central AC in my experience, unless you have a small living area (perhaps under 1500sqft).
One very valuable suggestion that I got was to definitely avoid through streets where people can take shortcut or early exit, I do that by making a route from one point to another on google maps and see if it routes people over the street where the house is on. I see that a lot on main roads intersections like 25/25A that crosses another main North/South road, maps take drivers through local street and we also noticed that when we were at an open house past weekend. Seeing bunch of speed signs on a side-street that wasn't double yellow should have been a sign enough.
Recently we started taking internet speed tests when we drive by the houses, some areas of Smithtown are total dead zones for T-Mobile, same in Greenlawn, both on 5G and 4G LTE, unusable 1 to 1.5mbps down and less than 1mbps in some cases 0.25mbps up, would mean giving up T-Mobile and getting new phones, new lines, easily going $100+ over budget on cell service that we probably would not otherwise expect. Not to mention the hassle since not all phones work with all networks.
You have a wealth of resources here on CD with posters who are very familiar with certain areas. I grew up in Huntington and my best friend has lived in Greenlawn for almost 30 years. If you don't want to post the street you are looking on, send me a DM. GX lives in Melville/Dix Hills area I'm sure he can help too.
You should focus on your absolute must haves because as you've said you're not going to get everything. While appreciate everything you said about central air, the heating season is much longer on LI than the cooling season and for the majority of days you don't even need AC. But even then, a conversion to gas may be possible at some point.
Do not fall into the trap of "everything needs to be perfect now". If this is your forever home, you simply need a roof over your head and systems that work in your target area. You can work on stuff over the course of your ownership.
You're running into the same problems as everyone with a limited budget...and it's not common to just LI. I live in a 1995 built house and aside from the master the BRs are not big. When you're building in the sub-3000 square foot category, something has to give. You're simply not going to find huge BRs (unless it's a big cape and then you're dealing with the eaves.....I had that kind of BR growing up, room was large but the room also had eaves). But a larger master BR is nice especially if it doesn't have a bath.
Again, figure out your must haves. Sounds like you're well on your way with that. But at some point the thinking becomes limiting and you have to pull the trigger. If you're really that unsure it might be best to sit out this crazy market.
PS Yes you're definitely overthinking the schools, especially using the USNWR rankings whose methodology has been roundly criticized (and yes our HS is on the list - not sour grapes).
My main concern when starting this thread was to find out how to learn more about an area without driving 1,5 hr one-way on a weekend just to see a house, at least get some suggestions on what to watch for. We've also given up on several things such as style of the house, for example while I would love to have a center hall colonial with classical touches, its getting harder to find colonials that have master suite because certain area colonials tend to be older and it seems like master bath wasn't a thing back then, same with splits and some of the high ranches. With lack of floor plan on most listings, and no sqft (even the agents somehow can't comment on sqft, they rather waste time showing it to us only to find out bedrooms are 10x12)
Also there was a debate on oil vs gas, and I always wanted gas, but with lack of houses we had to drop that requirement but one thing I don't want to give up is central AC. Lived many years with wall units and the noise, draft or moving it in and out, I just want to leave that behind. Someone said we can get split units, but even those are not as efficient as central AC in my experience, unless you have a small living area (perhaps under 1500sqft).
10x12 or smaller is what you are going to get in bedrooms until you cross the 3k sq ft range. For kids it’s fine for a master I would want more. Style is important personally I hat high ranches and capes. I lived in a split but I think a massive ranch or colonial are the best layouts. My extra bedrooms are 13x15 but they have 7x7 walk in closets. My old house had 12x10 and 10x10 and honestly the extra space isn’t a big deal. The storage space is way more important.
Gas oil sewer septic can’t get hung up on it. I had oil for around 2 years it was fine. This is my first septic home I flush my toilet it works. No different when I had sewers. If the price is right and it doesn’t have Cac you add it in. I’m with you on that forget window units they are terrible. Split duct is very efficient then You have to have those ugly units on the wall.
It’s a tough market rite now. I have a friend with a 1.2m budget they are way to picky. But prior to April 2020 finding the home they want would of been a Piece of cake. Now they are 200-225k over budget to get what they want. Saw a home in my old town 5 doors down across the st listed for 110k more than I sold for in 2018. Same exact home and we sold way over ask. It was under contract in week I’m sure it got +/- 10k of asking.
@gx98, after looking at so many different houses in north west suffolk, we finally can tell what a house layout looks like by looking at the house from outside, that's something we really should have done in the beginning. It could have eliminated a lot of tours (like I said, no floorplan, no sqft, and some stats are generally missing like master bath or is it a bath that has a door to "master bedroom") Now we can tell from outside high ranch, colonial, split, splanch, etc.. and know somehow what the inside would look like even before pictures are added.
It seems like high ranches are not as desirable, and you also expressed your preference is not on high ranch side, is there a reason for that? To me, they look more functional than splits, some of the splits have so many layers, but high ranches are kind of split but no basement, just garage+family room area, and I figured you can always steal one of the car spaces in garage if need to convert into gym/game room/office/etc? Is there something specific that we are not thinking of when it comes to high ranches other than possibly biggest downside of lack of basement or storage space?
I live in city and it seems I never realized how big our bedroom is, people say you don't live in the bedroom so it doesn't have to be so big, and I kind of agree, but small bedroom means less storage.
Regarding bigger vs smaller, I figured 1800-2000sqft is the sweet spot but making good use of space can be achieved by 1500sqft home too, and also I repeat to myself, chanting, junk expands to space available... junk expands to space available.. helps me justify not targeting 2500-3000sqft home, also easier to keep clean, easier to heat/cool and definitely easier to move later on.
Hi Twingles, thanks again. There is one reason I don't want to completely ignore school districts is so that I don't keep expanding my search area to other neighborhoods, otherwise I will end up looking at homes my agent's company keeps sending me, all the way in Sachem or Miller Place, etc. I am trying to draw the line at Smithtown, we made an offer at a place in Stony Brook, only because we really loved the house, backyard, neighborhood, but we were outbid, we said good luck and moved on, so now I don't want to go much more than Sagtikos. We found a few places in Smithtown, closer to Commack on Smithtown west, will go and see them tomorrow. There is also one in Smithtown but in Commack SD, but it seems like a bottom of the hill at busy shortcut street, so we are not sure we'll even see that.
What's your budget Ed? You had mentioned Greenlawn....the college section is really nice. As I've mentioned my best friend has lived there 30 years and she could afford to live anywhere she wants. Actually same with my sister's best friend who ironically has lived around the corner for about 20 years.
I think most people just find that high ranches are not that aesthetically pleasing. And the stairs....when you have little kids, that's a pain. I worked with a woman who had a high ranch and she hired someone to come install a permanent gate that she could lock. It's great when you have older kids. My aforementioned bff lived in a high ranch when we were older and she had the lower level to herself. She had a bedroom and the outer rec room. I don't know if most high ranches are set up that way. But they don't look great from the outside and they can be a pain on the inside. Since the living area is technically the second floor your deck is upstairs too....again, have to think about kids there.
Hi Twingles,
My budget was $700k, I didn't think about the taxes being wildly different from area to area, for example in Setauket we found a beautiful home for $720 only to realize taxes were $21k.. So I revised my budget to just monthly payment of $3500 to $3750 (due to big swing in taxes from area to area), and depending on size of the house, if it's big and in a park like setting I could go up to $750k or if it has pool or not, 2 car vs 1 car garage and if it has finished basement or not.
We saw the Hi-Ranch house we wanted to see, it's nice but there is a construction next door building a new house. I will PM you with more information. No kids under 10 here, so stairs will not be a concern, and if we decide to expand the family, I guess we can get a gate put in place. Always wanted 4th bedroom and large bedroom (mainly for wife so she has make-up station and enough area for dresser/etc) but this one doesn't however it seems like they removed a room from downstairs that can be put back, hoping to build crafting corner for wife and other side would be home office or guest bedroom. Would that raise our taxes if I put the dividing wall back up to create an office?
ED - Putting a wall back in will not raise your taxes. And a house being built next door is not an issue. it takes 6-7 weeks from the day the shovel goes into the ground until it looks like a finished home on the outside. If anything it's a positive sign adding more $$$ homes into an area is a great thing for existing home owners.
I wouldn't worry about taking down a wall either. We had a wall taken DOWN....we had no other work done, just took the wall down.
When I mentioned see what could be built nearby I wasn't talking about a house being built. I was talking about that lovely wooded area that attracts you to an area one day becoming a Walmart, or an entire subdivision.
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