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These are great suggestions, thanks.
SeventhFloor, how/where do you check pollution?
For flood maps, up until recently Redfin had flood factory which uses the topography maps to estimate where flash flood or accumulation can occur, but suddenly they removed it, it was pretty handy. Fema map is very broad, and it seems like unless you are right near water, it's low risk of flood. I think my main concern is sewer backup which occurred even well outside flood zones in places like Brooklyn. Since most of LI is septic/cesspool, I am hoping cesspools don't have this risk, as much?
I think parks/beaches/shopping is within a manageable distance for most areas we are looking and I don't mind driving to beaches, in fact having empire pass makes it an enjoyable trip to visit different state beaches or parks every weekend, we enjoyed that last 2 summers and look forward to another summer of beach/park adventures.
Boompa made excellent point, medical care/services is one thing but I think emergency care, or at least urgent care clinics is something that we need to think, with kids around, anything can happen and more and more people prefer urgent care instead of emergency rooms when possible. I always checked for costco/walmart/target/cvs nearby for supplies, but didn't think of checking urgent care/clinic/etc.
I don't think there is one place we can avoid traffic anywhere on LI.. Noise, on the other hand, can be manageable with some planning. I've seem some houses that are not near highways but somehow have the road noise, I was surprised at some of these places that you could hear the constant drone of 495 or NSP, which NSP is kinda strange because I think people travel in packs so you gat this alternating noise/no noise brakes. Then I've seen some neighborhoods far from highways, and you could hear the pin drop.. Not airplane but we were surprised to hear helicopter noise on few occasions in Stony Brook area. Yes some non-highways can get noisy too, especially the commercial lanes like 25/25A, and others. I am definitely staying away from double yellows, not just because of noise, but I want to be able to just step out on the streets, ride our bikes, take a stroll, perhaps one day join block parties etc without worrying about constantly watching for cars.
What does everyone think of sidewalks? Is it good or bad? Some neighborhoods don't have sidewalks, but it's still perfectly walkable, and less snow to clear I guess, on the other hand, having sidewalk makes me wonder if it's busier neighborhood where town wants people to be safe from cars?
Interlude made a good point, I guess we can look into it in order to focus on more diversity, it's hard to tell these days with more people buying houses on the island, so best we can do is just look at school stats.
Thanks twingles, I saw one house that has construction next door, I think they are building a new house, I wasn't sure if that would be an issue, but generally I don't expect that to be a main problem, unlike something we've seen in Commack recently and satellite view showed a vacant lot, but when I go check it and look at different map providers sat view, it showed a huge development being built with the parking lot right behind the house we were looking into. There was another place that looked like it backs to wooded area, changing map angle revealed it was actually something like truck parking lot or gravel factory or some sort.
Hi Zenith, having a 10 year old, in my case, school district is more important than concert halls/gathering/downtown but yes it's good to have access to those. Barred off windows can tell you about a neighborhood, as well as the type (or if any) fences are around front yards of houses (I try to stay away from chainlink fenced front yards, barred windows, or neighborhoods that have houses used as old broken down car storage), as much as we can see from street view before visiting the area, but these are all pretty self explanatory. I am more interested in knowing what resources we can use or should use.
I care about race, the more the merrier in my opinion but it seems the further east we go, less diverse it gets, so we won't be in much luck since diversity stats are given for more generalized zip code base not neighborhood based. Only way to tell is to drive around as many times as possible.. We also get to see a lot of colorful flags and banners in some neighborhoods.
Someone said talk to the mail carrier, but I am not sure they want to be bothered. Other thing is the road conditions, does neighborhood quality really have any connection to road quality? I generally look at yards and siding as better sign of neighborhood quality and I've seen some beautiful streets in Smithtown, Commack, Nesconset and Setaukets. It is completely unrelated to house values or income, in fact I think middle class even lower income home owners tend to take better care of their property, unless they are rentals/tenants..
These are great suggestions, thanks.
SeventhFloor, how/where do you check pollution?
For flood maps, up until recently Redfin had flood factory which uses the topography maps to estimate where flash flood or accumulation can occur, but suddenly they removed it, it was pretty handy. Fema map is very broad, and it seems like unless you are right near water, it's low risk of flood. I think my main concern is sewer backup which occurred even well outside flood zones in places like Brooklyn. Since most of LI is septic/cesspool, I am hoping cesspools don't have this risk, as much?
I think parks/beaches/shopping is within a manageable distance for most areas we are looking and I don't mind driving to beaches, in fact having empire pass makes it an enjoyable trip to visit different state beaches or parks every weekend, we enjoyed that last 2 summers and look forward to another summer of beach/park adventures.
Boompa made excellent point, medical care/services is one thing but I think emergency care, or at least urgent care clinics is something that we need to think, with kids around, anything can happen and more and more people prefer urgent care instead of emergency rooms when possible. I always checked for costco/walmart/target/cvs nearby for supplies, but didn't think of checking urgent care/clinic/etc.
I don't think there is one place we can avoid traffic anywhere on LI.. Noise, on the other hand, can be manageable with some planning. I've seem some houses that are not near highways but somehow have the road noise, I was surprised at some of these places that you could hear the constant drone of 495 or NSP, which NSP is kinda strange because I think people travel in packs so you gat this alternating noise/no noise brakes. Then I've seen some neighborhoods far from highways, and you could hear the pin drop.. Not airplane but we were surprised to hear helicopter noise on few occasions in Stony Brook area. Yes some non-highways can get noisy too, especially the commercial lanes like 25/25A, and others. I am definitely staying away from double yellows, not just because of noise, but I want to be able to just step out on the streets, ride our bikes, take a stroll, perhaps one day join block parties etc without worrying about constantly watching for cars.
What does everyone think of sidewalks? Is it good or bad? Some neighborhoods don't have sidewalks, but it's still perfectly walkable, and less snow to clear I guess, on the other hand, having sidewalk makes me wonder if it's busier neighborhood where town wants people to be safe from cars?
Interlude made a good point, I guess we can look into it in order to focus on more diversity, it's hard to tell these days with more people buying houses on the island, so best we can do is just look at school stats.
Thanks twingles, I saw one house that has construction next door, I think they are building a new house, I wasn't sure if that would be an issue, but generally I don't expect that to be a main problem, unlike something we've seen in Commack recently and satellite view showed a vacant lot, but when I go check it and look at different map providers sat view, it showed a huge development being built with the parking lot right behind the house we were looking into. There was another place that looked like it backs to wooded area, changing map angle revealed it was actually something like truck parking lot or gravel factory or some sort.
Hi Zenith, having a 10 year old, in my case, school district is more important than concert halls/gathering/downtown but yes it's good to have access to those. Barred off windows can tell you about a neighborhood, as well as the type (or if any) fences are around front yards of houses (I try to stay away from chainlink fenced front yards, barred windows, or neighborhoods that have houses used as old broken down car storage), as much as we can see from street view before visiting the area, but these are all pretty self explanatory. I am more interested in knowing what resources we can use or should use.
I care about race, the more the merrier in my opinion but it seems the further east we go, less diverse it gets, so we won't be in much luck since diversity stats are given for more generalized zip code base not neighborhood based. Only way to tell is to drive around as many times as possible.. We also get to see a lot of colorful flags and banners in some neighborhoods.
Someone said talk to the mail carrier, but I am not sure they want to be bothered. Other thing is the road conditions, does neighborhood quality really have any connection to road quality? I generally look at yards and siding as better sign of neighborhood quality and I've seen some beautiful streets in Smithtown, Commack, Nesconset and Setaukets. It is completely unrelated to house values or income, in fact I think middle class even lower income home owners tend to take better care of their property, unless they are rentals/tenants..
Google "Superfund sites in New York State" for starters, from there I'm sure you'll find links to more govt agencies, etc
Lack of sidewalks wouldn't bother me. I grew up in Huntington and we didn't have them. Of course things were different then and you weren't take your life in your hands walking around. I walked to Huntington High School, and the roads pretty much had no shoulder. Not sure I'd attempt it, or let my kids attempt it, now.
Twingles makes an excellent point about sidewalks. You keep hearing about more and more pedestrian accidents and hit and run types of incidents on the news these days.
Suffolk County is mostly septic tank country. Nassau County is mostly sewer country.
You can get an idea about demographics by looking at the local stores. Are there Asian markets? Italian markets? Polish bakeries? Peruvian bakeries?
If you have a child, look for not just urgent care places, but urgent care places dedicated to pediatrics, such as a Cohen's Pediatric Urgent Care facility, which is affiliated with Northwell.
Listen for airplane noise in different types of weather. I don't hear a lot of planes where I am now during nice days. When it's cloudy, I can barely hear myself think.
Check out each town's library, especially the children's section. Make inquiries about children's events at the library for teens and under. You can ask the "checkout" clerk at the children's center desk about the schools. She might provide a lot of information. Libraries are often busier on the weekends when you are probably house hunting.
Interlude made a good point, I guess we can look into it in order to focus on more diversity, it's hard to tell these days with more people buying houses on the island, so best we can do is just look at school stats.
Diversity and good schools do not co-existent on Long Island, unless you consider Asians diverse.
Diversity and good schools do not co-existent on Long Island, unless you consider Asians diverse.
What is your idea of diversity? I really don't expect anywhere on long island or even NYS to have equally divided race/religion so I would consider any area that has 75% or less of 1 majority would be enough diversity, unless I am wrong to think that way.
Take a look at HHH SD:
One of the top rated SDs on Long Island, and it has pretty good diversity, but the only problem with that area is there is a big gap between more desirable and less desirable parts of HHH SD, it's not bad by any means, in fact I wish we focused on HHH SD when we first started looking, but now most of the houses are either falling apart (for the money they are asking) or they are $1M+ houses.
Traffic --- if possible check out the main roads in the area you are looking at and see how they handle rush hour traffic, especially the evening rush. If the main road has alot of stores along it, then also check out what it is like during the weekend.
Noise --- for a suburban area, Long Island has alot of noisy areas near major roadways. Not just major highways but even some secondary roads can be surprisingly noisy. Also there is airplane noise near certain airports.
There's airplane noise even 15 miles away from certain airports. I wouldn't know where in the nassau county or sufolk I'd need to move to not hear airplanes at all.
Village vs town vs hamlet, etc.
Villages have extra taxes but many of the problems that plague the Island are avoided in inc. villages with all of the ordinances, etc....biggest example would be parking on the street which causes wars these days I love the fact that there are is no street overnight parking in my area and it is strictly enforced. Directly affects the quality of life.
Village vs town vs hamlet, etc.
Villages have extra taxes but many of the problems that plague the Island are avoided in inc. villages with all of the ordinances, etc....biggest example would be parking on the street which causes wars these days I love the fact that there are is no street overnight parking in my area and it is strictly enforced. Directly affects the quality of life.
That's one thing I really like seeing, is there a map or list of towns/villages that enforce this? Which area are you in? Only village I know is Village of Branch with add'l village taxes, are there other places like that?
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