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I am new to the group. Can anyone give me information about Westbury? My wife and I are looking to move there and wanted information about the area ie. taxes, shopping, schools, Commute to the City etc.
Thank you in advance.
Westbury is really not that special. The schools are mediocre. It's a suburban place full of malls and concrete. I can say that cause I live in an adjacent town. Taxes are high in Nassau County - $7K or $8K is common. A "starter" home is in the low $400k range. Many people have illegal apartments to make ends meet. It's a relatively easy commute to Manhattan on the LIRR but parking at the station is no small task. Technically you have NYC culture at your fingertips but once you get used to living here you stop going to the City for some unknown reason.
I'm sorry to sound so negative, but those are my honest impressions as a lifelong Long Islander.
We were looking for a place with an easy commute to City. Also we would like a place that is quite but has places to go to when people visit from out of town. Also, access to the airports is key too since we both travel every now and then for work. We heard from a few people that Westbury is a good neighborhood. Were they wrong?
The houses we are seeing are in the 500 - 550k ranges and taxes hover around 12k. I would think the schools would be good with those taxes. Am I wrong about?
Do you happen to know about Westbury Hills in particular? I hear it is in the decent part of westbury but has no village taxes.
If you google mls li you get the local listings for the area. You can find stuff in central nassau for less than $450k. I just searched and found a lot of stuff.
I'm pretty sure there are problems with the Westbury schools but I'm not sure. Search Newsday's archives. Some ideas for better schools (assuming you don't want to go private) are Mineola, Island Trees (which is part of Bethpage, Seaford, part of Levittown), I think Hicksville is pretty good but the town is bland.
We heard from a few people that Westbury is a good neighborhood. Were they wrong?
Parts of Westbury are nice, like the blocks that are close to Fortunoff's, or the area immediately south of the Northern State Parkway. Much of Westbury is not, in my opinion, very desirable. Some parts don't suffer from much crime, while other parts suffer from too much crime (not that I wouldn't drive through there, but it isn't a place I'd want to live).
They're trying to rebuild Westbury, and I guess if you stay below the rail road tracks, you're more than okay...
I am new to the group. Can anyone give me information about Westbury? My wife and I are looking to move there and wanted information about the area ie. taxes, shopping, schools, Commute to the City etc.
Thank you in advance.
Schools aren't the best. Large hispanic, many illegal, population which lowers the school's performance on tests. Gang influences, primarily central american. Borders New Castle, which is even worse than Westbury. The only nice Westbury is Old Westbury, million dollar homes not even associated with the Village of Westbury.
If you're looking to be close to the NYC and you have kids, then I'd splurge a little and head for Great Neck (school system is supposed to be quite good). They have a nice town there. The train will get you to NYC in about 15 minutes, or you can drive in via the 59th Street bridge or the midtown tunnel. Also, LaGuardia isn't that far away from Great Neck.
Another place to consider may be Port Washington, even though it's a little further out east on the Island. It has a nice little town as well, is near the water, has good shopping if that's what your wife is into, etc.
Cost of living in both of these places is high, but on LI that's a way of life.
It doesn't necessarily correspond that the school system is good because of high real estate taxes. Everywhere has high taxes here. I'd say that Great Neck, Cold Spring Harbor, Half Hollow Hills, and Three Village are good districts with a lot to offer. Cold Spring Harbor is small but well funded because of the money in that particular district, although they don't offer as many courses as other districts that are larger. However, the only one out of this list near the city is Great Neck.
Douglaston, Little Neck, maybe Oceanside, etc. are worth looking into as well.
Westbury I know very little about, but as the other posters already told you, there are some very seedy areas there, you have to be very careful. And yes, there are beautiful multi-million dollar estates there as well. That's where a good, honest and reliable (if they exist) realtor comes in handy.
Hope this helps a little bit and good luck to you.
You can't commute to Manhattan from the Three Village Schools tho. That would be one hellva hike.
Greak Neck and Port Washington are nice but pricey. If money's no object why not go for the Jericho schools where they have all those Intel finalists every year? Or Herricks? The North Shore School District in Sea Cliff/Glen Head is good and underrated as well.
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