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My wife and I are interested in moving to LI. We currently live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and work in Manhattan and we make good income.
We are interested in moving to a nice town with easy commute to the city and the houses should be in our price range (max 450 K). Note that since we are first time home buyers, the lower the price the better for us. Ideally we would prefer a house in 300's.
We were thinking of New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Mineola, Franklin Square, East Meadow and Levittown.
We would like to know your thoughts and opinions regarding these towns. Note that easy commute and safety are important factor for us.
Also one more question, for our budge we wonder what is the average closing costs in the towns that we mentiooned above?
My wife and I are interested in moving to LI. We currently live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and work in Manhattan and we make good income.
We are interested in moving to a nice town with easy commute to the city and the houses should be in our price range (max 450 K). Note that since we are first time home buyers, the lower the price the better for us. Ideally we would prefer a house in 300's.
We were thinking of New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Mineola, Franklin Square, East Meadow and Levittown.
We would like to know your thoughts and opinions regarding these towns. Note that easy commute and safety are important factor for us.
Also one more question, for our budge we wonder what is the average closing costs in the towns that we mentiooned above?
All your inputs are appreciated.
M & D
Well the good news is you're already on LI. So that part you have.
For an easy commute, well I wouldn't go further east of those areas. New Hyde Park isn't a bad area, but not sure of the prices.
Not sure about the towns, but average closing costs usually are 1.5% to 2.0% of the gross transaction price, so if you purchase a home for 350k, figure about 5-8K in closing expenses.
Your best bet out of those is probably New Hyde Park or Garden City Park if commute is one of your bigger concerns- you could find a nice-priced house in those areas.
new2li2009, in case you are unfamiliar with the local geography:
What people refer to colloquially as "towns" are actually villages and hamlets, which are within actual towns; and, because villages and hamlets are referred to as "towns", then, many times, the error is compounded when actual towns are referred to as "townships".
Also, many colloquially refer to a "downtown business district" in a hamlet as a "village".
You can get a fact sheet for any city, village or hamlet on Long Island by going here American FactFinder and input the name of the city, village or hamlet for "city/town" (leave out the ZIP Code) and New York for "State", and then click "GO".
You'll get a lot of demographic, and some economic, statistics for the city, village or hamlet you selected, and if you click on "Reference map" (it's on the right hand side), you'll get a map.
When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP or Census Designated Place is the Census Bureau equivalent for a hamlet in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.)
And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.
If your looking for a house under $400K with an easy commute to the city, look into South Valley Stream. The schools are good and it's accessible to shopping and the parkways. Plus the taxes are generally lower than the rest of Nassau County.
Well the good news is you're already on LI. So that part you have.
Please tell me people only say this because of a technicality. My wife is from Bay Ridge and I grew up in Queens. There's absolutely no way we felt we were a part of LI.
Anyway, you want a house in the low 400s and an easy commute to Penn Station, try Hicksville (away from the train station). 5 minute drive to the station (still far enough away) and then 40mins straight west every morning, my wife has done it 7 years now.
If you are looking to move to a town permanently though, Hicksville schools are lacking (past elementary anyway)... we're planning on upgrading soon for that reason only. The town itself has been pretty good for us.
We would like to thank each and every one of you who took the time to reply back to our post. We will definitely consider all your inputs.
We hope to find the right place to purchase a home and live where we can stay put for very long time.
For us, an easy commute and safety are very important. We don't have kids but we are planning to have children in the near future so we are interested in places with good schools.
We were thinking of New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Mineola, Franklin Square, East Meadow and Levittown.
Based on our research we find NHP and GCP are very convenient because of their locations. That's why we have them on the top of our list.
We also like Levittown, the prices are really good there in comparaison to other areas in Nassau. However the commute maybe is much longer than NHP and GCP.
Again we appreciate all your inputs and thoughts to help us make a good decision.
My wife and I are interested in moving to LI. We currently live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and work in Manhattan and we make good income.
We are interested in moving to a nice town with easy commute to the city and the houses should be in our price range (max 450 K). Note that since we are first time home buyers, the lower the price the better for us. Ideally we would prefer a house in 300's.
We were thinking of New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Mineola, Franklin Square, East Meadow and Levittown.
We would like to know your thoughts and opinions regarding these towns. Note that easy commute and safety are important factor for us.
Also one more question, for our budge we wonder what is the average closing costs in the towns that we mentiooned above?
All your inputs are appreciated.
M & D
I see youve been priced out of Bay Ridge.
(Keep in mind taxes are the killer on LI...are you ready for around 10k in taxes?)
Given the towns you mentioned, Id prefer to stay there if I had the money.Bay Ridge is very nice.
Id add Babylon and Huntington to your list.
(Think mid 4s)
That's correct Crookhaven, we were priced out of Bay Ridge. Too expensive!!!
Huntington is a nice place but too far from Manhattan. Our commute will be difficult.
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Understanding the geography of "Lawn Guyland"
