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We are an Asian family of four with two young kids (3 1/2 and 18 months) looking to settle down in a nice suburban town in Nassau county. After searching for a home in Bayside closed to my inlaws place for a couple months we quickly realize that the buying a house there is simply not practical and doesn't fit the bills. We have since moved on and been actively looking for homes in NHP (both in Great Neck South, and Herricks School) district, Willinston Park, Manhasst, Jericho, Westbury. The ones in NHP great Neck south was our first prority because of the Good school district and the closer proximity to Queens however the houses have not been impressive for the $$. We have looked at Herricks school in the towns I've mentioned above but we couldn't find something that we like either the house is too dated, small or the prices are a bit too high. Manhasst is perfect with great schools and a perfect commute but prices are just way over budge (unless we just something next to the RR tracks or one of those really dated homes) and both Jericho and Westury seem a bit too far out. We understand that the further you move out you get a bigger lot (also with higher taxes).
Our budget is in the high $500's to $600. After weeks of a open houses mostly in NHP and Williston park, we have started looking at other towns. We saw a beautiful split level in West Hempstead (in Franklin Square SD) in a very manicured block we just fell in love with it asking for $599 (so within our price range); houses were great kept shape you really don't have to do anything to it. We also looked at GC as well but prices are a bit over our budget. We don't want to get too carried away with our emotions. I haven't read Great things about WHempstead in general. How's that commute to Penn Station (since I worked in the city) from that area? We had our eyes set for GNS or Herricks school district? How about Franklin Square? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are also open to other options....Thanks
We are an Asian family of four with two young kids (3 1/2 and 18 months) looking to settle down in a nice suburban town in Nassau county. After searching for a home in Bayside closed to my inlaws place for a couple months we quickly realize that the buying a house there is simply not practical and doesn't fit the bills. We have since moved on and been actively looking for homes in NHP (both in Great Neck South, and Herricks School) district, Willinston Park, Manhasst, Jericho, Westbury. The ones in NHP great Neck south was our first prority because of the Good school district and the closer proximity to Queens however the houses have not been impressive for the $$. We have looked at Herricks school in the towns I've mentioned above but we couldn't find something that we like either the house is too dated, small or the prices are a bit too high. Manhasst is perfect with great schools and a perfect commute but prices are just way over budge (unless we just something next to the RR tracks or one of those really dated homes) and both Jericho and Westury seem a bit too far out. We understand that the further you move out you get a bigger lot (also with higher taxes).
Our budget is in the high $500's to $600. After weeks of a open houses mostly in NHP and Williston park, we have started looking at other towns. We saw a beautiful split level in West Hempstead (in Franklin Square SD) in a very manicured block we just fell in love with it asking for $599 (so within our price range); houses were great kept shape you really don't have to do anything to it. We also looked at GC as well but prices are a bit over our budget. We don't want to get too carried away with our emotions. I haven't read Great things about WHempstead in general. How's that commute to Penn Station (since I worked in the city) from that area? We had our eyes set for GNS or Herricks school district? How about Franklin Square? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are also open to other options....Thanks
Westbury and West Hempstead can be iffy...some places are nice, some are real dumpy. Make sure you check it out really good and get a feel for the niehgbourhood. Jericho and Westbury are not that far from Bayside at all. Maybe 30 mins, probably less.
Franklin Square is decent. Do you go to the city alot? They don't have their own train station. My friend used to live in FS and he always went to the New Hyde Park station...and parking there, btw, isn't great.
Are you not interested in South Shore? Could be worth checking out. There are some beautiful areas in South Merrick that are comparable to places like Manhasset and Jericho.
dnc92301, 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.
The "New Hyde Park, NY 11040" ZIP Code postal zone is much larger than the Village of New Hyde Park; and, thus, the majority of places that have a "New Hyde Park, NY 11040" mailing address (3,339 acres) are not in the Village of New Hyde Park (531 acres).
Places that have a "New Hyde Park, NY 11040" mailing address that are not in the Village of New Hyde Park are in the Village of Lake Success, the Hamlet of Manhasset, the Village of North Hills, the Hamlet of Manhasset Hills, the Hamlet of North New Hyde Park, the Hamlet of Herricks and the Hamlet of Garden City Park.
the whole school thing is a bit over-rated, if you are the kinds of parents who spend time with your children, and send them to prep classes like all those parents in Great Neck/Manhasset/Jericho SD's do, then your children will do fine even in a mediocre SD like Franklin Square, but you do have to consider resale value, and SD reputation and ease of commute(to the city) are big factors
I was in your shoes about 6 month back. Our budget was exactly what you described. Upper 500s to low 600s. After going all over the metro area for about a year, my wife I agreed that we wanted to close to her parents who live in Bayside... After checking out a few places in bayside and nearby neighborhoods, we realize it wasn't really for us. My wife wanted something more "pretty". That was when we narrowed it down that we wanted to be close to the Port Washington LIRR line for commuting purposes about 6 months ago.
We must have went through at least 50 open houses split between my wife, my in-laws helping with open houses, and me. We looked mainly in Great Neck, Manhasset, and Port Washington. From my experience, the real deals were either Manhasset or Port Washington. Manhasset homes needed work in our price range, but we felt very optimistic that those homes had the biggest potential from an investment perspective. Great Neck didn't have the same allure as Manhasset, but what was worse was that the homes we saw needed even more work. Their taxes were a bit lower though, with better schools.
Needless to say, we ended up in Port Washington. Port Washington had the full gamat of houses that needed alot of work, some work, to barely no work at all all within our budget. They also had more of those "pretty" homes within our budget for the size. Out of about 25 Port Washington homes, I would say only 2 were at the standards we would say were move in condition. I think we have very high standards when it comes to renovation work since we watch too much TV. The cons were that it was further out, with not as great schools as Manhasset and Great Neck, and wasn't as posh as Manhasset and Great neck (some people think its a con). We did feel that Port Washington was a more put together town with it's appealing main st, pockets of neighborhoods, and felt more like NYC then Great Neck and Manhasset when it comes to demographics and shops. Taxes were a bit higher then Great Neck. No clue why.
I have to admit, the entire experience felt like finding a sterling silver ring in the rough. We quickly learned, there are no diamonds out there.... or else it would have been priced double if not more. We checked out a bunch of $1mil+ homes to understand what one looks like on the same street as to a home we were interested in. There is a significant difference.
Thanks very much for everyone's input and we have taken every comment into consideration. We saw a couple of really nice houses in Prime Salisbury Estates and well within our price range from $500-$600K with taxes in the $11K range. Though I really love the Westbury/Salisbury area since it's central located and closed to many shopping areas; commute vice is not bad at all according to a colleague of mine. I am still uncertain about the East Meadow School district. We were very close in giving out an offer this week but decided not to last minute. Since we opted to move to central LI we should look a little bit further out in Syosset. Syosset has a top-notch school that's a known fact. We saw houses, smaller and not as impressive in similar property tax bracket in MLS...I think it really comes down to either you want a good school district or better house. We understand there's no diamond out there we should have to choose one over the other....Syosset is the only town we have yet to checkout any houses in person ....so this weekends we will be seeing some houses in that area hopefully in less than a month we could come up a firm decision......Thanks everyone!!
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Understanding the geography of "Lawn Guyland"
