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We are looking to purchase in the next year in Suffolk county NY. We need an affordable, family friendly, safe with great school district. Our budget is no more than 300k, I work in Nassau county and my husband works in Queens. I have been researching and found some locations that may fit our budget, Commack, Smithtown, Kings Park and Selden is what I'm interested so far. Our family is black, we are both well rounded and have no issues with any race however racing to black kids we wouldnt want to be in an area where our color is an issue or where our kids might be in danger not that this will be the case. We have heard that certain areas of Long Island is races, I dont know much about it so I figure those that lives there might know.
Your honest opinion would be greatly appreciated. Our family expanded in the last couple of years and we want to take advantage of housing market while it is low. We are looking to purchase preferably 3 bed room two baths however we are willing to settle for 2 bed room should there be finish basement or den if this would put us in a great location where resale value will be great and good school district, as we can always expand the home later.
Kings Park -- I've spent some time in the area and noticed that there are some African Americans in the area, but not many.
Smithtown is known for being very white.
Schools in both are good.
Selden will offer more in the way of diversity, but not in potential resale. Also the school district is not as well regarded as KP and Smithtown.
I am in the Three Village school district. (Setauket/Stony Brook) I did an mlsli.com search using school district and found a few houses in the area under $300 -- BUT -- it looks like they are either major fixer-uppers, on busy roads or bank owned.
Why not just stay in Nassau. There are plenty of homes in Roosevelt and Hempstead that will fit your budget and you wouldn't have to worry about your kids feeling out of place. You might want to put your kids in private school though.
Sound Beach and Rocky Point are quaint and very affordable. Parts of Sound Beach are districted for the Miller Place School District, other parts for Rocky Point. I know Sound Beach has many houses in the 300K range. Good Luck.
Veve0308, 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.
Thanks so much for all your honest input and help. I think someone said Hempstead or Roosevelt, from my research those two locations are not very safe and the schools are not good. If I'm going to pay about a thousand dollars a month in taxes I cannot afford private school. My husband is in Law enforcement so he needs to be in a safe place where criminals cannot recognize him. So far it looks like Kings Park, Smithtown and Commack are in top running. I dont mine a foreclose property that might actually work for us. We have to keep our budget low as we currently own two family home in Brooklyn that we will rent out but we want to make sure we can carry both mortgage should there be a tenant problem. Homes in Nassau seems to be expensive and the areas that are affordable the schools are horrible. We have two kids the same age and I'm willing to pay 1g a month for taxes if the schools are great which would relieve us from having to pay for private school.
Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Understanding the geography of "Lawn Guyland"
