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After 11 years in London, I have accepted a job in downtown NYC by the World Trade Center. As I am not the footloose and fancy free guy I was when I left (a wife and two young daughters (4 and 2) are part of the package), I am looking for a community to settle in that is family friendly. Our wishlist is:
Excellent public school system
Nice 3/4 bedroom house for about $600K
Good Anglican or Catholic Church
Safe
Not too overcrowded. The kind of place where the kids can bicycle to the park when they get a bit older.
As my wife is Australian, she'd like to be close to the beach, but this would be a bonus. If you know of a good place that is not near the beach, please don't hesitate to suggest.
At this point I am considering Westchester (though not sure I can afford it), Long Island (though I am thinking it might be too built up), and New Jersey. Connecticut appeals, but I am thinking the commute to downtown NYC might be too long.
For the right place, I may consider commuting an hour and 20 minutes or so.
I start my new job in February and the family and I are moving over in April. Suggestions very welcomed.
If you're willing to commute 80 minutes, you could live some very nice places for $600k on Long Island that are not very "built up" at all. The beaches are fantastic, it's one of the safest regions in the USA and it's overwhelmingly Catholic.
If I had your budget I would be in Babylon, south of Montauk Highway. Only 60 minutes to Penn too!
There are great towns in Westchester & NJ, but I'm not as familiar with them. I don't think you'll be disappointed with LI, though.
Sean, thanks for taking the time to give me some input. I will certainly look into Babylon. What is it about Babylon that has inspired to recommend this town, as compared to the other "very nice places"? And if you don't mind me asking, what are some of the other places. I am heading over to America in the next couple of weeks to scout out some locations and want to be thorough in my research before I head over.
Sean, thanks for taking the time to give me some input. I will certainly look into Babylon. What is it about Babylon that has inspired to recommend this town, as compared to the other "very nice places"? And if you don't mind me asking, what are some of the other places. I am heading over to America in the next couple of weeks to scout out some locations and want to be thorough in my research before I head over.
Cheers
Babylon has everything that is great about the south shore of LI all compacted into a nice, small area.....and if you're commuting to NYC, it's got the best LIRR service anywhere in Suffolk. Frequent trains, guaranteed seat in the morning and non-stop express to Penn clocks in anywhere from 50-60 minutes. The downtown area is very active, plenty of stuff to do....plenty of bars and restaurants - and GOOD ones, not chintzy dives and diners (although you can find those too, if that's your thing). Tons of parks, nice quiet suburban neighborhoods with a little Victorian flair. Great access to the bay, boating, fishing, etc.....and you can hop on Robert Moses Causeway and be at some of the best beaches on the East Coast in 5 minutes. The schools are excellent and the community is tight. IMO, it's one of the top 5 places to live on LI.
Other places along the LIRR's Babylon Branch are similar, but they don't all have the complete package. In Nassau, anything east of the Meadowbrook Parkway might work although most places are fairly dense....and a lot of the neighborhoods near the bay are downright ugly, albeit expensive. Wantagh, although it is a big party town near the LIRR station, is pretty laid back and quiet in most neighborhoods. In Suffolk, you would definitely wanna skip Amityville & Copiauge (Amityville is a beautiful village but the schools are awful. Copiauge schools are a little better but the area is kinda "meh", even by the water). Lindenhurst is good, but more like Nassau....very dense and very middle class, really great community though. West Babylon is a worse version of Lindenhurst in every way.
East of Babylon the train tracks are not electrified and commuting will almost always require a transfer at either Babylon or Jamaica. You can still do the trip to Penn in under 80 minutes - but that's just time on the LIRR, you gotta factor in driving to the station, then walking to the subway, taking the train downtown, etc....it'll end up being well over your time limit. The few closest towns are still probably reasonable, but I've never taken the train from any of them so I can't really say what it's like. Directly east of Babylon is West Islip, which is "nice" but personally way too stuffy and xenophobic for my tastes. West Bay Shore & Brightwaters which are very wealthy areas I don't know too much about....Bay Shore, which is similar to Babylon except the schools aren't that great, and North Bay Shore is a pretty rough area.
Islip, East Islip, Great River, Oakdale or Sayville (the next 5 east of Bay Shore) would likely be perfect for you.....but the commute would really be pushing it. Those places are all extremely nice and reasonably priced, however. You can check the train schedules here and see if maybe there is something that works for you. There are diesel/electric hybrids that run direct into NYC, but usually only 1 or 2 a day....and they also break down a lot.
Then you've got the north shore which is an entirely different animal. Instead of having the big expansive bay and the ocean beaches nearby, it's very hilly with a rocky shoreline and secluded neighborhoods. Tons of money, especially in Nassau (which is known as the Gold Coast) but there are a handful of affordable places. In Nassau I really like Port Washington and Roslyn, though you'd have to check whats available in your price range. Port Washington has very fast trains into Manhattan....about 40-45 minutes. The harbor there is beautiful, on both sides. Other places in Nassau (Glen Cove, Sea Cliff, Oyster Bay, etc.) have crummy train service so I wouldn't even bother with them....
Out in Suffolk, Huntington is Babylon's north shore equivalent.....another great town, in fact a little nicer even - only drawback is that the schools aren't quite as good. Trains still do an hour to Penn. If you go a little east of Huntington, into the Harborfields school district (I think the areas this covers are Greenlawn, Elwood & Centerport but don't quote me on that) you can still have a reasonable commute, an excellent school district and an almost rural living experience. The furthest east I'd go on the north shore is Northport, which is another great village....like a mini-Huntington.
One last thing - if you're gonna be working in the Financial District it might make more sense to take the LIRR to it's Brooklyn Flatbush Avenue terminus and hop on a subway there. Ask around or play with the "public transit" feature on Google Maps.
I'm sure you're very confused right now because I'm throwing a whole lot of nonsense at you that you probably don't understand yet, but when you come over here and look around it'll make sense!! I promise!! Good luck, and if you've got any more questions let me know I'd be happy to answer whatever I can.
EDIT: Here's the main real estate website for Long Island - www.mlsli.com - so you can see what $600k will buy you in each town.
Last edited by sean sean sean sean; 01-10-2010 at 05:40 PM..
Reason: Added link
I am blown away by the thorough, objective, and really useful information you have provided for me. I can't imagine how long that message must have taken to put together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Strangely enough, Port Washington has come pretty highly recommended to us, so I was happy to see that you rate it pretty highly.
I am sure I will have some more questions as I start researching your comments.
Again, thanks, and I will touch base with you in the near future.
I love Babylon and agree with everything Sean said. I would also suggest Merrick to you. It's on the Babylon line as far as LIRR goes, but it's a shorter commute to the city. Merrick is about 15 minutes away from Jones Beach and the Lido Blvd beaches...and maybe about 20-25 minutes to Long Beach.
Merrick is a very nice, quaint town. Good shopping and restaurants and a lot of the houses in the "gables area" have a nice old, sorta colonial feel to them.
Schools are great. For junior high/high school, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School district is one of the best on LI.
As far as parks, my favourite is the Merrick Preserve. They have a hiking trail, that if you go up to the top, it's high and you can see the whole island, as well as the Manhattan Skyline.
He sure did do a comprehensive overview of LI. LI might be a great place to live with a few exceptions, some of the highest property taxes in the US, highways that are impossible at almost all times and trains that to NYC that frequently have problems. A one hour commute under ideal circumstances seems to be 2 hours on average. Kudos to Sean for taking so much time to respond to your questions. He went above and beyond.
Last edited by Viralmd; 01-11-2010 at 12:21 PM..
Reason: NO signatures.
He sure did do a comprehensive overview of LI. LI might be a great place to live with a few exceptions, some of the highest property taxes in the US, highways that are impossible at almost all times and trains that to NYC that frequently have problems. A one hour commute under ideal circumstances seems to be 2 hours on average. Kudos to Sean for taking so much time to respond to your questions. He went above and beyond.
Impossible highways? Care to elaborate? B/c I have lived on LI for 28 years and I don't find any of the highways to be "impossible." Yeah, we get traffic sometimes, but who doesn't?
Last edited by Viralmd; 01-11-2010 at 12:21 PM..
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