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well, Ive pretty much fallen in love with upstate/northern new york the past few days... tons of snow, affordable and within commuting distance to work...
Where can I look to buy a house that sits on a few acres and is a little more woodsy? Ive noticed a lot of flatland- I would like to try and find something on the adirondacks a little more where I'd be able to look out my window and watch the snow fall against the trees and mountains/hills... Is lowville and boonville known for sitting on hills/mountains? Ive seen newer built homes on 5+ acres for under $150,000(crazy!!).... Trying to stay under 200,000 A few had woodsy backgrounds but in places farther north with less snowfall... hmmm where can I look?
Thanks for any help!
Last edited by njstinks0622; 03-11-2009 at 07:35 PM..
Reason: typo
The geography of Oswego County is partly flat, but is also partly on the Tug Hill Plateau. This is not actually a plateau, but sort of a giant slope that slopes upward to the east (away from Lake Ontario) and then suddenly drops off. Tug Hill is very wooded. It's a place where people have hunting camps and is a famous snowmobilers mecca. It is far less touristy than the Adirondacks.
In between Tug Hill and the Adirondacks lies the Black River valley which contains Lowville and Boonville. The Black River valley is open country with dairy farms. So you would see hills, but not be in them.
Here is a detailed description of Tug Hill and its relationship to the Black River and the Adirondack foothills.
The only real centers of population between Oswego and the Adirondacks would be the snowy towns clustered near I-81 (Parish, Pulaski, Redfield - and these are quite small towns/villages); then Lowville and Boonville; and then Old Forge, which is in the Adirondacks itself and is a lively tourist town (yet probably the property costs are higher). It is a very rural area. There is also a huge wind farm located near Lowville. Boonville is kind of a distant satellite of the city of Rome.
You might like communities like Adams, Sandy Creek/Lacona and Pulaski. Camden might be another community to consider. If you are willing to go further north, you might like something in Lewis County like Croghan, Beaver Falls or Harrisville.
Carthage/West Carthage and Copenhagen could be areas you would like too.
Lowville and Boonville are at least an hour away from the Syracuse area. In the winter that could jump to two hours in a lake effect snow storm. I'm not sure where your work is located, but Lowville is not within commuting distance to Syracuse, probably not even Utica either.
Keep two things in mind, if you live way away from the urban centers like Syracuse or Rochester: you won't be near much shopping and you might not be able to relate with your neighbors. On the other hand, you may love the country lifestyle. Or it could be just too much of a good thing and you'll find it too quiet and boring after a few months.
So just know that.... people, shopping, activities, restaurants, and even fast food in the rural areas in Upstate NY are not the same as outside Rochester or Syracuse. They are two different worlds IMO.
I could be wrong, but I just think if you live too far away from civilization you will not enjoy your Upstate NY experience as much as if you live within 20 minutes of a city like Syracuse or Rochester.
I'd plan a trip to Upstate NY soon and then you'll see for yourself the vast distances between rural areas like the Tug Hill and the Syracuse area. Then your family can decide which area you'd like to focus on.
Sorry for my poor grammar. I wrote this fast during the SU game. Good Luck!
awesome... you guys have been soo helpful so far. I hope I havent been too repetitive in my posts. But I have seen some nice property in pulaski and croghan.
My worry, like mentioned is the commute to syracuse. I work for an international shipping company and we have agents up there so that is where I would transfer too. Pulaski seems like it would be a good town being close to i-81. Just as long as I have some scenery out of my windows. I dont necessarily care about seeing mountains, just as long as there are some hills and its not flat land with no trees.
As far as being far from civilization goes, we have an apartment here in nj and stay in most of the time(especially with our $1700 a month rent!!!). We'd rather run our errands in the a.m. and cook all day and lounge; watch movies, drink a bottle of wine or 2, play with our 2 pups. Life is just so high-paced here and we like to spend as much time with eachother rather than being on the run all day. As far as neighbors go, I think our plan is to move somewhere where we can have peace and quiet but still have neighbors along the same road just spread out far apart.
Pulaski would be flat land with some trees. Certainly people do commute to Syracuse from there. Heck, I used to commute from Cortland to Baldwinsville.
Just west of the Black River valley is the scarp of the Tug Hill, its steeper eastern edge. My sister once lived about 3 miles westerly from the center of Lowville up on the scarp. On the clear day each year the views were tremendous.
Commuting was easy for her husband as he went down the hill to one of the factories on the edge of Lowville. She got into driving down to Utica area to go to school.
As far as getting to I-81 from Lowville - well, when she moved up there I wondered why the highway delineator posts on Rt 177 (6' high) each had a 6' further extension bolted on to them.
(Then when I moved to PA I wondered why the highways didn't have delineators. )
If you ever decide to look at towns closer to Syracuse, you might like the Town of Schroeppel. The zip code for the town is Phoenix. So (I believe) you'd be looking under "Phoenix" for homes online.
The town of Schroeppel is very woodsy. I know someone who lives there, so I've been there often. The nice part about Schroeppel is that you feel as though you are way out in the country in the middle of a forest, yet you actually only a 10 minute drive from large shopping malls on Route 31 in Clay.
Lowville and Boonville are at least an hour away from the Syracuse area. In the winter that could jump to two hours in a lake effect snow storm. I'm not sure where your work is located, but Lowville is not within commuting distance to Syracuse, probably not even Utica either.
Keep two things in mind, if you live way away from the urban centers like Syracuse or Rochester: you won't be near much shopping and you might not be able to relate with your neighbors. On the other hand, you may love the country lifestyle. Or it could be just too much of a good thing and you'll find it too quiet and boring after a few months.
So just know that.... people, shopping, activities, restaurants, and even fast food in the rural areas in Upstate NY are not the same as outside Rochester or Syracuse. They are two different worlds IMO.
I could be wrong, but I just think if you live too far away from civilization you will not enjoy your Upstate NY experience as much as if you live within 20 minutes of a city like Syracuse or Rochester.
I'd plan a trip to Upstate NY soon and then you'll see for yourself the vast distances between rural areas like the Tug Hill and the Syracuse area. Then your family can decide which area you'd like to focus on.
Sorry for my poor grammar. I wrote this fast during the SU game. Good Luck!
They could look to commute to Watertown, Utica, Rome, Carthage or some other community for work too.
awesome... you guys have been soo helpful so far. I hope I havent been too repetitive in my posts. But I have seen some nice property in pulaski and croghan.
My worry, like mentioned is the commute to syracuse. I work for an international shipping company and we have agents up there so that is where I would transfer too. Pulaski seems like it would be a good town being close to i-81. Just as long as I have some scenery out of my windows. I dont necessarily care about seeing mountains, just as long as there are some hills and its not flat land with no trees.
As far as being far from civilization goes, we have an apartment here in nj and stay in most of the time(especially with our $1700 a month rent!!!). We'd rather run our errands in the a.m. and cook all day and lounge; watch movies, drink a bottle of wine or 2, play with our 2 pups. Life is just so high-paced here and we like to spend as much time with eachother rather than being on the run all day. As far as neighbors go, I think our plan is to move somewhere where we can have peace and quiet but still have neighbors along the same road just spread out far apart.
If you want hills, the communities in the Southern Tier might be what you want. You might even like the Finger Lakes region, which is wine country too.
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Good Luck!
