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We currently live in Queens near Nassau County and work on L.I. and are considering a move north to lower Dutchess. We are also considering a move east to Suffolk (Commack, E. Northport, possibly Huntington area) but it appears that there's no area with taxes lower than 10k/yr, which seems insane. I have a consulting business with clients in Suffolk, Queens, and NYC, but I do a lot of work remotely and commute approx 25% per year. The rest of the time, I'd be working from a home office. Still not totally sure it makes sense to move North being the commute might be killer, but I'm pretty sick of L.I. -- the congestion has gotten worse in the last several years, the attitude, the outrageous prices of everything...
We're a mixed couple (caucasion jewish & indian) with a newborn child and so I was wondering about the best areas for us. Based on the forums on this site, it looks like East Fishkill, Wappingers Falls, or Poughkeepsie (in the spackenkill school district) might be the best locations. Is this assessment correct? Whats the range of property taxes in these areas? We're somewhat concerned about how we might be received by the community. In general, we don't want to be somewhere that people stare when we go out to run errands or whatever. Silly as it sounds, it happens.
Being mostly from L.I., we're used to a lot of shopping being 15 min away. What stores are on Rt 9? For the most part, we go to Walmart, Target, Staples, Costco, and BJ's. Is there a Super Walmart around?
I was also wondering if anyone has any idea about a comparison for the cost of living difference from L.I. -- she'd have to take a substantial pay cut to relocate. Is it possible to live on one income up there? (obviously factors like expenses and spending influence this, but i'm curious if people can do it and how much it might require for folks relatively conservative with finances and two kids to make this happen -- there is absolutely no way we could do this on L.I.)
I haven't lived in Dutchess County in 5 years, but I miss it terribly. The people that bought my house were from Long Island and to the best of my knowledge, still own it.
Spackenkill and Arlington are the top schools. You will be happy in either one. Poughkeepsie is broken up into the Town and City. The Town of Poughkeepsie is both Arlington AND Spackenkill schools, so you have to know which is which. It's best to contact a realtor when the time is right, but like I said, both are great...just stay out of the City of Pok schools!
You would be 1 1/2 hrs from the city, 1 1/2 hrs south of Albany, the best of both worlds. You can shop all kinds of places! You can do a search, but I remember there being a BJ's in Albany. There was a Walmart in Fishkill, but there could be more by now!
There's Dutchess Community College, Vassar College, Marist and the Culinary Institute of America all at your fingertips, if you wanted to continue any education, or for your children as well.
Taxes are relatively high, but lower than Suffolk county. Expect the school taxes to rise yearly as the budgets are almost always passed, thankfully so. Arlington offers a well rounded education including sports and music, and spend quite a bit on each student (unlike where I live now )
Overall, I think you'll be significantly happier in Dutchess than where you are now. You can always jump on the train and visit the city when you have the craving for some ethnic culture (we loved Chinatown!).
I was aware of Arlington but, from what I can tell, taxes are comparable to L.I. so I'm not sure it would make sense to move somewhere that we'd have less income but would have comparable taxes. Any idea about cost of living differences?
We wouldn't want to drive 1 1/2 hrs to get to a big box store. I don't mind 1/2 hour (more or less) either direction but that seems pretty far.
Noo, you wouldn't have to drive that far to a big box store. They have PLENTY of shopping on Rte 9. I was just showing you that you could be smack in the middle between 2 large metro areas and have even more shopping availabilities to you
LI taxes are much higher than Arlington taxes, I assure you this. There wouldn't be such an outpouring from that area to this one if it weren't the case. Since you work primarily from a home office, I wouldn't worry about the income difference, since it would be negligable.
I noticed you were worried about the mixed race. Don't be. With the shift in migration from the city people, many nationalities were brought north along with them. I honestly never noticed a race issue growing up there, spending 35 years of my life there, and I've only been gone 5 years.
Other areas you may consider is Hyde Park, Staatsburgh, Red Hook, Millbrook, and Rhinebeck. Red Hook and Rhinebeck are small, quaint towns filled with a lot of small shops. You'd have to travel to the Poughkeepsie area to shop in the large box stores, but that's only 20ish minutes away. On the bright side, it's more woodsy.
Hyde Park is a nice town, but in the past has had issues getting their school budgets passed and this always kept me from living there. Staatsburgh is really cute. More rural, very close to Hyde Park, and I believe they go to their schools. My grandmother had her "summer" house there (she lived in the Bronx most of her life). Again, no real stores, just a quaint village.
Millbrook is vast beautiful horse land, filled with nice homes, a nice village, and a good school district. They also have a private school there, I believe. Many famous people have secluded homes throughout the area.
You have to go with what your pocketbook can afford. Just realize that you will be trading away terrible congestion and high taxes, for slightly lower taxes, a better way of life, smog free living, farm stands all around you, smaller classes for your kids (usually!)...but they still get snow. Lots of it
Thanks again for the response. The information you provided certainly helps give me an idea of the areas.
The income difference would be significant since my wife's pay would likely decrease by at least 50% and maybe more if she's not f/t, so our household income would probably decrease between 25-35%. That's why I asked about the cost of living difference. It might be 6-in-1, 1/2 dozen the other as far as income since living on L.I. is already so expensive.
Out of curiosity, if you like the area so much, what made you move?
I was going thru a divorce and my parents had moved to Myrtle Beach. The kids wanted to be closer to them, so we followed them down. That, along with a head injury I sustained by slipping on ice, the winters were very uncomfortable/painful for me. There's lots I miss about the North, most obviously my friends, the better schools, and far more things to do.
I do NOT miss the winters or the taxes. But honestly, we only paid $3500 in school and land taxes. I didn't find that too miserable considering what we got in return (awesome schools).
What kind of business do you run and how are you taxed, do you pay city income tax? Do you reside in a home, new york city taxes are much lower than the suburbs on 1-3 family homes and to an extent 4-10 unit homes which can include a commercial unit depending on location and taxation history of the area/home.
Why don't you shop in queens instead of LI, a lot of people have moved out to the suburbs but the taxes are high and come back to bite them, please post more information, are you looking to buy a home, if so in what price range or size, the bigger and larger the more likely tax can hit you, you can find more information about taxation on the internet, try to find the effective tax rate on residential property when searching for tax rates, have you considered new jersey, its high tax too, but it may have advantages over the Hudson valley depending on your commute/business.
To the OP....as someone who has lived in both (Fishkill and Hopewell in Dutchess...and now Sound Beach in Suffolk)...I'd take LI in a heartbeat. If you are willing to look a little further east in Suffolk...our taxes are $5800 with STAR for a 15 year old, 1800 sq ft Cape about 1000ft from LI Sound. Its a friendly town with low crime/traffic. It's about 10 min from Riverhead. The roads are hilly and windy and it even looks a little like Duchess with farm stands all over the place.
It is NOT like Nassau out here.
Rt. 347 through Smithtown is a lot like Rt. 9 from Fishkill to Poughkeepsie if you like to sit in traffic :-)
You may save a little in taxes in Dutchess...but the days of the big tax breaks are over.
pburgess68: I did some more research and everything we need is up there.
tech2enable: We don't want to live in queens due to the schools and congestion. My business is in Nassau, and I don't need a storefront. Queens and Nassau aren't really options if we want a decent sized house, that's not a cape or a ranch, and on a decent plot of land (1/2 - 1 acre or so) without outrageous taxes and in a good school system.
tberg224: I'm not sure but will find out when we head up to look around. From what I can tell, everything we need (stores restaurants etc) is on Rt 9 between fishkill and poughkeepsie.
alexei27: how long did you live in Dutchess and how long in Suffolk? If we end up east, we'd probably settle in Commack or that vicinity since it would be far enough that getting to clients in Queens would be an hour (vs. maybe 1 1/2 hours from up north?) - When you came down to L.I., do you recall how long it took? From what I can tell, we would save a lot vs. the areas we would settle if we stayed on LI. Our kid wouldnt be in school for 4 or 5 years, so thats has to be factored in (overall cost to live there would probably be less).. Are the winters there brutal? being south of albany, I would think they'd be similar to LI but maybe colder + - 10 degrees.
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