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Since nobody has suggested any NJ towns, I would recommend Alpine. It's an extremely affluent town with absolutely stunning homes, a beatiful country club, an extremely short commute to NYC, etc. etc.
I just took a look at Alpine, NJ on RE/MAX to see what they had for sale and I must say that those are some of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen. However, they're not exactly what we're looking for.
In other news, my wife and I are headed to Tuxedo Park, NY on Tuesday to tour a few homes for sale there. We went through Rye today on the way to Scarsdale with my parents to look at some of the homes there and found they were not what we were looking for either. It seemed to me there were a whole lot of what people call "McMansions". Honestly, I found very few differences between Scarsdale and Darien. I should note that I'm not just looking for an improved commute anymore as my wife and I discussed the importance of environment for our children. We may be well off, but we aren't the type of people who are going to give our children BMWs with their liscences. That's one of the things I noticed in Scarsdale, which made the Mercedes dealership-parking lot joke make a lot of sense.
Yes, Darien and Tuxedo Park are about the same distance from NYC, however from what I've been read, the train from TP is about 20 minutes quicker at peak hours, and the ride from my house to the train currently is 20 minutes by itself, so I rarely ride the train and end up driving into NYC. If anyone knows anything about this particular commute, please share.
TP's other advantage is driving location. The short drive to the 17/287/Thruway interchange puts you in the catbird seat in terms of traffic. From that one spot you can choose to go in via 17 to 4, 17 to 80 to the Turnpike to one of the tunnels or you can opt to take the Thruway directly to the GWB or you can take the Palisades or you can go over the Tappan Zee down to the Saw Mill or Major Deegan. That one interchange gives you all those options and you can choose which one to take based upon your destination or traffic conditions. It's remarkably useful.
Good post JSN.
I have to wonder about the legitimacy of the original post, though. A high-flying wall-streeter considering houses in the $6million range and who is all about private education networking & 'who-you-know' is "begging" for anonymous people on a message board to help find the right neighborhood for him and his family? Something just seems fishy.
How did he segway into the Gay family topic?............LOL
Damn, you were right when you said you were picky. But honestly I do not know what to tell you.
You want to be around people who share your hobbies of golfing and boating. Obviously you realize that this a wealthy person pasttime. Wealthy people spoiling their children is not something new, and nor is region-specific.
Coming from Darien, I assumed you understood this. If you dont plan on spoiling your children, then hats off for you. I think you are doing them a favor.
But you must realize that if you plan on sending your kids to private school, or live in an affluent area (as you do now), you must definetly know this is something to be expected of the bourgeiosie.
Well, I think I was misunderstood when I mentioned private school. I wasn't implying private school as in Dalton or Fieldston. What I meant was Catholic school. However, now that that's cleared up, I found a private Catholic school in Ramsey, NJ. I'm not sure how this will fare on the New York forum, but if anyone knows anything about St. Paul Parochial in Ramsey, NJ, I would greatly appreciate info. We're visiting on Tuesday anyways so we'll find out then regardless.
Ah, I decided that since we're headed out there Tuesday I didn't want any previous bias on either side. I mean, sure after we check it out I'll probably ask for some personal opinions on the Jersey board but for now I think I'm all set. Good thinking though.
To make a long story short, we made an offer on a colonial in Tuxedo Park, NY today.
It's a gorgeous new 12000 sq/ft home with 4 neighboring houses who will have younger couples with children. Plus, the commute is under an hour. I guess looking for sub-40 minutes was really not going to happen with the other things we were looking for, but under an hour is close enough. The price was very good for what we got, and it appears and feels to be an excellent place to live and raise a family.
Thank you everyone for your help!
Matthew
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