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My husband and I will be moving to the Syracuse area in August, and I am in need of advice as to where to purchase a home. Our children are all off to college so there is no need to move to the suburbs for that suburban lifestyle, although we want a decent school district for resale value. We are hoping to live in an area that is close to activities, local shopping, churches, library, and, most importantly, green spaces to walk. Also, we do NOT want acreage, but need a yard large enough for our dog and my occasional desire to garden. I have read other posts and have seen a number of neighborhoods mentioned as desirable, such as, Sedgwick Farms, Strathmore, Lincoln Hill, Tipperery Hill, Berkeley Park, and Scottholm. I have also heard positive comments on Onondaga Hill. Our price range is up to about $450,000 - give or take.
So, in your opinion, if you had that amount of money to spend on a home and wanted a quaint, walkable, safe, pretty neighborhood to live in with charming old homes, where would it be?
Second question - what restaurant is your first pick for dining out?
Last edited by trishaelaine; 07-04-2009 at 04:28 PM..
Reason: additional information
Eventhough it is in a suburban school district, you might like the villages of Fayetteville or Manlius in th every good Fayetteville-Manlius school district. Both seem to fit what you are looking for. Liverpool and Baldwinsville are two villages that would fit as well.
If you want the city of Syracuse, look at Eastwood, the Scottholm development in the Meadowbrook neighborhood due to it's proximity to the Westcott business district, the Berekley Park development in the University neighborhood for the same reason as Scottholm and is close to the Marshall Street area as well, Tipperary Hill and Westcott. There might be a few others, but I would say that those areas fit the best in comparison to others. Westcott's Business District has a library, good restaurants, a couple of clothing stores, a couple of churches, a couple of parks nearby, a couple of bars, a smaller concert venue that used to be a cinema and more. Eastwood is similar in that respect, but is a bigger neighborhood and the business district is one in transition in terms of renovations and new businesses.
I grew up in Onondaga Hill and it fits with the exception that it is not that walkable and the shopping there is very limited.
If you want to go further out from Syracuse, Skaneateles and Cazenovia would be good choices to consider. Chittenango is a sleeper, in my opinion, to consider as well. Cazenovia and Chittenango are in Madison County, by the way. Marcellus might be worth a look too.
If I were you, i'd definitely check out the whole Berkeley Park/University/Westcott/Scottholm area.
Beautiful old homes, either pre WWII or drop dead gorgeous midcentury modern, totally walkable, connected by sidewalks, and a pretty educated and diverse populace, IMHO. You'll be near SU, the whole hospital megalopolis on the SU hill (Crouse Hospital, Univerity Hospital, SUNY upstate medical university, and many others), the Marshall street and Westcott street business districts.
a sort of breakdown of the four areas above:
Berkeley Park- hilly, immediately adjacent to SU. lovely, larger old homes, probably about $200K+, chock full of academic types.
University- the areas in between the other three neighborhoods, some hills, some flatter. the blocks right off euclid avenue between comstock and lancaster are mostly student rentals, the notable exceptions being sumner and ackerman avenues north of euclid; these are mostly owner-occupied, in fact, a number of SU professors live up there. the remaining areas are mostly middle-sized homes, both single family and duplexes; very family friendly, full of kids. these are mostly all classic 1920's homes, think hardwood floors, fireplaces, and front porches. two areas here that are particularly charming are maryland avenue south of euclid, as well as a triangle formed by buckingham ave, kensington road, and kensington place. overall, houses here are in the $120-180K range.... also, the home to syracuse's best little grocery store, the Syracuse Real Food Co-op... i was just there this afternoon.
Westcott- occasionally known as the "westcott nation", westcott is like a little chunk of berkeley, ca transplanted to upstate ny. a mix of longtime residents, students, and more recently transplanted families, westcott probably has the best "community feel" of any syracuse neighborhood. Centered around a 3-4 block commercial strip (on westcott street) which has restaurants, coffee shops, vintage clothing stores, bookstores and convenience stores as well as a credit union and a fantastic old theater converted into a concert venue, the walkability of this neighborhood is A+! the architecture here is more eclectic than most neighborhoods in syracuse; a mix of victorians, arts and crafts, colonial revivals, some homes with spanish mission influence, and others which defy categorization other than to say that they are historic and funky (in a good way). prices here really run the gamut... $80-300K....and while that seems a bit odd, it has less to do with house quality, and is rather due to the fact that both 4,000 sf and 1,500 sf houses peacefully coexist blocks from each other. particularly beautiful blocks would include clarke street, concord place, victoria place, and allen street between clarke and east genesee. also, every fall, the neighborhood is host to the westcott street cultural fair; the street is closed, and there are performers, food vendors, artists, etc....there is also a small library here, the petit library, which has an annual booksale during the street fair.
Scottholm- a bit less walkable than the other areas, but a bit more "upscale". larger houses, which are correspondingly more expensive, say $200-400K. some of the east side's most beautiful houses sit up in these hills; i'd say the houses here were built in the 1920's on forth. If you're more interested in having the ability to walk 15 minutes to dinner or coffee occasionally rather than walk everywhere on a daily basis, and are interested in having a large, old home, this might be your best bet. It still has sidewalks throughout, so you can go for a post dinner stroll or walk the dog and see some beautiful architecture, but is a bit more removed than the aforementioned three neighborhoods from walking to daily activities, unless you don't mind a bit of a walk...i know i don't, it keeps me in shape!
Anyways, in full disclosure, i'm probably wicked biased as i live on the fringe of the westcott neighborhood, and absolutely love it!
side note- crime: don't worry about it, these areas are all rather safe (crime rates below the nat'l average) and i'd say that the schools in this part of town are some of the best in the city limits... again, imho.
well, best of luck with your search, and welcome to syracuse!
Thank you very much for the information. It is most helpful. Also, thanks for welcoming me to Syracuse. I am overjoyed to escape the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex where I have been captive for the last few years.
Last edited by trishaelaine; 07-04-2009 at 07:09 PM..
If I were you, i'd definitely check out the whole Berkeley Park/University/Westcott/Scottholm area.
Beautiful old homes, either pre WWII or drop dead gorgeous midcentury modern, totally walkable, connected by sidewalks, and a pretty educated and diverse populace, IMHO. You'll be near SU, the whole hospital megalopolis on the SU hill (Crouse Hospital, Univerity Hospital, SUNY upstate medical university, and many others), the Marshall street and Westcott street business districts.
a sort of breakdown of the four areas above:
Berkeley Park- hilly, immediately adjacent to SU. lovely, larger old homes, probably about $200K+, chock full of academic types.
University- the areas in between the other three neighborhoods, some hills, some flatter. the blocks right off euclid avenue between comstock and lancaster are mostly student rentals, the notable exceptions being sumner and ackerman avenues north of euclid; these are mostly owner-occupied, in fact, a number of SU professors live up there. the remaining areas are mostly middle-sized homes, both single family and duplexes; very family friendly, full of kids. these are mostly all classic 1920's homes, think hardwood floors, fireplaces, and front porches. two areas here that are particularly charming are maryland avenue south of euclid, as well as a triangle formed by buckingham ave, kensington road, and kensington place. overall, houses here are in the $120-180K range.... also, the home to syracuse's best little grocery store, the Syracuse Real Food Co-op... i was just there this afternoon.
Westcott- occasionally known as the "westcott nation", westcott is like a little chunk of berkeley, ca transplanted to upstate ny. a mix of longtime residents, students, and more recently transplanted families, westcott probably has the best "community feel" of any syracuse neighborhood. Centered around a 3-4 block commercial strip (on westcott street) which has restaurants, coffee shops, vintage clothing stores, bookstores and convenience stores as well as a credit union and a fantastic old theater converted into a concert venue, the walkability of this neighborhood is A+! the architecture here is more eclectic than most neighborhoods in syracuse; a mix of victorians, arts and crafts, colonial revivals, some homes with spanish mission influence, and others which defy categorization other than to say that they are historic and funky (in a good way). prices here really run the gamut... $80-300K....and while that seems a bit odd, it has less to do with house quality, and is rather due to the fact that both 4,000 sf and 1,500 sf houses peacefully coexist blocks from each other. particularly beautiful blocks would include clarke street, concord place, victoria place, and allen street between clarke and east genesee. also, every fall, the neighborhood is host to the westcott street cultural fair; the street is closed, and there are performers, food vendors, artists, etc....there is also a small library here, the petit library, which has an annual booksale during the street fair.
Scottholm- a bit less walkable than the other areas, but a bit more "upscale". larger houses, which are correspondingly more expensive, say $200-400K. some of the east side's most beautiful houses sit up in these hills; i'd say the houses here were built in the 1920's on forth. If you're more interested in having the ability to walk 15 minutes to dinner or coffee occasionally rather than walk everywhere on a daily basis, and are interested in having a large, old home, this might be your best bet. It still has sidewalks throughout, so you can go for a post dinner stroll or walk the dog and see some beautiful architecture, but is a bit more removed than the aforementioned three neighborhoods from walking to daily activities, unless you don't mind a bit of a walk...i know i don't, it keeps me in shape!
Anyways, in full disclosure, i'm probably wicked biased as i live on the fringe of the westcott neighborhood, and absolutely love it!
side note- crime: don't worry about it, these areas are all rather safe (crime rates below the nat'l average) and i'd say that the schools in this part of town are some of the best in the city limits... again, imho.
well, best of luck with your search, and welcome to syracuse!
Cheers!
Completely agree....Very nice part of the city of Syracuse, if not the best. That goes on further East to the Syracuse/DeWitt border too. If you go by the Syracuse neighborhood map, it would be general neighborhoods of Meadowbrook, Westcott, University and you could include most of Outer Comstock and most of Salt Springs too. //www.city-data.com/forum/syrac...hborhoods.html
Follow-up question: I noticed that Sedgwick was not mentioned as an area fitting my qualifications. Could someone please give me an opinion on that neighborhood?
Follow-up question: I noticed that Sedgwick was not mentioned as an area fitting my qualifications. Could someone please give me an opinion on that neighborhood?
Thanks
Very nice neighborhood that might be the most expensive in the city of Syracuse. Great older homes there as well. There isn't much in the way of shopping or the other things you noted like a library. There are a couple of churches in the area and there are some businesses around the intersection of Oak and Park. Schiller Park isn't too far either. So, it has some of the things you want, but not all of them. There is Shop City Plaza and some businesses on Grant Boulevard that aren't that far at all by car though.
Another neighborhood that you might like is Strathmore, which is in the far Southwestern corner of the city. It is another "old money" type of neighborhood. Again, you might have to take a short drive to say Western Lights or Fairmount for shopping and the closest library would be on Onondaga Hill, which isn't too far. There is Onondaga Park and some churches nearby though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathmore,_Syracuse
Follow-up question: I noticed that Sedgwick was not mentioned as an area fitting my qualifications. Could someone please give me an opinion on that neighborhood?
Thanks
For lack of a better way to say it, I don't [personally] think homes in Sedgewick or Strathmore tend to be *as good* a value as [equal or better] homes in other areas. There's no convenient way, to either Strathmore or Sedgewick - but especially Sedgewick - that I would not be embarrassed by... you have to go through some pretty ugly or almost-ugly areas to get to these neighborhoods. I've always gotten the impression that people who live there are trying to force those areas to be better... but it's definitely forced. There are few amenities, exclusive to either Sedgewick or Strathmore, that you couldn't get in a nicer area... and there are better amenities in those other areas as well.
And, in the end, the prices are all the same. Personally, I'd rather buy the really nice home in the really nice area with more features and better schools than the really nice home in the few streets where crime isn't rampant and the schools are... crap. For the same price, which home would you buy?
Thanks for both opinions on the Sedgewick area. I have not been to Syracuse yet, but have been looking at homes online. The homes in Sedgewick Farms are absolutely beautiful, but I couldn't figure out why they were on the market for such a long time (yes, I realize the economy is in the dump right now). Your input helps a great deal.
Do you need to live in the metro area per se? If not I would suggest the northern suburbs, like Clay and especially Cicero. For the amount of money you can spend you could afford a beautiful house on the lake
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