Relocating to NY (New York, Yonkers, Scarsdale: renting, condo, house)

[NYNewbie2010]

High newbie to this site and have been researching lots of useful info.
Going to be transfering to NY for work early next year.

With 3 kids under 5 years of age we are looking for a good family location within reasonable commute to Madison Square (frequent railroad/subway service 45mins to 1hr max door to door) .

Looking for good public Kindergarton and pre-schools in family friendly location for British expats.

Going to be renting with a monthly budget of $3500 to $4000 minimum 3 bedrooms.

Looking at a few different areas such as Bronxville, Scarsdale, Larchmont and also considering Brooklyn and New Jersey.

In Bronxville a couple of areas we are considering are close to Bronxville railroad station but in Yonkers School district.

Any advice for these areas on location, schools, commute, expense would be great.

Many Thanks!!

[jjinla]

In those areas of Westchester, you will need to know that any 3BR house under $4K is going to be very dated or small unless it is a TH or condo. You do NOT want to be in Yonkers schools. I can't speak to the commute itself, or Jersey/Brooklyn. I do know that some people in my area have actually said that their commutes now are shorter than when they were in Brooklyn, though...lots of stops vs. express trains to many stations here.

[Walter Greenspan]

NYNewbie2010, in case you are unfamiliar with the local geography:

What people refer to colloquially as "towns" are actually villages and hamlets, which are within actual towns; and, because villages and hamlets are referred to as "towns", then, many times, the error is compounded when actual towns are referred to as "townships".

Also, many colloquially refer to a "downtown business district" in a hamlet as a "village".

NYS Geographic Glossary may be of some help to you in understanding the geography of New York.

You can get a fact sheet for any city, village or hamlet in New York by going here American FactFinder and input the name of the city, village or hamlet for "city/town" (leave out the ZIP Code) and New York for "State", and then click "GO".

You'll get a lot of demographic, and some economic, statistics for the city, village or hamlet you selected, and if you click on "Reference map" (it's on the right hand side), you'll get a map.


When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP, or Census Designated Place, is the Census Bureau equivalent for a hamlet in New York State.)

And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.

[mrmiyagi]

MSG is near Penn Station. NJ would be a better location for that commute. Westchester uses Metro North which comes into Grand Central Station and from there you would need another ride on a subway train to MSG.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by mrmiyagi

Westchester uses Metro North which comes into Grand Central Station ...

That's Grand Central Terminal.

[TDNY]

Long island or New jersey would be your best bet for that work location.

[NYNewbie2010]

Trains on Metro North appear to be much more frequent than some of the trains to say Maplewood or South Orange on the NJ transit.

What other family friendly NJ commuter towns have fast frequent services into Penn Station?

[OrangeHudson]

Coming into Grand Central is MUCH better than Penn Station. Metro-North has a better on time performance and there is no rush getting to the platforms the very last minute like Penn Station commuters have to do.

It's faster to walk to MSG than take the subway. The walk is really not that bad at all.

[jjinla]

"...there is no rush getting to the platforms the very last minute like Penn Station commuters have to do."

LOL...my husband says that Penn station is like watching roaches scurry when you turn the lights on! Apparently, something to do with schedules being posted right before departure time?

[cali_to_nj]

You can check the map for train lines west of the Hudson to find the stations and corresponding towns - North Bergen County has nice communities and good schools (we looked there first before moving to Westchester, hence my screen name), but I do hear the taxes are not much better there than in Westchester.

MNR Connecting Service