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Hello,
We have lived in DE for past 8 years and have an infant and a toddler. DH has an offer from an Armonk based company and wants to join them. I think we would have to let go of the house and rent an apartment. What are some good places to stay in? Any apartment names? Are there montessori schools? I would like DS#1 ( 3 YO) to go to a montessori school now. Is it easy to get admission? What are the tuitions like? Any and all advice you can give would be really useful. We both work and I would have to quit working (at least for some time) when we move. We are not stinking rich and have a modest life style. Your info would help us make a decision.
Thanks!
I am assuming that your husband is getting a massive pay raise to do this, yes? Otherwise I think that you might want to come out here before accepting anything. We are not suburban in the classic sense - i.e. large apartment complexes everywhere, affordable homes, etc. Also you might want to clarify what define as rich? By most standards, we are all indeed rich. In Armonk, I would guess that the median HHI is probably $150K+, being very modest.
Of course, if you work in Armonk you can push much further north if DH doesn't mind commuting. You can get more for your money out there but I don't know what your budget is.
Montessoris range widely but I would guess about $10-12k a year is the average for full time. We moved from the Los Angeles coast and even we find the cost of living high. I cannot imagine coming from DE! Good luck.
JJINLA,
Thanks for your response. Funny thing is, DH is actually taking a 20% decrease in salary to get to Armonk (since he thinks future prospects are better). It is definitely not $150K.. We do understand that we would not be able to stretch the $ as much as we can in DE. What are the areas up north that we can look into?
Once you get north of Mt. Kisco, it seems to get more affordable. But my husband commutes to NYC as many do in Westchester, so I honestly don't know much about anything north of Chappaqua since that was our absolute commuting limit.
Someone is bound to chime in, though. There are lots of members up there. You might even be able to look in parts of CT, but that might be a longer and rougher commute. How long of a commute can your husband tolerate, and what is your budget for a home or apartment? That will help narrow it down. Also what kind of setting are you looking for? A lot of northern Westchester is rural by most accounts.
A commute of about 1 hour is what we can do at max. And I don't even know where I will find a job when I start looking. Our budget is $2500 max. And we are open to condo/apartments. We just need 2 BR house as we have 2 kids and older one is used to his own bedroom.
Say, does NYC offer a good verity of part time jobs? Because I understand one of us would have to be flexible in our routine. We don't have any family in the area and don't want to be too far away from kids in case of emergency.
At this point , a nice safe neighbourhood with proximity to a full time montessori school is the primary focus.
Say, does NYC offer a good verity of part time jobs? Because I understand one of us would have to be flexible in our routine. We don't have any family in the area and don't want to be too far away from kids in case of emergency.
You would want to look in Westchester County and adjacent parts of Connecticut (i.e. Greenwich, Stamford) for that, the commute to NYC (especially from Armonk which is not near a train station, you would almost have to have part of your commute to Manhattan be by train) would make your p/t job almost seem like a f/t one and you'd be spending a lot of gas/parking and/or train money making the commute.
Even with the other boros, the only one reasonable for a p/t job for you would be the Bronx as the rest would involve going over toll bridges or in some cases (like the parts of Queens and Brooklyn near Manhattan) have the same issues about parking costs/traffic vs. time and cost taking a train and subway. Staten Island is so remote (2 toll bridges!) that it's actually easier for someone in Westchester to commute to Poughkeepsie or Bridgeport/New Haven than to there.
Most people in your situation actually live quite far from Armonk. Some look west to Rockland and even Orange Counties, but that would involve a toll bridge and a lot of driving for your DH. Property taxes (if you own) are considerably less in CT, but the housing itself doesn't get much cheaper
than Westchester until Danbury (which is not a bad commute to Armonk, Danbury itself has "questionable" sections but surrounding towns like Bethel and New Fairfield aren't much pricier) or east of Bridgeport (which coming back on the Merritt Parkway or I-95 to Armonk will be a commute that rivals freeways in L.A. so you don't want to go there).
I personally don't consider even Northern Westchester except for some very "sketchy" areas like the centers of Ossining or Peekskill truly affordable for anyone making under 6 figures and the most common thing people actually do when they make "middle income" at a job in White Plains or Armonk is live in adjacent Putnam or even Dutchess County and commute down the Taconic Parkway or (for Armonk) 684.
A commute of about 1 hour is what we can do at max. And I don't even know where I will find a job when I start looking. Our budget is $2500 max. And we are open to condo/apartments. We just need 2 BR house as we have 2 kids and older one is used to his own bedroom.
Say, does NYC offer a good verity of part time jobs? Because I understand one of us would have to be flexible in our routine. We don't have any family in the area and don't want to be too far away from kids in case of emergency.
At this point , a nice safe neighbourhood with proximity to a full time montessori school is the primary focus.
First, there are part time jobs all over. Don't even think about looking for a job in NYC unless you have some very special skills. It will just make your logisitics untenable, particularly if you're on a budget. Think Danbury, Stamford, White Plains for job hunt. Secondly, think Putnam or Danbury for the house. Safety doesn't even enter into the picture, everyplace you'd even remotely consider is safe. Sounds like you seriously need to get up here to have a look around to get grounded in what you're moving into. It's not very far. In a weekend you could see a lot.
First, there are part time jobs all over. Don't even think about looking for a job in NYC unless you have some very special skills. It will just make your logisitics untenable, particularly if you're on a budget. Think Danbury, Stamford, White Plains for job hunt. Secondly, think ...Danbury for the house. Safety doesn't even enter into the picture, everyplace you'd even remotely consider is safe. Sounds like you seriously need to get up here to have a look around to get grounded in what you're moving into. It's not very far. In a weekend you could see a lot.
I want to clarify my statement on Danbury. There are many parts of Danbury that would be fine for you, in fact I have a friend who commutes to IBM in Armonk from Danbury itself and he has 2 school age kids and has them in their schools. Both Westchester and Fairfield County residents are among the most "nit-pickiest" about schools in the US. Many districts that in other parts of the US would be the premier district of that area are considered "so-so" here (this doesn't mean there aren't towns which have "not so good" schools, just that there are some that would consider almost any town not full of 7-figure homes to be "bad" schools......ridiculous). Again, just my 2c here.
Thanks all for the advice. We will definitely make a trip to the area before we move. Just want ot zero down on the areas we want to be in. We are definitely not interested in buying a house at this point and would be renting (most probably a condo or an apartment). Just want to be in a place where kids can safely play, go to school and have some other kids to make friends with. I do have an MBA from a good school and work in Finance Industry. But considering we don't want commutes to be too long and I dont want to spend too much time away from kids, I am not too keen on working in Manhattan or Wall Street.
I will come back with more questions. Thanks for all the help.
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