Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My family is considering moving from Brooklyn to Westchester. We have two children. We want a home in a suburan area with good schools. We can not afford the best schools (scarsdale, bronxville, etc.) Our price range is 500,000-600,000. Taxes around 5,000-7,000. We want a close knit community with a lot of families and family orientated events, functions, etc. but we are not looking to go too far north. Probably not much further north than White Plains.
I know White Plains and New Rochelle may have what I am looking for but my major concern is High School. I hear the HS in both cities are not very good. I prefer a small town.
If coming from Brooklyn, the distance between WP and Yorktown Heights is minimal. Although 30 min sounds like alot, its not too bad especially if you're taking the Sprain Brook Parkway/Taconic. Its really more like 20 minutes with no traffic. Only thing is that Yorktown doesn't have a train station.
There are several people who commute to Manhattan from farther north than Yorktown. It is not ideal, but people who don't have around $700K+ for a house and still want a decent size house, a little more than .06 acre of property and a decent public school system do it. It is not uncommon. In fact, many people who work in manhattan have to commute for at least an hour either from Westchester, CT or NJ.
Slave to your commute can happen no matter where you live. It depends on how you get into work (driving/metro north/subway/all 3/2 out of 3 etc) and where in Manhattan you work (uptown,downtown, east side, west side ect). I can drive from lower westchester and sit in traffic for an hour(s) to get to midtown and it will stink, or I can take the Metro North in Cortlandt Manor and spend 50 minutes in a train and be totally relaxed. Unless you have the $$ to live in lower Westchester, near a train station and you happen to work on the East side in midtown or some other similar scenario, your commute will be long (at least 45 minutes factoring in train time, getting to the station and leaving work in time to catch the train), but its the price you pay for working in Manhattan and living in Westchester.
To the OP, not sure if you are commuting to Manhattan for work as you didn't mention it in your post but make sure that if you do have to commute to NYC, you find out a) where the nearest train station is and if you can get parking there b) what parkways you need to take to get to NYC if you plan to drive. Some are worse than others.
You can buy a more expensive house and live a little closer.Remember your taxes will always go up. Taxes in Westchester have nearly doubled in ten years, so if you by a House with a fixed rate your better off.....I have also PM you.........Good Luck....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.