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I would think you should be able to do a back of the envelope analysis on this one pretty quickly - what are you living on now and how much are you able to save. Then subtract the major increases from your savings - the most substantial being mortgage and taxes.
And don't discount the keeping up with the Jones mentality that is pretty pervasive in Westchester. That will have a budget impact that is hard to estimate. Even my friends in Mount Vernon feel compelled to hold kids' birthday parties outside of their home to the tune of $400-500 all in (venue rental, food for kids and parents, gift bags). It's hard to escape.
LOL, there are party places booked solid for 6 weeks out. I personally know of one such venue that regularly hosts $1000+ kids parties. It's actually pretty sickening IMO, regardless of how much $$ somebody has.
Consider also the services that everybody seems to pay somebody else to do:
house cleaning, lawn service, snowplow guy, etc. If you're industrious you can save a fortune by doing this yourself. Otherwise bring your checkbook.
This is an interesting point about southern Westchester - modest houses, families of four, with literally a team of staff to help keep them running - stay at home parent or not. SAHMs with a nanny AND an au pair, housekeepers, gardeners. Never in my life have I seen SAHMs with a nanny helping schlep the kids to the park for 30 minutes. Ridiculous.
Alternatively, OP can just get a 2BR apartment on Bronxville or Tuckahoe and ditch the gardening/snowplowing/repairs work altogether - sounds like they won't be around the house much of the time to enjoy enough of it anyway and the kids will appreciate not having as much cleanup work to do. With some downsizing they can find a budget that will fit them well with enough cushion.
Alternatively, OP can just get a 2BR apartment on Bronxville or Tuckahoe and ditch the gardening/snowplowing/repairs work altogether - sounds like they won't be around the house much of the time to enjoy enough of it anyway and the kids will appreciate not having as much cleanup work to do. With some downsizing they can find a budget that will fit them well with enough cushion.
Too late. This OP already purchased!! DH may be in for gardening, snowplowing, repairs until DH finds a job
Do many households in Westchester's good SDs really pay $32K/year in taxes???
Last time I asked friends in Chappaqua and Pleasantville what they paid a few years ago and it was still $20K on the high side; maybe costs have really gone up by a lot.
Do many households in Westchester's good SDs really pay $32K/year in taxes???
Last time I asked friends in Chappaqua and Pleasantville what they paid a few years ago and it was still $20K on the high side; maybe costs have really gone up by a lot.
No, $32k is insane. We don't know the value of OP's house but assuming the $3k a month was with the standard 20% down, this should yield a value in the $650-750k range. $32k/year taxes on that would be very high especially for Greenburgh. We recently bought in this range in Chappaqua and taxes were in the $18-21k range for the houses we looked at. Same or even less for similar towns that we looked at. Maybe OP had a large downpayment on a larger, pricier house or maybe the house is in Edgemont or Ardsley and is a high outlier for those SDs.
My guess is that the OP put down considerably more than 20%, and that they chose to get the mortgage to stretch past the cash they had on hand to purchase the home.
Its a ripoff -- a function of a tiny geographical area with lots of water....so you pay for proximity to NYC and to send kids to good schools. Don't eat out. I calculated that we spent over $10k last year eating out and much of it was fast food ish type places...such as Applebees, diners etc... Crazy...
You can do it for between $200 and $300 k, BUT why not find a home with lower taxes or a condo in edgemont or scarsdale SD? I assume you are in Edgmont or Ardsley schools at least....
Utilities, landscaping, home repairs and projects really add up!
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