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Thanks. After re-reading my post I was afraid it came off as a bit pedantic. There's just so many posts (not necessarily yours) that ask for Town A vs Town B comparisons when the two towns are many miles apart, both literally and figuratively (people, prices, etc.) - it seems like sometimes people are just throwing darts at a map. I also started that way, just kind of helter skelter looking all over, but when we turned it into a process it was much more productive (and even enjoyable).
If I was in your shoes (and I'm obviously not) I'd seriously consider living in CT, especially if you only need the city only once a month for a game / museum / client meeting / airport. Your money could go a lot further in places like Wilton or Ridgefield or New Canaan as opposed to Bronxville or anywhere in lower Westchester. Not only home prices, but taxes, transaction costs, etc., may be as much as 50% less. In those cases, you'd be driving to work, but you could find a nice older farmhouse close to town center for your Sunday strolls. If taking the train to work is a priority, give Fairfield a good look. Great town, nice downtown, University town (both Sacred Heart and Fairfield are good schools and good opportunity for continuing ed if that's something you're interested in), nice beaches, and far enough east to be out of the NYC sphere. Quick glance shows a 40 minute train ride to Greenwich, enough time for coffee and paper. The whole area south of the train station is great and walkable, but watch for flooding and the potential need for extra insurance. Something like 178 Beaumont St. (first thing I clicked on) looks like a pretty good value (compared to what similar would cost in Westchester).
I'm sure the job market for teaching in Fairfield County is pretty competitive, but there are lots of private schools where one could get a foot in the door. I really have no idea about this though.
A great resource will be your coworkers - where do they live and how do they like it?
Anyway, have fun and good luck!
Maybe a bit pedantic, but so what? If you "teach a man to fish" and all that. So many of the posts reflect zero effort by the OP to do their own homework before posting questions that they could answer themselves in 5 minutes by just searching this board. Seems like many such questions come from people unable or unwilling to even look at a map before posting - no in this case I don't think, but in a great many.
Bronxville is lovely, a nice walkable downtown with some charming stores, a very easy commute and a school district that is top notch. What's the catch? Insanely expensive. $1.1M will almost certainly not get you a house you would want (maybe a condo near the train station), and the property taxes are the highest in Westchester (which is also the most expensive county in the country). If your house budget was double and you could afford $50K+ a year in property taxes (no kidding), then yeah, Bronxville is perfect.
p.s. Also a Heights resident who will be moving to Westchester later this year, but not sure where yet.
Another catch is that its next to a Mt Vernon ghetto, but I don't know if MV's problems spill into Bronxville. It's quite a contrast when driving through very nice Bronxville and then enter one of the worst and visibly rundown areas of MV. There's no gradual buffer zone, it goes from nice to bad very quickly.
Interesting point on Mt. Vernon. We have plans to check Bronxville out in a few weekends, so we'll see what all of the fuss is about.
Another thing I should mention is that, like Lackadaisical, I am not very familiar with the river towns and would like to visit before dismissing them outright. Given our preference for a nice, decent-sized downtown area, does any particular town make sense as a first stop?
Another catch is that its next to a Mt Vernon ghetto, but I don't know if MV's problems spill into Bronxville.
Not true. The parts of Mt. Vernon closest to Bronxville are very nice, expensive and desirable. There is nothing remotely "bad" anywhere near Bronxville.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntonioR
It's quite a contrast when driving through very nice Bronxville and then enter one of the worst and visibly rundown areas of MV. There's no gradual buffer zone, it goes from nice to bad very quickly.
What? This is completely untrue. The worst parts of MV are obviously in the southern half of the city, closest to the NYC city line.
And even the southern half MV is not THAT bad; it's a working class black Carribean area, which scares alot of people. But we're not talking Camden, NJ or Gary, IN here. It's basically an undesirable area, with higher-than-average crime and suspect schools, but not horrible. But the northern half of the city is generally safe, and the parts furthest north are quite nice, with big old homes and the like.
Not true. The parts of Mt. Vernon closest to Bronxville are very nice, expensive and desirable. There is nothing remotely "bad" anywhere near Bronxville.
It sure looked very rundown and desirable when I was a college student and spent a summer working for a door-to-door sales company. I spent two weeks in Bronxville and Mt Vernon.
Quote:
What? This is completely untrue. The worst parts of MV are obviously in the southern half of the city, closest to the NYC city line.
And even the southern half MV is not THAT bad; it's a working class black Carribean area, which scares alot of people. But we're not talking Camden, NJ or Gary, IN here. It's basically an undesirable area, with higher-than-average crime and suspect schools, but not horrible. But the northern half of the city is generally safe, and the parts furthest north are quite nice, with big old homes and the like.
That's what you say, but more than a few people that live there when I was assigned to sell in that territory warned me about the neighborhood and that the company was crazy for sending a single person to sell door-to-door in such a neighborhood. I was suppose to be pitching into the night too. I personally never felt threatened, but plenty of residents there did warned me about their own neighborhood.
The northern half of Mt Vernon is full of Brazilians, judging by the people I met there. For some reason they seem to all be from Minas Gerais and yes, north of the tracks Mt Vernon looks much nicer and no one warned me about anything.
That was about a decade ago, maybe things have changed but I doubt it.
It sure looked very rundown and desirable when I was a college student and spent a summer working for a door-to-door sales company. I spent two weeks in Bronxville and Mt Vernon.
The portions of Mt. Vernon adjacent to Bronxville are very affluent, with big, old homes on leafy streets. I don't know how Fleetwood looks "rundown" unless you consider Greenwich and Scarsdale to be working class or something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntonioR
The northern half of Mt Vernon is full of Brazilians, judging by the people I met there. For some reason they seem to all be from Minas Gerais and yes, north of the tracks Mt Vernon looks much nicer and no one warned me about anything.
The Brazilians live closer to the train tracks than to Bronxville. That area isn't affluent, but nor is it a bad area, and, in any case, it isn't the part of Mt. Vernon next to Bronxville.
My vote is for Bronxville....
-Very walkable village with schools, train, movie theatre, library, shopping all within a 1/2 mile radius.
-It's a quick ride into Grand Central on the train, and easily accessible by car.
-You can certainly buy a 3 bedroom co-op for under $1,000,000. You can buy an attached townhouse in the million range, with taxes around $17K. If you are less concerned with schools, the area of Yonkers just West of Bronxville is much more affordable yet still very walkable to Bronxville Village.
Thanks. After re-reading my post I was afraid it came off as a bit pedantic. There's just so many posts (not necessarily yours) that ask for Town A vs Town B comparisons when the two towns are many miles apart, both literally and figuratively (people, prices, etc.) - it seems like sometimes people are just throwing darts at a map. I also started that way, just kind of helter skelter looking all over, but when we turned it into a process it was much more productive (and even enjoyable).
If I was in your shoes (and I'm obviously not) I'd seriously consider living in CT, especially if you only need the city only once a month for a game / museum / client meeting / airport. Your money could go a lot further in places like Wilton or Ridgefield or New Canaan as opposed to Bronxville or anywhere in lower Westchester. Not only home prices, but taxes, transaction costs, etc., may be as much as 50% less. In those cases, you'd be driving to work, but you could find a nice older farmhouse close to town center for your Sunday strolls. If taking the train to work is a priority, give Fairfield a good look. Great town, nice downtown, University town (both Sacred Heart and Fairfield are good schools and good opportunity for continuing ed if that's something you're interested in), nice beaches, and far enough east to be out of the NYC sphere. Quick glance shows a 40 minute train ride to Greenwich, enough time for coffee and paper. The whole area south of the train station is great and walkable, but watch for flooding and the potential need for extra insurance. Something like 178 Beaumont St. (first thing I clicked on) looks like a pretty good value (compared to what similar would cost in Westchester).
I'm sure the job market for teaching in Fairfield County is pretty competitive, but there are lots of private schools where one could get a foot in the door. I really have no idea about this though.
A great resource will be your coworkers - where do they live and how do they like it?
Anyway, have fun and good luck!
Lackadasical what do you think is the difference between Upper Westchester towns such as South Salem or Pound Ridge and Ridgefield CT or Danbury CT? It seems to me the prices in NY are higher for less house, but the lots are also bigger and its a bit more rural.
What do you think about the difference between CT and NY in general?
Lackadasical what do you think is the difference between Upper Westchester towns such as South Salem or Pound Ridge and Ridgefield CT or Danbury CT? It seems to me the prices in NY are higher for less house, but the lots are also bigger and its a bit more rural.
What do you think about the difference between CT and NY in general?
These places are all very different, not really directly comparable at all. That list of towns is throwing darts at a map.
Lackadasical what do you think is the difference between Upper Westchester towns such as South Salem or Pound Ridge and Ridgefield CT or Danbury CT? It seems to me the prices in NY are higher for less house, but the lots are also bigger and its a bit more rural.
What do you think about the difference between CT and NY in general?
Those NY towns have much better rail access to Manhattan, so that plays a role in the higher prices.
And they're just different. Danbury is more typical suburban sprawl. Somewhere like Pound Ridge is much wealthier and no typical sprawl. Ridgefield has some sprawl, but is expensive, more like Pound Ridge, and with a similar cutesy feel.
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