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.
Me and my husband both have combined income over $200,000 and have savings for a $1,500,000 home, we both have professional jobs in the city and advanced graduate degrees. We live in a 2 bed loft in Williamsburg with our 2 year old but I have recently found out that I am expecting triplets so in less than a year we will be a family of 6! We went to look at houses in scarsdale and fell in love with the town, the schools, the shops, the houses, the parks - PERFECT!
However, me and my husband are worried we will not fit in the people there, we are both left-wing politically, even though we've tuned it down a lot we used to be very hippie/boho. When we are not in our work uniforms we are kind of sloppy dressers (brooklyn thrift stores are the best), we don't care for designer labels and we plan on just getting cheap, non flashy cars. Whilst non of our tattoos are on show in our work clothes, when we wear summer clothes you can see all of our the crappy, drunken, homemade tattoos we have. My husband was brought up jewish but neither of us are spiritual/religious. Also after my triplets are 1 years old I'll be going back to work and either getting a nanny or having my mother in law take care of them part time.
So that's us! And the impression we have of scarsdale is that the parents are all really involved/pressuring in their children's education, all members of the PTA, partake in bake sells, all join a country club/ go sailing, have expensive cars, nice clothes etc. Don't get me wrong I definitely care about my children's education and extra curricular I just don't want to pressure them like my parents did (british all girls boarding school from ages 8-18- nearly killed me!). And I don't want my children to feel as though their parents are slobbish and not as put together at the other parents - I try to be organized but I'm naturally quite a forgetful, clumsy person!
I'd love to hear what any Scarsdale citizens have to say about their town! Particularly what the mums are like!
It depends on which part of Scarsdale you live. If the accounts of some posters are true, there are areas where neighbors make it a point to stick their noses into your business. But there are parts where neighbors tend to be more accepting or at least, non intrusive.Look at homes to the southeast of the railroad station.
We used to live in Scarsdale. Your impressions are pretty spot on... If you show up for school drop off (or at the doctor's office, or in the Village...) in sweats with tattoos showing you will raise eyebrows. If you throw loud, drunken parties you will not be welcome. This pretty much goes for anywhere in Westchester though.
For the most part, people are truly very nice and accepting, very well-educated and fairly liberal. If you are nice, educated, well-spoken people you will be fine. The Quaker Ridge neighborhood is pretty grounded, as is Greenacres and Edgewood. Fox Meadow can get a little more snobby and Heathcote even more so. I know two families who love Quaker Ridge Elementary. The area is fine, just not really convenient to anything except the Hutch.
OP, I laughed when I read your post. You'd fit into Pound Ridge perfectly. Nobody would look twice at the tattoos and there are a lot of very wealthy .alt-type folks driving beaters (in addition to the antique whatever that's in the garage). Seriously. The kind of snobbery you'd encounter in S'dale is pretty much nonexistent. And the house you'd get for your $$ would make what you get in Scarsdale look like a dump in comparison. But it's more remote and the commute is lousy, especially if you have to do it daily.
Last edited by kletter1mann; 01-31-2015 at 11:38 AM..
Reason: detail
We used to live in Scarsdale. Your impressions are pretty spot on... If you show up for school drop off (or at the doctor's office, or in the Village...) in sweats with tattoos showing you will raise eyebrows. If you throw loud, drunken parties you will not be welcome. This pretty much goes for anywhere in Westchester though.
For the most part, people are truly very nice and accepting, very well-educated and fairly liberal. If you are nice, educated, well-spoken people you will be fine. The Quaker Ridge neighborhood is pretty grounded, as is Greenacres and Edgewood. Fox Meadow can get a little more snobby and Heathcote even more so. I know two families who love Quaker Ridge Elementary. The area is fine, just not really convenient to anything except the Hutch.
I wouldn't say Quaker Ridge is Grounded, a lot of the Flashy people I know live there. People move to QR so they can get BIG house with MORE land.
I would stick with GA or Edgewood.
Stay away from Heathcote.
So what caught my attention about your post is the income... everything I'm told (and if you search in this forum) is that living in westchester on less than $200k will be very difficult for a family of 4... The taxes alone for a 1.5 mdd home will be $30k a year if not more... Not sure if you will carry a mortgage or not, but if your income will drop because you will stop working for a little while you may end up feeling limited... And with 4 kids... Seems stretching it IMO. Dont mean to be a downer but you should consider cost of living in westchester before committing long term. Just a thought...
I think you would fit in fine in scarsdale, scarsdale is full of liberals despite what people say about it. The people in scarsdale are definitey more high strung compared to northern westchester. I think Pound Ridge would be a good place for you too. Nobody will judge you because its pretty remote. Pound Ridge is not really a town though, it doesn't have a community/town feel like Sacrsdale.
Pound Ridge has the most freedom because its most rural.
I am like the opposite of you, I am a christian conservitive and aspire to buy nice cars. (Scarsdale is too liberal for me)
It seems like you want to live in a more conservitive place than Williamsburg, and Scarsdale is perfect.
So what caught my attention about your post is the income... everything I'm told (and if you search in this forum) is that living in westchester on less than $200k will be very difficult for a family of 4... The taxes alone for a 1.5 mdd home will be $30k a year if not more... Not sure if you will carry a mortgage or not, but if your income will drop because you will stop working for a little while you may end up feeling limited... And with 4 kids... Seems stretching it IMO. Dont mean to be a downer but you should consider cost of living in westchester before committing long term. Just a thought...
Good point. Sounds like a major stretch unless putting up a HUGE downpayment. Especially factoring additional nanny expense. Doesn't compute in my mind.
The OP mentioned $1.5 saved for a house, maybe they're paying in cash? And when I say grounded, it's all relative and more of a mindset, like who cares what kind of car you drive or what kind of purse you carry or if you belong to some sort of club? For the status-conscious keeping-up-with-the-Jones types those things matter, but you can find tons of "grounded" people in Scarsdale for whom those things don't mean much. I just avoided the former and found some nice people through a book group.
On the other hand, the bar/bat mitzvah scene in Scarsdale is apparently out of control...
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.
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.
