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Looking for classes for my 3 year old, new friends who would be fine with coming over to drink coffee while the kids play.
I'll probably get a membership at the Y for the free childcare aspect. Go to costco for groceries. Take yoga classes. Go for walks outside so my kiddo can ride her bike. I like to play music out on our deck here in Raleigh, realizing that isn't the option spacewise in Westchester but hoping to land with likeminded people to quickly find social groups and lessen the transition time and inevitable loneliness in a new place.
Looking for straightforward opinions on the vibes of these places...
Yonkers
White Plains
Tuckahoe
Dobbs Ferry
Pelham
Add in any others that you like. Couldn't find a stereotypical map of Westchester to get the overall biases of the area haha.
I'm staying at home while my husband is taking a new job in Midtown.
We are also moving to the area and currently hunting for rentals. Drove around last weekend to check out towns. Of the ones you mentioned this is my extremely superficial/first-impression assessment:
Yonkers - Instantly scratched off our list. There is lots of new construction near the station and maybe one day it will be nice, but it's not there yet.
White Plains - Kind of soulless. The inconvenience of a city without the perks.
Tuckahoe - Quiet little town and a pleasant contrast from the wealth of Bronxville. It doesn't appear to have the most interesting local businesses, but you are close to many other towns so options aren't far away. This one is on our shortlist.
Dobbs - We really liked all the river towns we visited, dobbs included. There are fewer rental options within walking distance of the station, but if you can get one this area is quite nice.
Pelham - Haven't been to this one yet, but it gets very positive mentions on this board.
Dobbs has a decent range of downtown shops, Little Red is good for kids/moms programs and the Mom's club is a great way to meet other families with young kids. The walk up from the train station is longer than most towns (there's an intermittent bus) and the Broadway/Ardsley Rd intersection is annoying on foot/bike.
Pelham is a nice place to walk around with a wider range of stores, somewhat lacking in outdoor space.
White Plains is a proper city, but with wide and car centric streets.
Yonkers varies a lot by station, but generally isn't that great for walking imo (downtown has a range of services, but lots of construction and cars).
Decks are not uncommon in the rivertowns (some with nice views of the Hudson), less so in inland towns.
Also worth considering:
Hastings on Hudson - most walkable of the rivertowns, nice inland greenspaces, smaller village feel, very family oriented
Mamaroneck - nice medium sized walkable downtown, Harbor Isle park is a great spot for walks and kids (though the water is not nice for swimming)
Irvington - great parks by the river, steep walk to shops up main street and no grocery in town
Tarrytown - less expensive, nice parks on the river and good shops along main, close to Rockefeller state park
Scarsdale Station Area/Eastchester - prices are higher and greenspace is lacking, but there are a lot walkable resources
Larchmont - pricey, more international, nice waterfront parks
Did you have an opinion on Tarrytown? Does it make sense to consider Greenwich?
Greenwich is a longer train ride, but also has some nice downtowns and parks. Traffic is pretty lousy around that whole area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by libbits
We will be signing a lease sight unseen. I'm not seeing a lot of options or vacancies listed online. How do people go about finding legit rentals?
I'd strongly recommend finding a temporary space first and visiting the unit, there's a lot of older housing stock around Westchester and people can be pretty liberal (or outright deceptive) with their descriptions and pictures. We stayed in White Plains in a temporary furnished apartment for a couple months while looking - not inexpensive, but definitely worth it.
A lot of the Westchester apartments are coop or condo rather than building wide rental, especially in or near the village cores. Many units are only shown via broker and don't show up on Craigslist or Zillow. Once we started visiting rentals the broker showing the unit would often suggest several other nearby options that were not listed anywhere as far as I could tell.
Some places will put up a sign only and apparently find enough local interest so you might want to try calling pre-emptively (I see coop subleases at River's Edge in Hastings every once in a while, for instance, wouldn't be surprised if you might be able to track down something at Village Green in Dobbs or Half Moon coop in Irvington).
If you absolutely can't visit before signing you might want to stick to a larger and newer complex to reduce the risk of finding something surprisingly bad. Most of those aren't in the walkable zones, but Avalon Mamaroneck is an ok option for that (it was our safe backup option if the house purchase didn't work out).
Thank you for this response. That was my fear. Did you use an extended stay hotel or a corporate short term?
In this day and age --- why is there so little information available online! ahhh
I have been trying to say to my husband that the money of flights, hotel, etc would better go to putting our things in storage and get used to the area for a month or two.
Thank you for this response. That was my fear. Did you use an extended stay hotel or a corporate short term?
In this day and age --- why is there so little information available online! ahhh
We used Furnished Quarters. There are cheaper options.
The New York rental market is mostly managed to maintain the ability of brokers to extract a month's rent from prospective tenants. They actively fight against better information and clearer choices. There's ultimately no good reason for that if you aren't a broker, but it's a seller's market and the landlords are often more comfortable just sticking with the status quo.
There are new buildings near White Plains train station with great amenities. The commute into NYC is great from White Plains, and I find people are more down to earth.
Tuckahoe is also nice, good commute into NYC and a cute little town. It's small but they have a couple of good restaurants and you are close to Bronxville which has a good amount of shops/restaurants/theatre etc.
Yonkers has been trying to build up/improve the city for years, especially down by the water. There is still a lot of crime though...they have a ways to go.
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