Thoughts on Rye, Scarsdale, Purchase, Harrison, Armonk and Larchmont (New York: broker, homes)
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.
The thread is getting long so I haven't seen if any of the replies address this, but the list of towns are very different in terms of style of living. Scarsdale, Bronxville, and towns around them- you can spend $3m-$4m and still have a very small yard and unimpressive house. In that price range in towns north of White Plains you can have a truly large estate, 3+ acres, 6k+ square feet, etc.
It's so starkly different that I don't think someone who would be happy living in Chappaqua, Armonk, Bedford would be happy living in Scarsdale, Bronxville, etc. The only in-between I can think of would be Purchase and parts of Rye where you can still get the bigger land but be closer to lower Westchester, but definitely not Scarsdale.
I have done extensive research on current and historical median home sale prices for single-family homes for the towns mentioned in this thread (using reputable real estate websites) and have arrived at the following ranking in tiers. This is my opinion. Please keep in mind, this is based on the median home sale prices for the homes within each town or village (as opposed to the zip code, which includes many homes that are outside of the respective village). As discussed at length, the zip code can be misleading because places such as Scarsdale and Bronxville have many homes that have a Scarsdale, NY 10583 or Bronxville, NY mailing address but actually do not exist in either place nor do they have access to the school districts and municipality services (Fire station, police, parking permits, etc.) offered to residents.
I have done extensive research on current and historical median home sale prices for single-family homes for the towns mentioned in this thread (using reputable real estate websites) and have arrived at the following ranking in tiers. This is my opinion. Please keep in mind, this is based on the median home sale prices for the homes within each town or village (as opposed to the zip code, which includes many homes that are outside of the respective village). As discussed at length, the zip code can be misleading because places such as Scarsdale and Bronxville have many homes that have a Scarsdale, NY 10583 or Bronxville, NY mailing address but actually do not exist in either place nor do they have access to the school districts and municipality services (Fire station, police, parking permits, etc.) offered to residents.
Tier 1
Rye - Scarsdale - Bronxville - Purchase
Tier 2
Larchmont - Harrison - Armonk
Tier 3
Chappaqua - Bedford
This is mostly useless in my opinion. With regard to Purchase and Larchmont, for example, these communities share a school district with sizable communities that would be at a lower tier in your rankings. School District, more than anything else, defines your community and experience.
This is mostly useless in my opinion. With regard to Purchase and Larchmont, for example, these communities share a school district with sizable communities that would be at a lower tier in your rankings. School District, more than anything else, defines your community and experience.
In short, you are comparing apples and oranges.
I see both of your points.
To be fair to the OP, your neighbors are the people you see the most often, especially if you have a smaller property. If you have a multi-acre property maybe you don’t see your neighbors as often.
Yes Larchmont and Mamaroneck share the same school district but that’s for middle and high school. Same with Purchase/Harrison/West Harrison. If you live in Larchmont, it’s very likely that your kids will go to Chatsworth or Murray Ave Elementary. Your kids and likely you will be closest to many of the families that go to the same school. Same goes for Purchase. If you live in a Purchase mansion, chances are you will have very limited interactions with families whose kids go to Samuel Preston (West Harrison) or Parsons Elementary Schools (part of Harrison with multi-family homes near the train station) until your kids are in middle/high school.
If you move to those towns when your kids are in middle or high school, maybe this doesn’t apply as much.
I have done extensive research on current and historical median home sale prices for single-family homes for the towns mentioned in this thread (using reputable real estate websites) and have arrived at the following ranking in tiers. This is my opinion. Please keep in mind, this is based on the median home sale prices for the homes within each town or village
Tier 1
Rye - Scarsdale - Bronxville - Purchase
Tier 2
Larchmont - Harrison - Armonk
Tier 3
Chappaqua - Bedford
I have no idea why you'd want to rate towns on a tier based on median sale price. You could rank the towns by quality of the schools or town shopping or whatever -- that's somewhat subjective but at least it makes sense. But ranking the towns by median sale price? All those towns have both mega-mansions and tear-downs so the median sale price doesn't tell you much about what any particular house is worth or which town you should look at.
In any case, as mentioned before in this thread -- anybody who is willing to look at Chappaqua or Armonk ought to include Greenwich on their list too cause it's definitely "Tier 1" by all of the criteria you're looking for. The only reason to rule Greenwich out is a slightly longer commute, but several towns on your list are even farther than Greenwich, so leaving Greenwich off your rankings is a glaring omission.
@heapchk - Greenwich would certainly be in tier 1 based on median home price. However, if you are accounting for the quality of school districts, Purchase (feeds to Harrison High School) and Greenwich would not be in the same tier as Scarsdale, Bronxville or Rye, which have tier 1 school systems. However, based on median home price, then Greenwich is certainly in tier 1. I did not think to include Greenwich because this is the Westchester forum .
Below is updated real estate data from the real estate company, Compass and is based on Year-to-date median home sales through August 31, 2022 and includes Single Family homes, Condos and Co-ops. This is generally in line with my previous post with slight modifications. Please keep in mind this is based on the data for the respective village (aligning with the respective school district) and intentionally excludes P.O. homes that are not in the respective village. This is especially relevant for Bronxville, NY 10708 addresses and Scarsdale, NY 10583 addresses. For instance, more than 50% of Scarsdale, NY 10583 addresses exist outside of the Village of Scarsdale and are instead in Edgemont, Eastchester, Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Ardsley and are assigned to schools accordingly in Edgemont, Eastchester, Yonkers New Rochelle, and Ardsley respectively. Homebuyers need to be aware that a postal address does not necessarily correspond to the village the home is in / assigned school district. I hope you enjoy the data below.
The median is extremely misleading. I assure you from personal experience that any house in Bronxville will *definitely* cost more than an identical house in Purchase or Rye, and Bronxville will probably cost more than an identical house in Scarsdale too. This chart is just saying that the other towns have some new construction homes and trophy estates that pull up the average, while Bronxville has very little new construction or trophy estates. But in an apples-to-apples comparison of identical houses, Bronxville is definitely not cheaper than the other towns.
Today I noticed there are many co-op listings on Garth Road in Scarsdale at reasonable prices for the area. Considering the shortages of properties available, there must be something wrong over there for so many properties to be available. Does anybody have any insight regarding what's going on over there, if anything?
Today I noticed there are many co-op listings on Garth Road in Scarsdale at reasonable prices for the area. Considering the shortages of properties available, there must be something wrong over there for so many properties to be available. Does anybody have any insight regarding what's going on over there, if anything?
Those are all smallish apartments in older buildings, most of them could use some renovations, and they are not in the Scarsdale school district. They're zoned for Eastchester.
I don't think there's anything "wrong" with them as long as you know what you're getting; but the whole point of moving to the suburbs is to get a house with a yard in a great school district. If you're happy with a studio apartment, then why did you leave New York City?
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.
.
