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I have noticed through many real estate searches that there are a lot of homes available for sale in Pelham. They are very beautiful homes. But, they seem cheaper than places like Scarsdale, Larchmont, and Rye. I would have thought the closer to NYC the more expensive it would be? If the schools are good (they say thay are), the houses a very nice (with big yards), and it is a close train ride to the city, what is the negative about Pelham? Why aren't the real estate prices higher there? There has to be something wrong..it just doesn't add up. Is crime a problem? Does anyone out there know?
Possible explanation being that Pelham is surrounded by Mt. Vernon, Bronx and Yonkers. You can get the ocassional crime spillover, whereas Scarsdale and Larchmont and Rye are surrounded by safe communities.
I live on Long Island and had to commute to Pelham (Sanbourne map Building studios) one week, it was total misery and this was AFTER rush hour.
Bumper to bumper from the Throggs neck bridge tollbooth to exit 10 on the hutch.....and 1/2 the time back at 1AM. Pelham looked a bit to slummy for my taste, saw riff raff on the streets.
Brahmos you hit the nail on the head. My brother was a cop in Eastchester and said Pelham had a high crime rate compared to other towns in the area. (Pelham Manor is safer.) We're mostly talking burglaries.
I walked around downtown Pelham for a couple hours yesterday - all over the place from the main street to a lot of the residential areas.
I'm looking for an apartment somewhere in Westchester within walking distance of a train station, and my Pelham visit made me cross it off the list.
Even though it was a decent Sunday afternoon, there were few people on the street, other than pseudo-tough guy kids strutting up and down the street with hoods pulled way down swearing loudly.
I was pretty surprised by the number of empty storefronts. One one block, I counted 5 empty storefronts in a row, and the businesses that do exist are not indicative of any kind of real economic development (think tanning salons and other low rent joints).
I suppose it is a "walkable" town to the extent that any town with sidewalks is, but I got thes sense that people wouldn't care if they ran you over or not. Lots of people speeding around like maniacs with rap music blaring. My guess is that these people don't live in Pelham, but use the main street as a highway from one town to another.
As soon as you get into the residential areas, there are plenty of huge, beautiful houses, but if you're looking for a rental, that doesn't matter at all. But even in those neighborhoods, the sidewalks were literally empty. It was pretty surreal. Nobody was out with their strollers, walking their dogs, etc.
Compare this to other (albeit more expensive towns) like Larchmont or Rye where you don't get the same bad attitude on the street or fools blaring rap music, and there's no comparison.
It's too bad, since you can tell that a lot of the older businesses in town have that "old school" feel to them, and seem to be largely Italian-owned. I'm sure there is a large core of working-class locals that support these businesses and for these people, Pelham is a good place. It must be diappointing for them to see all the empty downtown storefronts.
Hi well here it is -I have been looking for a house to buy for 5years. I have look in all lower westchester areas, I am very familiar with PELHAM and it is a very nice area it is surrrounded with not so good areas and Pelham is a very small area w/ good schools. But houses in Pelham are old and No there is no large backyards a house with 0.11 of an acre, taxes will start @12,000. Crazy and most likely the house has to be gutted. CRAZY........... I think the only reason to move Pelham is for commute reasons otherwise forget it.
What about New Rochelle, it seems cheaper than the other towns (Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Harrison,etc) but the house prices are log. Any idea why? also high crime rate?
NR is much bigger the Larchmont, Mamaroneck or Harrison. According to Wikipedia, NR is the 7th largest city in NY. The southern end of NR is congested with apartment buildings, the northern end is much nicer, primarily single-family homes, good schools.
NR was politically and financially mismanaged in the late 60's and 70's and downtown NR fell apart. Crime became a problem, white-flight, businesses migrated to White Plains.
The main problem with NR now is all the traffic backed up by construction trucks. Trump and a local developer are erecting a luxury building in NR, and another apt building is going up next to the library at the same time. NR is rebuilding.
Crime is still an issue. Gangs from nearby Mt. Vernon seem to have a constant, low-grade war going on with the gangs in NR. But these are in areas of NR most people avoid. Those areas are getting smaller.
Beat up on the Mexicans all you want, but once they started moving into undesireable areas of NR, the tone of those areas changed. They are conservative, hard-working and family-oriented. Neighborhoods I wouldn't drive through at one time are now thriving.
NR is very diverse. The neighborhoods very different. All schools funnel into NR High School, the 2nd largest in Westchester County. It's just OK. Too many competing needs.
I happened to notice the question about Pelham and had to respond. My husband and I have lived here for 14 years now, raising two daughters. Pelham house prices are slightly below those of Scarsdale, Rye, or Larchmont primarily because of taxes. Westchester in general is brutal on taxes but Pelham is the highest in Westchester per $100K of assessed value. It is expensive to live here, no doubt. Also, you are comparing Pelham, which is very affluent, with those 3 towns which are even more affluent and probably among the richest towns in the country.
The crime rate in Pelham is not nearly as bad as it has been described here. We know well over 150 people here by now, and not only have we never heard of one burglary incident with them directly but have never heard someone who knows someone having been burglarized. Pelham is near some lower income neighborhoods (though not Yonkers as erroneously mentioned above) but the crime rate according to FBI stats (I had to check before I wrote this!!) is actually lower than Bronxville and many affluent towns in New Jersey and in any case is mostly concentrated in the commercial district near the Bronx, and the crimes are petty thefts from Modell's, etc.
As for people on the streets, the Pelham I know is jam packed with kids, very neighborly, and populated with people who still very much want to stay close to NYC, and have a commensurate level of sophistication and artistic sensibility.
The taxes are high though, no question. And the downtown is definitely not at the level of Larchmont or Rye (although in fairness those downtowns have busy Boston Post Rd. cutting right through them and Pelham's is well off that road). There are two distinct villages comprising the town, Pelham and Pelham Manor, although both share the school district, which is terrific and offered so much to our daughters.
Anyway, best of luck on your search. I just didn't want you to exclude the town because of that crime misperception....
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Pelham
pelham why cheaper ill tell u
