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acdc - I agree with bmwguydc and think that Croton-on-Hudson is worth looking at along with the adjacent Yorktown Heights area. We are strongly considering those areas. My son is biracial and, after visiting the schools and the neighborhood, we feel he would be comfortable there. The housing is also less expensive than Irvington so $600,000 would get you a nicer house.
we have been looking in irvington for a while and it is near impossible to get a house for 600- and it will not be a nice home at that price. But that being said- Irvington is a wonderful community that definitely fosters EQ. There is a lot of community involvement. There is a sizeable Indian population as well. BUT- it is expensive and taxes are outrageous!
we have been looking in irvington for a while and it is near impossible to get a house for 600- and it will not be a nice home at that price. But that being said- Irvington is a wonderful community that definitely fosters EQ. There is a lot of community involvement. There is a sizeable Indian population as well. BUT- it is expensive and taxes are outrageous!
Amen to that regarding Irvington taxes!
If I had 600k to spend, I wouldn't want to be hit with a tax bill of 20k and up every year. Northern Westchester is where the OP needs to be.
Valhalla has a nice balance. It has a very good, well known school system, friendly family oriented people, within close proximity to Tapan Zee for travel to Rockland and easily go to White Plains for shopping and other commercial needs. You will find nice homes in Valhalla for that price range and the homes will retain good value. The commute to NYC is pretty good too. Irvington has an excellent school system, though the prices for the homes are more on the higher end. White Plains has a mixed school system drawing very little praise.
If I had 600k to spend, I wouldn't want to be hit with a tax bill of 20k and up every year. Northern Westchester is where the OP needs to be.
If I had $600K to spend I wouldn't want to live in some of the dumps you see for that price. I dont mind small, but you can be sure I would'nt move into a place with a kitchen, floors and bathrooms from literally the 60s and 70s. Yuck!
Honestly I wonder how you all can actually afford mortgages of this size. I mean I earn in the mid 100's (I dont usually tell my income but I really need some clarity on how high of a mortgage I can afford) and I dont feel I can afford more than a $400K home. I dont waste money on designer bags or clothing or expensive vacations (though I do have some beauty pampering expenses te he), yet I dont see how people do it. I guess everyone in the area is earning in the mid $200s? But yet I know most Americans dont earn even close to that amount so I always wonder how people do it.
To tell you honestly if i was not making enough to cover extremely high cost of living of this area, i will be living in Austin or similar liberal college / tech town with affordable cost of living. Having said that 600K is starter single home territory in Westchester county. I saw a 1929 home with tons of renovations needed asking 599K.
Keep in mind that sellers are getting much less than the asking price. Most starter homes in the Croton/Yorktown area are selling for under $400,000 although many are asking a lot more. I think paying around $500,000 will get you much more than a starter in that area. You should be looking at postings over $700,000 if you are looking for houses selling around $600,000.
Keep in mind that sellers are getting much less than the asking price. Most starter homes in the Croton/Yorktown area are selling for under $400,000 although many are asking a lot more. I think paying around $500,000 will get you much more than a starter in that area. You should be looking at postings over $700,000 if you are looking for houses selling around $600,000.
Is that really true that you can negotiate a whole $100,000 down?? Are you a broker or maybe know lots of people buying and/or selling?
How much have prices dropped in the past year in Westchester?
I'm no realtor. I see price reductions listed at Trulia - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, Sold Properties, Real Estate Maps. A local realtor's web site also notifies me when prices are reduced. One house recently dropped it's price from about $550,000 to $420,000. Trulia shows other data like the median sales price in Croton has fallen 14.42% to $467,500 from the prior quarter (when I first looked a few yrs ago, the median price was over $600,000). Yorktown Heights went down 6.83% to $423,908 from the prior quarter. You can see the difference in asking and selling price by using Trulia to look at houses that sold recently and compare those houses to similar houses that are still on the market.
I also see newspaper articles mentioning how sellers are getting much less than their asking price. There was a recent NYT article quoting a realtor about Greenwich, Connecticut homes selling for 30% less than the asking price.
Note that I just went to trulia and checked Irvington. I see that the median price shows to have dropped 44.5% to $731,000 in the past quarter. The average price is listed much higher than the median but averages include extremely expensive high end homes which skew the numbers.
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