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My husband and I currently live in Hoboken, NJ and we are at the point where we want a backyard and a good school district for our two sons. I'm pushing for upstate NY.
The trouble is, my husband still works in Manhattan. His office is 2 seconds from Grand Central so he would be willing to do an hour and a halfish commute to Grand Central if we can find a place we love.
Can you guys suggest some decent towns with good schools that are about an hour to two hours max from Manhattan? (It would be supremely helpful if they were on a Metro-North trainline)
Thanks!
Diana
I would very strongly advise not stretching out to the 2 hour max of your commute because a simple 1 hour commute can easily turn into a 3 hour commute if things go bad. My father has been doing what should be a 1.5 hour commute each way for 27ish years now...and some rare nights it took 4 hours to get back to Walden's outskirts. 2 hours is not unheard of during his weekdays, and if your DH is commuting during rush hour things can really get skewed. So to be safe, I recommend going no further north than the Ulster/Orange line and no further west than Montgomery.
I suggest staying clear of Newburgh and Middletown schools which are in Need Improvement status and the town of Newburgh is ranked in the top 5 most dangerous cities in NY, worse than NYC. While the realtors spin the area as one in improvement, check out the crime stats in Newburgh for yourself. Don't make the same mistake many others have and assume because it is not NYC means than it is not a potentially dangerous place.
Great towns across the river from Dutchess are Cornwall, Monroe, Warwick (which will stretch the commute despite it's proximity) Goshen, Washingtonville (Schools are OK but not stellar), eastern areas of Montgomery, and southeastern areas of Wallkill school district. Just FYI, the commute from Cornwall, Washingtonville, Goshen, Warwick and Monroe is best done by bus. If you choose Montgomery, Wallkill or rural areas of Walden (a village in Montgomery) you can go to Monroe to get the bus or go across the river on 84 to get the train.
Across the river is fine, I have found the traffic through the area is just getting worse tho I wish that would change...and housing is maybe a touch higher than across the river in Orange. Lots of beautiful, historic areas though like Roosevelt/Vanderbilt mansions.
If you want a backyard and a great school district you will have so much to choose from in southern NYS. Depending on your target range for housing and requirements for size of home and lot, new built or older, kind of interior, rural setting or subdivisions, in-town etc, we might be able to better suggest a town for you.
Winnie..was just checking this thread out. While I'm much further NW of you...I've always wondered. How in the H#%@ do people justify a 11/2..2..2+.hour commute to work (each way) 5 days a week. Is it "all about the $$$"? Even if people can make the big bucks w/a long commute from the Catskills, Hudson Valley, the Poconos or wherever, that's time(as much as 20 hours in 5 days, that you can never get back...no matter how good the $$ is.
For some specialty careers like my father's, it can be double or sometimes even close to triple what they would make in the Hudson Valley. For others, they might have a job that cannot be found outside of NYC - PR for example. Some careers are not that much of an increase.
And there are those that have a flexible work schedule and health workers, for example, might work 3 12 hour shifts or 4 10 hour shifts...which makes it easier to do the commute.
And others simple cannot stand city life and cannot afford the "close" burbs..so they sacrifice time on the bus or train.
It is not easy by any means, but I am extremely grateful that my father did it for me.
Town of New Windsor and Cornwall are really good. They offer a lot of community sponsored activities for families and the children. Depending on where you are in New Windsor, your kids might go to Cornwall or Newburgh schools, which aren't the best. I've also heard that harriman, Central Valley, and Monroe is a good place to live. Monroe has an excellent school district. These are all about 1 hour drive to the city. I do it everyday
If you take the train, your husband could take NJ transit which runs in Orange county and take it to Penn Station. Metro North is on the other side of the river. From Newburgh its about a 15-20 minute drive to the train station across the river.
I I've heard so many things on the news about Middletown, so I don't know. That would also add another 30 minutes or so to the commute.
Houses in Highland falls tend to be older becasue it is a historic town, (or so I was told) and the houses are closer together than other places, so you might not want to look there depending on the size yard you want.
Washingtonville is also about 1 hour drive, you might find that some houses in the area have Blooming Grove as the location. PLease think about how quiet, close to shopping, size yard, and everything else you want. Blooming grove, for example, is up in the mountains, has some dirt roads, and shopping (even for a gallon of milk) for the most part is far.
Diana - depending on how much you want to spend I would suggest you looking in these towns: Katonah, Yorktown, Somers, North Salem (Northern Westchester) and/or Carmel, Mahopac (Putnam county). All of them are on MetroNorth line and I-684, and commute for your husband from Croton Falls train station (the farthest of the above towns) to Grand Central will be under 1.5 hr. It is going to be much easier than crossing the river twice a day.
You seem to be so knowledgeable about the area. I hope you won't mind if I ask you the question I asked in another thread.
I'd like to move to the area you're talking about, but just a bit farther. Woodstockish. I don't want to live within commuter distance of any major city, and I want it to be as rural as possible. I want the quaintness and cultural bent of Woodstock, but would love it without the hippie retro-trendiness. Any suggestions?
Pardon my oversight. I do mean for anyone who would like to offer his or her opinion to consider yourself invited.
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