Syracuse suburbs- for Manlius residents (Victor, Glen: houses, neighborhood, school district)

[Vermonter]

We're close to making an offer on a home in the FM school district. Any last-minute advice for this area? Specifically:

How is the neighborhood around Glencliffe Road? Why are decently-priced homes taking so long to sell there, but not necessarily in other places?

Is there a difference between Mott Rd. Elementary vs. the other two grade schools? Any differences between the middle schools?

Where should we avoid moving to in the FM district?

Speak up and be candid if needed, please! We don't want to find out anything negative about a neighborhood after-the-fact.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[vicarian]

Avoiding anything in the FM district? Well, you're very lucky, and I'm very happy, to say you're prob'bly in one of the best districts in the region. Eagle Hill and Wellwood are both fantastic middle schools. I guess if you watch out for anything, it would be your taxes. Goodness knows you will pay much for those good schools.
Oh, it doesn't hurt to check the report card for the district either: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/reportcard/ (broken link)

[Vermonter]

Thanks for the advice, vicarian. We've checked the school report cards and compared several Syracuse area schools.

We're a little gun-shy about moving again and don't want to make the same mistakes we've made in past moves. Right now in VT we have a wonderful Victorian that was a great deal, but we have grown to dislike the location/town/area. A little bit of homework beforehand and we wouldn't have made that mistake, although we didn't have any kids at the time and our priorities were different then.

Now we're looking at relatively mediocre suburban homes with twice the property taxes and less square footage, but in a school district with a good reputation. Price-wise these houses are about the same as what we expect to get for our home, but with the high taxes. It seems to us to be a better place to raise our daughter than where we are located now. I guess what they say is true - having children changes everything!