Moving to Long Island (New York, Hempstead: rent, insurance, crime rates)
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My husband was just transferred to New York, and we are planning on living on Long Island. I am a teacher, and have 3 small kids. I have only been to New York City three times on vacation about a million years ago! Can anyone out there give me information I should know? Where are good towns to live in? Where are the good schools? Will I be able to find a job as a teacher? (I have 10 years experience) What is the culture of Long Island? I have heard there are "stereotypes", but don't know what that means. Please - anything anyone knows about Long Island will be helpful as we move cross-country. Thanks!
Most are moving away. Taxes, insurance & home prices are outrageously high. You need to make close to $200,000 a year to survive & to qualify to buy a home.
Great Neck or the North Shore (north or LIE) is really the best. Everything else is trashy.
You won't find a decent starter home for less than $500,000.
Annual taxes are 1.25% - 1.5% of purchase ..
Everything centers around the mall and the consumerist attitude more so than in the rest of the country.
kids in their 30's live at home until they inherit their parents house so they can shop for designer clothes & drive BMW's while living rent free.
Great Neck or the North Shore (north or LIE) is really the best. Everything else is trashy.
Sorry but I have to disagree with you. You're comparing a very small area of Long Island to the rest of it. Don't get me wrong, Great Neck is nice, very nice, but there are a lot of other areas that are nice as well. I live on the North Shore in Suffolk County and it is nice, but there are also nice areas on the south shore as well. Just have to know where because you don't want to get too close to the not-so-nice areas.
My husband was just transferred to New York, and we are planning on living on Long Island. I am a teacher, and have 3 small kids. I have only been to New York City three times on vacation about a million years ago! Can anyone out there give me information I should know? Where are good towns to live in? Where are the good schools? Will I be able to find a job as a teacher? (I have 10 years experience) What is the culture of Long Island? I have heard there are "stereotypes", but don't know what that means. Please - anything anyone knows about Long Island will be helpful as we move cross-country. Thanks!
Let me add to what nickl28 posted. My family are in the process of selling our home on Long Island and are moving down to NC (husband got a job transfer). We have a 4-bedroom home with a 2-car garage, excellent schools, excellent neighborhood on the north shore in Suffolk County. Homes liek the one we're selling are listed in the low 500's and up. Taxes (Smithtown Schools) will be around 8k and up, Hauppauge Schools will run you about 6k and up. Snowfall can be brutal depending upon how many storms decide to linger over Long Island. Suggestion would be is to buy a snow blower. The older homes (30 years plus) generally have a lot more property than the new homes so there's a lot more landscaping, shoveling, etc. to be done. Generally school buses will pick up kids in front of the house. If your husband is working in NYC (Manhattan), you want to be close (driving distance) to the Long Island Railroad if he's looking to take the train in. If that's the case, you may also want to consider living in Nassau County (ie., Great Neck) instead of Suffolk County (ie., Smithtown) but I think it's more expensive to live in Nassau than Suffolk since it puts you closer to the city. If you want to do some research on schools and homes u can go on the long island multiple listing which is mlsli.com. Teaching is a great oppty here and the pay is pretty good with excellent benefits, although you may need to start out as a temp/sub because so many are trying to become teachers for the benefits. If you do not know anyone on Long Island, suggestion would be to connect with a relocation specialist or a realtor that can show you around to different areas so that you can get an appreciation of the towns. If you have any specific questions just post here and i'll answer as much as i can. I wish you the best of luck
Nassau tends to have smaller properties and is older suburban. It has some extremely wealthy areas (Garden City, Old Brookville, Great Neck) and some areas to stay away from (Roosevelt, Hempstead) due to high crime rates and poor schools. Prices of homes are starting to come down, but not dramatically so. Schools are town based, hence many school districts and much of your property tax will go to your school. Long Island teachers are some of the highest paid in the country with outstanding step raises and other benefits. Where will your husband work, and what priice range of house are you looking for? This will help people in the forum to give you more specific suggestions on towns.
COgirl, I have lived on Long Island for a long time and believe my comments are accurate. Long Island has so much to offer. It is a great place to live. My feeling has always been that if your are here because of it's proximatey to NYC, and you are able to benefit from the relatively high salaries associated with NYC employment then that it is great. But if you do not work in NYC or make a good location based income then it doesn't make sense to live here. The home values are very high as are the taxes. It is pretty congested and traffic can begin to make you not even want to go places. NYC is between you and the rest of the world and leaving on a trip will alway have to be carefully coordinated with traffic trends or else you can sit for 2-3hours to leave the NY metro area.
As for stereotypes I am not sure what you concern is, I assume you are talking about racial stereotypes. There is plenty of diversity in NYC and Long Island. That being said I will tell you that neighborhoods are still pretty much racially segregated. However there are very few racial incidents, and any child or person who lives in an area that does not match their ethnicity will not experience any problems or discrimination. Naturally there is always a possibility of an isolated incident but we really don't seem to hear of too many problems.
For Long Island to be a good choice for a person I really think you must make a great salary, and love the beaches &/or the city.
It is nice to pop over to the beach to just look at the boats or a sunset, or go into the city to see a world-class museum exibit or eat great, innovative food.
Otherwise why would you put up with the congestion and high cost of living. there are great suburbs all over.
Long Island is definitely a great place to live, but I will agree that it has become one of the most expensive places inthe country to live. Property taxes are becoming insane and it is cheaper to build up on your house than to buy a resale these days. For a real decent house in a good school district, you are looking at a price of at least $425K. Some North Shore towns I'd suggesst are Smithtown, Northport, East Northport, Commack, Hauppague and Kings Park.
South Shore, I'd suggest: Oakdale, Sayville, Bohemia, West Sayville, East Islip and West Islip.
We're actually considering moving to NC, so I understand how confusing it is to try and find the best place to live in a state you are not familiar with. Any other questions, feel free to e-mail me!!
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Very expensive & high taxes
