Valley Stream (New York, Hempstead, Franklin Square: short sale, real estate, crime)

[jimlisa1020]

My husband and I have been house hunting all over Long Island for the past year and are frustrated beyond belief. We just recently saw a house on MLS in Valley Stream for a wonderful price ...which of course makes us skeptical about the area this house is in. We have never really been in Valley Stream and are clueless about the area.

Can anyone tell me anything about Valley Stream?? Schools, crime, overall opinions about it?? Are some schools in the school district better than others? Are some areas of Valley Stream nicer than other?? TIA!

[Walter Greenspan]

jimlisa1020, in case you are not aware, about half the places that have a "Valley Stream, NY 11580 & 11581" mailing address (4,309 acres) are not in the Village of Valley Stream (2,258 acres).

When you do find a house that you like, you can find out in which community (city, village or CDP) that house is actually located, which is oftentimes different from the community named in that house's mailing address, by using the Census Bureau's online address search function. (CDP or Census Designated Place is the Census Bureau equivalent for a hamlet in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.)

And, very importantly, among other things, the Census Bureau's online address search function also indicates in which school district an address is located.


For those who may not be familiar with Valley Stream:

Valley Stream is a village (incorporated in 1925) in the western part of the Town of Hempstead, in the southwest part of Nassau County, along the Nassau County/New York City (County/Borough of Queens) line.

Beginning on the north and moving in a clockwise direction, the Village of Valley Stream in the Town of Hempstead is bordered on the north by the Hamlet of North Valley Stream; on the east by the Village of Malverne, the Village of Lynbrook and the Hamlet of Hewlett; on the south by the Hamlet of Hewlett, the Hamlet of Woodmere and the Hamlet of South Valley Stream; and, on the west by the Hamlet of South Valley Stream and New York City (County/Borough of Queens).


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Valley-stream-ny-map.gif (broken link)


Valley Stream is one of those many villages and hamlets on Long Island where many places with the community name as part of their mailing address are not in the village: places with a "Valley Stream, NY 11580 & 11581" mailing address that are not in the Village of Valley Stream are in the Hamlet of North Valley Stream, the Hamlet of Franklin Square, the Village of Malverne, the Hamlet of South Valley Stream and the Hamlet of Woodmere.


For a good set of town-by-town maps showing all the villages and hamlets in each of LI's 13 towns (3 in Nassau County and 10 in Suffolk County): Excellent Long Island Geographic Resource

[LongIslandCitizen]

Originally Posted by jimlisa1020

My husband and I have been house hunting all over Long Island for the past year and are frustrated beyond belief. We just recently saw a house on MLS in Valley Stream for a wonderful price ...which of course makes us skeptical about the area this house is in. We have never really been in Valley Stream and are clueless about the area.

Can anyone tell me anything about Valley Stream?? Schools, crime, overall opinions about it?? Are some schools in the school district better than others? Are some areas of Valley Stream nicer than other?? TIA!

Don't do it

[KellyFG]

we went to a small reunion with friends from my husbands high school last night. We met in valley stream, most of the people still living there said "its changed alot" or "we are looking to move out of here".
I have never lived there, I'm just repeating what I heard from lifelong residents.

My Grandparents lived here for 40+ years- was once one of the major early LI communities; has a State Park!

So. Valley Stream still has some fantastic homes- but those ones are probably not in that price point you mentioned.

Short train trip into Manhattan (35 minutes) - pretty great shopping mall called Green Acres. People get shot at the movie theater there though. : \

[llama8]

you really need to research the area. It is a "changing" area, which may or may not matter to you. Definately drive around, visit stores, walk around the neighborhood and research the schools to see if it fits your lifestyle.

I went to elementary school there in the 90's and most of the people/families I know either moved out or are dying to move out.

[AlexisT]

If I see a "fantastic" price (relative to others in the same area) I'm just as inclined to wonder about the house itself. Short sale? Unrenovated since 1958? Neither is unheard of, especially since you say you just saw it on MLS. Realtors will put their best face forward on there.

There are people here who will defend VS as fiercely as those who hate it--and it (and the schools) vary from section to section. "Valley Stream" (postal/real estate definition) is a large area. So if it's in the Gibson section, SD#14 (Hewlett-Woodmere), I would be inclined to suspect issues with the house itself, whereas in some other pockets, it might be the area dragging it down.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by grant516

pretty great shopping mall called Green Acres. People get shot at the movie theater there though. : \

That did happen at a theatre once in Green Acres ... Godfather 3 was playing. Knuckleheads were mad at each other for talking over the movie. Almost 20 years ago. It hasn't happened since. You act like it happens every week.

[I_Love_LI_but]

I have lived here for over 15 years. I like it a lot. I like being convenient to the city. I live in the Village in SD 24. I rate the SDs that serve Valley Stream as follows in order of preference:

SD 14
SD 24
SD 13
SD 30

All the school districts perform well for LI, at least above the median. There are a lot of activities for the kids. They get audited every year and last year got the highest rating for managing the money well. Our taxes here are not at the outrageous levels of some other areas on LI, plus the kids are not short-changed like in some other places where the kids take all the hits with budget cuts.

You might like and be able to afford homes in these neighborhoods in Valley Stream: Gibson neighborhood (south of Sunrise Hwy., SD 24 or 14), Village (in the area around Merrick Rd., Sunrise Hwy. and east of Central Avenue, SD 24), and Westwood section (SD 13). I would say Valley Stream is one of the few places in Nassau with neighborhoods first-time buyers can get a decent home in that is not too outrageously expensive in terms of home price and property taxes. It has good LIRR service at several stations (Valley Stream in the Village, Gibson in Gibson, Westwood in Westwood); the LIRR takes around 35 min. to get to Penn Station or Flatbush Ave Brooklyn; close to Southern State (3 exits are VS); close to the Cross Island Parkway; very near to Belt Parkway. The Village has its own government and they watch over things very well, there are parking rules (can't park on the street all night), no illegal aliens running amok because the Village doesn't let that nonsense slide in terms of overcrowded and illegal housing as in some other places on LI. We have the 5th Precinct for police, plus we have a Civillian Patrol, Code Enforcement, and Auxiliary Police just for Valley Stream. Certainly things happen here like anywhere else, but, like much of LI, crime is not a big problem on the whole. The Green Acres Mall gets a bad rap because things do happen there that hit the media (recently the WalMart stampede that left a security guard dead on the last black Friday sale), but generally it is safe. I am at that mall an average of at least 3-4 times a month and never have problems. It is also off to the side of Valley Stream, near Queens, and most patrons of the mall are not from Valley Stream, many from the five boroughs, nor do they ever come into Valley Stream proper anyway when they are just shopping at the mall on the outskirts of the west side of town.

There is a nice village green and they put on free concerts in the summer. There is an annual picnic and fireworks for 4th of July. Nice library. There are several parks, including one with an outdoor swimming pool your family can join in the summer, walking and biking trails, etc.

Now for the the "it is changing" part. In the past several years, Valley Stream has gained a more diverse population (black, asian, etc.) rather than being mostly white as it used to be. It is still mostly white, but we do have a lot of other races and cultures too now. There are blocks in Valley Stream that are mostly black. I rode through some of N. Valley Stream last week and there were a lot of black kids playing in their yards on the street, and black adults working in their yards. There was one black man actually sweeping the street in front of his house with a broom and a large dustpan on a stick. The homes are kept nicely. So while there are black people, they are not ghetto type losers. However, this still disturbs some of the old guard, as you can see in this thread. It doesn't bother me and I don't think it should be such a big deal to some others, but it is. As a matter of fact, I think it is better for kids to grow up going to school with all different kinds of people instead of being in a bubble of just their own kind. Once kids get out in the world, they will be expected to cooperate and deal with all kinds of people, especially in this "globalized" environment of the current world.

Good luck in your house hunting!

PS: If you want to PM me the location of the house (on MLS you can look up the street and cross streets on the map section) I can tell you what I know of the area the house is in.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

That did happen at a theatre once in Green Acres ...

That would place it in the Hamlet of South Valley Stream, not in the Village of Valley Stream.