What are some towns/counties within a 1-2 hour drive to Manhattan? (New York: apartment)

[luvfelicia]

We're planning our move & trying to decide on a town. We want a farm. What are some towns/counties that are within a 1-2 hour drive to Manhattan? Budget is about $200,000 max. I have found several on the land watch website well within our range (fixer uppers which is what we want) but they're too far of a commute. Thanks guys!!

[VA Yankee]

You will most likely have to look at North East Pennsylvania to find anything remotely close in your price range. Many of the communities with 1 hr of Manhattan charge your budget amount for a 2 car garage.

Good Luck

[Joe461]

Originally Posted by luvfelicia

We're planning our move & trying to decide on a town. We want a farm. What are some towns/counties that are within a 1-2 hour drive to Manhattan? Budget is about $200,000 max. I have found several on the land watch website well within our range (fixer uppers which is what we want) but they're too far of a commute. Thanks guys!!

Loaded question.

1-2 hour drive what time of the day?

Rush hour traffic will get you Nassau County, Westchester County or Northern NJ. You aren't finding a farm in those areas. Certainly not much for 200,000.

Off hours, that 1-2 hour drive gets you much further... Suffolk County to the east, maybe as far as Sullivan County to the north and some more quiet areas of NJ and PA.

For commute into NYC, you can do much better with the rail lines. A two hour train ride into NYC will get you much further than a car.

It also depends on what you call a "farm." Are you looking for several hundred acres for a dairy, beef or crop situation? Or are you looking for five acres to have what most farmers would probably call a "garden?"

Even at the 5 acre size, I think you will be hard pressed to find something within 1-2 hours of Manhattan for 200k. I would suggest looking at the metro north service map and searching based on train access and travel time.

[Ted Bear]

$200,000.......

Within a two hour "commute" to NYC....

Best bring your wheelbarrow around and we'll fill it up for you.

That's about what you are going to get for $200,000.

Sorry. As someone said above, you get a two car garage for that budget....no house; very little land.

If you are hell bent on owning a little 5-10 acre "hobby" farm, you might think about something upstate or in south jersey or Pennsylvania where you MIGHT get into something which "needs work" for your budget, and keep a little apartment in/around NYC for the breadwinner during the week.

Up near Albany...abut a three hour car ride from the City, you can get 50 acres for a quarter of a million. For a "real" farm, you can get into one of the (struggling) dairy operations in central New York--maybe 500 acres--for about $1,000/acre.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There's NYC, and there's farming. The two don't mix very well unless you can bring a PILE of cash.

[MemoryMaker]

Not happenin...

Most farms within 1-2 hours of NYC have long been turned into suburban divisions or strip malls. And the few that are still there are probably well over $2/mil+

$200k within this commute range either gets you:
- A small house on a small/mid-size property in the ghetto that probably needs some work
- A nice 1bdr condo, decent 2bdr condo or crappy 3bdr condo