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My wife and I are looking in the North West area (particularly North Salem) as an area to move to. We are a young couple with a baby on the way and are both professionals (her:MD, him:Engineer/Self-Employed Prof). We currently live in Brooklyn and are looking to get out of the rat race and madness!
What is the quality of life there? How are the people? Is there much in the way of racism or $nobi$hnes$? We are really looking for a town with a good school system and just a basic " live and let live" attitude. We have heard of Bedford and the McMansions and the $$$ that abound and the attitude of the children growing up in the area. I guess we are looking for a friendly town which is good to raise family in.
Is there a sort of a "Welcome" club or group in the area as is common in many of the smaller towns/hamlets?
Your thoughts and feelings is appreciated as is the time you have taken in answering our questions!
I don't think anyone would consider North Salem middle class unless it was upper middle class. Lots of horses, lots of acreage. Very pretty but not a warm and cozy feeling.
I don't think anyone would consider North Salem middle class unless it was upper middle class. Lots of horses, lots of acreage. Very pretty but not a warm and cozy feeling.
ViralMD, please expand on the above sentence. What is it that leads you to say that? Approx where do you live in the Northern West Cty area?
North Salem is an up and coming town with great schools. I think they are all newly built too. I am not sure about it being snobby though. I live near Ridgefield CT which borders North Salem and I find it really beautiful. Yes it is farmy, total opposite of Brooklyn. I think you should go up for the weekend and spend some time there. Housing goes from small bungalows (by the water) to McMansions and Mansions but you will find that all throughout Westchester. I personally like North Salem but I don't live there to really know what its like. Good luck to you.
North Salem has the one of highest median home prices of any town in Westchester--in 2007 it was 1.13M--so I would hardly call it middle class or up-and-coming. It is mostly estates and probably has far few McMansions than most other towns. It has lots of weekenders and summer folk, including Susan Sarandon and some other famous folk. It is a truly gorgeous area and has a wonderful country feel--yet it is pretty close to many towns and shopping. There are some good restaraunts and a great museum and Japanese Garden (the Hammond).
When we moved out of Brooklyn we were of course desperate to have a country feel--why else bother to leave Brooklyn? We looked in North Salem and loved it, but in the end we decided that the commute was too much and that it felt a bit too isolated. That is of course totally personal and depends on what feels rright to you. We ended up in southern Yorktown, which we love and which gives us the balance between country and amenities that we wanted. I'd look in the Katonah/Goldens Bridges area too--it has a similar feel to N. Salem.
Alomost every town in northern Westchester has a newcomers club, yahoo groups, neighborhood associations, play groups, and lots of ways to meet neighbors and make friends.
We have a home in the Bedford area. That's the impression I get. It's completely different from Chappaqua...maybe because the homes are relatively a good distance from each other.
I don't know where you are getting that figure but currently there are only two houses on the market in North Salem between 1M and 1.2M, and there are 32 houses between 350K range and 1M. I highly doubt the median home price is 1.13M.
I don't know where you are getting that figure but currently there are only two houses on the market in North Salem between 1M and 1.2M, and there are 32 houses between 350K range and 1M. I highly doubt the median home price is 1.13M.
I got the figure from City-data.com.
Currently there are 20 houses for sale in North Salem for over 1.1M--the highest being 12.5M. That's 18 houses asking more than 1.2M. The median price is the mid-point--not to be confused with the average (which is usually lower). I am a math-moron, but if you have 32 houses selling for under a million and 20 selling for between 1M and 12.5M, that makes both figures quite high.
I would say that North Salem goes both ways, there are some houses that can be affordable (what ever that is these days) and some that are very expensive. But I would still say it is much cheaper than Chappaqua (where you would be lucky to get a house for 400K there and the people are much snobbier than North Salem) I am a realtor and I have seen a lot of people moving to North Salem recently. Goldens Bridge as well. Katonah (Lewisboro) is now considered one of the nicest places to live which may be why that area seems to be "booming" in a sense they have seen alot of growth over the years. I still think the poster can get something in North Salem and not feel like they are surrounded by snobby rich people. It would all depend on their price range and what they want. The median cost of a house in Westchester is around 700K give or take. I hope you don't think I was trying to start something though-I didn't mean to come across that way if I did.
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and are looking to get out of the rat race and madness!
