IceBrit

Hello everyone,

Yesterday, my husband and I met with a brit living in the States and he told us that Westchester was a nice county to live in, specially with children. So far I've only been looking at NJ but of course it would be silly not to check it out.

I just wondered if any of you live there or know it well and if you could recommend some towns for me to look at online? We'll be coming over soon but I just want to get an idea in my head of what to expect and the size of house we could afford to rent.

It's getting closer now and I'm incredibly excited

Rete

I live in Westchester. There are lovely towns here to love in and to raise a family. However, it is frightfully expensive. If you are looking for a "house" instead of an apartment you might want to check online for rentals in towns such as Westside of the county along the Hudson, Irvington, Tarrytown, Sleepyhollow, Briarcliff, Pleasantville, Cortlandt and Cortland Manor and on the east side of the country Mahopac, Somers, Harrison, Mamaroneck, White Plains, Armonk, Valhalla.

Rents here are very expensive. 2 bedroom apartment in Yonkers (not the best city in the state to live in) would cost you over $1200.

Graxley

A 3 bedroom single family house in a nice area will cost at least $3,500 a month. Westchester is a useful county to live in if you work near Grand Central Station because the three train routes (Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines) all terminate there.

lapin_windstar

Agree with the above. The further north you get in Westchester, the more space there is between towns, although it's never rural. Some of Yonkers (which is immediately to the north of NYC and it's continuous city) is really rough, other parts are nice enough with quiet streets and tidy houses (no McMansions). There are a couple of rails-to-trails bike/jogging paths up there too, if that's of interest.

Public transport (I believe) is better than in NJ, but you really want to have a car and live close to a train line. It can be a bit tight getting parking at some of the train stations because it's such an attractive option.

Assuming you're working in the city (New York City), go to http://www.mta.info/mnr/ and look at the maps, then look at how long it takes to get between the nearest station and Grand Central Terminal (NYC). Then add travel time between Grand Central and wherever you'd be working. Then go to Google maps and do the same thing again to see how long driving would take (don't drive into NYC).

Southern Connecticut is similar, but I think more expensive (but you get what you pay for, mostly). You could also consider living to the East of NYC i.e. in Nassau or Suffolk county - the rail links are good.

The thing that would put me off NJ (amongst other things) are the fact that the bridges and tunnels are bottlenecks for driving in/out of the city. Also, the worst (roughest) towns in NJ are much worse than the roughest towns in NY - but then the obvious thing to do is just not go there, and plenty of people (including here) really like living in NJ. I don't really know anything about the relative qualities of public schools.

As a rough comparison, and with a slight bias, I'd say NJ is like Essex (inhabitants are stereotyped and very car-dependent but parts of it are very nice), Westchester is like Kent (some very nice parts but some so-so parts) and Connecticut is like Surrey (stockbroker belt).

Bob

What you on, that's well cheap...hmmm....we need to move

Englishmum

Ha ha....speak for yourself!

I actually live in Essex county, NJ and it is very much a stockbroker belt/ investment banking employee town.....my neighbours generally work in senior management for such places as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, HSBC etc. etc. The ones not working in the financial sector are surgeons, psychiatrists or CEOs.

There are many (British) expat families living in the towns on the Midtown Direct NJ Transit train lines into New York Penn Station (which also has a number of subway/underground train lines) NJ Transit trains also travel from these same commuter towns to Hoboken NJ with a change at the station to the PATH subway trains and ferries to lower Manhatten (for the World Financial Center, Wall St etc.)

http://www.njtransit.com

Good 'middle class' towns to check out with good schools schools include Maplewood, Millburn/Short Hills,(Essex county and closer to NYC) Summit (Union County), Chatham, Madison (Morris County). Westfield is also a pretty town in Union County but the commute is not so direct as it is on a different train line. Other people like Montclair, NJ (Bergen county, I think) but it's not my cup of tea.

I don't know if you are interested in the private Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf schools but there is one in NYC and one on the NY/NJ state border (Chestnut Ridge Waldorf School). However the fees are approx $15k per year per child.....!


Rental price guidelines:

http://www.weichertrents.com/

http://www.craigslist.org (mainly private rentals but some brokers do list there)

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/abo/570779222.html (example of rental price in Westchester. V. similar to homes in my neighbourhood)

Rete

And where does the hired help live if they aren't live in help?

Sounds like a very exclusive county to me.

Graxley

I would say that generally speaking Penn Station is better for those who work in Lower Manhatten and Grand Central for Midtown Manhatten. We moved to Westchester for exactly that reason.

Rete

My boss lives in Mahwah and has to commute by train to Seccaus and then change to the train to Manhattan and then from Penn to the office midtown and it is a blooming nightmare.

My niece and her dad worked in the financial district and took the bus from Mammouth County NJ to Port Auhority and then the subway downtown. Their commute was easier and less time consuming.

I love my ride from Yonkers/Bronx station on Metro-North's Harlem Division. 25 minutes to from station to station and a five minute underground walk to the office.

Englishmum

My husband walks to the Short Hills station (6 min walk) and takes the Midtown Direct train into New York Penn station (it's called the Midtown Direct because you don't change trains - it goes directly into Penn stn). The trains stop at Secaucus for passengers to embark or disembark for other train lines, but there is no need to get off if going to New York (unlike the guy who lives in Mahwah).

He usually likes to be in the office early as he often has teleconferences with HO in London. If he takes the 06.52am train it gets into NY Penn at 07.32am. The journey time is 40 minutes. If he takes the later 07.37am train it takes 41 minutes. The journey is about 16 or 17 miles.

http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servl...nSchedulesFrom

He then walks up to his office in Times Square (10 short blocks) and this takes approx 12 mins depending on the traffic lights.

Trains from Montclair only have a Midtown Direct service Monday to Friday, whereas on our line it is daily.

NJ Transit Map:

http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/rail/Rail_System_Map.pdf

lapin_windstar

Just out of interest, IceyB, have you not considered living in any of the five boroughs of NYC? I see that you live in Bucks now, so maybe you're looking for the equivalent. It depends on your position, but you could also think about renting for 3-6 months to work out which areas you like.

By the way, if you live in Jersey, you have to be sprayed orange once every two weeks. It's the law.

Englishmum

Stepford wives can be found here for sure! (No I don't mix with them, not my type). It really is like Darien, CT or Scarsdale, NY.

I don't have hired help - I do my own cleaning and household chores, although not very well - and I live in what would be considered a tear-down LOL!

Some people in our street do have nannies (mostly black but some Hispanic) and AFAIK they come in by train each day from Jersey City, Staten Island or/and Newark.

There are quite a few enterprising women from Brazil, the Philippines, Ukraine etc. who arrive in their own cars to spend a couple of hours or so one day per week doing household cleaning in our neighbourhood. They put their phone nos. up at the station or the local supermarkets. I think the going rate is about $75- $80 for 3 hours.

House prices are still cheaper here than in Westchester County....and the big bonus is that it is only 15-20 minutes max to Newark airport. It would take a lot longer I should think to get to JFK or Newark from Westchester?

Graxley

I know of only two very small areas which would remotely compare to Bucks within NYC which are Riverdale in the Bronx and Douglas Manor in Queens.

IceBrit

I'm afraid I'm not terribly keen on orange. I would have to be lawbreaker

It's difficult to know what I want. Flights are being booked today for us to pop over and look around at the end of this month. Due to our little one, we can only stay 3 days this time. We're aiming to move early April and husbands work it putting us up in a flat for a month while we sort ourselves out.

So if I spell out what I'm looking for, it might make it easier for you do advice me. As you said, we live in Bucks now and LOVE IT here so would be very happy to find a similar setup.

We're most definitely looking for a house, 3-4 bedrooms with a nice garden (or a nice park around the corner) and it can cost about $2500-3500 (maybe a bit more for the right house) a month. Husband will work in Manhattan and it can't be more than an hours commute away. As a stay at home mum, it's all about the little one and we'll hopefully find lots of activities locally to do together. I'm thinking along the lines of Desperate housewife kind of road.

So now what are you suggesting?

Englishmum

My husband transferred to the NYC office also in April and I flew over with him for a 'look-see' to find somewhere to live. The company put him up in an apartment for a month in East 52nd St (next to the East River). I had *one* day to find somewhere to live - he was starting his new job and 'didn't have time' to go househunting. I had to fly back to Singapore as my mum had flown out to look after the kids and fell off my bike into a monsoon drain, fracturing her wrist! We did find a house, so it can be done!

I honestly think you should check out the local towns in the area where I live (another expat who posts here is moving here next month). The schools in our town (Millburn township) are amongst the best in the nation and there are quite a number of nursery schools including Montessori. The commute is definitely less than an hour door-to-door to and from Manhatten and 15-20 mins to the international airport. There is also a local 'Foreigners' expat group with mostly Brits and Aussies. Believe me, I spent hours and hours checking out where to live when we moved to the States and we really lucked out. I was posting the exact same questions as you on the BE boards....and I met up with one respondent for coffee in Starbucks on the day we decided to scout out the town we're now living in.

I was initially horrified at the thought of NJ (think 'opening credits' for The Sopranos!) but it is very leafy around here with all the streets being tree-lined with oak and maple trees. There is also the huge South Mountain reservation skirting the town.

Suggest you google Maplewood NJ, Millburn, NJ, Summit NJ, Chatham and Madison NJ.

Is a relocation advisor helping you? The company hired one for us but she only knew about Manhatten.....