robin1234

Not sure what your point is here. OP said her husband would want to fly to domestic destinations for business. Westchester County Airport would give such access, with direct flights to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Charlotte and many other destinations. I think everyone knows what JFK, La Guardia, Newark do, but they are harder to get into and out of, and not necessarily close to where you want to live.

porkedpie

[QUOTE=Rete;13170971]A lot depends on the city chosen and the size of the house. I have never called Cortlandt, Cortlandt Manor. Neither do we call Briarcliff, Briarcliff Manor. I lived in lower Westchester for 68 years.
/QUOTE]
I'm sure that's right, but your audience is someone who is going to search the internet for it, not someone who's lived there for decades, so at least the final "t" is useful

I am much earlier in my NY experience, but I have to say, coming to a similar conclusion. There *might* be places where we could stretch to the house prices, but the property taxes would at best be a daunting commitment, and at worst become totally unaffordable. Property tax is one of the big differences between UK and the US, so while other responders have already mentioned it, I want to emphasize it to Moodyfamily. Buying near NY or [especially] in NJ, it effectively reduces your purchasing power by around 20%. They should be listed on the ads, so definitely check those as you browse.

porkedpie

Cortlandt and Cortlandt Manor are adjacent places. Cortland is upstate near Ithaca and not commutable to NYC

tht

No need to apologize… I just wanted to point out the reality because unless you live on the train platform or very close (our town now has commuter Apts that are walkable to the Metro trains station (but not much else other a few businesses on the ground floor) but would mean only 1 car is needed.

In terms of airports I use Westchester and Bradly now where I can for places like Chicago and Florida but the destinations are very limited. For context I was a weekly commuter via Newark (EWR) when we lived in Williamsburg Brooklyn for nearly 2 years , and just getting to the airport was double subway ride followed by a train to the air train to the terminal because traffic is way to unpredictable (I was commuting international back to London ironically) so if OP’s husband is flying weekly or more I would look much close to an airport that serves all required destinations.

If I was the OP I would actually consider living in an APT in NYC until the children reach school age… we got to do so much more living in NYC than we do now in the burbs and if they were to live UES or UWS near Central Park they would be close to lists of open space. Then they could visit different suburbs to see what they like before moving… our house hunt took nearly 2 years between being outbid on properties so we did not overpay. You are also likely to get more visitors from home if you live in the city than the burbs… my sister in laws sister flew over one weekend (on virgin staff busy pass) to stay in our apt and watch our dog while we were away. And my wife’s assistant would do the same in the summer to stay in apt with AC while we would travel…

Pulaski

I knew that, I just mistyped it.

Moodyfamily

Thank you all so much, fantastic information coming through for us! We'd definitely want to be out of the city centre coming from our chosen rural lifestyle in the UK and always choosing space over inner city life we'd most definitely be renting and proximity to airports that have efficient access seems like very useful place to start. Thank you for highlighting some of the details there.

PetrifiedExPat

OP, make sure combined income is at least 300k, or I should say, that what I would want at least to move where you are thinking. Each person is different.

Be prepared to spend a few million on a house.

tht

I think you need to define “rural” we have under 1/2 an acre and we would be “suburban” here and it’s a town of 50k plus… the only neighborhood that “rural” in my town is Greenfield Hill. That’s bigger lot sizes up to 5 acres but that’s multimillion $ mansions… Rural here in Fairfield CT would mean Easton or Weston, or further inland… but that would mean a longer commute, and likely well water and septic and no fiber internet… no walking to school etc…

tht

I think you need to define “rural” we have under 1/2 an acre and we would be “suburban” here and it’s a town of 50k plus… the only neighborhood that “rural” in my town is Greenfield Hill. That’s bigger lot sizes up to 5 acres but that’s multimillion $ mansions… Rural here in Fairfield CT would mean Easton or Weston, or further inland… but that would mean a longer commute, and likely well water and septic and no fiber internet… no walking to school etc… and bears and coywolves etc….

Moodyfamily

Apologies for any confusion, I meant it in the context of where we are coming from and the type of family we are and therefore would not want an inner city apartment as mentioned earlier in the thread. Suburbia is fine! ... Narrowing it down to a state/airport etc is plenty enough detail for now as relocation is another 9m away at least thanks again everyone.

Olly_

Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn/Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Madison (towns on the Morris & Essex NJ Transit line basically) in Northern NJ are worth a look - they're nice suburban towns with direct train service to Penn station and close to Newark airport too.

DualMomma

Anything on the NorthEast Corridor Line in NJ, north of Hamilton Junction will be easily commutable into NYC, and to EWR airport. Also probably more cost effective than similar nice areas of CT, NY.

There are some very nice small towns that have a strong family, community feel. One in particular that is very up and coming and thriving is Metuchen, NJ . It is on the direct train into Manhattan and only 20 minutes from EWR via train or car. Very strong community spirit, great school system. It was a semi-finalist on the Best Small Towns in America list.

Other small towns that have a "UK feel" are Westfield, Hightstown, Princeton (expensive, though), Cranford, Maplewood, Robbinsville. All are commutable to NYC and easy to get to EWR. Don't pooh-pooh New Jersey. It is a beautiful state once you get outside of the "Industrial" area close to the airport and docks (I-95 junctions 13-16).

porkedpie

Good suggestions. Essentially it boils down to working down the NJ transit map as far as you can accept for travel time purposes and cross-matching with Zillow (which also has school ratings).
There's only a few areas that are *not* pleasant really, in particular close to Newark, Orange spring to mind.
I'm less familiar with places along the Northern lines (Pascack Valley Line, Bergen Line, Main Line) and those spots are getting fewer mentions here too so maybe less nice. But stops on Montclair Boonton, Morristown, Gladstone , Raritan Valley and Northeast Corridor lines are full of nice spots.

(I would say Hightstown or Robbinsville are stretching the definition of commutable though).

Moodyfamily

Thank you all

Babita

Hi OP - Doing our own search on NY things and saw your post. I haven't read through all but if you're still looking for info and considering Westchester, there are also towns that are along the train lines near Scarsdale/Eastchester/Tuckahoe and others that are near Mamaroneck/Larchmont/Pelham. Some of these towns have housing close enough to the train station to walk, and express trains that get commuters down to Grand Central Terminal in 30-40 minutes, depending on which town and which express train. Most of these towns have very good school districts. There are a lot of playgrounds/parks around but also nature centers (like the Greenburgh Nature Center, for one) or Bear Mountain Park or Rockefeller State Park for short drives up towards the more mountainous areas. There are short drives to the water along the coastline near Rye, NY and Greenwich, CT. Or you could drive to the beaches at the Jersey shore in NJ (Cape May for one) or on Long Island (Robert Moses or Jones Beach). Or you could drive up to Upstate NY, up by Hunter Mountain, Auburn or Syracuse or Skaneateles for fields and lakes or skiing. It's all doable. Off the top of my head, there are several airports in an easy driving distance from Westchester -- Westchester County Airport (HPN), LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark (EWR); JFK airport is a little bit further, but doable and another choice when looking for flights. We moved to the area from the UK over a decade ago and love it. I've added these various names of towns and beaches, etc., to give you some reference points should you want to create a map for yourself. That helped us tremendously in our moving. If you haven't already made the move since February -- Good luck!