Queens moms

Anyone planning on staying in Queens long term? I was born & raised in Auburndale, DH & I lived in Bayside until Sept. 2012, when I was pg with DS # 2, and we bought a house in Commack. We thought we would love the "ultra suburban" living, but it is just not for us- at all. I still miss Queens so much, and I desperately want to move back. DH misses it too, but he thinks that more & more families are leaving Queens, and we will be heading in the opposite direction of everyone else. I have already been looking at houses in Whitestone, Bayside, & North Flushing/Auburndale. I went to St. Kevin's in Flushing, and that is probably where I would send my kids. So, are all the Queens families fleeing to suburbia? Or will be going against the grain? TIA!
Signed, depressed in Suffolk

Re: Queens moms

bellerose mom here. i grew up in bayside and would love to buy a forever home there, but the prices are really out of our range for what you get. whitestone too. its really unfortunate, because i am a queens girl at heart and really want to stay here. we love bellerose and may stay here long term, but would also like a bigger house. can't imagine moving too far out onto long island, though. I'm sorry you guys aren't happy in commack. that stinks.

Re: Queens moms

Meeeee!! I was born, raised, and still live in Queens--in fact, more or less in the area you mentioned. My kids go to Catholic school in the area too (you can FM me about that) and we are very happy.

It's funny, I ran into a guy a couple of weeks ago who went to school with my DH at that same Catholic school and whose kids went there until about two years ago when they moved to some "far away" place like Smithtown and he is unhappy too. He can't wait to move back one day.

We have a lot of friends and a great community here and really became a part of it once my kids started school. Our parents live locally too. We consider ourselves so lucky. It's true, many of our friends and family moved east several years back (mostly close-by in Nassau) but what does that matter to me? They're happy where they are, and I'm happy where I am

Re: Queens moms

Nope...not staying. We love our area (Beechhurst) but there is no way we could EVER afford a house here. EVER! A fixer upper down the road is 1.2 million. And this is the area we would love to stay in. We're both from Suffolk. And there are certain things we miss and certain things we want: A yard (that's bigger than the sidewalk), a garage, a driveway, parking lots, neighbors that are more than 18 inches away, not applying for middle schools, being able to just wash the car, have a bbq...these are just a few reasons why we want to go back. And our families are still in Suffolk. We'd like to be closer than 45 minutes away.

Don't get me wrong. We do love the easy access to the city, the parks are beautiful, the restaurants are abundant. We will miss those when we leave. I can definitely see why you'd want to move back. Especially if this is where you grew up. The whole area you are referring to is beautiful. And those are great neighborhoods, without a doubt. But for us, Queens was nice as couple but now that we have a child, we want a house and a house in this area is just not happening.

Message edited 1/4/2014 10:45:48 AM.

Queens moms

Born in Bayside, we now live in Astoria. DH and I have the talk about where were gonna end up, and most likely we will move to Bayside/Whitestone area. I would stay here in Astoria, but if we have more kids we will outgrow our place. The farthest east I will go is Manhasset, and that's pushing it lol.
I give you a lot of credit for moving out to Commack, I feel like its a big adjustment!

Re: Queens moms

DH and I are in the process of looking for a house. We currently live in Bellerose, I lived here for about 22 years and DH is originally from S. Ozone Park. I work in Bayside and he is in the city. We would LOVE to be able to purchase a home in Bayside, Whitestone, Howard Beech even Bellerose, ect but the prices for the homes are way out of our budget. We have been looking in Suffolk since the prices are somewhat in our range with so much more room. We'll see what happens I'm so torn but my heart will always be in Queens.

Re: Queens moms

I'm staying in Queens, as least for a while. I grew up here & am used to the area, also our jobs & family are close by so moving wouldn't be convenient right now. I really like our particular neighborhood too, it's not so congested as some other areas.

I think I would like to live in Nassau or Suffolk though. I like how things are more spread out & there are parking lots instead of having to find a spot on the street which I hate. I'd also like to get a home with a bigger backyard & a little more space from the neighbors, which I can't afford in Queens. So maybe someday.

Re: Queens moms

I liked growing up in Queens.

The best things about queens were the ones people complain about: neighbors & neighbors kids to play with without parents driving you to a planned playdate, ability to visit museums & the city by subway or bus, total lack of need for a car. We played in the neighborhood, not a fenced in yard.

The big negative for me growing up were the schools. We now picked a house with a great school district. We pay for it in taxes & size (the house is a lot older & smaller than a worse district).

Everything has its pluses and minuses.

Queens also has a fantastic rental market with huge apartments. I don't think everyone needs to own a house.

Re: Queens moms

DH grew up in Bayside and MIL and FIL still live there. We really like it there and think about moving to that area but we are currently in Westchester and DH works in Westchester so the idea of him having to take the bridges twice a day is what deters us but we'd move to Queens if it made logistic sense.

Re: Queens moms

Me! We live in Whitestone. Honestly the houses are so overpriced for what they are. We could be living in Huntington with a house double our size for what we paid. but DH and I feel like you. We wanted to stay in Queens.

My inlaws live in Auburndale and they watch my kids for me while I work and I think we are probably going to be sending them to St. Kevin's. So yes I guess we are going against the grain too by not moving to LI.

Queens moms

Me! We lived in Astoria until we found out I was pregnant. Had a great loft apt but not pracital size or price wise. We moved to Fresh Meadows 12 blocks from my in laws and a mile from where I grew up. I love being close to the city. Dd will go to private school in Bayside we have no desire to leave.

Re: Queens moms

We're in Forest Hills. And while we personally are moving to LI in the next year, there are SO many families here. Jackson Heights, Astoria and LIC are also really up and coming for families b/c of the close proximity to Manhattan.

Re: Queens moms

DH and I grew up in queens. We looked to buy in bayside/ little neck. The houses we were looking at were over 700k and needed ton of renovation. We both needed to work and needed my inlaws to watch kids for free in order to afford. We took our money to LI(Nassau) put down over 20%, had some cash to renovate, had a nice cushion left over. I'm a sahm and we will be able to pay mortgage off early. As much as I really do miss queens, it was not worth it to us. Our lives are much easier out here, we are not paying for private school, our neighbors are far from us, never have to worry about parking, etc

Would you consider Nassau county? DH and I agreed from the start no Suffolk county. Mentally it's too far lol

Message edited 1/4/2014 4:16:58 PM.

Queens moms

Grew up in Middle Village & Rockaway! Definitely staying in queens if we don't move out of state! I like being able to get into the city easily, getting to LI easily!

Queens moms

Thanks everyone! DH & I are almost positive we are going to move forward with going "home". Of course, it won't happen overnight. Our goal is to be back in Queens by the time DS starts Kindergarten in 2016. But that would be the absolute latest. It would be great if it were before that.

Re: Queens moms

I grew up in Whitestone and have lived in Bayside for 9 years....we have a coop because houses are too expensive in our neighborhood for us but DH will never leave Queens (he's from Woodside) and the elementary school DS goes to is one of the top 5 in the city...so we will be here happily.

Queens moms

I was born and raised in forest hills and currently live here with dd. I love the neighborhood but am moving to Long Island in a few months. I love how centrally located we are and it is a very family friendly neighborhood but Dh gave me a list of reasons to leave and I just couldn't argue. Unfortunately it seems many queens houses are much smaller but cost more. Plus the public schools (specifically high schools) leave a lot to be desired (and as a forest hills high school alumni I am also speaking from personal experience). It seems a lot of moms I speak to that live and queens say they will send their kids to private schools - and that's just not in the budget for us
Both queens and Long Island have advantages
I know I personally am going to miss queens but do think owning a home in Long Island makes sense for us right now

Queens moms

Both DH and I were born and raised in Whitestone. We currently live in the Beechhurst area of Whitestone and own a 1 bedroom co-op. houses in the area are so out of our price range, the only way we can afford to stay here is if we purchase another co-op and even that will run us close to $2800/month between the mortgage and the maintenance.

We are very torn on what to do whether we stay and go the 3bedroom co-op route or head out East. my family all lives in Whitestone or within 15minutes of it, so it would be hard to leave hem.

However, I am the one who is pushing DH to consider moving OOS just so we have somewhat of a chance to own a home with out killing ourselves to pay the mortgage. I think it's working DH actually said today that he would consider moving south in another 5-7 years!!!