How did you decide where to buy your house?

So we're talking about areas to live. We currently live in Riverhead, and DH's prospective job may require that we stay living in Riverhead Township, but if he doesn't get that job, we're going to move back west (as DH currently works in Queens). We would like to stay in Suffolk.

Obviously we want somewhere with good schools for DS.

What other criteria should we look at and consider when deciding where to look?

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

We wanted to stay in the area where we grew up. We grew up in Kings Park and are now in Smithtown.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Proximity to family and available houses in the style we liked.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

We wanted to be in Nassau, close to the city, close to beaches and near good shopping and restaurants. Plus, it's the area DH grew up and we both love it.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Posted by laurabora

Proximity to family and available houses in the style we liked.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

For us it was proximity to public transportation and the LIE. We really wanted to live on the Port Washington train line and we wanted to be close to the LIE so that really narrowed it down to Great Neck and Manhasset. We ended up going with Manhasset because we got a good feel from the community, we like the house styles and just generally thought it would be a nice place to live.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Closeness to family, school district and distance for DH to drive to work. So, we are staying in our current town (Patchogue) and DS will be going to Bayport. The house we are buying is in Patch, but Bayport schools.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

we wanted to be close to my family and not so close to his!

Seriously, Suffolk county, good school rating, good resale value, sidewalks, near the Northern state and LIE, near train station, etc.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

We wanted to stay somewhat central, so we picked S. Huntington.

We loved the area, local parks, convenience to shopping and parkways, love the village . We are on almost 1/2 acre, so I am not on top of my neighbors.

The School district is great, yeah maybe not "the best" on LI if you look at stats, but I know plenty of people who have children in the school district and rave about it.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

SD was #1 for us since we plan on staying where we are for at least 10-15 years

we also did drive throughs in the area we saw houses we liked... just to see what the neighborhood was like at different times during the day

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

We ruled out houses because right now, we just didnt want the upkeep of them and the backyard was not going to be a huge importance to us... at least not right now being that we dont have kids and arent planning them for a while.

So we started looking at condos. There arent that many developments to choose from on the island. Lots more co-ops but we didnt want that. So right there, our towns were limited.

We couldnt afford Nassau so we tried to stay in Western Suffolk. We looked into Ronkonkoma, Holbrook, and Holtsville. There are some in Medford, Middle Island as well, but we didnt want to go that far. And plus, the SD's are not the greatest.

We ended up choosing Holbrook. It has the Sachem SD which is pretty good. The taxes on the condo were low (3k with star), and its a straight run on the LIE... something with DH needed bc his job is in Jericho and traffic is horrendous to begin with.

PS: Even if you dont plan on having kids in school while in this house, its better to get into a good SD regardless because it'll have a better resale value! Plus, you never know how long you're going to be staying or whether you have a surprise baby!

FYI... I just heard that the town of huntington is offering a 1st time homebuyer down payment assistance program. That may be something to look into. Town of babylon had this as well, but the money for it ran out.

ETA: Didnt read your entire post... I see you already have a child and prob not a 1st time homebuyer lol... Sorry... but this info could help others out as well...

Message edited 10/8/2009 10:12:36 AM.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Location, location,location.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

DH grew up in KP and me in Smithtown. I work in Smithtown, he works in Queens. His mom is in KP and our best riends (we hang with daily and rely on for sitters and emergencies) are in Smithtown. Everything pointed to these 2 towns, and they both have great school districts. We looked in both and ended up in Smithtown.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

1. Proximity to those I am close to. (This meant South Shore for us)
2. Decent School District (We preferred something smaller)
3. Nice neighborhood (Well kept homes, healthy main street)
4. Strong community. (Lots of town sponsored activities and community events, well kept recreation areas, town support of the schools and local teams).

All of these criteria were equally important to me. I had a good idea of what town I wanted to begin with. I drove through a number of other also-ran neighborhoods that really seemed to fit the bill as well, but had my heart set on where I eventually wound up (Sayville).

Message edited 10/8/2009 11:30:01 AM.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

we could afford it.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

The most important thing was the commute.
DH has a business in massapequa, I work there as well.
Even though there is no guarantee we would stay at that office for a long time, believe it or not we found brand new office space down the block thats being built right now.
So He will be signing a 5 year lease and we will be a block closer now!

Personally being close to work is the best thing for DH, its 1 mile away, and he is home in 5 minutes, its pretty great!

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

Location and price.

We live 1.5 miles from the train station. 2 miles from a mall. 2.5-3 miles from LIE/NS. 1.25 from another major road South of us.

Our house is a Levitt house. It's not the biggest and updated but it's on a huge corner lot for the area. We have 4 bedrooms and 1 garage. We should be able to manage.

I don't plan on leaving anytime time soon.

DH commutes to the City. We have 3 train lines coming through the train station.

We live in Hicksville by the Levittown border.

For us to move out East would imply A LOT more commute for DH. I would get a bigger house but

1/ I don't need it
2/ We looked into the commute of one of his train buddy in Ronkokoma. It would add a minimum of 37 minutes each way. And add commute to train station. Unless you find a nice location like our house 1.5 miles from LIR. Close but far enough from the train. So probably another 2 hours per day for DH to spend commuting. Not worth it for us! I prefer to see DH and have him play with DS instead of spending time in the train/car.

That works best for and in our price range.

Message edited 10/8/2009 5:36:12 PM.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

We looked for property with a nice yard, near a train line as I was working in the city 10 years ago when we bought, DH wanted to stay in Nassau since he works in Queens, we didn't want to be on top of strip malls and highways, but wanted to be close enough so we didn't need to travel 20 minutes to a supermarket, and we wanted to be close to the water, as DH has a boat, which we will eventually get in the water While school district was important for re-sale, it wasn't at the extreme top of our list since we bought before we even were married, and we knew our kids would go to parochial or private schools (which they do now).

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

School district was number 1, along with proximity to work and family. We didn't want houses on top of each other, and didn't want to be very close to a major road/airport.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

we took re-sale value into consideration, as well as a sense of community. proximity to sushi was a careful consideration as well. we're buying in Bay Colony.

Re: How did you decide where to buy your house?

HI Jill:

We are checking out Holtsville and Holbrook Sunday. Primary research suggests they are both Thumbs up. My cousin lives in Holtsville and I am hopping she gives us a tour. Call me Sunday evening.

Sue