Need recommendation for NY(NYC) bedroom communities

[backandforth]

Hi all,

I have been tormented by this for a while. New job in state of CT, current house in NJ. Pay raise great, but commute is painful, and not eligible for relocation package (still "too" close). Plan to stay on this job for a while, but there is a decent chance to find another job in NYC again sometime down the road (5 years or so?) due to most of finance jobs are down there.

So we are looking for a new house in NY instead of CT, don't want to move again in another event of job change. We've looked at Westchester county and it is so freaking expensive. We have young children, want a safe neighborhood with great schools. This is sort of our "forever" home till they out to college.

Although I don't plan to work for another 10+ years, DH seem to be still really into his job so call it a quits for both of us and move to a LCOL area is out of question.

I looked all over realtor.com, and got sticker shock after sticker shock from all the towns I've looked. You can't buy a decent 1500-2000sqft house for much less than 900K, plus 20K+/year property tax. We sort of can "afford it" base on 2 income, but it's a huge risk to take if I want to retire early and spend more time with the kids. The housing price is even higher than 2006 now over there. I don't want to work 5 extra years just to live closer, but the commute is brutal, and I don't want to change job so soon again. (I know, I know, should have thought about this earlier)

If you have a good place to recommend, I would really love to hear it. Currently have looked at Scarsdale/Edgemont and many nearby towns along the rail line. I am about to get a heart attack. If it's relevant. Our current house worth about 500K, and we have about 200K in equity.

In short, house in NY, not NJ, not CT, Good school, decent commute to both NYC and CT. Not costing a huge sum

Thanks!

[tralfamadorian]

Why don't you rent for now? It sounds like there's a lot going on with your jobs and potential location changes in the future. And at the price range you are looking at typically rent << PITI&R.

[backandforth]

We have 2 very young kids, and two dogs, and an Au pair sometime in the near future, so it's gonna be a pain to move again and again, or to find a rental big enough to accommodate all.

We want to have some stability, and good location/school, and not insane commute(30-45 min one way not 1hour+), without breaking the bank (<5K/month all in). This seems to be impossible in the area.

[MrThatsDifferent]

I don’t want to tell you, you can’t have it all, I want to tell you, you can have it all, just not all at once. You’ve got hard choices to make here, each path forward you keep blocking. You want the big house, au pair, great commute, well, that’s going to cost you, simple. Either accept that, suck it up and do it or, get a new job. Or stick with what you have and find ways to endure the commute, maybe focus on what you’ll gain with ER? You have 3 options, choose and chalk it up to the sacrifices made short term for the longer term benefits. No one said this was easy and if FIRE was so easy, everyone would be doing it.

[tralfamadorian]

We have 2 very young kids, and two dogs, and an Au pair sometime in the near future, so it's gonna be a pain to move again and again, or to find a rental big enough to accommodate all.

We want to have some stability, and good location/school, and not insane commute(30-45 min one way not 1hour+), without breaking the bank (<5K/month all in). This seems to be impossible in the area.

Yes, rentals come with a risk that you will have to move. Ask for two year leases- most landlords will be happy to agree to those. And google-fu tells me that most of the rentals currently available in the towns you mentioned are large (3-5bed).

Here's one in Scarsdale, $4.4k/mo, 4bd (kids can share until au pair moves out), excellent schools, walking distance to public transport to get you into NYC in 35min.