BEST place to live around NYC?

Question

I used to live in manhattan but moved to upstate new york when I got married, pregnent, and began my master's degree..

Now I am almost done with school, my baby is about to go to pre-school, I am getting job interviews in manhattan, and my husband is thinking to transfer to NYC...so we are going to move~~

But we don't want to raise our baby in manhattan...

we are thinking Westchester, NY or CT or NJ (hoboken?)

we can't afford million dollar houses...don't like too crazy high taxes....and we have to commute to manhattan...

we want house or townhouse or co-op around $500,000-$700,000 and great schools nearby and lively streets...

any recommendations?

Answer 1

Oh boy, not an easy one to answer. Ok, if you move to the Hoboken area you are close to the city, but you are going to pay top dollar, it's getting to be like being in the city, and I'm not sure about the schools.
Personally I like Westchester, you can find some areas that are easy access to the city and not that expensive, actually Rockland County, right next to it is a bit cheaper. But then you have to deal with the Tappan Zee bridge, which is one of the worst bridges if you drive. You might want to try Chappaqua, I know a lot of people like it there.
Conn. is very very expensive, but you have great schools, and you also have good transportation to the city.
Unfortunately your range of spending for something in the metro area isn't going to get you much, even in the burbs. You are better off looking for a co-op, a house close in will be way out of range. In Conn, you might want to look at Fairfield, it's the farthest out of the commuting towns,but you get more bang for your buck.
I personally don't like the school systems in NJ. I grew up there and haven't seen things change that much. I do live in Manhattan now, and have friends where you are talking about, so i do have some idea of what I'm talking about.
I suggest that you go on line, look at some of the bigger real estate agents in the areas. Get a copy of the NYTimes and see who they have listed for each of the areas, they don't just have NYC, and most of them have on-line sites. Why not start doing a search in each area, putting in the amount you want to spend, how many bedrooms and baths, etc and see what comes up. Start that way and you can narrow down to a State and go from there.
hope I was of some help.

Answer 2

Yonkers

Answer 3

Bergen County, maybe.