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Upstate NY Babies
Albany suburbs/good schools and neighborhoods
Hi Ladies!
I live in Alexandria, VA with my husband and two boys (ages 3 and 8 months.) My husband is considerign a transfer to Albany, NY but neither of us has every been there and we know nothing about the area. We are going up to visit after Xmas. Can anyone provide any information about cities/towns to look at? We are looking for a family-friendly, safe, suburban neighborhood with great schools. (My parents are in NJ, so we are particularly interested in living south of Albany to be closer to NJ, but are considering all suburbs.)
Any info anyone can provide would be so helpful! We are also looking to meet with a realtor when we go up to house hunt (the week between Xmas and New Year's) if anyone has any referrals.
Thank you so much!
Nancy
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Albany suburbs/good schools and neighborhoods
My family is from Jersey and I live in the Capital Region now and the commute down to NJ isn't bad at all.
If you are looking south of the city, I would suggest Delmar, Glenmont and Slingerlands. I lived in Delmar about 10 years ago but I thought it was a cute town. The school district is Bethlehem, which is good.
If you are looking for north of Albany, I would suggest Latham and Loudonville. Latham is kinda like every big northern NJ town - no real downtown but shopping galore. Loudonville is smaller. They are both in the North Colonie School District. Taxes are lower here.
Guilderland is also a good town/school district.
Here is a listing of the school districts by ranking: https://www.albany.com/news/school-rankings/
Good Luck!
Delmar is definitely nice if you want to be south. I will say that being in a north suburb will only really add 10-15 minutes to your drive to NJ.
With Latham/Loudonville you could end up in South Colonie Schools. They are good, but North is definitely better. And Guilderland is good too!
A little farther north is Clifton Park which has tons of shopping and restaurants, etc. and a HUGE school district (Shenendehowa). Lots of nice homes.
I live in Niskayuna, which is north and a few minutes west. It is a great area, suburban with some stores and restaurants but no major malls or anything. Those are only 15 minutes away though. For school district you can't beat it in this area. Taxes are a bit higher here but worth it IMO. There are some homes in Colonie that have lower taxes and are in the Niskayuna school district, too.
FWIW, I have two friends in the area who are selling their homes. One in Loudonville (S. Colonie schools) - a 3 br/2ba split ranch. Other in NIskayuna also a split ranch 4br/2 and 1/2 ba with pool and jacuzzi and movie room. I can get you more info if you are interested!
The other two girls have great advice!
I guess it depends if you are looking for a busier part of town too. I live in Guilderland, which is a little quieter, but there are plenty of really nice developments, and the schools are good (which is why we chose it).
I would browse through some listings to get an idea of prices and what you get for your money. Try TimesUnion.com, RealtyUSA.com.
I moved up from Long Island about 10 years ago, it was an adjustment, but albany has grown quite a bit, so the suburbs are much like any other.
Keep us posted, I would love to hear how your trip to Albany goes.
Nest Bio ~ ~ Baby Food Blog
Everyone mentioned some great towns. Another thing to consider is where exactly your DH's office will be. For some companies, their "Albany Office" is not even in Albany, but possibly in one of the neighboring towns. Gaining access to the Northway can typically be easy from any of the towns mentioned, so it won't necessarily add too much on to your trip to NJ.
Good luck! Let us know if we can help answer any more of your questions after you've had a chance to visit.