Moving to Albany
Hi, we currently live in the southern part of NY state and my husband has accepted a new position with his current company in Albany. He is able to work remotely in the beginning so we are not planning on moving until a few months from now, hopefully after #2 arrives in May (one less thing to worry about if I don't need a new OB and hospital!).
We plan on taking a bunch of day/overnight trips up there in the coming months but we've been researching possible areas to look at and I'd love input from some people who actually live there. I talked to a friend who's a single guy and lives in Albany, he gave me great info, but I'd love to get some moms/families perspectives too.
Our biggest concerns are ease of commute (the long commute he has now is the main reason we are leaving this area- he drives an hour + each way) and good schools (seems like there are a bunch of options here). I'd prefer to be in walkable neighborhood where it will be easy to meet some neighbors since ill be SAH for the first few months. Neither of us wants to be in too rural an area nor do we want a ton of land. We'd ideally like to have DH's commute be 30 mins or less; he'll be working kind of near albany medical center.
After talking to my friend, we are interested in Loudonville, Latham, and Colonie. We were interested in Bethlehem (the delmar area seems nice and similar to where we live now which i like a lot) and niskayuna as well but he says these would be more of a pain to commute from. I'd love input from anyone who actually does this commute! He also felt like most of guilderland and east greenbush would be too rural for us, but they seem like they are located close by with good schools as well so if anyone is familiar with these towns give me your thoughts.
Clifton park has been suggested to us as well,, but seems far to me. What would the commute be like from that area? Anything else I should add to my list? Thanks!
Re: Moving to Albany
Commuting here is no problem compare to other places. My family is from right outside Philly and I forget how little traffic there is up here. With that said, if you go north of the "Twin Bridges," especially if working normal business hours, there will be a a lot of traffic. That would be places like Clifton Park and Saratoga.
Everything else is my list will definitely be an under 30 min commute. These are our top choices with reasons why.
1 Loudonville/Lathamnice area, great schools, lots of shopping plazas, tons of parks/playgrounds, very low taxes! The downside is that home prices are higher.
2 Delmarsame as above but has higher taxes.
3 Guilderlandthere are some parts that are rural but it is very suburban and affluent; it is kind of far from my school so that's why it's lower on the list, big mall here.
4 Clifton Parkthe lowest taxes we've found and tons of suburban neighborhoods, biggest school district in the areas though, there are 10 elementary schools, my husband keeps pushing CP and I really like it but it is a tad far for me for work.
5 Voorheesvillemaybe a stretch bc of distance and rural areas but it has great schools and is a small town.
Anything in Rensselaer county has high taxes. Albany is better and Saratoga county even more so! Also, personally, I am avoiding Colonie. The school is big and a little rough in my opinion despite great taxes and decent home prices.
I hope this helps!
thanks! It does help. I thought colonie, Latham and loudonville are all the same school district? I know there is north colonie and south colonie, are you referring to south colonie? Or the indivual elementary/middle schools? I'm assuming they'd all go to the same high school if they are all the same district.
I work in the North Colonie School District and it's definitely one of thebest, if not the best district in the area. This is a part of latham/loudonville, which is a great place to live, close to albany and saratoga. I know guilderland also has great schools and is very close to albany. Bethlehem is very similar to guilderland and also very close to albany. I love Niskyuna too, the schools are great, it's close to albany, however, the taxes are extremely high.
I would stay away from clifton park, but that is just my opinion. I grew up there, went through the school system and absolutely hated it. It's way too big, too many students and you get lost in the shuffle if your not a huge athlete. The town has also tripled since I've been there and the traffic is unreal.
Good luck with your move! and new little buddle of joy
Yes! Thank you all. After our preliminary search online we really liked Bethlehem, but my friend kind of burst my bubble about it by saying the commute wouldn't be that great.
Sounds like we are going to focus on that area, north colonie, guilderland, and niskayuna. I can't wait to actually take a trip up and get a better sense of what everything's like- it all seems a little overwhelming right now!
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I would be careful with Niskayuna. It's a beautiful place with great schools, but it has super high taxes anywhere in Schenectady county has high taxes, and it's not easy to get to for commuting purposes.
Thanks! We went up there last weekend. We didn't make it to Latham or Clifton park so I'm not sure about those but so far we like guilderland, Bethlehem/delmar, and east greenbush the best. Some areas were more rural than I expected but they are all so close to DHs job that it will be a good balance.
Most of loudonville seems to be higher prices than what we are looking to spend for the size house we'd like. Niskayuna was nice but due to higher taxes and further commute we are starting to focus less on that area as well. Latham again seems like there's not as much of the exact type of home we're hoping for but taxes are so low that we're keeping our eyes open.
A few of DH's coworkers live in CP, and told him the commute isn't bad, so he wants to keep it on the list. It definitely seems a lot more affordable than the other areas.
All in all we are excited about the move, it seems like a nice area with lots of good options!
this is my concern about this school district too. DH went to a very large high school (750 per graduating class) and it doesn't bother him at all. I guess we'll have to think about it more once we see the area and decide if we'd want to live there.
district but they change schools and get nicer as you go down and
Krumkill Road. We had looked there also but settled for South Colonie as hubby went there himself.
DELMAR!! I'm actually in a similar situation as you. My husband accepted a job transfer from Middletown (Orange County) to Kinderhook/Valatie area. We *just* moved here on February 1st... and we absolutely LOVE it here. We have a daughter in kindergarten and the school district here (Bethlehem) has been FANTASTIC so far. We moved here from a very poorly rated school district (Fallsburg CSD) and the change was like night and day. It's about a fifteen minute drive to Albany. There seems to be a lot of community involvement here.
If you're interested in finding a good real estate agent, we used Kirsten Blanchard over at Coldwell Banker in Delmar and she was wonderful to work with. Good luck with your search!!
we live in Orange County! DH currently commutes to northern NJ so really anywhere up there will be a huge improvement commute-wise. Glad to hear you're liking it so far. Thanks for the real estate rec, we actually have one we were given through our relocation company, so we're gonna at least give her a shot first.
And....after talking with the real estate agent CP is definitely off the list, mainly for traffic reasons.