Lower Westchester Market

I have 3 friends who live there, all with families. They like the commute, schools are good, still come to the city on the w/e. 2 were from Manhattan, 1 from Brooklyn. Only negative I heard was from one of the guys who said we have more privacy in our apt bdg than he does in his back yard, as the houses are quite close together. Sorry I don't have more info. HTHs

Sorry, I see now you were looking for *prices* :-\

do you mean state of the market or just general prices?
Most of lower Westchester is over 1 million for a single family home .. although you can find homes (very small starter) for 600,000.

When you describle lower Westchester make sure that you are looking at towns with good schools (Larchmont/Mamaronek are good examples ... also Rye, Scarsdale, Eastchester, Bronxville etc). You may find much cheaper prices in other neighboring towns but the schools are much worse.

If you want space - move to Connecticut. Actual property prices are not that much cheaper but property taxes are less than half. The school systems are just as good if not better and the state income tax is also lower.

A single family small hom would have texes of 8 - 9 thousand $ as whereas that same house would cost you almost $20,000 in taxes in Westchester.

The zoning mandates larger lots so you don't necessarily have lower purchase prices but you get more bang for your buck and pay much less in taxes.

If it were between Larchmont/Mamoronek and CT I would definately move to CT since the commute is not that much different.

If you really want to be close to the city then look at Bronxville or Eastchester. They are very nice towns and much closer to the city (Bronxville is like 20 minutes to Grand central).

I rented in Harrison near the Rye border before I bought in Harlem. As a bachelor, I felt out of place living there but the company I worked for was within walking distance- so I stayed for awhile. The property taxes are signficantly lower in Harrison than many of the surrounding towns due to a large corporate presence in Purchase (part of Harrison). Purchase is the headquarters for Pepsi and Mastercard as well as a signficant presence for Morgan Stanley and I know kraft had offices there too (although I am not sure that they are still there).

Pricing in Scarsdale will probably remain strong because of the schools, but I don't know if all of the other towns will remain as strong. I got the impression that towns like Harrison which had a lot of very long time owners cash out at the peak- so even with a tax rate lower than surrounding towns, the increases didn't seem substainable. Other towns such as Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Tuckahoe are great places to buy if your horizon is long term, but I am not sure about their current levels.