Which NYC Suburb County is the Best Choice? Westchester NY vs Fairfield CT vs Bergen NJ
Considering moving out of New York City?
Does the biggest question arise which way should you go to?
Westchester County, NY versus Fairfield County, CT versus Bergen County, NJ.
This is a dilemma many New Yorkers have when the time comes for change from the glamorous New York city life to calm suburbs way of life.
Some of the best options you have are Westchester County NY, Fairfield County CT or Bergen County NJ
We intentionally do not include Long Island in our comparison, because that area will be subject to another article.
Should you move to Mamaroneck- Larchmont or White Planes, NY areas?
Should you take the little longer commute to Greenwich, Stamford, Darien CT areas?
Or the least convenient commute to Fort Lee, Tenafly, and Paramus Nj areas?
Choosing the best suburb to move in, usually takes time and many hours and even days in research before you are able to make a proper decision.
The most important factors will be the school districts because, most likely the reason why you're thinking to move out of New York will be the expansion of your family and the necessity of more space without increasing your budget to $15,000-$20,000 per month on rent or mortgage in NYC.
The second factor will be the commute time to New York City or in particular to Grand Central Terminal.
The third but not least important factor will be the property taxes in the city you are planning to move in.
And of course, we all know ones a person spends a few years in NYC his or her Food culture increases dramatically so for that reason we will mention the food culture in those 3 areas as a part of our comparison.
Here are some pros and cons of all three most popular counties New Yorkers are choosing from to move outside of New York City, Westchester County NY, Fairfield County CT, and Bergen County NJ
No matter what your decision is we at SITL Group with our licensed and experienced Real Estate agents are here to help you find the best home for you and your family and if you simply can't find it then our home renovation department will transform any property you choose into your dream home.
In order to narrow down the similar parts of both counties, we will compare the lower part of Westchester County starting from Mt Vernon, Yonkers, and New Rochelle to the White Planes area on the North with the lower part of Fairfield County starting from Greenwich, Cos Cob areas to Westport and New Canaan on the northeast and the closest to NYC area Fort Lee, Tenafly to the further out Paramus areas.
Commute time to NYC
Travel time from Westchester is definitely faster than the commute from Connecticut or New Jersey.
The fastest Metro-North travel time to Grand Central Terminal can be from 22 minutes from New Rochelle, NY, to 34 minutes from Rye station NY.
For comparison, the fastest Metro-North travel time from Fairfield County varies from 37 minutes from Greenwich, CT, to around one hour from Westport, CT.
Of course, all that depends on the specific time you'll be using the train and if it is an express train or not.
Now let's see the commute from New Jersey. The fact that you can't use any train to commute to the city but only a car or the slowest option, the bus makes the commute to NYC a nightmare. If your work is out of the rush hour you may be able to travel to midtown for 30-40 min from Tenafly or Fort Lee areas, but early morning commute and late afternoon way back you are looking at at least one hour and a half which puts Bergen County as the lease favorable option to move in from transportation point of view.
Overall depending on where exactly you work in Manhattan, the train commute will be more preferable to choose for your commute to NYC and can be the most important factor before you purchase a home in any of the three counties.
Next Factor is the taxes in Westchester, Fairfield, and Bergen Counties.
This is one of the really important factors if not the most important one said Rangel Nikolov Managing Partner at SITL Group because, in the long run, the thousands of dollars difference in the property taxes can bring a significant amount of money-saved or the opposite to the home buyers.
Property taxes in cities throughout Westchester County are higher than the taxes in Connecticut but Bergen county has the highest tax rate from all three counties.
As an example, let’s compare one million dollars homes in all three of them.
A house that costs a million in Scarsdale, NY the home buyer should expect to pay approximately $23,000-$31,000 in property taxes.
The difference in property tax depends on the municipality where your house is located.
For example, 54 Clarendon Road, Scarsdale NY sold for $989,000 with the school district Edgemont has real estate taxes of $30,025. While 26 Lawrence Road, Scarsdale, NY sold for $1,000,388 in school district Scarsdale has property taxes of $23,542.
Let’s switch our comparison to Fairfield County and see what the taxes are on similar houses. For example, in the Greenwich-Cos Cob area, CT a million dollars home has property taxes of around $7,300-$9,500. 17 Farley Street, Greenwich CT sold for $1,000,700 in North Street Elementary School district has real estate taxes of $8,995. And 33 Windsor lane, Cos Cob, CT sold for $1,080,630 in North Mianus Elementary School district has real estate taxes of $8,012. Now in Bergen County lets use the property at 511 Knickerbocker Rd Tenafly sold for $1,010.000 with property taxes of $25,400 and property in Teaneck at 735 Rutland Ave has the staggering property taxes at $42,000
So our conclusion for the property tax comparison is, you can still choose Westchester with higher than Fairfield County Tax rate because of the shorter commute to NYC, but Bergen County is at the bottom so far with the highest tax rate and longer commute from all 3 even if it is the closest to New York City.
The school districts.
When you look at Niche.com’s 2020 rankings of the Best School Districts in all three states New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey among the top 10 ranked school districts in CT are most of the school districts in lower Fairfield County where we focus our comparison.
Westport School District (CT) at Number 1, New Canaan School District (CT) at number 2, Darien School District (CT) at number 5, Weston School District at Number 6, and Fairfield School District at Number 9.
On the other hand among the top 10 school districts in New York state, the best ones are in Long Island, Upstate NY and a just two in Westchester County like Scarsdale Union Free School District (NY) at number 4 and Bronxville Union Free School District (NY) at Number 8.
Bergen County follows with 2 school Districts among the top 10 in New Jersey with Tenafly Public School District at number 5 and Northern Valley Reginal School District in Demarest NJ at number 6.
In out 3rd important factor comparison when choosing a home in the New York suburbs the win is for Fairfield County school districts followed by Westchester and Bergen County at number 2
The last factor in our comparison is the food culture in all 3 Counties.
Because if it's close proximity to NYC especially if you live around Fort Lee and Tenafly areas in Bergen County your best option will be to just drive to the city for the fine dining experience after taking under consideration the traffic won't be as bad in the diner time commute to New York City.
The second position in our food culture comparison will be definitely for Fairfield County, in particular, the Greenwich area where you can find many fine-dining restaurants and enjoy an exceptional variety of food in calm and romantic atmosphere by the marina in Greenwich.
We will highly recommend L'escale and Barcelona Wine Bar.
In all three counties, you'll find something that will attract you in and something that will make you skeptical about move into a certain area so at the end it is all personal preferences what is the best for you and your family when choosing your next home but we will give you our opinion for is the best suburb to move in out of NYC and this will be the Fairfield County with it's best schools, lower taxes, great food culture and the only downside little longer commute time if you're not able to afford the Greenwich area and you have to settle in Stamford, New Canaan or Westport areas.
When the time comes to make your decision between the shorter commute, lower taxes, better schools and the food culture in the next neighborhood to live in we are here to help you with your Real Estate needs and all of your home design dreams with our highly trained, experienced, and well-qualified professionals in the Real Estate and Construction.
SITL Group is a company with many years of experience in the Real Estate and Home Renovation and we are here to help our clients with everything they need for their new home out of New York City.
Reach out to us today for a free consultation, advice, or simply to share your future plans for finding the perfect home for you and your family and we will be happy to assist you with every aspect of it.
SITL Home Renovation and New Construction
203 550 4498
info@SITLgroup.com
2 Armonk st Greenwich CT
06830