Where to move a skiing family in NY?

70s Gore Kid wrote

 Queensbury, while low in taxes, used to have a low rent reputation due to all the motels, strip malls, and gas stations.

Low rent? Really? I don't get it. Truly don't.

Queensbury's commercial stuff is pretty much all in one area and it's sales tax income keeps our taxes low. The rest of the town is very nice. Don't see it's schools being secondary to any other ones mentioned.

Maybe people don't realize Queensbury arches all the way around to West mtn ( where I live) and the Hudson river and up to the shores of Lake George

I live in a subdevelopement and like it very much. No through traffic equals very, very low noise and safe streets for the kids to wander, great for walks, bikes. I moved here so my gal's son would have playmates without having to schedule play dates. He can just walk out the front door and play with friends down the street. There's tons of trails around here, Mtn bike, hike, atv all just out my door, right down to the river.

The Developer did a great job of leaving the forest stand here. My house is less than 15 years old and I have many mature trees. Most of my neighbors are blocked from sight by trees. Out my front windows, I have to look down the street to see any houses. The one across the street is completely blocked by his trees.

Here's an insight I discovered..... I would hesitate to buy a house on any road/street where the speed limit is above 30 mph. More than that creates substantial noise, unless one has a long driveway. My 'hood is extremely quiet, I like that. It's like living in the country.

Any house hunters should be careful not to max out their budget. Don't get stretched to thin as taxes are going to go up, maybe quite a bit.

HPD is right. Harv's stuck where he's at and that's not necessarily a bad thing for him. However, now maybe the time for Flatlanders to look into good jobs here with the Global Foundries chip fab plant and all its promise springing up in Wilton.

IF skiing tons of days at Gore were the motivation .....Myself, I would stay north of the Hudson so the drive to the mtn is short.

Wow, all these posts and no one got the obvious place to move to? Come on, it's Tupper Lake, home of the future Adirondack Club and Resort(ACR). Get in on the gorund floor before its to late. The developer promises he is going to start upgrading the ski area within 3 years or maybe 5 years after getting a permit from the APA. Tupper Lake is a nice little town, already has a school system, nice lakes etc. Taxes are a little high but don't worry the developer has promised that once his project gets going everyones taxes will be going down,  way down. Don't hesitate, get in before all the rich flatlanders arrive to build their Great Camps. I,m ready to buy a  lot just as soon as they are offered for sale, should be early next year, right after the APA issues a permit.

Some great stuff in the thread, will definitely read through it tonight.

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

...face it Harv with the wife and daughter's needs you ain't going anywhere. You said 5 years...by them you'll be hearing from both of them that your daughter has friends and ties to community life and if you moved she'd have to start all over as the new kid.

Anyway, keep the faith brother...false hope is better then no hope.

Just so everyone is clear on whether or not I'm delusional, I didn't take the original thread in this direction.  It got going this way because of a comment by ausable skier:

ausable skier wrote

Harv - you need to step up your game and commitment to a higher level - how is that you say I'm already driving 500+ miles a weekend.  I did that for 10 years until i decided to the sane thing to do was to just move to the mountain since the mountain was not going to move to me.  Given your electronic skills get a telecommute job and live here then you can ski during your lunch hours.

I know it's probably not realistic.  There are even more obstacles to this happening than I've laid out.  Best chance would have been to move before Neve was born, but even that wasn't simple for a variety of reasons.  

As I was walking Neve to school today, the situation was really striking, about how entrenched she is already in kindergarten. Hence my statement about a family being a democracy. We've all got to want it or it won't work.

entrenched she is already in kindergarten.

Harv, If you moved tomorrow, by late next week she would have new friends and would have forgotten her old ones...

With kids no democracy, pure dictatorship. Once you let kids make decisions your F'd. I know from experience..

still it's fun thread, always good to dream

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Highpeaksdrifter wrote

x10003q wrote

Any opinions on Clifton Park?  Many of my lift rides at Gore include people from Clifton Park. How about Mechanicville or Greenwich? These 2 would allow easy access to Bromley/Stratton/Magic.

The only thing Clifton Park has going for it is proximity, especially for state workers in Albany. It’s about 1 hr and 10 min to Gore and 2 hours to WF, Kmart etc.  Other than that it is a soulless suburban wasteland of perfect lawns and minivans.

Agreed. It's like the opening theme to "Weeds."

But if you ever get nostalgic for NYC Metropolitan traffic jams, Clifton Park is the place to go.

The answer to the Question "Where to move a skiing family in NY" is easy: Lake Placid.

The answer to the question, "If I really like where I live and my wife doesn't want to move and we're really comfortable here and we have a little cabin to use whenever we want that is spitting distance from Gore Mountain, but we don't want to drive all that way because it takes forever and is a waste of fuel, so I'm looking around for places that would get me closer to the mountains, where should I go?" is also easy:

Stay where you are.

Just get a more fuel efficient car (if gas prices are a concern) and when you're trying to decide if the 5.5 hours of driving is worth it, just ask yourself how you'll feel on Monday reading people's awesome trip reports and not being able to share in the stoke.  That should be enough motivation to last 5.5 hours.

+1 for Queensbury, I'm with Snowballs.  I live in a development, but am completely surrounded by trees, and can walk to my hot tub naked without any neighbors seeing me.   I can be on dirt roads and trails on my mountain bike 10 min. from my house, can hit west mtn for powder on a weeknight for a few hours when it snows, and down town Glens Falls is really coming around, great road riding in the area.  If the roads are clear, I can get to Gore in 35 min. and WF in 1 hr 15 min.  I don't even consider the mall and hotel strip to represent Queensbury.  My kids got a great education in Queensbury Schools.  
I really like where I live.  

Knowing Queensbury quite well, I can vouch for what Kirby & Snowballs both said - great place to live, especially raising a family.  Really Harv, you couldn't go wrong among Queensbury, Glens Falls or Saratoga.  

I also have to go along with what Jason said.  Much easier to move when kids are younger.  My family moved around quite a bit when I was young (3 or 4 times between K and 5th grade), and look at how normal I turned out.

JasonWx wrote

entrenched she is already in kindergarten.

Harv, If you moved tomorrow, by late next week she would have new friends and would have forgotten her old ones...

Yep, exactly Jason. In "general", parents get all mist eyed, emotional, worried to death about the wee one. In reality, a week or so later all is perfectly fine. Parents can and do make it alot worse for the child by being overly concerned, negative in front of the child about relocating. In fact, it's best to move when they are younger.

@ 70s Gore Kid....Do you think Queensbury is just rt 9 and Quaker rd ? Over by my house it's all woods, nature preserves, mtns, trails by a long stretch of the Hudson - all woods. In fact, except for 2 red lights at exit 18 and 2 more at exit 19 all immediately adjacent to the Northway, there are no other redlights on this side of Queensbury(west of 87) all the way to Warrensburg. Plus I can be on the Northway in 5 minutes, zooming off to my destinations.

The commercial developement on rt 9 and Quaker road is a blessing. All the big dollar commerce is there and their sales tax revenue keeps our taxes low.

70s Gore Kid wrote

 One other issue when choosing a town:  its name.

Good point. I sure wouldn't wanna live next to Gore in Sodom, NY. Talk about a BF town.  

Sodom and Goremore-a. Hehehe.

Not a good place for a Lot....just ask him!!!

Anyway, there are many fine areas up here to live. Each likes their own area and people will decide what their own criteria are. Close to work or close to family or close to the hill? Live in the midst of developement for culture or a more private area and just drive to entertainment ?

Someone mentioned the country area between Toga and Glens Falls. It is very nice.

Stay away from downtown Hudson Falls to Fort Edward and beyond. The area is loaded with massive PCB contamination even under the homes and towns from the GE plant. Plus GE gave away PCB laden oil that the Road departments and private citizens used to dump on the roads to keep down the dust. PCBs are under alot of those homes, in their lots and under other buildings. It's amazing how much contamination is over there. Word.

70s Gore Kid wrote

One other issue when choosing a town:  its name.

Swastika New York, located near the Adirondack Park Preserve in the northeast corner of the state, is adjacent to "Swastika Road".

Its in Clinton County. The first time I saw the sign I had to turn around, go back and make sure I was reading it right.

I kinda dig Virgil NY...Greek Peak right here, 2hrs to Gore and 4hrs to The Face

If you're going to pull the trigger, sooner is better than later. It's much tougher to move a kid in middle school or HS especially 4-5 hours away. They will know they will hardly ever get a chance to go back.

As for the cost, if your are far enough north, you could consider selling the cabin to buy a nicer place. A nicer place will hel p sell the wife on the idea.

As for the fuel usage, forget about a more fuel efficient car and take the train to the hill!

tom

Harvey44 wrote

We talk about this all the time. Funny thing about our family... it resembles a democracy.

I really would dig Glens Falls.  Seems like my kinda place. I'd be hitting 60 days a year if I lived there.

Well Harv, you asked for it. Now that we've all told you where you and your family should live what do you take away from it?

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Well Harv, you asked for it. Now that we've all told you where you and your family should live what do you take away from it?

Prediction: Not happening. Despite the bad rap, NJ has loads of lovely places to live and Harv happens to live in one of these places.

Actually if money were no big object Lake Placid would seem  to be the place to be. Great mountain owned by NYS and all sorts of facilities around town, lots of young people with energy/enthusiasm, great restaurants, back yard is the High Peaks. Lake Placid(the lake itself) is fabulous, stunning views of the back of Whiteface. Water tends to be a little cold and its usually rough because of so much boat traffic, but a great assest.

Highpeaksdrifter wrote

Well Harv, you asked for it. Now that we've all told you where you and your family should live what do you take away from it?

Actually, if you look back through the beginning of this thread, and the original, I didn't ask for it, but I've really enjoyed this thread. Unless you're implying that I asked for it by breaking out the thread.  Based on the response, it looks like that was probably a good move.

A few comments. First the democracy is really Zelda and I. Neve is important, but too young to make those kinds of decisions.  It's my opinion that you can't make such a big decision without buy-in from your wife/spouse.  That's just me.

Interesting to see the very divergent opinions on the same towns.

Funny thing about Lake Placid, while it's about the same distance from Gore as Saratoga etc, it would seem weird to drive right past Whiteface to ski. (Kidding, sorta).  There's a company in LP that I would LOVE to work for - maybe I convince them to set up a North Creek or Glens Falls office.  (Again kidding, sorta).

Saratoga/Springs/Greenfield Center ... I assumed (admittedly without any real info) that it would be the most expensive place to live on 87 north of Albany.  We don't really need a big house, but would want to go 1-for-1 on price (or better) with the old house versus the new one.  We've got about 65% equity in our existing house (meaning we owe about 1/3 of what it is worth at today's price) and it would be ideal to take the equity we got and reduce (or eliminate) the amount we owe. I'm getting to be an old dude (53) and would be even older if this ever happened.  With college cost staring at me when I'm REALLY old this may all be a pipe dream.

I don't really need a ton of privacy at home or a big lot. We live in a very small town (walk to everything except no grocery store). Houses are old (1850-1930), close together with small small lots. (Our house is 1100 sq ft).  We like it, but it's also the reason we built the cabin so far from the road - it is our private place. Can't see any lights at night (awesome stars!), and hardly hear any noise except the occasional dynamite blast from Bartons.

Tupper Lake? Hmm.

Fuel efficiency - it's a priority, but always going to need AWD.

Our property taxes would probably blow you North Country folk away.  No matter where we moved I think we'd pay less in property/school tax.

I don't consider myself "stuck" by any means.  There's a lot a prejudice against NJ, but personally I like everything about our situation except the distance to the mountains.  The town we live in is really nice, with lots of young families who are proud to live here.  I've got job security that's about as good as it can be. I'm not kidding myself - anyone can loose their job - but in the last 3 years I was never really in danger, and we've cut 30% of our employees. I walk to work, have good insurance, and wear sneakers and a tea shirt 95% of the time.  I love my work too.  I've learned things working on NYSkiBlog that help me on the job and visa-versa.

TomCat - the cabin is not intended to be a permanent home. It's designed to be an outbuilding behind/next to a main house that would be built where the bathroom is. That is why the two buildings are separate.

HPD = epic thread starter. Thx.

Harv,
Well said, makes me want to move to NJ..no joke...
I enjoy some of the highest property and school taxes in the nation..
If you have a decent sushi and Chinese joint in you town, I would  stay put..

I also find that xm/sirius radio takes the sting out long drives..

Harv not sure where you live in NJ but lets say your NJ house is worth 500k could sell your place down there and given your 65% equity buy a nicer and larger place in Jay or Warrensburg or some other small ADK town for $200-250k in cash and bank another $100k - boom right there you already have college paid for if you invest that 100k in a NYS 529 tax free plus take a deduction on your state tax for the contribution and you won't have any mortgage payments anymore

If you move to the burbs of GF or Saratoga your house would cost much more so the net savings would not be there