Moving to New York city.

[Howtohideasausage]

There’s potential for me, my partner and three primary age children to move to NY, would probably be the end of this year.

I have been to NYC, but as a tourist and I don’t really know the areas that well. People we know who live there say rent is very high (we have a house in London we can rent out) and that schools are variable.
We won’t be using private schools.

Are there areas people can recommend? I don’t know exact budget, but we would want three bedrooms.

Are public schools generally ok? Or is it dependant on area?

Thanks.

Hi, can i join as i have v similar questions. My ex and I are planning on him taking our 12 and 11 year old for 9 months to experience NYC as he is relocating. We will then decide what to do next. We don't live in the UK currently. It works for us as I travel more with my job and can work remotely there every 6 weeks for 2 weeks.

He will have about 14k a month take home, plus around 30k towards school fees.

I am trying to persuade him to live out of manhatten. He will probably need a home help too. I have sent him the areas suggested by allfurcoats.

Any recs for private schools or good state schools in NJ or Conneticut? A busy good school with a great community would just be perfect

@Bansheed Where will he be commuting to? As I mentioned in a previous post, if it's the (roughly) the east side of Manhattan, then he'll want CT, for the west side he'll want NJ.

$30k is not going to pay two lots of school fees - maybe enough for one child if you're lucky. The private schools near me cost $50k-$65k per year unless you're religious and going for Catholic school.

Have a look at Greenwich in CT and Montclair in NJ. You could likely get an ok 3 bed for $5-$6k per month.

14k/month take home is plenty! 30k would be about 3/5th of one child's private schooling, if you can get into one and depending on when this happens (school year is Sept-June, so 9 months. Summer holidays are a solid 3 months for private schools, and ideally you don't want to put kids in camp for 3 months and school for 6 months).

14k should be enough for rent, private school top-up and a babysitter to do after-school. He and the children can live in a decent 3-bed in any of the listed neighborhoods with this lifestyle. Assuming healthcare / visas etc not an issue.

Thanks, both l. Late here. 30k per child and I can top up too. Very reassuring. I will pass this on to him and maybe DM you in the next week. Thank you SO MUCH.

@Bansheed - what would happen if your Ex and your children love life in NYC so much that they want to make the move permanent? It's quite possible that, after a year or even less, a local judge would consider the children 'settled' there.

Would you qualify for a working visa in your own right? Would you even want to live in the US?

You might want to start your own thread if this might be a concern for you.

If he's def going suburbs, it might be helpful to start a new thread. Those of us in Manhattan/NYC proper are going to have zero advice to give on stuff like suburban property taxes, HOA fees and car insurance.

I mean, I can try, but it would probably be disastrously wrong 😂.

Those of us in Manhattan/NYC proper are going to have zero advice to give on stuff like suburban property taxes, HOA fees and car insurance

I was just coming on to say watch out for property taxes! Basically good schools = sky-high local taxes. I can't help what they are in NY or nearby states, as have never lived around there, but definitely factor them in.

I was also going to suggest Connecticut. My husband had the opportunity to move some years ago and that's where we considered. I went to uni in NY snd wouldn't want to live there with a young family, and I love cities!

Keep in mind that NYC has city income tax, which the suburbs do not. So property tax vs. income tax can come out in the wash. HOAs are less common in the New York area outside of condo/townhouse developments, though some new builds have one. The housing stock in many suburbs predates the HOA trend.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow $40k a year not unheard of in New Jersey 😳

Definitely not unheard of - and worse! Also be aware that if you live in NJ but work in NY you may end up paying taxes in both states

@tilestoclean DH used to work in NJ - the tax returns were a total nightmare. Having to pay the tax and then claim it back was an absolute PITA.

I was with clients from NYC for dinner recently. All partners in a large law firm. Conversation turned to schooling. Private school apparently costs $80k per child per year, which shocked me as I thought £20k here for the private day school (very academic) was a lot. All of them living in Manhattan said private school was necessary because the public schools were not good.

One lived in Brooklyn and sent his to public school, but said they were lucky to live in catchment for a decent one.

The rest all lived in Connecticut, an hour's commute. But good schools.

If you can get a good housing and health care package, I'd do it in a second, but I grew up in NYC (UES) and we lived there with three children, in Tribeca and then Brooklyn Heights, until we moved to London. I think as long as you can afford it, it's a fabulous place to raise kids.

If you're looking for a place outside the city, within commuting distance with a great feel to it, I'd recommend taking a look at Hastings on Hudson.

@1Wanda1

I was with clients from NYC for dinner recently. All partners in a large law firm. Conversation turned to schooling. Private school apparently costs $80k per child per year, which shocked me as I thought £20k here for the private day school (very academic) was a lot. All of them living in Manhattan said private school was necessary because the public schools were not good.

They were exaggerating for effect, I suspect. I'm not saying private school is reasonably priced, by any means, but they top out at $60,000 and most are below that, with many in the $35-40,000 range for the lower years. There are also lots of great public schools in NY, but it's neighbourhood by neighbourhood, which I wouldn't imagine is all that different to East London, where OP is based. We know lots of people who out their kids in private until they test into magnet public junior high and high schools, which tend to be very prestigious.

Let's be realistic here though. $60K represents the very top tier of NYC private schools catering to a 0.1% crowd. That needs some perspective.

I did a bit of snooping on Zillow using the houses of people I know. The taxes ranged from $10K (really quite small house), average houses between $15-20K, large houses/big plots up from that. Mostly Long Island and NJ, but Westchester would be quite similar. Teachers in the NYC suburbs are extremely well paid.

Also (and I know enough people on all sides of the system) I'll be frank. It is not as simple as "NYC schools are not good." Many are. But when you send your child to a $60K school you are buying privilege. People don't like to admit they don't want to send their children to school with poor kids. They want their kids to go to school with other rich children and build connections and get into Ivy League schools. That's what they mean by "good." There's a great deal of coded language in the US surrounding class and race.

People don't like to admit they don't want to send their children to school with poor kids. They want their kids to go to school with other rich children and build connections and get into Ivy League schools. That's what they mean by "good." There's a great deal of coded language in the US surrounding class and race.

This is true (save that many people are upfront about admitting this). It’s also true that some people live in neighborhoods with not-good-enough public schools so buy themselves a better quality of education, nothing to do with the social stuff.

There’s also not a direct link between property taxes (which fund more than education) and the quality of public school in the zone. Also, property tax zones don’t overlap with educational zones, especially not in NYC. And, come middle school, everything changes - and again for high school.

$60K is about right for the top tier private schools, which are all in Manhattan. Very strict entry requirements. I wouldn’t even consider them for a 9 month stint. The UN school would be ideal.

@knitnerd90

That's true, although in all honesty, I haven't found the attitude around schooling all that different in London. Out of interest, have you listened to the NYT podcast Nice White Parents?

Yes, I know. Not all NYC schools are good. There's also all sorts of private schools in New York. The largest share of schools is actually religious, which are a huge range. The sort of schools people are thinking of, the high end, academic private, are really a small sliver. There's far more students enrolled in Catholic parochial schools and Jewish yeshivas. Catholic runs the gamut from Regis (full scholarship) to parish elementary (several thousand a year) to Sacred Heart ($60K).

the quality isn't uniform in the suburbs; taxes (which do fund various things but the school tax is the largest component by far) relate heavily to the district's tax base and how they are able to spread it around. I did mention salaries because the next question is going to be "why are the taxes so high?" and that is a significant reason.

Worth mentioning now that it's come to mind: in New York and New Jersey, suburban school districts are small, often a single high school and its feeders, and the boundaries do not always correspond to municipal boundaries. It's very important to check.

Yes I did and I was completely unsurprised. I'll be vague for privacy reasons but a relative of mine is an administrator at a NYC school that was going to be rezoned and I got to see the inside of the sausage. It was extremely ugly.

Partners in large law firms are among the people most likely to spout utter BS about any topic related to money, with the aim of impressing each other and stealth boasting about the intelligence of their children, for whom the schools of mere mortals are not good enough.

You can get a very good education indeed in NYC public schools. Thousands do.

@knitnerd90
YYY to the 'inside of the sausage' comment.

A neighboring suburb to mine tried for decades to dislodge itself from the mafia controlled school district it was stuck in and join mine. The home district resisted tooth and nail.

Eventually, a coalition of residents next door managed to get a magnet high school built and funded in their district, and loosened the hold of the mafia mayor of one of the towns innthe district over the school district funds.

The magnet school is now one of the best in the state, serving a student body in which 70% receive free school meals. They definitely had the last laugh.

We were in Manhattan with three young kids at the time.

We started with the kids in private then moved them to public.

You WILL pay for school - either high rent in a good school area or private fees for school in a cheaper rent area.

It worked out SO well for us. We lived in a quiet (ish) beautiful neighbourhood with an amazing small public school. We were beside a park - all the neighbourhood kids played in the park after school. I was there two weeks ago -still amazing.

PM me if you want the details of the area, school and building we lived in.

NW is my favourite city. We went last year and boy had it changed. Lots of homeless people and no one seemed to care. Theatre tickets comedy prices and not as good as the West End. Eating out had almost joke prices and you need to add 30% to any prices stated due to tipping and sales tax. Rubbish littered all over. Subway fast and cheap though.

I am not rushing back tbh.

Hi , would u mind recommending school for age 12 boy in manhattan? Thx