Closer to city vs more garden/land

amother

Mon, Aug 19 2019, 11:18 am

DH and I are BEH looking to buy and I'd love for input on the pros and cons of our options.

Background, we live in a place that's mostly suburban, so when I'm talking about choosing between two locations, I'll call them "suburban" and "really suburban". Like many places, as you move further from the city, you start to get more land for your money. Beautiful large yards, larger houses, etc. "Really suburban" As you get closer to the city, you get significantly smaller plots of land, maybe even no backyard, but many of these neighborhoods are "nicer" and very family friendly. I'll call these neighborhoods suburban.

There is one main large Jewish community about a half hour from the city where I work, in general suburban. We don't have children yet, but we hope to b"eh and we are factoring that into our move as in we don't want to have to drive too much to the school. In fact, we currently live in an amazing location, which I'd never went to leave from a beauty perspective, but it's too far from the community or to send potential children to school.

We've been looking at houses and I'm really torn right now. The other day we saw a house in really suburban. It had a stunning view of the hills, it had a gigantic yard, the house was huge. You could watch your children in the yard from the kitchen. DH said that neighborhood is pretty far and the commute to work (40 mins to an hour each way) might not be worth it. This place was a ten minute drive to the kid's school but about a 40 minute walk to shul. That was the first place we'd looked at in really suburban, and the beauty took my breath away. DH didn't like the structure of the house anyway, but the area looked beautiful. It's not in a "nicer" neighborhood but it's in a nice neighborhood.

We are scheduled to look at a house in suburban, looks amazing so far from pictures, but has no garden. It's more expensive but less than a quarter of the size of the land of the other place. Closer to the shul, same distance to the school. A half hour walk to the city in nice weather, twenty minute commute. There's a beautiful park a few houses down but it hurts to think of taking a place where there's no backyard. Realistically, for our budget it'll be difficult to find a house with a large garden in this neighborhood unless it's a very old house that needs work, which we don't want right now.

We are just beginning our search, not in a rush, but should we continue checking out really suburban or is it too impractical? FWIW, I do that kind of commute already so it's not like I'm totally clueless about commuting. I guess I'd just like to hear input.

amother

Mon, Aug 19 2019, 6:54 pm

I agree, the forty minutes to shul is a big deal. There might be some places there a bit closer still in that neighborhood. As far as people, there are Jewish people in both communities. Probably more closer to the main shul, but plenty in the really suburban neighborhood too. Come to think of it, there might actually be another shul in that other neighborhood (I have to ask DH), but it's not the main shul we would go to. I would think both communities are technically middle class but the one closer to shul and city is more upper middle class.

BetsyTacy

Mon, Aug 19 2019, 8:11 pm

I would *maybe* be okay to be a 40 minute walk from your preferred shul (Shabbos morning) and a very quick walk for Friday night and Shabbos mincha shul. Otherwise, do you want your iyh future son(s) to go to minyan on Shabbos? And even assuming you drive to shul before shabbos, he/they have to walk 40 min back home Friday night, 40 minutes there Shabbos morning 40 minutes back before lunch and then 40 minutes back for mincha! That is way too much to expect from even a pretty good kid, let alone an average child.

A 40 minute walk would be too much for me and I love going to shul, but not a 40 minute walk each way in the rain or in any kind of heat or humidity or snow....

There is a reason that Orthodox Jews live in clusters, even in out of town communities.