Rented in upscale westchester suburb this summer. Crowded downtown, small houses, overpriced. Schools are ok but not fantastic. Not sure why people are racing to overpay for this lifestyle.
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Anonymous
Aug 30, 2020
We decided to stay in the city, but I don’t think it is an alleged exodus. We have kids at one of the nyc preschools. Half the class from last year moved to the suburbs. Families with young kids have already left for good.
I think it's the family with preschool age kids and younger that are moving. One, they have the hardest time with no space and no yard (I know I wouldn't want to quarantine with a 3 yo!). Two, they are less invested in a school community at that age -- kids adapt easily and are not involved in activities or academics that can't easily be moved. A lot of these would have left the city at some point anyway. I know a bunch of families with young kids that moved (so I'm not denying there isn't some sort of exodus), but I know only 1 family among classmates of my 5th grader that left permanently. Everyone else is back for school year.
OP: FWIW I don't find it significantly more relaxing here. School is at least partly remote. And house prices are ridiculous. Plenty of NYC privates are in person.
It's an acceleration of people who already would have moved due to school costs (and not wanting to deal with NYC public school system). If you were only planning to stay in the city for 1-2 more years, it makes sense to go now rather than sticking it out for a limited time trying to work from a 2 bedroom apartment. At our private school, I have seen zero moves to Westchester because of COVID.
That's what I see too. Friends with younger kids at public schools, especially younger kids, are moving. Friends with kids in private OR kids MS age + are sticking it out.
Still, that's probably enough to call it an "exodus."
Anonymous
Aug 30, 2020
Our private school doesn’t usually lose half the school. We lose one maybe two families who are unhappy with their exmissions results the year they apply out. This is very different. And it’s one of the sought after UB schools. They were all quickly replaced with kids from the waitlist so the school is full again. But half of last year’s class is living in CT right now. I know of other slightly less sought after schools that have very empty classes. Four or five kids.
OK but you're talking about a preschool where people likely decamped to second homes. There's no reason to come back to the city when parents are working remotely you don't have kids in real school -- they can go to preschool in CT. My guess is that most of these families will come back and apply to private school, and the for the ones who don't, they had a change in financial circumstances. This is a school like Brick Church, which by the way, looking at their 2018 annual report had 4 kids move to the suburbs and 7 go to public schools.
Anonymous
Aug 30, 2020
Sorry to be unclear. Our preschool does not send many families to NYC public or the suburbs. The private schools are pretty much everyone’s first choice for our particular preschool. We have one or two families every year who graduate from our preschool and go on to the suburbs or sometimes a NYC public. It is usually because they didn’t like the private schools they got into. For whatever reason, families at our school do not pick public even when their kids get into Hunter or the great G&Ts. So this many families buying homes in the suburbs is unusual and not an acceleration of where they would have ended up in a few years under normal circumstances. I have had two older children graduate from the same preschool so I know where the older classes end up.
We decided to stay in the city, but I don’t think it is an alleged exodus. We have kids at one of the nyc preschools. Half the class from last year moved to the suburbs. Families with young kids have already left for good.
I think it's the family with preschool age kids and younger that are moving. One, they have the hardest time with no space and no yard (I know I wouldn't want to quarantine with a 3 yo!). Two, they are less invested in a school community at that age -- kids adapt easily and are not involved in activities or academics that can't easily be moved. A lot of these would have left the city at some point anyway. I know a bunch of families with young kids that moved (so I'm not denying there isn't some sort of exodus), but I know only 1 family among classmates of my 5th grader that left permanently. Everyone else is back for school year.
OP: FWIW I don't find it significantly more relaxing here. School is at least partly remote. And house prices are ridiculous. Plenty of NYC privates are in person.
It's an acceleration of people who already would have moved due to school costs (and not wanting to deal with NYC public school system). If you were only planning to stay in the city for 1-2 more years, it makes sense to go now rather than sticking it out for a limited time trying to work from a 2 bedroom apartment. At our private school, I have seen zero moves to Westchester because of COVID.
That's what I see too. Friends with younger kids at public schools, especially younger kids, are moving. Friends with kids in private OR kids MS age + are sticking it out.
Still, that's probably enough to call it an "exodus."
Our private school doesn’t usually lose half the school. We lose one maybe two families who are unhappy with their exmissions results the year they apply out. This is very different. And it’s one of the sought after UB schools. They were all quickly replaced with kids from the waitlist so the school is full again. But half of last year’s class is living in CT right now. I know of other slightly less sought after schools that have very empty classes. Four or five kids.
Which TT school is losing half their classes?
Edit: wait, you're talking pre-school?
OK but you're talking about a preschool where people likely decamped to second homes. There's no reason to come back to the city when parents are working remotely you don't have kids in real school -- they can go to preschool in CT. My guess is that most of these families will come back and apply to private school, and the for the ones who don't, they had a change in financial circumstances. This is a school like Brick Church, which by the way, looking at their 2018 annual report had 4 kids move to the suburbs and 7 go to public schools.
Sorry to be unclear. Our preschool does not send many families to NYC public or the suburbs. The private schools are pretty much everyone’s first choice for our particular preschool. We have one or two families every year who graduate from our preschool and go on to the suburbs or sometimes a NYC public. It is usually because they didn’t like the private schools they got into. For whatever reason, families at our school do not pick public even when their kids get into Hunter or the great G&Ts. So this many families buying homes in the suburbs is unusual and not an acceleration of where they would have ended up in a few years under normal circumstances. I have had two older children graduate from the same preschool so I know where the older classes end up.
@ AnonymousUES I assume?