I raised my family and lived there until 2017. It's a great town with a public school system that is private school level in quality. All of my kids had no problem getting into and succeeding at the colleges they wanted to go to. I considered the school taxes a bargain when I compared lower-taxed towns, where I would need to send my kids to private schools to get them the same education. I'll add that I also never locked the doors to my house in the 25+ years we were there. A safer place to live would be hard to find.
6
I grew up in Katonah in a four-bedroom, 3-bathroom house on a 12-acre property with a pond, fruit trees, and an acre and a half of garden. It was idyllic. We were about a half-mile from Caramoor, and as a teenager I could walk to concerts and see them for free by volunteering as an usher. When my parents died, my siblings and I realized that, as much as we loved the place, none of us would be able to afford the taxes, so we sold it. That was in 1998. Now I read that a smaller house on only a half-acre in town sells for the same price that our house went for. The prices for homes keep increasing and so do the taxes. But if you can afford it, I still would say that there is no better place to live. Beautiful countryside, a small-town feel, excellent schools, and just an hour's train ride into the city.
7
I need a middle-class Katonah, with house values 300-450k.
19
"....Katonah maintains a small-town ambience. Growth is limited by Bedford’s zoning laws and by Katonah’s placement within the New York City watershed. “There are tremendous constraints on development,”
Until someone with a giant piece of land wants to sell it, and the new owner wants to develop it, and a zoning variance is approved.
I live in another Hamlet 10 miles south, and our town board just sold out to a huge project that will crowd the historic district of our once darling and provincial town -- which is certainly one of the reasons people moved here to start with.
Rest assured, in 10 years, Katonah, and nearby towns (mine included) will be distinguished from the Borough of Queens only by the zip code.
9
@Euphemia Thompson
I hope you're right. The exclusionary nature of these Westchester communities and their opportunity hoarding via zoning laws should be illegal. Government shouldn't be used as a tool to keep home prices up for upper-middle-class homeowners and keep the working class out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/sunday/stop-pretending-youre-not-rich.html
4
I’ve lived in neighboring South Salem for over 20 years and would never consider living anywhere else in NY metro area. Beautiful, cultured and relatively low key, it is truly a wonderful place to live. By the way the store offerings mentioned in the article is awesome!
4
@Michael F: My paternal grandparents built a house on Oscaleta (Twin Lakes Road) in the mid-1960s. (Prior to that they lived on Millwood Road in Chappaqua; my dad graduated from Horace Greeley & my uncle from John Jay.) I have lots of fond memories of visiting Grandma & Grandpa over the decades as I grew up...canoeing on the three lakes, feeding (carefully) the Canada geese, watching the turtles sunning themselves just off the lake shore... The house was sold in 1997 after my grandmother passed away & I've only been back to the neighborhood once, in 2015, when my daughter & I were visiting colleges & we took the train in from Katonah to Manhattan & back. I took my daughter out to the house just to see it from the outside & get a glimpse of the lake behind so she'd have context for my stories. That area of Westchester County is just lovely!
2
For all who inquire about taxes week after week, if you're interested in a property, that information is readily available in other areas. It is as simple as viewing the property on Zillow...though you likely knew that.
And rather than continually bemoaning taxes of the featured community that may be of your reach, there are other towns within the region you may look. Do your homework.
12
It isn't a matter of "bemoaning" taxes, and obviously those of us who comment about the difference between Westchester and nearby Connecticut taxes have done our homework.
But it is interesting that The New York Times, which complains mightily that the wealthy pay no taxes, never mentions the $50,000 and $70,000 (or, indeed, more) yearly property tax incurred by residents along the Hudson and in places like Katonah.
5
@B. If one chooses to buy there, they're accepting tax bill.
2
Who says no, WF? Obviously.
2
Katonah looks lovely. As someone toying with a move to the Northeast, it is infuriating that there is little data to compare income taxes , property and school taxes and the various and sundry taxes that locals put up with.There are significant differences between towns and within counties. (Not to mention the HUGE disincentive to live in New York state and city- I'm looking at you state legislature and city councils.) The Times articles almost never bring them up. Why is that, real estate editor?
6
@David — Don’t MLS listings for properties have these details? Some Realtor Web sites may have them as well.
5
Take a look at Realtor.com.
Breaks costs down by month.
When you see $5,000 in property taxes, that's per month.
2
Why no mention of Brookwood Labor College, a true part of U.S. history in the early half of the 20th century?
1
My mother's family grew up in Bedford Hills and Katonah and my aunt was the Receiver of Taxes for over five decades in Bedford. She lived in an older cottage in Katonah not far from her older brother.
I recently drove through town and it looks much like it did in the 1950s and 1960s when I would come up to visit my relatives.
Hasn't changed a whole lot and still has that small town feel.
11
I love Katonah: small, charming, beautifully maintained, a lovely mix of retail and restaurants, great connectivity via train, close to Bedford, Chappaqua, Pound Ridge, etc. Best hardware store! And just 1 hour from Manhattan. The people I know who live here LOVE it. The real estate taxes are on the higher side, but not that much higher than Manhattan and deliver great schools and a safe, clean environment. And you don't pay NY City taxes if you are working in Manhattan.
11
What are the taxes and mill rates?
9
Do public school teachers and principals make that much in NY? Time for me to switch jobs!
5
@Aaron The salaries for New York state teachers are public information. Google it and find out. Teachers here typically have or get a Masters' degree, so plan accordingly.
13
@Aaron Perhaps time to move to a more progressive state?
15
@Aaron
Yes they do! And get benefits to best the band!
3
An ideal town for the simple life. Sure, upper-middle-class, but very low key. The opposite of Scarsdale. Its excellent, very comfy library says it all about Katonah.
13
This is very interesting. A line of my family lived in Katonah in the 19th century (and maybe earlier, at some point moving from Sleepy Hollow, where family legend has it that an ancestress was the model for an Irving character). I have a large watercolor of a family farm there -- I believe it is older than 1893, so it must have been in the Old Katonah.
5
@Seabiscute
I’ll bet the historical society would love to have a high-quality, full-color copy of your painting along with any family stories that accompany it.
8
It's always interesting to see that towns in this series with upper-middle-class educated parents have SAT's in the 600's while poorer towns average in the 500's.
Whatever the SAT's truly measure, they are obviously not immune to the effects of the income and education of the parents.
6
@akamai
Performing well on the SAT or any standardized test is a learned skill for most people. Few people can walk into a standardized test cold and get a high score. Review courses and tutors cover the subject matter, provide practice questions or exercises that mirror what will be seen on the test and also cover how to approach/answer test questions or problems. Students who are well prepared for the SAT will do well on the SAT. It surprises me that people think SAT scores measure anything other than the test takers' level of preparation.
20
I didn’t know the significance of the SATs when I took it (being from a first generation immigrant family) but I generally did well in school. I did not take a prep course or practice exams, except one free one that my high school offered a week prior to get acclimated to the test, and scored in the 90th percentile. It’s not true that the test only indicates “practice”.
19
MSC, I agree.
In 1970 when I took my SATs, I did no practicing and did very well. Some of my friends, who had been struggling a bit in high school, took Stanley Kaplan's SAT-review courses and did not do as well as I did.
The people who say that practice is all have an agenda.
I will say, however, that while I also did well on my GREs, and have enjoyed my work, my Stanley Kaplan friend eventually did even better in graduate school and has done more concrete good in the world than anyone I know.
Attending the Stanley Kaplan classes was not a sign of privilege but of sheer tenacity, grit, and a desire to do something worthwhile in life.
4
I've visited the house at Caramoor, a windy-corridored wonder filled with antiques, a couple of times, as well as the John Jay Homestead. Walking through the Homestead's grounds one autumn Saturday, we saw a woman riding her horse along a leafy trail. Pretty idyllic.
The article does not mention property taxes. Or perhaps I missed it. A mile or so away, in Connecticut, taxes on similar properties are lower by half. Which isn't to say that if I had the money, I wouldn't choose Katonah.
21
@B. Buyer beware: while Connecticut does have lower property taxes, they also tax things like your car. In addition, Social Security income is not taxed in NY but is in CT. So make sure you make a full comparison, counting all the different taxes CT charges.
4
@B. And the CT public schools suffer for it, which is why most who live in Fairfield County and are able send their kids to private schools. You're going to pay one way or another. I had 5 acres in Katonah and the taxes were 20K, but the schools are worth every penny.