If you’ve noticed an increase in conversations starting with, “When we moved here from Brooklyn…,” you’re not alone. While the borough still reigns as king of cool, more and more of its inhabitants are flocking here to get away from what Brooklyn transplant Susanna Howe calls “an anxiety-inducing” lifestyle. Howe and her husband, who moved from the Clinton Hill neighborhood to New Rochelle in 2013, fell in love with a home right near the water and have been “delighted” with New Rochelle.
“It’s so close [to the city], and it’s really diverse,” she says. “The biggest difference for my kids is that they have tons of agency here. They don’t have to hold our hands all the time and only play at the playground. There’s a whole pack of [neighborhood kids], and they all roam around together, which is so fun.”
Backing up that sentiment are newly released numbers from Houlihan Lawrence, which show the continuing trend of Brooklynites purchasing Westchester properties over the last decade. While there were just 64 Brooklyn buyers in 2007, 200 Westchester homes were sold to Kings County dwellers in 2017.
According to Nancy Kennedy, an associate broker with Houlihan Lawrence, Westchester is drawing these urbanites because of “affordability over pricing in Brooklyn, convenient access to Manhattan, and excellent schools.” In addition, Kennedy notes, “They tend to seek homes with character or distinct architectural details. They love the walk-to-all lifestyle of the small Westchester villages.”
Not surprisingly, then, the top 10 communities for buyers from Brooklyn in 2017 were: Larchmont, Scarsdale, Bronxville, Pelham, Yonkers, Croton-on-Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, White Plains, New Rochelle, and Chappaqua.
