The allure of a downtown that consistently makes “best Main st.” lists, a park with a real carousel, endless choices of the best restaurants, year round family friendly activities….yep, we definitely want to buy in downtown Saratoga! Then, we start looking at what’s available for 300k, 400k, 500k, wait we have to pay almost 600k for an updated home with 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a small yard, and we are lucky if there’s a garage?!?!?! Well yes, yes you do unless you catch our market at the exact right moment that’s probably what you are faced with and then reality sets in….is it worth it?

So many of my buyers that are new to the area struggle with this decision and I can certainly see why. After I moved back to the area over 10 years ago I wanted new construction and we had a limited budget so ended up about 15 minutes out of downtown. Once we had our first daughter I couldn’t take it any longer and we bought a small cape style home about 3/4 mile from Broadway and have never looked back. To us, the convenience factor for both our lifestyle, and the one we want for our children is well worth sacrificing a 2 car garage, larger yard, that 4th bedroom, and that extra 200k we would’ve saved to buy the same product if we had to get in the car every time we wanted to go downtown. Not everyone would make that same choice. In fact, most of my friends chose the other route living out of town in much larger homes with big yards and they are perfectly happy driving that extra 10-15 minutes and the ease of walk-ability isn’t a factor for them.

When you move to Saratoga you will no doubt face this same decision. There are plenty of positives and negatives to both options and the only thing that really matters is what kind of lifestyle you want. If it’s in town you will sacrifice space (and possibly condition) and you will be ok with that, and if it’s out of town you will sacrifice convenience of living right downtown and you too will be ok with that! In my next blog I will explore in town and out of town neighborhood options to help you take this decision to the next level!