Carol Getaz and her husband, a Swiss couple with two children, bought a vacation home in Woodstock, New York in 2014 while living in Brooklyn.
For two years, the family went there for weekends until the day Carol Getaz said she had “a thunderbolt”While on vacation. “Being in this house was a huge breath of fresh air. Our 5 year olds and 9 year olds were playing in the garden. One day at the end of the summer I dropped my husband off at the train station as he was going back to New York to work (Carol Getaz, former employee in the tourism sector, does not work, Editor’s note). There was a click at that point. Overnight, we decided to come and live in this weekend house.”
The couple leaves New York after 11 years in this city. “We had taken advantage of it. We were ready for this big leap, adds Carol Getaz. In Woodstock, we have gained in quality of life. There is less stress and more space. We can now receive our families and our friends. And in financial terms, the difference is incredible when you shop or go to a restaurant.”
Deciding to leave a city as symbolic as New York, with its frenzy, energy and endless possibilities for outings, is not easy for many expats, for whom the cachet of living in the Big Apple is well worth a few financial sacrifices. or materials. However, this was the choice of Getaz and other immigrants.
As of January 1, 2018, 21% of the 36,700 French people registered in French Consulate in New York resided in the north of the state. 12% of them had also opted for the New Jersey area located near the city, and 9% for Connecticut. However, these figures do not take the French into account. who are not registered with the consulate, whose number would rise to 45,000 in the constituency of New York (States of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Bermuda), according to estimates.
“Affordable real estate, cheaper gasoline and farewell to the City tax”
Beyond the lower cost of the shopping cart, it is above all real estate prices that attract former New Yorkers to the small towns around the megalopolis. For Sarah Planchon, a 28-year-old who also moved to Woodstock, moving from New York was the way to overcome financial difficulties.
Two years ago, she and her self-employed husband rented an apartment in Harlem overlooking Central Park for $ 3,000 a month. “VSwas way too expensive. We weren’t making it anymore, we weren’t making enough money“, Says the one who had lived in New York for almost nine years. The couple, whose two large dogs prevented them from renting another apartment in many buildings, decide to buy but quickly become disillusioned. “We were very shocked by the prices. We were looking for a small two-room apartment near Bed-Stuy, in Brooklyn, and it cost 600,000, 700,000 or even 900,000 dollars. It was not possible for us.”
They finally turn to Woodstock, a small town of 6,000 inhabitants accessible by bus, where Sarah Planchon’s husband, Franco-American, has family. In June 2016, they bought a house with three bedrooms, a large living room and a large garden for $ 400,000.
Severine, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman who did not wish to reveal her last name, does not give details as to the price of her house in Suffern, a village of 11,000 inhabitants in the county of Rockland, but she believes she did. a good financial transaction by buying it. “Real estate is affordable. In taxes and maintenance alone, I pay less than for my apartment in Chelsea where I was renting, she judges. And I no longer pay the City tax (the tax of the city of New York, editor’s note).” And that’s not all. “This morning I saw deer in my snowy garden, says Severine. Then I came to Manhattan (where she still works, Editor’s note), I took the metro and I saw rats …”
Having nature on your doorstep changed Severine’s habits. A fan of the gym in New York, she discovered the joys of hiking in Suffern. As for her daughter, she took up horseback riding. What about New York friends? “With my husband, we were afraid of being often alone on weekends when we moved. We thought we would see our friends less, but in reality, it’s the opposite. People ask me “are you up there this weekend ?, and they come.”
In Woodstock, Sarah Planchon also discovered a new lifestyle. The one who once worked for casting agencies has now created a workshop in her garage. She put together a few months ago “The Woodstock Arts Bridge“, Activities to teach French to children through theater and games. For her, the rhythm is over ”metro work metro”, As she says. “I enjoy nature. I take my dogs and I go for a hike.”
This reconnection with nature can however suffer from the change of seasons. Audrey Sebbane, a 43-year-old French mother of three, experienced it. She moved with her family to Rye in September 2017, a town in Westchester County bordering the ocean. If the proximity to water delighted her during the Indian summer, the first winter in this city of 15,000 inhabitants is a bit harsh. “When we moved in, the weather was fine, we could go for a walk. But there, in January, it’s different …“, She says simply. “I also discover the small inconveniences of a house when it’s cold, I who have always lived in an apartment.”
“I miss New York very much”
Moving “upstate” was not in Audrey Sebbane’s plans. Several months ago, her husband’s professional situation changed: he went from being an expatriate to a local contract. “Until then, we had been helped with housing and the private bilingual school for the children. By losing these financial advantages, we had to agree to downgrade our lifestyle“, She testifies. The couple set their sights on Rye in part because of the “good standard of its public schools“. For this woman who wants to make a living in the United States, this choice is worth it, but it has so far been seen as a sacrifice.
“I miss New York and its energy a lot, admits Audrey Sebbane, who does not work. For now, I mainly see the downsides of this new life. For example, everything is done by car, and I love to walk. ” Her 14-year-old daughter has lost the autonomy she was starting to enjoy in New York. “She could take the metro on her own, now she depends on me. It is no longer the same dynamic.”Audrey Sebbane’s husband had to bring his wake-up time forward: he takes the 6.15am train every morning to go to work in New York.
During the first three months of her life in Suffern, Severine also visited New York every day. “It was exhausting”, Comments the one who works in communication. So she decided to take over rental accommodation in Manhattan. “I spend the week in New York, where I have most of my social life, and the weekends in my house in Suffern, which I consider to be my real home. ” An ideal solution according to her.
For those who do not have this possibility, New York remains accessible on an ad hoc basis. Carol Getaz returns there regularly, especially for the cultural life. She does not hide a certain nostalgia for her New York life. “Sometimes I miss the spontaneous side of the city. With my husband, for example, we can no longer decide at the last moment to take a babysitter to go to a concert“, She regrets. She also had to give up bilingual education for her children, and more generally the French-speaking environment in which she was bathed in Park Slope, the Brooklyn neighborhood. “We frequented a lot of French expatriates, but here they are very rare. So I try to convince my friends to move near me“, She laughs.
To compensate, this 40-year-old got involved locally in this new environment “much more American“, Notably through her children’s school. She arrived in Woodstock during the 2016 presidential election.”There has been a great movement of solidarity with the refugees arriving in the Hudson Valley, recalls Carol Getaz. I feel like there are some things that I didn’t see living in an eclectic city like New York. Now I have the feeling that I understand better what this country is going through.“
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