Moving to Albany

ali26

Hi, we currently live in the southern part of NY state and my husband has accepted a new position with his current company in Albany.   He is able to work remotely in the beginning so we are not planning on moving until a few months from now, hopefully after #2 arrives in May (one less thing to worry about if I don't need a new OB and hospital!).  

We plan on taking a bunch of day/overnight trips up there in the coming months but we've been researching possible areas to look at and I'd love input from some people who actually live there.   I talked to a friend who's a single guy and lives in Albany, he gave me great info, but I'd love to get some moms/families perspectives too.  

Our biggest concerns are ease of commute (the long commute he has now is the main reason we are leaving this area- he drives an hour + each way) and good schools (seems like there are a bunch of  options here).  I'd prefer to be in walkable neighborhood where it will  be easy to meet some neighbors since ill be SAH for the first few months.  Neither of us wants to be in too rural an area nor do we want a ton of land.  We'd ideally like to have DH's commute be 30 mins or less; he'll be working kind of near albany medical center.  

After talking to my friend, we are interested in Loudonville, Latham, and Colonie.  We were interested in Bethlehem (the delmar area seems nice and similar to where we live now which i like a lot) and niskayuna as well but he says these would be more of a pain to commute from.  I'd love input from anyone who actually does this commute!  He also felt like most of guilderland and east greenbush would be too rural for us, but they seem like they are located close by with good schools as well so if anyone is familiar with these towns give me your thoughts.   

Clifton park has been suggested to us as well,, but seems far to me.  What would the commute be like from that area? Anything else I should add to my list?  Thanks!