Westchester and Fairfield counties: Do more people leave one for the other?

Westchester County and next-door Fairfield County, Connecticut, are replete with affluent commuter towns, top high schools and woodsy open spaces.

But do more residents leave one to live in the other?

Federal data swould suggest so. During the 2020 and 2021 tax-filing seasons, more people filed federal returns from Fairfield County who had previously filed from Westchester than the reverse scenario, according to the most recent available Internal Revenue Service figures.

In the 2020 and 2021 federal filings – largely for 2019 and 2020 income – 3,258 returns were filed with Fairfield County addresses by people who in the previous period filed from Westchester. People filed 990 returns in Westchester who previously filed from Fairfield County during the same period, according to the figures. The data show Fairfield County with an edge, albeit a smaller one, in previous two-year periods the IRS posted over the past 10 years.

Hearst Connecticut Newspapers earlier in 2023 reported on IRS migration data between New York state and Connecticut, including from Westchester.

An IRS guide to data says there are things to keep in mind in interpreting it. For one, a tax return's address is a mailing one "that may not reflect the taxpayer’s actual residence. In addition, the address may not reflect the location of the taxpayer when the income was earned, as a taxpayer may move during the course of a tax year. Thus, the income may have been earned in two locations." And due to combating identity theft, the method for processing returns may undergo changes "that may have an impact on the migration data and should be considered when comparing the data across years."

For those who do truly leave one county for the other, it isn't spelled out why or to which municipalities they tended to move.

"The IRS Statistics of Income office provides information based on what’s on the tax return, which doesn’t include reasons for moving," said Anthony Burke, an IRS spokesperson.

Comparing the counties might provide ideas:

Where are commutes shorter?

Southern and even parts of central Westchester are closer to Manhattan, offering the quickest trip to the city on a typical day.

Pelham Manor, a nearly 5,600-resident village of high household incomes and part of a highly ranked school district, borders the Bronx and is some 15 miles closer to New York City than southwestern Greenwich, Connecticut's closest town.

Coming from Connecticut means more driving time. For Metro-North train riders, it means a number of more station stops to get in and get home.

How taxes compare

Westchester generally has significantly higher property taxes on houses. One analysis a few years ago found it commanded the highest average single-family home tax bill of any U.S. county, at $17,392 – though there can be individual exceptions.

By comparison, Greenwich, where top-end house sales prices tend to exceed anything in Westchester, has one of Connecticut’s lowest property tax rates.

"In a general sense, the taxes is the obvious reason people go for Fairfield County over Westchester County," said Sarah Stone, a a real estate agent in Greenwich with the firm Douglas Elliman. "But you have really great public school systems [In Fairfield County] and the public resources are top notch."

In some instances, someone might even pay more for a Fairfield County house but that cost is more than offset by the higher taxes that would have to be paid every year in Westchester, Stone said.

Stone recalled a couple who had lived in Scarsdale, put their children through school, and chose to downsize to a townhouse in Greenwich.

Both states have high income taxes, and Connecticut imposes an annual property tax on cars that varies in amount by municipality – its legislature has recently looked into whether or not to repeal the car tax, according to news reports.

How their schools ranked nationally

The country had some 23,519 public high schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 2021-2021. So regardless of which online ranking someone picks, for those who place value in such things, the top five high schools from each of Westchester and Fairfield rank within at least the top 2% in the nation, and even better in some instances.

Here are the two counties’ top public high schools for 2024, according to niche.com's rankings:

Fairfield County:

∎New Canaan High School, ranked 139 in the country

∎Staples High School, in Westport, ranked 148 in the country

∎Wilton High School, ranked 280 in the country

∎Greenwich High School, ranked 303 in the country

∎Darien High School, ranked 308 in the country

Westchester County:

∎Scarsdale Senior High School, ranked 38 in the country

∎Horace Greeley High School, in Chappaqua, ranked 225 in the country

∎Bronxville High School, ranked 226 in the country

∎Rye High School, ranked 425 in the country

∎Edgemont Junior/Senior High School, ranked 449 in the country

And here is how U.S. News and World Report ranked the best:

Fairfield County:

∎Staples High School, 240 in the country

∎Darien High School, 289 in the country

∎Weston High School, 306 in the country

∎New Canaan High School, 323 in the country

∎Greenwich High School, 351 in the country

Westchester County:

∎Bronxville High School, 151 in the country

∎Rye High School, 167 in the country

∎Edgemont Junior/Senior High School, 176 in the country

∎Horace Greeley High School, 224 in the country

∎North Salem Middle School/High School, 246 in the country

Westchester school districts are often spread across municipal borders, so some students from various towns and villages can be in the same high school. In Fairfield County, school systems are typically within one town, such as Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Weston, and Westport.

Government

Westchester has a county government, with a 17-member county Board of Legislators and a top elected official called the county executive.

Connecticut has no county governments, which its state legislature abolished in 1959.

Westchester has villages, towns and cities with local governments while Fairfield has towns and cities but no villages.

Michael McKinney covers growth and development in Westchester County and the Lower Hudson Valley for The Journal News and USA Today Network.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester and Fairfield counties: Why people leave one or the other