Overview at a Glance
Scarsdale costs more and gets you to Grand Central faster. Chappaqua costs less, sits about 12 miles farther north on the same Harlem Line and adds roughly 20 minutes to the morning train.
They also differ in structure. Scarsdale is an incorporated village that shares its boundaries with the Town of Scarsdale. Chappaqua is not a village at all: it is a hamlet of the Town of New Castle, with a different assessment system and different school district lines.
Our Ultimate Guide to Chappaqua and Moving to Scarsdale guide cover each place on its own. This page compares them.
Head to Head
| Factor | Scarsdale | Chappaqua |
|---|---|---|
| Local government | Village, coterminous with the town | Hamlet in the Town of New Castle |
| Single-family median, 2025 | $2,465,000 | $1,501,750 |
| Median, 2026 through Aug. 31 | $3,000,000 | $1,725,000 |
| Morning peak train to Grand Central | 32 min fastest; 10 of 16 at 32 to 37 | 53 min fastest; 57 median |
| Monthly ticket to Grand Central | $271.50 | $313.00 |
| Land area | About 6.7 sq mi | 23.1 sq mi (Town of New Castle) |
| One-family minimum lot range | 5,000 sq ft to 2 acres | 11,250 sq ft to 2 acres |
| Assessment level, 2026 roll | 66.91% of market value | 12.50% of market value |
| Tax bills per year | Three | Two |
Medians: Houlihan Lawrence August 2026 reports (OneKey MLS); we publish Scarsdale’s 2025 median as about $2.5 million. Trains: MTA Metro-North schedule data, weekdays September 22 to 29, 2026. Fares: current MTA fare table. Land: US Census Bureau 2025 Gazetteer. Assessment levels: 2026 final rolls, filed September 15, 2026.
Village vs. Hamlet: Who Runs What
Scarsdale has its own village government. Chappaqua does not. That decides who writes your zoning, who assesses your house and how many tax bills arrive.
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village covering exactly the same ground. The Village runs local services and its Treasurer also collects taxes for the town, while state law assigns assessment to the Town of Scarsdale.
Chappaqua is one of two hamlets in the Town of New Castle, alongside Millwood. There is no village tax and no village code. The Town writes the zoning, runs the assessor’s office and collects county, town and school taxes. The Census Bureau treats Chappaqua as a census designated place of about 0.9 square miles, a fraction of the 23.1-square-mile town.
Where the School District Lines Fall
We state district facts only. The district follows the tax parcel, not the mailing address.
- Scarsdale Union Free School District covers the whole Town and Village of Scarsdale, 5,719 parcels, plus 273 parcels in the Town of Mamaroneck.
- Chappaqua Central School District covers 5,628 parcels in the Town of New Castle and 538 in the Town of Mount Pleasant.
- The rest of New Castle is split among the Ossining, Bedford, Yorktown, Byram Hills and Pleasantville districts: roughly one parcel in six.
An Address Is Not a School District
The Edgemont Union Free School District, a separate district in the Town of Greenburgh, uses a Scarsdale 10583 mailing address. The Town of New Castle has parcels in six school districts. Confirm the district printed on the tax bill for the exact parcel, or ask the assessor, before you make an offer.
Village of Scarsdale Assessor and Treasurer pages; Town of New Castle website and Town Code §60-300; US Census Bureau 2025 Gazetteer; Westchester County 2025/2026 School District Tax Rates; New Castle 2026 Final Roll Totals; National Center for Education Statistics.
Home Prices
Scarsdale’s single-family median was about $2.5 million in 2025; Houlihan Lawrence’s Scarsdale report puts it at $2,465,000. Its Chappaqua report shows $1,501,750 for the same year, about $960,000 less.
Both have climbed in 2026. Through August 31, Houlihan Lawrence reports year-to-date medians of $3,000,000 in Scarsdale on 195 sales and $1,725,000 in Chappaqua on 116 sales. Both sit above the county single-family median of $1,240,000 for Q2 2026. We publish Scarsdale at about $596 per square foot for 2025 and have no primary per-square-foot figure for Chappaqua.
Which Chappaqua Is the Median Describing?
Chappaqua has no municipal boundary, so every Chappaqua statistic uses a definition: the 0.9 square mile Census place, the 10514 ZIP code, the school district that crosses into Mount Pleasant, or a brokerage market area. Medians from different definitions are not comparable, and monthly samples are thin: 15 sales in August 2026. Use full-year figures for context and street-level comparable sales for pricing.
Scarsdale 2025 median of about $2.5 million and price per square foot: The Francie Malina Team’s Scarsdale market analysis. All other medians: Houlihan Lawrence August 2026 Market Reports, single-family, OneKey MLS. County median: Houlihan Lawrence Q2 2026 report, published July 13, 2026.
Commute to Manhattan
Scarsdale is the faster commute by about 20 minutes, on both the fastest and the median morning trains: 32 against 53 minutes, and 35.5 against 57.
On the current weekday schedule, 16 Scarsdale trains reach Grand Central between 6 and 10 a.m.: ten take 32 to 37 minutes and six locals take 46 to 52. Chappaqua has 14 in the same window, at 53 to 62 minutes with a median of 57. Across the day, Scarsdale has 47 trains to Grand Central and Chappaqua 37.
Scarsdale is in fare Zone 4 and Chappaqua in Zone 5. A monthly ticket costs $271.50 from Scarsdale and $313.00 from Chappaqua, $498 a year more. Peak one-way tickets are $13.75 and $16.00. Over a five-day week, the morning gap alone adds up to more than an hour and a half.
MTA Metro-North official schedule feed, weekdays September 22 to 29, 2026. MTA fare table for Harlem and Hudson Line fares to Grand Central, accessed September 21, 2026.
Property Taxes
Scarsdale’s effective property tax rate is about 1.97 percent. There is no honest single rate for Chappaqua, and a New Castle rate cannot be compared with a Scarsdale rate at all, because the two towns assess at very different fractions of market value.
New Castle’s 2026 final roll assesses at 12.50 percent of market value; Scarsdale’s at 66.91 percent. A house valued at $1.6 million would carry an assessment near $200,000 in New Castle and near $1.07 million in Scarsdale. Rates are dollars per $1,000 of assessed value, so New Castle’s look enormous and Scarsdale’s look modest.
How Each Bill Is Built
- Scarsdale sends three bills: county in April, with the sewer and refuse districts; village in July, at $5.71 per $1,000 of assessed value for 2026-27; school in September, at $18.66. There is no separate town line.
- New Castle sends two: town and county in April, with a 2026 town rate of $16.53 per $1,000 plus the special districts for the address; and school in September, which inside the Chappaqua district includes the library levy.
- With no village, special districts do much of the work. The county lists 26 for New Castle in 2026, including three fire districts at different rates and refuse at $687.27 per unit.
The School Tax, Compared Like for Like
Converting each school rate with the state equalization rate puts the two on the same footing.
| District, 2025-26 | Per $1,000 assessed | Equalization rate | Per $1,000 of full value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scarsdale UFSD | $18.12 | 74.94% | About $13.58 |
| Chappaqua CSD (New Castle) | $122.38 | 14.07% | About $17.22 |
On that basis the Chappaqua district’s school levy was about 27 percent heavier per dollar of value in 2025-26, and the 2026-27 figures point the same way. The dollar bill still depends on the house, and Scarsdale’s higher values push its bills up. Our Scarsdale property taxes guide and Westchester property tax guide cover exemptions and appeals.
Never Compare a New Castle Rate With a Scarsdale Rate
A $122 school rate in Chappaqua and an $18 rate in Scarsdale do not mean Chappaqua is nearly seven times as expensive. For 2025-26 the state equalized those assessments at 14.07 and 74.94 percent of full value. Convert to full value or, better, get the actual current bill for the house. Both are town assessing units, and Scarsdale’s Grievance Day is the third Tuesday in June.
Effective rate: The Francie Malina Team’s Scarsdale property tax analysis. Assessment levels: 2026 final rolls. Rates: Scarsdale Village Treasurer; Westchester County 2026 and 2025/2026 tax rate tables. Equalization rates: Scarsdale UFSD and Chappaqua CSD budget documents; full-value figures are our arithmetic. General information, not tax or legal advice; confirm with the assessor or a tax attorney.
Land, Zoning and Character
Both codes allow two-acre zoning at the top. The difference is at the bottom: Scarsdale’s smallest residential minimum is 5,000 square feet, New Castle’s smallest one-family minimum 11,250.
| Town | Residence district | Minimum lot area |
|---|---|---|
| Scarsdale | AA-1 | 2 acres |
| Scarsdale | A-1 | 1 acre |
| Scarsdale | A-2 / A-2a | 20,000 / 15,000 sq ft |
| Scarsdale | A-3 / A-4 | 10,000 / 7,500 sq ft |
| Scarsdale | A-5 and C | 5,000 sq ft |
| New Castle | R-2A | 2 acres |
| New Castle | R-1A | 1 acre |
| New Castle | R-1/2A | 1/2 acre |
| New Castle | R-1/4A | 11,250 sq ft |
Older lots can be smaller than today’s minimums, so confirm the district and surveyed lot size. Ask about sewer early too: Scarsdale’s county sewer districts reach nearly every parcel, while New Castle’s cover well under half of its roughly 6,800 parcels. A house outside a sewer district relies on an on-site septic system.
Scarsdale
A compact village of about 6.7 square miles of land. Local business leaders built the Village Center in the Tudor Revival style in the 1920s, and many homes from the housing boom that followed remain in use. The village lists 24 parks for resident use.
Chappaqua
A hamlet center around a station that opened in its present form in 1902, inside a larger, more open town. New Castle counts roughly 4,240 of its 15,000 or so acres as open space, including the 215-acre Whippoorwill Park and Gedney Park at more than 126 acres.
Scarsdale Village Code §310-14; New Castle Town Code §60-300A; Westchester County 2026 special district tax rates; Village of Scarsdale history and parks pages; Town of New Castle history page and 2023 Recreation and Parks Master Plan (final draft).
Which One Fits How You Live
Choose Scarsdale If
You want the shorter, more frequent train, a village downtown at the station and public sewer, and the higher entry price works for you.
Choose Chappaqua If
You want a lower entry price, larger minimum lots at the small end of the zoning and more open land, and a 53 to 62 minute peak train is acceptable.
- Pull the tax bill. Get the current bill for the parcel and read the school district on it.
- Adjust the assessment. Divide it by the town’s assessment level before judging it.
- Confirm sewer or septic. In New Castle, ask on the first showing.
- Time your actual trains. Use the current timetable, not a rule of thumb.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scarsdale. Houlihan Lawrence’s reports put the 2025 single-family median at $2,465,000 in Scarsdale and $1,501,750 in Chappaqua. Year to date through August 31, 2026, Houlihan Lawrence shows medians of $3,000,000 in Scarsdale and $1,725,000 in Chappaqua, from OneKey MLS data. Both sit well above the Westchester County single-family median of $1,240,000 for Q2 2026.
No. Chappaqua is a hamlet in the Town of New Castle, which also includes Millwood. It has no village government, village tax or village code; the Town handles zoning, assessment and tax collection. The Census Bureau treats Chappaqua as a census designated place of about 0.9 square miles. Scarsdale is an incorporated village with the same boundaries as the Town of Scarsdale.
Morning peak trains from Chappaqua reach Grand Central in 53 to 62 minutes, with a median of 57 and 53 the fastest, on the MTA’s current weekday schedule, checked September 22 to 29, 2026. Across the full weekday there are 37 Chappaqua trains to Grand Central, taking 53 to 67 minutes.
Scarsdale, by about 20 minutes. Scarsdale’s fastest weekday morning train to Grand Central takes 32 minutes and ten of its 16 peak trains take 32 to 37; Chappaqua’s fastest takes 53 and its median is 57. Scarsdale also has more service: 47 weekday trains to Grand Central against Chappaqua’s 37.
Scarsdale is in fare Zone 4, where a monthly ticket to Grand Central costs $271.50 and a peak one-way $13.75. Chappaqua is in Zone 5, where the monthly costs $313.00 and the peak one-way $16.00. The monthly difference is $41.50, or $498 a year, based on the MTA’s current Harlem and Hudson Line fare table.
Because New Castle assesses at 12.50 percent of market value and Scarsdale at 66.91 percent on their 2026 final rolls. Rates are dollars per $1,000 of assessed value, so a low assessment level produces a large-looking rate. The 2025-26 school rates were $122.38 in Chappaqua and $18.12 in Scarsdale; converted to full value with the state equalization rates, they are about $17.22 and $13.58.
Per dollar of value, Chappaqua’s. Using each district’s 2025-26 rate and state equalization rate, the Chappaqua Central School District levied about $17.22 per $1,000 of full value in New Castle, against about $13.58 for the Scarsdale Union Free School District. That covers the school tax only. The bill on a specific house depends on its assessment, so ask for the actual bill.
Not necessarily. Districts follow tax parcels, not postal names. About one New Castle parcel in six is outside Chappaqua Central, in the Ossining, Bedford, Yorktown, Byram Hills or Pleasantville districts, and the Chappaqua district also reaches into Mount Pleasant. In Scarsdale, the Edgemont district in Greenburgh uses a Scarsdale 10583 mailing address. Confirm the district on the parcel’s tax bill.
Scarsdale’s code sets residential minimums from 5,000 square feet in its A-5 and C districts to two acres in AA-1, with 7,500, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 square foot and one-acre districts between. New Castle’s code, which governs Chappaqua, sets one-family minimums of 11,250 square feet, half an acre, one acre and two acres. Confirm a lot’s district on the zoning map.
It depends on which features you weight. Chappaqua offers a lower single-family median, $1,501,750 in 2025 against $2,465,000 in Houlihan Lawrence’s reports, larger minimum lots in its smallest zoning districts and a town with roughly 4,240 acres of open space. Scarsdale offers morning trains about 20 minutes faster, more frequent service and sewer districts that reach nearly every parcel. Weigh the commute against price and lot size.
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Still Deciding Between Scarsdale and Chappaqua?
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