Let me try again (Jersey City, Clifton: condos, townhouses, neighborhoods)
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I've already asked this question, but let me try again.
We are looking for a safe town with decent schools and fast (45 min, but no more than 1 hr) commute via public transportation to NYC.
Other requirements:
condo/townhouse with 2-3 bedrooms that cost no more than 400K and taxes that are no higher than 6-7K.
I know I ask for a lot, any suggestions?
thanks for your help!
Clifton, is decent with tons of Condos/Townhouses, $400k will get you a great 2BR/2BA and you'll have a lot to choose from. Montclair would be better for schools, town and commute but you'll have limited choices. You can also check out Summit. Nutley is another great town. That's 4 and there are hundreds more. In general school is North NJ are very good. Bergen County is one of the best in the country.
actually I take my words back, I just remembered that we decided against Clifton, a lot of neighborhoods seemed shaky and school system is not good either
You might find something here (Weehawken). Can't beat the commute (bus; ferry and lightrail by the water). It's safe. Schools are good, not great, but definitely decent. Parts are pretty, parts are more urban. Look in the Heights section and maybe Bluffs or Shades.
What we don't have is a downtown. The town is split into geographically disparate sections so there's no critical mass of population to support a downtown. But the town services are pretty good. Taxes - we pay $6200 on a 3-BR sf home because it's assessed at about 1/3 what we paid for it. Seems they don't reassess often!
We are moving to Nutley or Rutherford for more green and more of a downtown if we can sell our house for a good price. In spite of the high taxes.
You are in a tough spot. School 16 in Clifton is well regarded for elementary. Good schools=higher taxes. I just bought a fixer upper in Hawthorne's best elementary district(Jefferson elementary). I paid about $300K and my taxes are still $7,300/year. Once I fix the house up my taxes will go up to over $9K and it's only Hawthorne, not Ridgewood or Glen Rock. Welcome to NJ
You might find something here (Weehawken). Can't beat the commute (bus; ferry and lightrail by the water). It's safe. Schools are good, not great, but definitely decent. Parts are pretty, parts are more urban. Look in the Heights section and maybe Bluffs or Shades.
What we don't have is a downtown. The town is split into geographically disparate sections so there's no critical mass of population to support a downtown. But the town services are pretty good. Taxes - we pay $6200 on a 3-BR sf home because it's assessed at about 1/3 what we paid for it. Seems they don't reassess often!
We are moving to Nutley or Rutherford for more green and more of a downtown if we can sell our house for a good price. In spite of the high taxes.
I think weehawken is too urban, becuase of kids we want to move somewhere greener
I've already asked this question, but let me try again.
We are looking for a safe town with decent schools and fast (45 min, but no more than 1 hr) commute via public transportation to NYC.
Other requirements:
condo/townhouse with 2-3 bedrooms that cost no more than 400K and taxes that are no higher than 6-7K.
I know I ask for a lot, any suggestions?
thanks for your help!
where in NYC ?
It's going to be hard to find a place that really has a commute that short.
Under 400k won't be a problem. If you want property taxes under 7k, you will need to look closer to 300k in many towns.
For lower property tax rates, look into Bergen County and Union County along the train lines (e.g. Westfield, Summit, Rutherford, etc)
Keep in mind that door to door commute is much longer than the train ride. I had a 40 minute door to door commute from Jersey City. Most suburbs well served by trains will give you a commute of 75 minutes or so end to end. (e.g. Montclair to lower Manhattan is about 75min total)
Depends on the place. You can find a 2br condo in Nutley for under 400k with property taxes under 7k. If you max out your 400k budget, then property taxes will probably be over 7k.
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