Moving to NJ, Montvale area (Saddle River: to rent, homes, buy)

[kikanakala]

What about Glen Rock? I'm sorry, I'm probably going to keep doing this as I see something available in our price range.

[ali herzog]

central nj has many options. I grew up in central Nj and NJ definitely gets a bad rap. There are beautiful beaches, great parks, farms, skiing and lots of shopping tax free for necessities, i.e. clothing. That's my big one...

I'm actually a realtor in central NJ. I live in Metuchen, which is not too far from Montvale, and have 2 yound boys-5 and 2. You can definitely rent something in your price range until you figure things out. There are alot of nice towns and fun things to do with kids.

If you have any questions about schools or safety or anything else, please feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to help.

Ali

[fronteer]

Originally Posted by kikanakala

What about Glen Rock? I'm sorry, I'm probably going to keep doing this as I see something available in our price range.

No problem Not much to say except Glen Rock is another good town. The thing about these north Bergen towns is that they're all comparably beautiful, suburban, and safe. It starts to change once you start going south of Route 4.

[JerZ]

What fronteer said! I would check out all those towns. That will give you more flexibility, too. Are you going to visit the NE before the move? Will you be able to check out these towns and go apartment-shopping? Definitely drive all around this whole area--get a feel. Side-trip down neighborhoods. Take a peek. Roll down the windows, it will be gorgeous, fabulous, brisk but not cold autumn. It will smell like leaves. (Well, depending upon when you go. I guess I'm making some assumptions here, LOL.) There will be a breeze. Stop at a coffee shop. Shoot up Grand Ave. past your husband's work, hook onto 17 N. for just 3 or 4 minutes (it's a short trip) into Ramsey, a right onto Franklin Tpke. and another right to straight down through town to the Starbuck's at the train tracks--you can't miss it. Unobtrusively peek at the people there. Do they seem like they could be friends? See if anyone on line talks to you...friendliness-check.

Shoot back the other way, down Grand and go through the Park Ridge area, go onto Kinderkamack and pass through Woodcliff Lake, Hillsdale, Westwood, all those guys. Turn up Old Hook Road to go toward Tenafly. You'll go through Emerson this way too, but not as many neighborhoods, this will be more of a "main drag" and will take you over the reservoir, which itself isn't any too hard on the eyes. I mean it's just a reservoir, but it is of course surrounded by trees. Take a nice day trip and just see what might feel like it could be "home".

There will be a very similar feel among the towns listed here so you don't really risk hitting a "bad v. good one"--they're all good--but one or more of them should feel really homey to you. Choose among those.

I would definitely recommend a preliminary look-see trip out!

[JerZ]

Originally Posted by kikanakala

What about Glen Rock? I'm sorry, I'm probably going to keep doing this as I see something available in our price range.

Oh, and geez, please, keep asking. You are doing the smartest thing by being thorough. This is your life and your future you're talking about here. Hopefully more people will chime in with their own personal picks for you.

[kikanakala]

I really love you guys! Maybe we'll be neighbors! Okay, well, except for JerZ because you're not there anymore. I'm serious, though, this thread and the other one I posted about things to do in NJ have completely changed my attitude about moving, and now I'm counting down the days for a real fall, snow, small towns, pizza, and a guy who sells chestnuts at Christmas! (I know, I can't get over it!) Yeah, we're taking a trip up there in a couple of weeks, but we only get one before the "big move" so I'm a little stressed about it right now. Hopefully everything will just fall into place!

[SMS252]

Originally Posted by jobezee1

I assume your husband works for KPMG. I don't know about the living situation but that area was very green and gorgeous. I too worked for them out of Dallas but had to travel to Montvale a couple of times. Your husband is very lucky because that is the nicest corporate office that I have ever seen...like a college campus. Very affluent area.

Hi there..

I happen to read here that you moved to montvale, NJ like in Aug. Which area you recommend are good for moving up there.. I found out that there are no morning trains/buses to Montvale?
Could you please suggest any area where We are move in, and from where there can be an easy commute to NYC.

[kikanakala]

Originally Posted by JimmyLane

so what you're looking for is for people to tell you what you want to hear.

Nope, just true positive information to let me know the good things about New Jersey. I'd like to figure out the negatives for myself instead of going in biased, and there are PLENTY of negative threads and posts on this site about NJ if I feel like scaring myself or dreading my impending move.

But if you'd like to tell me that I'm pretty and intelligent, feel free!

[cvanripe10]

I have a lot to say about this area. There used to be 3 farms in Montvale. Tice's, Van Riper's, and Diperos. I am a Van Riper. Diperos is still there, Tice sold his farm and they developed a strip mall, my family sold our farm and they put up a giant A&P.

25 years ago, this area was the best...until everyone found out about it. Now it is extremely over populated and overpriced. People are -very- pompous and a lot of kids here never worked a day in their life and are spoiled. Pretty much all MTV type. That's my opinion.

Unless you work at the HQ of a major corporation(this town is now filled with them), it'll be a tricky area. You need a ton of money to live here.
I'm trying to escape NJ because there really isn't a middle class place to live. There are middle class towns like ramsey, mahwah, allendale, ridgewood ect..but they all have upper class prices. $650,000 would buy you the smallest house in town.

One last bad part about NJ is it doesn't take very long to go from extremely nice to extremely bad. Monvale and Saddle River are the best of the best. Spring Valley is a dump ghetto...5 minute drive from montvale. All of north Jersey is like this. You could be living in heaven with hell two towns over.

Aside from the problems, it has a lot of ups. The scenery is amazing. North Jersey is 75% terrain and 25% sky. Basically rolling hills and tons of folliage.

To sum it all up- IF you have millions in your bank account and work at a corporate HQ this is the best place to live.

[kikanakala]

Ha! Nope, no millions, but we'll just have to make the best of it.