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Hi all, researching this forum today and have found quite a bit of great information here but am looking for further guidance for family members.
Married couple - she works in the Financial District in Manhattan, he works close to Milburn, NJ. They will be buying a home in New Jersey, are planning on a family so want great schools and a nice, safe neighborhood. Their price range for a home is between $500,000 and $700,000.
He will drive to work near Milburn, she will take the train into lower Manhattan. The question is: where should they move to??
Today we've been google mapping various towns and commutes as well as searching Great Schools, trying to come up with some good choices. Just thought I'd stop by for more advice from all you Jersey experts.
Probably should answer the questions on the sticky thread on the top of the forum. Without any more information, I'd say Millburn itself, Maplewood, and Summit should top the list.
Hi all, researching this forum today and have found quite a bit of great information here but am looking for further guidance for family members.
Married couple - she works in the Financial District in Manhattan, he works close to Milburn, NJ. They will be buying a home in New Jersey, are planning on a family so want great schools and a nice, safe neighborhood. Their price range for a home is between $500,000 and $700,000.
He will drive to work near Milburn, she will take the train into lower Manhattan. The question is: where should they move to??
Today we've been google mapping various towns and commutes as well as searching Great Schools, trying to come up with some good choices. Just thought I'd stop by for more advice from all you Jersey experts.
Millburn is an excellent option...the schools are fantastic, arguably the best in the state. The Millburn train station makes for an easy commute to the financial district (take an express train to Hoboken which takes about 28/30 min then jump on the PATH to the WTC, which takes about 15 min) Living in Millburn would mean that you could most likely get by with one car, which is a considerable savings (gas, maintenance, insurance, etc. The down side of Millburn is that since it is such a sought after community, housing is expensive, and because it is in Essex County, the taxes are very high...and I mean high for NJ, where we used to sky high taxes.
IMHO, you'd be much better off living in Chatham or Madison. Both are on the Midtown direct train line for easy NYC access, (65/70 min). Both towns wonderful places to raise a family, have idyllic walkable downtown areas (so pretty they have been used as the setting for major movies) with wonderful restaurants and shopping. Both towns have top tier school systems, amongst the best in the state and nation. One huge plus is that being located in Morris County, the taxes are much, much lower than other commuter friendly towns. (Bergen, Essex, Union Counties) Again by living in a town with a train station you may avoid the second car expenses. You'll find that your housing dollar goes a little further than in Millburn, plus you can afford a little more house because of the lower taxes.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.
Millburn's general tax rate is 1.848, effective tax rate is 1.715;
Chatham Boro 1.750/1.583
Chatham Township 1.653/1.531
Summit 3.829/1.753
Maplewood 3.103/2.760
So taxes really aren't horrendously higher in Millburn and Summit. The advantage of Summit and eastward on the M&E line is you get trains from both branches, plus a few which originate at Summit. But Chatham and Madison probably belong on the OPs list.
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