Wayne is awesome for families. Great schools, tons of parks and rec areas, amazing town facilities, and between the Wayne PAL, Boys and Girls Club, YMCA and private groups there are an infinite number of kid friendly programs and activities.
Yes there is no walkable downtown, but there is just about everything else you could possibly want in a town including more shopping areas, grocery stores, and restaurants than you will find anywhere else on your list(or any town in north Jersey for that matter).
For your budget you can actually get a 4 bedroom 2-3 bath center hall colonial approx. 2500-3,000 sq ft(that is less than 50 years old). You will not find that buying power in any other town on your list.
Commute would be great for both of you.
Taxes are on par with most other towns on your list depending on what part of Wayne you are looking at( some areas have higher taxes than others)
Drawbacks are:
Town is huge(25 square miles) so where you are in town is important for access to highways and avoiding traffic getting across town via Hamburg Turnpike or Ratzer Rd. this can be a major PITA especially when there is construction on a major artery.
Flooding, there is are small sections of town that flood(just like most towns), if you look at a flood map (
http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/program...xi_passaic.pdf ) and avoid those areas you will be fine. The reason flooding in Wayne gets so much attention is because the Willowbrook Mall is right in the middle of one of the flood zones and anytime it floods the local news crews show up and imply the entire town is underwater, when actually it is just the mall and surrounding area. Again the town is 25 square miles( that is the size of Verona, Nutley, Summit, Glen Rock, Cranford, North Caldwell and Chatham combined)I have not had an issue getting around Wayne even when there was flooding on some of the highways, by the Willowbrook Mall.
Name cache: Low. Wayne is not an elite town and has a lot of economic Diversity. You have common, blue collar, middle class folks living among upper middle class and millionaires.
My 2 cents
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