Any opinions on Maplewood or South Orange? (West Orange, Livingston: house, buying)

[Raffaella]

Hi there, it is me again. As you may know from my previous thread my family and I may move to NJ from Europe in the summer of next year. We received a lot of suggestions on good places in NJ where to move. A person we know mentioned Maplewood and South Orange as good commuting communities. What is you opinion? are school good there? My husband will be working near United Nations. So what would be the best way of commuting there from NJ?
I thank you already for your advice.
Raffy

[Melland]

We moved from NYC & really loved the Maplewood, South & West Orange areas. Easy to get to NYC & a great mix of people.

[hrjersey]

The areas are nice...I grew up in South Orange and the two towns share a school district. The schools are not the best. They are very average and if you were to buy here the taxes are high. Generally if the taxes are high you would like have your kids use the public school system since your taxes pay for the schools. I know a number of families that in addition to these high taxes send their kids to private school because they are not thrilled with the public schools. That's a lot of extra money to spend.

On the otherhand the train goes right through both of these towns so a lot of people that commute to NY live here.

The thing is a $500K budget for buying doesn't get you a lot of house in the better school districts. Livingston, Cranford - you can get a small house that probably needs some work. Both of these towns have very good school districts. Cranford has a train station, Livingston has commuter buses.

[Raffaella]

Thanks. I have checked the website you recommended before schoolmaster.com and it shows that Maplewood's school district has not great results. I will lokk into Cranford and Livingston that have better results. Are they interesting communities or just sleeping areas for commuters?

[hrjersey]

Both are very nice communities and they have downtown areas. NJ is very small. There are a lot of things going on in each commuity. Restaurants, theaters, festivals. The nice thing is that everything can be a relatively short drive. Then you are also close to urban centers. New York City, or Philadelphia. What is nice is that all of these towns have mixed populations. A good number of people commute to the city but there is also a lot of business and industry right here in NJ so plenty of people work right here. Within each town you have areas - some areas may be more friendly/neighbor oriented. People who are outside on weekends and know each other. Other areas people may keep more to themselves. Some people may refer to these as Bedroom Communities but I guess it depends what you are involved in.

[Raffaella]

Thanks for your reply, it gives me an idea. We lived for 7 years not far from London and it was a similar setup. Thanks a lot

[DWS43]

Current Maplewood resident here. Both towns are quaint and very diverse. The schools are okay. Most people who have their children in the schools have positive things to say about them, especially when it comes to curriculum vs. test scores. Our son is not school age yet so I cannot speak from personal experience.

The taxes are high and South Orange is in the process of undergoing a tax reval but taxes are high in New Jersey in general.

Check out maplewoodonline.com for more information.

D

[MSueWillis]

I've lived in South ORange for 20 years and my son had his entire education here. He just graduated from an ivy league university. THe high school here is in top 5% in nation according to NEWSWEEK in 2007. Take a look at a website run by a local nonprofit organization for more info: http://www.twotowns.org.