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Hey there guys, I'm new to this forum and this is all pretty new to me so please be nice.
So my situation is as follows: I'm a Brit married to a US citizen and we're currently living in the UK and are planning to move to the States. Now HERE'S the tricky part: He's got family both in LA and NJ and we came around for a month's visit last year to get the feeling of the place and decide where we'd like to live. I personally love Jersey much more than LA (feels more like home) but I'm afraid it doesn't offer a lot of the opportunities in comparison to LA and not sure if commuting to NYC for is easy or sustainable. I was wondering if YOU could shed some light. So here are our details:
I'm 27, a certified Fitness and group Instructor, that's how I make my living so it is super-important for me to find work with at least 3-4 different gyms. My husband's got a Masters degree in Marketing and Business, he is 32 and is a Project Manager for one of the leading food chains in Britain. He doesn't mind commuting to NYC for work if necessary. We have no children.
We're looking to rent a flat, and it's hard to say what our budget will be seeing as we don't have jobs in NJ yet but we have somewhere to say at least for a good few months (in Lawrenceville) and quite a lot of money saved in advance (around 25k I'd say). We're not really fussy about the neighbourhood we'd be living in as long as it's safe and relatively close to a train station, I suppose.
Well...that's us! Any particular places we should be looking at? Can we commute to NY daily for work? What to expect and most of all, are we better off trying to find jobs in LA?
You can find plenty of fitness training work in New Jersey, and it'd probably be easier to get around compared to LA's horrid traffic.
I know you're used to England, but in New Jersey, the train isn't actually always the fastest route into the city, the bus often is. The train goes kind of specifically into downtown NYC, in the tip of Manhattan area. And the wait at Secaucus station adds a lot of time (the train stops there for a while, waiting for passengers/transferers to board). Have you consiered Jersey City or Newark for the speed of the PATH train? Or do you HAVE TO have a suburban neighborhood?
When the OP refers to, "LA", I am wondering if she means the state of Louisiana (whose abbreviation is LA), or if she is referring to Los Angeles, which is usually abbreviated as, "L.A.". Knowing exactly which area she is comparing to NJ would be essential if she is to get answers with any real value.
As to Louisiana, I can tell you from 35 years as an educator, that the state of Louisiana has some of the absolute worst public schools in the entire US.
Whenever a student transferred to my NJ high school from Louisiana, he/she was invariably 3-4 years below grade level in all academic areas.
I also came away with a somewhat negative opinion about the schools in California, but the students who transferred from CA were still light-years ahead of the ones who transferred from Louisiana.
The OP stated that she does not have children, but I thought that it might be prudent to offer this information for her consideration.
assuming la is los angeles, new jersey is more like Britain. depending on where in nj you are, the train is faster. I'm in essex county and the bus is at least 15 min longer than the express to nyc. some simple differences between nyc and la is the weather, there's next to no snow in la, there's a good amount here. also, la is more of a beach city, new york isn't.
lawrenceville is actually closer to philly than nyc.
if you are working in nyc, choose a place with direct nyc train service, but please start by copy and pastinghttp://www.city-data.com/forum/new-jersey/1044981-questions-future-potential-residents.html and filling it out here. how much are you willing to spend on house or rent?
if you want to live in an urban area, look towards jersey city, across the river from nyc. for suburbs, depending on how much you will spend, you can look at metuchen, maplewood, south orange, chatham or princeton (not far from lawrenceville).
weather? You're understating the weather difference between LA and NYC/NJ. Los Angeles has PERFECT weather, it's like ALWAYS nice out, low humidity. The nights get really cool which is fun, and the days heat up, but it's low humidity so its tolerable.
NJ/NYC, well, in the winter it's a windy freezer. In the Summer, God reigns down a flamethrower on us. We only have like 4-6 of good weather throughout the entire year, and that occurs in fall and spring.
Nice thing though is it's good for gardening. Tomato plants grow like weeds whereas in your home country, from what I've read, you can't even grow them. If that matters to you.
You need to have a certain type of personality for L.A. If you have it, you will love it. If not, you will probably hate it.
You mentioned Lawrenceville. Be aware that is western NJ, well out of the NYC commuting range. Its a totally different feel from the majority of NJ and jobs will be harder to find.
Thank you! Obviously I meant Los Angeles, sorry for not being clear.
I absolutely adore the Princeton/Lawrenceville area because it reminds me of home (well, Princeton is one of the nicest cities I've ever been to!), but if they're too far out from NY, we will probably have to opt for Newark/Jersey City (haven't been to either, are they nice?).
As for Los Angeles, the weather is beautiful (very different to the UK's) but I'm not sure it's for me (can't really explain why, but I just felt less connected to the place and to the people).
If you like an urban environment then Hoboken (Frank Sinatra's hometown) and downtown Jersey City would be ideal. You can get to NYC in 15 minutes on the PATH train. Hoboken is a one mile long slice of NYC with lots of bars & restaurants and a young vibe (singles in their 20s). Not sure of your budget but both places are pretty expensive, as is Princeton and other desirable areas. Newark for the most part is a high-crime area that you would not like. I'd avoid even looking there.
If your husband gets a job somewhere in NJ, then your chances of living in places like Princeton, Morristown, Westfield or Ridgewood open up. If you live nearly anywhere in NJ but Hoboken/Jersey City/Hudson County, both of you will need to drive. As you know, in LA EVERYONE drives as their mass transportation system for the most part is lacking. Our traffic can be bad depending on where you're going but nothing is as bad as LA's traffic.
We have 4 seasons as you know. In most places of NJ you're roughly an hour or less from the Jersey shore. Drive a couple of hours north to NY state or west to Pennsylvania you can go skiing in the winter. We're close to New England, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
Most people I know LOOOVE British accents so meeting people here should be a breeze. Most New Jerseyans are blunt but also will open up to you quite easily and give you the shirt off their backs once they get to know you. You'll know where you stand with most people right away.
"Most people I know LOOOVE British accents so meeting people here should be a breeze. Most New Jerseyans are blunt but also will open up to you quite easily and give you the shirt off their backs once they get to know you. You'll know where you stand with most people right away."
Lol THis made me laugh because my husband immigrated here from England seven years ago and people aren't always that friendly to me. He's faced discrimination in many jobs. The only British people I've met here that are doing well are the ones that were already upper middle class in Britain.
yes, if you want an urban area, look towards hoboken, it's just across the river from nyc, though i wouldn't recommend having a car, parking is tough, and there is a 4 hour limit, you'll be clamped/booted by hpu if you don't obey it.
i wouldn't look at newark.
if you are looking at suburbs, metuchen would probably be a little far out for you, but you can look at montclair, maplewood, south orange and glen ridge, and maybe westfield.
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