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I don't know how the schools in Kearny are these days, but they used to be among the best. Kearny is just a short bus ride to the Path station in Harrison and The Manor neighborhood is still a good place to raise children. There are also buses directly into Port Authority.
I don't know how the schools in Kearny are these days, but they used to be among the best. Kearny is just a short bus ride to the Path station in Harrison and The Manor neighborhood is still a good place to raise children. There are also buses directly into Port Authority.
Seriously? Kearny seem to have one of the worst ranked schools in nj, is there another Kearny I am unaware of.
I don't know how the schools in Kearny are these days, but they used to be among the best. Kearny is just a short bus ride to the Path station in Harrison and The Manor neighborhood is still a good place to raise children. There are also buses directly into Port Authority.
That must have been like 30 years ago. Kearny is now ranked in the bottom 10-20% in the state.
I don't remember Kearny ever having great schools. However, it has always been considered a step up from some of the areas surrounding it. People from those areas might consider it to have great schools. If you are living in Newark or parts of Jersey City, Kearny is definitely a step up in several ways. Everything is relative.
I don't know how the schools in Kearny are these days, but they used to be among the best. Kearny is just a short bus ride to the Path station in Harrison and The Manor neighborhood is still a good place to raise children. There are also buses directly into Port Authority.
Kearny has never even been among the average, let alone the best... wtf? Maybe 60 years ago... yikes. And no, people from the surrounding areas didn't think of Kearny as having good schools either. North Arlington and Lyndhurst were considered to be the decent schools in the area, although no one was bragging about those either.
I would add West Orange to your list. Schools on par with SO/Maplewood. The Gregory section is right by SO has a jitney to the train and is very similar to South Orange.
i agree especially with the neighborhood. there are local facebook groups for gregory and lots of meetups at the local parks. there's a woman in the neighborhood who runs an in home daycare, they're is also a reasonably priced small daycare in south orange right by the train station (bobby's is the name i think), and the jitney is an excellent option, but numerous people drive as well and i've heard people chat about carpooling.
in west orange - taxes are awful, but you'll see that that translates into lower home prices.
now, depending on what type of condition house you're interested in, there are lots of homes for sale in west orange - we've been much slower at clearing out the excess inventory created by the downturn, but it seems to be catching up in the past year.
there's a great house for sale on a double lot on wellington and hillside. there's a smaller house for sale on hillside between mitchell and wellington. and numerous others in the same neighborhood.
if i did it all over again, i might look above gregory ave, to be in gregory school district instead of hazel, but everyone i know with children at hazel are very happy.
if you don't mind a main road - an amazing home just came on the market for i think $450,000 on the corner of gregory and wellington. it's up on a hill, so the main road is a non-issue for the back yard, but you'd be turning in and out of a driveway on a "busy street".
what about Scotch Plains / Fanwood / Westfield / Mountainside / Cranford ?
What is your commute tolerance?
Taxes in this area are lower than WO/SO, etc. 600k would definitely get you a decent home (in SP/F and Cranford for sure. Westfield a little pricier), and the school districts (dont know much about mountainside schools) are great!
Downside for commute? No direct service to Penn except non-rush hours. But you could drive to Harrison (path) or ferry in JC if thats a huge concern. Otherwise you take the train to Newark and transfer to connecting service for NY Penn or PATH train
It's me, my wife, and our 6mo old son, and we both have family from out-of-town so we tend to have people stay with us for short periods of time quite regularly. We're happy spending time at home, but since we're looking for a long-term house, we'd of course be happiest with neighborhoods where there's some sense of camaraderie and not just everyone hiding in their house or apartment.
The key thing is that we have been looking in the Maplewood/South Orange area, and can afford the "bread and butter" houses, but the inventory in February is low -- and the number of buyers is high. We've actually put in 1 offer on a house but we were #2 out of 6 total offers received. That's some pretty fierce competition if we're not even yet in the high season.
I live in South Orange, so I can't help with recommendations for other towns, but I've heard from several realtors that February is about the busiest time of the year for house sales since that's when Wall Streeters get their bonuses. The people who are out shopping now are very serious about buying. If you wait a few months, you may find more inventory and less competition.
I hope you find something in M/SO. It sounds like you'd like it there.
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Maybe 60 years ago... yikes. And no, people from the surrounding areas didn't think of Kearny as having good schools either. North Arlington and Lyndhurst were considered to be the decent schools in the area, although no one was bragging about those either.
