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My wife and I have lived here for about 4 years and are now looking to buy a house. We've been looking for about a month, and since we're starting to get serious regarding offers and potentially buying a long-term residence, we're both concerned about potentially missing a really great neighborhood. After all, it seems that if you don't keep the NJ Transit train schedule memorized, and you haven't lived in all the neighborhoods for the last 20 years, it's easy to overlook a potential gem (especially since some searches return results from 6+ years ago!).
First, the "sticky stuff"
Where are you coming from? Currently live in Jersey City
Why are you moving? Buying a house
Where will you be working ? If NYC, what part of NYC? Both of us work in NYC, one in the financial district and one right by Penn Station
Will you buy or rent? Buy
What is your budget ? Depending on property taxes (ha!) up to 600k
Do you need/want good public schools? Yes
We're looking to live in a neighborhood with young families and some parks or local activities, but we're happy to drive around NJ to do stuff like we generally do now.
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.
We've also just started to look in Rutherford, since it also has really good schools and a potentially shorter commute into NYC. Maybe less charming, but the prices and taxes are lower so our money may go further -- although it seems like every other house in Rutherford has a giant pool in the back yard?! After the competitiveness of M/SO, my wife is intrigued with Rutherford (especially since her commute would be estimated at only an hour, door to door).
Are these the three best places to live with semi-reasonable prices and a total commute time of under an hour AND with good public schools? We briefly discussed Montclair and Glen Ridge but they seem pricy, competitive, and with longer commute times compared to M/SO.
I think you are on the money. I would also add Livingston to your list. No train but everyone commutes into the city via either jitney to train or NJT bus. Tons of young families, lower priced and lower taxes than South Orange or Maplewood and better schools.
Unfortunately its been sellers market for a bit and its only going to continue that way for longer until inventory start to free up more which will take longer time.
Because of the artificial squeeze of lack of inventory and just being in seller market in general, its tough to find a place.
Personally only worthwhile suggestion I can provide is that to perhaps consider broadening the search and looking at Long Island as alternative option.
Those are all really great places, but if you want to keep your taxes lower you'll need to look outside Essex County. Union (Westfield, Summit, Cranford) or Bergen (Rutherford). Just be sure to stay on a train line.
I had looked at LI but it seems like spots near the LIRR are extremely wealthy.
I'm calculating taxes into our monthly cost, which is one of the reasons that Rutherford has caught our interest, but I can see the appeal of being in M/SO with the old trees, old houses, and landscape in general. There's an attractiveness to being in the same neighborhood as million-dollar homes (since there's usually some pride of ownership), but finding a place that's nice AND doesn't require a 15 minute jitney ride is difficult.
The 6 month old doesn't help our math, as we need to get him to daycare, and that doesn't help the commute calculations! That's part of the reason that we're not too keen on something like jitney to train to subway travel, or driving to a train. After all, everyone else is trying to get into Manhattan as well.
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 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 with West Orange. The schools and demographics are very similar to Maplewood/SO. Taxes are generally lower in West Orange (at least that's what we found a few years ago). West Orange tends to be cheaper because there is no train station right in town, but as mentioned, there is a jitney service in some parts of town that will bring you to the South Orange station. There is also direct NYC bus service in town. West Orange is also much larger than Maplewood/SO, so there tends to be more inventory and therefore better home prices.
I agree with West Orange. The schools and demographics are very similar to Maplewood/SO. Taxes are generally lower in West Orange (at least that's what we found a few years ago). West Orange tends to be cheaper because there is no train station right in town, but as mentioned, there is a jitney service in some parts of town that will bring you to the South Orange station. There is also direct NYC bus service in town. West Orange is also much larger than Maplewood/SO, so there tends to be more inventory and therefore better home prices.
While both towns have very high property taxes, the effective property tax rate is actually higher in West Orange than SO/Maplewood. 3.5% vs 3.1% respectively. The money you save on the house in WO vs a similar house in SO/M should make up for the difference though. I like both areas equally, but if the OP is commuting to Penn Station, and can possibly get parking at the train station, South Orange is probably better for you. Train Station parking often has a long waiting list in most towns. I often see a lot of bicycles and motor scooters parked at the SO train station, so if you live close, that is an option too.
I think the parking at SO station is resident only but the wait list is huge so may be a moot point.
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