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If you want a painless drive to Newark Airport, towns with easy access to I-78 are your best bet. Getting to Newark Airport from the Bergen County towns mentioned is more variable (Rt 17 and the Garden State Parkway are the north-south routes) and time consuming vs the I-78 area.
You just need to decide if you want the older, denser, 'walk to the train' type town with older housing and smaller lots like a Westfield or the more spread out, "newer" housing stock of places like New Providence/Gillette/Basking Ridge. In your price range almost any town you pick will have fine schools.
Fortunately we have some time so we will be visiting many of these different towns in the coming weeks to get a feel. We have already visited Franklin Lakes (I have a cousin there), and North Caldwell. Wasn't crazy about N.Caldwell...nothing against it, it just didn't feel like home.
One thing Bergen County affords access to more airports in that I'm not wed to Newark only. Most of those towns are (depending on time of day traffic) within 45min or so of Westchester County Airport and LaGuardia as well as Newark.
A reason i keep coming back to Westfield is that I have an acquaintance that moved there about 8months ago who loves it (he loves Cranford too). He commutes to the city and I believe goes to Cranford for the train. Then I have a cousin moving back to the tri-state from Chicago who is actively searching in Summit. Once these towns flashed on my radar I began researching them and they all seem to have many of the things we are looking for. Admittedly, this life long NYer never knew their were viable options outside Westchester county....but here I am....doing my due diligence.
hahahaha.....yes good point. As I try to tell my wife all the time: "Try to picture our lives as the boys get to school age and what the day to day is vs. now having a toddler and newborn at home."
Been to the city with the wife 3 times since moving out. 1 was a wedding and 2 were companies KIDS parties. Moved out 4 years ago (stopped in Hoboken, so it was not cold turkey)
One thing Bergen County affords access to more airports in that I'm not wed to Newark only. Most of those towns are (depending on time of day traffic) within 45min or so of Westchester County Airport and LaGuardia as well as Newark.
I rarely schedule flights to coincide with rush hour (if i can help it) so it really wouldn't be the nightmare it may seem. Once over the GW its 15 min. But point well taken, it would be a last resort airport from Bergen....Newark Airport would be top choice.
Why not consider going even more south to something like West Windsor. That will give you access to Philly (given 1h 10m) if need be. Or you could take you life into your own hands and fly from Trenton Airport
Why not consider going even more south to something like West Windsor. That will give you access to Philly (given 1h 10m) if need be. Or you could take you life into your own hands and fly from Trenton Airport
Trying not to get too far from friends/family and familiarity of the Tri-State area. Trust me, if it were my decision alone we would move to the Dallas suburbs.....but thats a story for another day.
I used to be a mild snob in terms of my preference for Westchester suburbs over NJ, but after researching the high schools a bit I decided that unless you were picking a town like Chappaqua, Scarsdale or Bronxville, you really had better schools and lower taxes in the NJ suburbs. Even compared to the top Westchester suburbs I would argue that Short Hills/Millburn is a better deal. I really have developed an aversion for paying high property taxes for average to mediocre public schools, so based on your criteria I would suggest the following NJ suburbs: Short Hills/Millburn (you can find homes in $900-$1M range and will have lower taxes than elsewhere in terms of % of home value), Tenafly (would need to take bus to commute into NYC), Chatham, Ridgewood, Westfield, Livingston (no train either), Summit. When looking at home prices you really do need to take property taxes into account and figure out your total monthly housing costs. Good luck!
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