Most Cosmopolitan Towns in NJ (Edison, Trenton: house, find a job, buying)

[electroink]

I am considering moving to NJ from Toronto (5 Million people in the greater city area) and I would like to continue to live somewhere where I can still have access to good restaurants and cultural events with going to NY or Philadelphia.
My partner will be working around Princeton. Any suggestions for great towns to live? (We are in our 30's and have no children)

[Viralmd]

Can you give us a budget, please? Are you working from home, or is someone working in either NY or Philadelphia? If so, how long a commute will you tolerate?

[electroink]

Originally Posted by Viralmd

Can you give us a budget, please? Are you working from home, or is someone working in either NY or Philadelphia? If so, how long a commute will you tolerate?

We would like to spend less than $500,000 - which buys a lot more house in NJ than it does here. Our present house is only 1000 sqft.
I have no job yet, so I do not know which city I would be commuting to. Ideally not more than 1 hour.

[Viralmd]

Well, the Princeton area is really more than an hour from NYC- the train is a little more than an hour and then you have to get to your place of work from there...

Do you need access to BOTH NYC and Philadelphia?

You should really secure a job prior to thinking about moving....

[electroink]

I would need to access one or the other - not both. The job we are moving for is my husbands - he will be working in the Princeton area. I will find a job after (I will need to get a Visa).
Princeton looks really great on line, but there are SOO many small towns its overwhelming. So far, I am looking on line at places like East Windsor, Plainfield, Princeton etc... I would definately find a job before buying, but I am looking for an idea of whats available. It a big move for us, not only from the city to the country, but also to the US from Canada.

[Viralmd]

500,000 would get you a very small house in Princeton....You can look in other areas nearby: West Windsor (mostly families, who moved there for the schools, which are excellent), Hopewell, Pennington, Lawrenceville, Belle Mead....

[electroink]

Thanks! - I have not looked at any of those suggestions yet!

[jjoycemc]

For 500k you can get a great house (2,500-3,000 sq ft) in Cherry Hill, NJ. 15 minutes from Philly and well worth it. Large town, great schools. Lots of athletes (hockey, football) players inve in Cherry Hill. Very Professional town.
Good Luck!

[jerseyj]

Originally Posted by electroink

I would need to access one or the other - not both. The job we are moving for is my husbands - he will be working in the Princeton area. I will find a job after (I will need to get a Visa).
Princeton looks really great on line, but there are SOO many small towns its overwhelming. So far, I am looking on line at places like East Windsor, Plainfield, Princeton etc... I would definately find a job before buying, but I am looking for an idea of whats available. It a big move for us, not only from the city to the country, but also to the US from Canada.

electroink- living in the Princeton area with access to NYC and Philly, is like living in the Guelph, Kitchener, Whitby with access to TO.
Since schools are not an issue you have a lot of great town options.
I lived in TO, Guelph and Ottawa and now the Princeton area.
It can be quite overwhelming nailing down the right place to settle here.

Sounds like you would need to be close to trains (if you are looking at working in NYC or Philly) you would, ideally, want access to the North East Corridor trains.
My advice is to check out the NJT (New Jersey Transit) web site and look at the towns that have access to these trains, SEPTA trains come into Trenton NJ and will take you into Philly.
Pick some towns that might work for you and your partner and toss them out on this web site. You will get a lot of good advice!
Welcome to a fellow Canadian!

[RobRiguez]

I live in Edison and it seems to be becomming the central hub of the commuters. 45-60 min to nyc by train. Princeton is close enough to drive to (20 min). If you can afford northern Edison its very nice. I want to say 3-4bedroom starts around 550k up to about a million for the Mc-Mansions. Here in South Edison its alot more blue collar but very nice quiet town for being one of NJ Largest cities.