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We are relocating from Brussels in Belgium to the NYC area with our two young kids, both of us will be commuting for work. We have been looking at areas such as Ridgewood and Short Hills mainly because of the schools reputation but I have little insight on the subtle differences between Ridgewood and Tenafly for example or Short Hills and Livingstone/Summit. I am addressing this forum with hope of getting feedback from locals who have actual living experience of those areas. Feel free to propose other areas with similar geolocalisation.
Yes the differences are subtle. All of the towns you named are great places to live.
Tenafly may be the best if you are commuting off hours by car because it is physically the closest. As a result, more residents work on Broadway, in television, doctors or business owners (lots of real estate investors). So that colors the flavor of the town. Many people drive to work.
Ridgewood has more (and better) commuting options for rush hour and as a result has more of a corporate and executive vibe. It has a lovely downtown with good restaurants and is close to all the great shopping on the "highway".
Short Hills has the best commuting options to downtown so has more of the finance/wall street crowd. It is the most expensive of the towns you named. It also has the most competitive and highly ranked schools of the bunch.
I am not as familiar with Livingston but the housing stock is newer and less expensive and the commuting options are still good but not as good as Short Hills because there is not train station in the town.
You already know that they all have great schools and low crime.
This board can suggest a town if you clue us in on what is important to you and your family. If you are interested in racial and ethnic diversity data, city-data has details for each town in the non-forum section.
Many thanks for the constructive feedback foodyum, it confirms the outcome of shuffling through several school ranking lists on the Internet. We actually do not intend to use cars to commute so the options will be bus/rail. I understand Tenafly has got a significant Asian (Korean) population which is more than fine by me, we are Jewish but do not necessarily look to be surrounded by a Jewish crowd although it is an important feature in our everyday life, but we do not have that notion of community/club in Europe in the same way they have in the US. As for what is important to my family, obviously schools, an international feel, cultural activities and a mix of residential environment and more eventful city/village centre that keeps both areas linked. Safety is also a factor, in Europe it is rare to have very good and less good areas a few miles away from each other, you usually have regions of less good areas and then it gradually becomes better so that could also be a (more psychological, from what I gather) concern for us.
We are relocating from Brussels in Belgium to the NYC area with our two young kids, both of us will be commuting for work. We have been looking at areas such as Ridgewood and Short Hills mainly because of the schools reputation but I have little insight on the subtle differences between Ridgewood and Tenafly for example or Short Hills and Livingstone/Summit. I am addressing this forum with hope of getting feedback from locals who have actual living experience of those areas. Feel free to propose other areas with similar geolocalisation.
Westfield is in the same general location as the towns you mentioned. It has absolutely excellent public schools (no regional district, only Westfield residents attend), an award winning downtown (one of the best in the nation for a small town), safe/beautiful/small town community feel.
Hopefully in the future I can afford to raise my family there.(any typos blame the tiny buttons on my smartphone!)
Short Hills is better in every area than Westfield. Most importantly, your commute is much better and the schools are even ranked higher. There's a reason it's so expensive.
Ridgewood and Westfield are a wash. Ridgewood does have a direct train to midtown which is nice. I like the area of Westfield a bit better though, but I'm biased because I grew up in that area. Schools are equal.
Feedback appreciated, the reason why we did not shortlist Westfield is that their schools appear lower in the various rankings we looked at than Short Hills/Summit/Ridgewood/Tenafly's. Also, what is the incidence of being part of the Union County for Westfield schools?
Last edited by EddyCordie; 05-20-2016 at 10:07 AM..
Westfield schools are still excellent. Not sure what rankings you saw, but anything in the top 50 is very good. The main advantage you get with short hills is a direct train vs having to switch in Westfield.
Something to keep in mind is that NJ as a whole has excellent public schools, many of them ranked among the top in the country. The difference between #1 and #10 or #20 is not that great. It's tempting to use the school scores as a metric to find a place to live since it seems scientific and you have no better way to make a decision. However, by focusing on only the top five schools in a large and dense metro area, you are restricting yourselves to very expensive areas with tight housing markets that may or may not be a good cultural fit.
There are dozens of previous threads seeking similar information. You might spend a few hours looking through the archives. Also, if you search city-data on specific towns, you will find many, many threads discussing the pros and cons.
Ideally you will be able to visit NJ for a week or so to look around and check out houses before you move.
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