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I went down to the coast in Long Branch yesterday, and saw some new construction being erected along the Garden State Parkway near the Holmdel-Middletown exit. Out of curiosity, I searched online and saw that there are two Toll Brothers developments in the area where prices clearly exceeded $1m. Now, these are not weekend homes and the way the communities were being built suggested that they are being designed for commuting families. If that was the case, who would be paying those high prices to live full time in the area and why? It's easily 1.5 hours from NYC and 1 hour from Princeton. Where would people work? Or is the idea to take the Seastreak to Manhattan?
Holmdel is only about 5 miles farther from NYC than Mendham.
A 1.5-hour commute to NYC is the norm for most people living in a NJ suburb, whether they want to admit it or not.
There are plenty of places other than NYC and Princeton, where people would commute to high paying jobs that would enable them to live in million dollar properties in Holmdel.
There's New Brunswick, with Robert Wood Johnson, and Johnson & Johnson...maybe 35 minutes away. There is a lot of biotech and big pharma in Middlesex County, in general.
Then there are the law firms. Woodbridge (also about 30-35 minutes away) is home to a couple of very prominent ones. And speaking of prominent law firms, there are also plenty in Newark, Roseland, West Orange, Livingston and Short Hills, which are not that much farther away than Woodbridge....all maybe 45 minutes to an hour away. A million boku bucks will buy you a bigger house in Holmdel than in any of those Essex County towns (and with lower property taxes).
Plus Holmdelians are very near the shore (without having to worry about shore town problems such as summer traffic & benny infestation, and hurricane disasters). And they have a bunch of yacht clubs maybe 15-20 minutes away.
Commute time is becoming irrelevant due to work from option available for many high income earners. I'm in the IT field working for one of the largest banks, i know tons of people from banking/finance industry who have the work from home option.
A typical bank IT-VP (Equivalent to IT mgr/Lead in other industries) makes minimum 150K base+bonus, if spouse also makes the same then that is 300k+ base house hold income. So it's not that difficult to buy a 1 million house.
I went down to the coast in Long Branch yesterday, and saw some new construction being erected along the Garden State Parkway near the Holmdel-Middletown exit. Out of curiosity, I searched online and saw that there are two Toll Brothers developments in the area where prices clearly exceeded $1m. Now, these are not weekend homes and the way the communities were being built suggested that they are being designed for commuting families. If that was the case, who would be paying those high prices to live full time in the area and why? It's easily 1.5 hours from NYC and 1 hour from Princeton. Where would people work? Or is the idea to take the Seastreak to Manhattan?
"Holmdel's picturesque beauty, proximity to New York City and main highways, award-winning public schools, large homes, rich history, PNC Bank Arts Center, and the presence of many high paying jobs within commuting distance led the township to be ranked the #1 "Six-Figure Town" by Money magazine and CNN for 2009."
I went down to the coast in Long Branch yesterday, and saw some new construction being erected along the Garden State Parkway near the Holmdel-Middletown exit. Out of curiosity, I searched online and saw that there are two Toll Brothers developments in the area where prices clearly exceeded $1m. Now, these are not weekend homes and the way the communities were being built suggested that they are being designed for commuting families. If that was the case, who would be paying those high prices to live full time in the area and why? It's easily 1.5 hours from NYC and 1 hour from Princeton. Where would people work? Or is the idea to take the Seastreak to Manhattan?
They told me who they are, they want to know who you are?
"Holmdel's picturesque beauty, proximity to New York City and main highways, award-winning public schools, large homes, rich history, PNC Bank Arts Center, and the presence of many high paying jobs within commuting distance led the township to be ranked the #1 "Six-Figure Town" by Money magazine and CNN for 2009."
The thing is, where these new developments are located are not yet bucolic, nor do they offer views of the ocean. They're almost right off the Garden State Parkway which I would think can be seen from some of these homes' porches. Maybe the other attributes like proximity to PNC, schools, and jobs in the Brunswick area helps justify the prices.
I'm trying to figure out how much of an impact the ferry to Wall St. has in this (if this is attracting new buyers who work in downtown/Manhattan), or whether prices would have been this high with or without the ferry.
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