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Hello All. I'm looking for your insights on low crime and green suburbs/neighborhoods in NY or NJ, within a 1 hour train commute to NYC (door to door).
Where are you coming from? CA native, but moving from an awesome gatedcommunity in Austen, TX.
Why are you moving? Great job opportunity
Where will you be working? Midtown, a little south of Empire State Building
Will you buy or rent? Rent first. Buy in a couple years.
What is your budget? Rent in the $4000 - $5000 range per month. Family income over $250K/yr.
What kind of place are youlooking for? Updated single family home, with a fenced backyard for my kids to run and play. At least 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, with 2600+ sq ft. (Our current home is 3900 sq ft). Would consider a townhome, if the commute is good and the neighborhood has great amenities.
Will anyone (spouse, children,pets) be moving with you? Family of five, with wife homeschooling our two young kids, and grandparent living with us.
Do you need/want good public schools? Yes, A-rated schools a plus, in case we transition from homeschooling in a few years.
Briefly describe the kind of neighborhoodyou'd like to live in: A quiet and safe neighborhood that is primarily upper middle class professionals with young children. Modern homes, …or updated older homes near a charming and clean downtown. Safe parks and greenery would be ideal. Not at all interested in urban vibe. Also, when we want a night out, we don’t mind driving to it. Nearby community youth soccer and gymnastics programs would be nice as well.
List three things that areimportant to you in order of importance.
1. Low crime suburb
2. 1 hour commute to work, primarily train. ...No bus. Plan to leave house at 6:45 am weekdays.
3. A rated schools for 5th- 12th graders
Thanks in advance for the assistance, everyone.
Last edited by SingIt1972; 05-16-2018 at 09:54 PM..
I created this list by searching the NJ forum for “midtown commute safe.” I included “safe” not because NJ is a crime-ridden hellhole (it isn’t) but because that is always the #1 requirement for people who aren’t familiar with NJ, so you’ll get responses intended for people who are new to the area.
Not to worry, NJ and NYC have the toughest gun laws in the nation. both seek to be sanctuary cities, where people can escape persecution and live in peace.
Either place is as safe as could be.
Places with the toughest gun laws are the safest!
With the proposed age to purchase a firearm soon to be raised to 21, you will be that much safer.
Rest easy. no bad decisions.
Statistics for crime rates can be misleading without perspective. Additionally towns do their best to hide their problems.
Check out Woodbridge, Edison, Metuchen. Northeast NJ is a patchwork of rampant crime and citadels of safety. Great if you don't leave your 'territory' especially at night.
an hour commute has a lot to do with how long it takes you to get to the train station and how long it takes you to get from the train station to work. A 45 minute train ride is doable. The rest is up to you. Generally the closer the a train station, the more money, and the smaller plot of land.
NJ has very high property taxes in some towns to support good schools. You might want to think about when you are switching form home schooling. Kind of crazy to pay $20K in taxes (or pay it through a higher rent) if you are home schooling.
Also, 6:45 is not too late to take a bus to NYC depending on where you live (and you might have to leave a little earlier anyway). You can rent somewhere like Cranford, and that will put you in the center of a lot of places you might want to live so you can get a feel. They have Bus and Train service to NYC (there is a transfer for the train, but depending on how far south of the Empire state building it might make sense to transfer to the path train anyway). If you decide to take the NJT train all the way to Manhattan, remember that a Monthly train ticket to NYC also works on NJT buses to the city. So there are towns where people take the bus into the city, but the train home (or visa versa) depending on the time of day you work.
Ridgewood has a train and a beautiful clean downtown win good schools. You may be able to get a 4 bed/3 bath in your price. Train is about an hour meaning your commute will be longer.
I actually can't think of any other towns that fit your criteria. Any other town is either out of your price range, too far, doesn't have a beautiful downtown, doesn't have a train, or doesn't have excellent schools. Interested in what others come up with.
Also, in the really great towns, its hard to find a beautiful, updated rental in a great neighborhood, those homes are usually for sale.
I created this list by searching the NJ forum for “midtown commute safe.” I included “safe” not because NJ is a crime-ridden hellhole (it isn’t) but because that is always the #1 requirement for people who aren’t familiar with NJ, so you’ll get responses intended for people who are new to the area.
Good job. I am always amused when "safe" is the first criteria on the list of people from foreign parts of the country moving to NJ. As If.
Goes to show the power of the entertainment industry.
I visited Texas once. Everybody carried a gun, and a fight between a couple broke out in the apartment complex where we stayed. Both pulled out their guns and pointed them at each other, then the man proceeded to throw his wife's things into the pool.
Another resident told us how he shot his former FIL in the leg but they were friends now and he was meeting him for a beer.
And people from there are worried about NJ being safe!
Ridgewood has a train and a beautiful clean downtown win good schools. You may be able to get a 4 bed/3 bath in your price. Train is about an hour meaning your commute will be longer.
I actually can't think of any other towns that fit your criteria. Any other town is either out of your price range, too far, doesn't have a beautiful downtown, doesn't have a train, or doesn't have excellent schools. Interested in what others come up with.
Also, in the really great towns, its hard to find a beautiful, updated rental in a great neighborhood, those homes are usually for sale.
Montclair, West Orange, Maplewood, Cranford, etc just off top of my head.
The nicer towns in Bergen County and like the Westfields might be a bit of a reach. But even some of those are doable if you accept a smaller, older house.
Montclair, West Orange, Maplewood, Cranford, etc just off top of my head.
The nicer towns in Bergen County and like the Westfields might be a bit of a reach. But even some of those are doable if you accept a smaller, older house.
Imo, none of those towns have top schools and other than Montclair, most of the rentals are not large and few are updated. That's why i can't recommend them for the op.
For what you make you can live more or less anywhere you want.
The exception might be you'd have problems affording a newer, 4 bdrm + home in the very wealthiest towns in NJ.
But that's upper, upper class. Even in NJ.
It's safe to say many, many towns meet your safeness and good schools criteria at that income level.
Well, don't make him think that you'll live like a king in NNJ with a salary in that range. You can definitely get into a comfortable place in a good town but you're not going to end up in a castle on a hill. You aren't likely to end up in Short Hills or even have the nicest house in a cheaper area (which still isn't going to be cheap, mind you.)
Also, the shorter your commute the more urban it's going to be. A lot of the further out towns also will have less of a downtown. Even with a decent enough budget you'll not likely find everything you're looking for, so you'll have to figure out what you'll want to prioritize, and as we found when we were looking to move out of the city, those priorities ended up changing as we looked.
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