best cities,towns to buy a house

[bookspage]

I have friends in Branchberg. They seem to like it there

[vinodelotus]

Originally Posted by lastmove2018

Thanks,Looking at a house in Bernardsville next week. What about Bedminster? Is that a much more expensive area?

Bernardsville, Basking Ridge, Bedminster are all part of the Somerset Hills area so I would say they are all pretty similar in price. Deciding between the towns would depend on the actual house you're looking at and why types of amenities or community you prefer. Bernardsville has the best walkable downtown feel of the three.

[lastmove2018]

Originally Posted by G1..

You don't like the price of Princeton but you want Short Hills,not for $650 K .Try Cranberry NJ, Westfield?

Circling back to Westfield. what kind of community is it? we are south Asian and wonder if people are friendly / welcoming ?

[NewMamaArgo]

I think that Metuchen is going to be your best option. It has some housing stock in that price range, there is a pretty large South Asian diaspora there (Oak Tree Rd. is a short drive as well), it has a very cute downtown area that is growing and expanding rapidly (lots of good restaurant options), it's small and very walkable, and it's a reasonable commute to NB (20-30min) and Elizabeth (30-40min)/NYC area (1h-1h20m).

Something that should be mentioned, by the way, is the traffic conditions on an average weekday. I would be very surprised if you could get to NB from the Somerset Hills towns in under 40mins on an average traffic day (things will be easier during the summer when school is not in session but, late Aug-Jun, expect an additional 10-15 minutes on top of what google maps will give you as "average travel time" today). If you do start to work in Elizabeth or NYC, your commute will be well over an hour from that area. As for Westfield, it would probably put you at just around that 40 minute mark to NB and, depending on where your job would be in NYC, it's feasible to have an hour long commute or so from there. However, keep in mind that Westfield does not have direct train service into NYC.