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After 20+ years in the city, I'm interested in moving to the suburbs but don't want to go fully suburban (I hate to drive!). I'm looking for a town that has a walkable center and a neighborhood vibe. I also commute to the city.
I'm priced out of Maplewood, South Orange, Westfield, & Morristown. Any other ideas? Looking for an older home with some character in the $550k range. Possible anywhere???
Mayyyyybe Montclair if you want a real fixer. Also try Cranford, Bloomfield, maybe Metuchen. Watch for flood zones in some of these towns. Are schools a consideration?
After 20+ years in the city, I'm interested in moving to the suburbs but don't want to go fully suburban (I hate to drive!). I'm looking for a town that has a walkable center and a neighborhood vibe. I also commute to the city.
I'm priced out of Maplewood, South Orange, Westfield, & Morristown. Any other ideas? Looking for an older home with some character in the $550k range. Possible anywhere???
Even the best downtown in NJ (which I suppose is Montclair) wouldn't offer enough to the point where you can go without a car. Jersey City and Hoboken would, but those are less NJ towns with downtowns and extensions of NYC.
Furthermore, you've already named some of the best downtowns and you are priced out.
Livingston is a mostly walkable suburb. It's furthest west of a walkable North Jersey suburb you can. Suburbs east of that can be walkable too. It's an overpopulated town and you wouldn't want to drive in it every day. Traffic is hectic there. You can walk around Livingston. There are crosswalks for people to walk around. There is good public transportation buses for Livingston. All the Livingston buses start from the Livingston Mall and they go around Livingston before they head outside of Livingston. The bus I used to take from the mall to Newark traveled passed St. Barnabas Medical Center, ShopRite, the YMCA, a park (where the high school is also located). Residential parts of Livingston don't really have public transportation stops and the residential parts can have large patches of woods (with no hiking trails sorry). Some residential parts of Livingston are walkable and are safe for walking.
After 20+ years in the city, I'm interested in moving to the suburbs but don't want to go fully suburban (I hate to drive!). I'm looking for a town that has a walkable center and a neighborhood vibe. I also commute to the city.
I'm priced out of Maplewood, South Orange, Westfield, & Morristown. Any other ideas? Looking for an older home with some character in the $550k range. Possible anywhere???
Montclair- vibrant downtown, filled with diverse restaurants and retail, beautiful old mansions. Middle point between Newark and Paterson. Downtown is safe, but some neighborhoods in Montclair are dangerous I will warn.
Westfield- similar to Montclair, in southern Union county, so not sure if it'd be considered northern or central NJ.
Hoboken- in Hudson county right across from NYC, very urban, dense feel. Many restaurants.
Fort Lee- also across from NYC but less urban feeling (while still completely walkable), big downtown with many gourmet Asian restaurants. It's in southern Bergen county.
Summit- Old, wealthy town on the border of Union and Morris county. Downtown includes both casual and fine dining, as well as much retail. Close to the scenic Watchung Mtns, but still very walkable.
Don't most towns with train stations have good downtowns? Are there any good downtowns that aren't built up around train stations? I can only think of the Short Hills station, which doesn't have much around it.
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