House Hunting in Which NJ Town? (Jersey City, Hoboken: apartments, condo, houses)

[emergencygirl]

Where to buy a House with good public school- backyard, driveway, basement, the works- for a young NYC couple soon to be expecting a child?
Love the city, live in Inwood, NYC and want to be able to get in and out of the city quickly. Budgets $500-700K.

He works in Jersey City, NJ. She works in Kingsbridge, Bronx. Grandparents-to-be drive in easily via the Palisades Parkway and looking forward to helping out with the coming grandchidlren. His parents are in Norwood, NJ. Her parents are in Piermont, NY.

LIC in Queens is up and coming but his work has him traveling at all hours and he's not wild about crossing over from Queens to Manhattan to NJ regularly.

Riverdale, Bronx seems like a no-brainer but has mostly apartments condo/coop and the few houses go for $800K and up.

Rockland County has good schools but is just too dang far to drive back and forth from NYC regularly.

Westchester is convenient but property taxes are 4x that of NJ, which blows the budget.

Hoboken is easily accessible to NYC via the Path, gives her the reverse commute against traffic but might be a pita for the grands to drive to regularly.

Bergen County seems like a good compromise but puts her in the GWB traffic madness 2x a day, 5x a week and doesn't seem close enough to keep an eye out on the kiddies once they show up.

Should they look for a home in Jersey City area, have the Path train and make the grands do the driving? Suck it up, move to which Bergen Country town and deal with driving over the GWB? Are there cute towns in Bergen County with Main Streets and yummy things to eat and places to go after 5pm?

[findinghope]

montclair!!!! trains right in town into nyc. such a cute town, great schools, life after 5pm, and you will be able to find something in your budget

[kalim2008]

Originally Posted by emergencygirl

Westchester is convenient but property taxes are 4x that of NJ, which blows the budget.

4x new jersey property taxes???

What is that, $60,000 a year in property taxes?

[Busch Boy]

Originally Posted by emergencygirl

Where to buy a House with good public school- backyard, driveway, basement, the works- for a young NYC couple soon to be expecting a child?
Love the city, live in Inwood, NYC and want to be able to get in and out of the city quickly. Budgets $500-700K.

He works in Jersey City, NJ. She works in Kingsbridge, Bronx. Grandparents-to-be drive in easily via the Palisades Parkway and looking forward to helping out with the coming grandchidlren. His parents are in Norwood, NJ. Her parents are in Piermont, NY.

LIC in Queens is up and coming but his work has him traveling at all hours and he's not wild about crossing over from Queens to Manhattan to NJ regularly.

Riverdale, Bronx seems like a no-brainer but has mostly apartments condo/coop and the few houses go for $800K and up.

Rockland County has good schools but is just too dang far to drive back and forth from NYC regularly.

Westchester is convenient but property taxes are 4x that of NJ, which blows the budget.

Hoboken is easily accessible to NYC via the Path, gives her the reverse commute against traffic but might be a pita for the grands to drive to regularly.

Bergen County seems like a good compromise but puts her in the GWB traffic madness 2x a day, 5x a week and doesn't seem close enough to keep an eye out on the kiddies once they show up.

Should they look for a home in Jersey City area, have the Path train and make the grands do the driving? Suck it up, move to which Bergen Country town and deal with driving over the GWB? Are there cute towns in Bergen County with Main Streets and yummy things to eat and places to go after 5pm?

If you want to be close to Jersey City and the Bronx and have everything you mentioned, I suggest you stay in Bergen County. Luckily you have a pretty high budget, so you won't have a problem finding a home. I recommend Tenafly and Englewood Cliffs. Ridgewood and Glen Rock are other good options, but they are a little farther away from the city. Good luck!

[SPNARD1]

Check out Rutherford

[SSchirm]

kalim2008 -- you laugh!! I honestly have friends who pay mid 30,000's in taxes in Westchester for nice homes, not REDICULOUSLY nice homes, but nice one's none-the-less!! 60k is pushing it, but i'm sure it exists!!