Where to live in Hudson County area? (Union City, Union: apartments, rental)

[Toodlebug468]

Hubby & I both work in Hudson County (Union City & Hoboken). We currently live in UC ()...it works financially, commute-wise...but that's where it ends. Our son is soon to start school & I have no interest in having him in UC schools (can you blame me?) Private is not out of the question, but I haven't been able to find any decent private schools in the immediate area... (I have interest in Hoboken Charter School, but, being a charter school, it's obviously near impossible to get in...)
Anyway, our current lease is up in June & we're torn about whether to re-new or not? Again, I HATE the area (Hubby doesn't mind as much - I grew up in the 'burbs, he, in an urban area.) I hate that I feel WRONG for speaking only English, I hate my immediate neighbors (loud, obnoxious, recent immigrants), I hate not having parking...BUT, I love the super cheap rent (less than $1200 for 2 beds, central air, washer dryer, dishwasher, BACK YARD - albeit miniature), the proximity to our jobs (walking distance for hubby, very short car ride or lightrail ride to my job).
Any suggestions?
ETA: Budget for renting can go up a bit from the $1200, but I dont want to go up TOO much...

[todd72173]

You speak and write English living in UC? Shocking!?!? And congrats!! Your leaps and bounds ahead of your neighborhoods! It kills me that in that entire area UC and JC, English is the 2nd,3rd spoken language..

Anyway..I dont recommend JC. Hoboken will be out of your price range..Might want to try Rutherford..

[amcjap]

St. Francis Academy is a great UC school. Google it.

[pbergen]

considering you hate the crowded living situation in union city, i'd recommend getting out of hudson county altogether. although hudson does have suburban towns like kearny and secaucus, neither has good schools and both are still fairly dense. kearny also has a large portuguese- and spanish-speaking population (almost all of the scottish, irish, and italians of my childhood have moved out) while secaucus is IMO a rather unattractive town that smells like sulfur everywhere (seriously), due to being built on top of the swamps.

i agree with the earlier poster who recommended rutherford. it's right across the border in southern bergen county, but the schools are solid and the housing stock is classic all-american (which also means it's old, btw), ranging from modest cape cods to beautiful victorians with wraparound porches, colonials, and tudors. there are also a few mid-rise apartments, garden apartments, and newer condos and townhouses. the town is well-known for having plenty of tall, mature trees, which translates into much more leafy, shaded side streets than its immediate neighbors (lyndhurst and east rutherford). and rutherford has a nice, walkable downtown area along park ave, filled with restaurants, cafes, and mom-and-pop shops, right by the train station.

speaking of, the train from rutherford to hoboken takes about 20 minutes and runs both to and from hoboken all day, 7 days a week. from hoboken, you and your husband can switch to the light rail to get to your jobs (you might even be able to walk to work, depending how far it is from the hoboken terminal).

also, rutherford is only about 7 miles west of midtown manhattan and 7 miles south of the malls in paramus, so it's in a great location - close to everything you need, but still nice and suburban with a self-contained downtown area. in addition to the train, you can take a direct bus to the port authority bus terminal in midtown (about 20 minutes during off-peak hours), garden state plaza in paramus, or downtown newark's penn station.

honestly i'm not sure how nice of a place you can get for $1200, but you should definitely take a good look at this town. there are a bunch of new apartments, including some rental units, that have been built in the last few years and are a short walk from the train station. these places are on meadow rd, erie ave, orient way, and park ave (above the local storefront businesses), among other streets.

i've always been surprised that rutherford's not a more buzzed-about town. the entire southern bergen/meadowlands area has always been a little bit under the radar compared with the "big-name" towns in the northern half of the county (ridgewood, tenafly, demarest, old tappan, wyckoff, and franklin lakes, among others), which is partly due to the fact that the schools aren't nearly as good. still, some of these towns, esp. rutherford, have a lot going for them - in particular a great location and good mass transit. rutherford isn't one of the elite towns in bergen but it's still pretty solid in its own right. in the meadowlands area, it's probably the nicest overall town; wood-ridge and hasbrouck heights have a similar "feel" and housing stock, but they're slightly farther from union city/hoboken, their downtown areas don't have as much to offer, and their train stations are a little bit out of the way (i.e. east of rt. 17, away from the downtown area)). at worst, you can enjoy rutherford for a few years, then when you're in a stronger financial position you can move into one of the more "brand name" towns with the great school districts in northern bergen county or elsewhere.

incidentally, the rutherford train station is right on the border with east rutherford. north of the station, you're in east rutherford; south of the station, you're in rutherford. rutherford's definitely the nicer and more affluent town, and i believe it has better schools (you should look into that to be sure), but it's also more expensive. there are some new apartments that have been built on the east rutherford side over the past few years, so it's worth a look as well.

[cari2]

What about fort lee?

[johnfrisco]

Originally Posted by cari2

What about fort lee?

Way too expensive!

[mmitnaul]

Thanks for the opinions!
I "craigslist"ed some of the towns you mentioned (Rutherford in particular) & talked with hubby & we're definitely going to have to bump up our apt.-spending budget. I'd certainly not have a prob. w/this if we are not paying for our son to go to private school (other option would be to stay in the wretched town & send him to private...)
DH is itching to buy, but I'd like to live in an area for a year or two to make sure I can tolerate it. Imagine if we'd just bought a place here in UC???!!?? Ugh.
Can anyone suggest any other towns that have public transportation running to & from hoboken quite regularly? (We do have cars, but I'd really like to avoid having to drive to Hoboken!)
Thanks!!
PS - Or any towns within reasonable driving distance? We could always drive to UC (hubby has parking at work) & I could take the lightrail to Hoboken.

[aries71]

have you considered bayonne?