What places in NJ that are close to new york do you recommed?also good schools, trendy condos? (Edison: real estate market)

[mandy219]

So me and my hubby with our two girls are planning to move to NJ from PA. My hubby works in NYC, so he wants a faster commute. We were looking into South Plainfield, but he wants to still look for somewhere a little more closer. What places would you recommend? We're looking into renting a condo with a budget of $1500-1700. Good schools are also important to us considering that we have two daughters age 3 and 4 months old. We do want a modern and trendy place as well. Nothing rundown as I have seen in many websites that state they were condos but looked horrible in the pics . So any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm not familiar with NJ.

[Nick Anico]

Definetly look into Montclair. I'm not sure what the condo prices are like right now but it's a great place to live. It will only take your husband about 45-55 minutes to get into Manhattan by train. It's a very diverse town with lots of great restaurants and nice parks.

[Lusitan]

FYI on commuting:

Check out NJ Transit (www.njtransit.com) where you can view a map of the rail system and also see how long the trip takes from any given town into midtown Manhattan (NY Penn Station).

Be aware that unless you end up living right next to the train station, and unless your husband works right next to the tran station in New York, you'll have to factor in the time it will take to get to the town train station in the AM, and then the time it will take to get from NY Penn Station to whereever he works. Being within a 30 minute train ride from NY can still easily put you at over 1 hour each way, say, if your husband works downtown in the financial district.

Renting is a smart idea, it will give you plenty of time to get to know the area and wait for the turmoil in the real estate market to settle down. Not sure what the rental prices are, but you can look into South Orange / Maplewood as another option (two neighboring towns, two different train stations, but they share a school district).

[RutgersParent]

I think somewhere between Rutgers Univ and New York City, along the NJ Transit train line may be a good choice to you, and close to Rutgers Univ even make lots of great events accessible to your family. e.g. high class concerts from music dept each week and free. Football events ...etc.

Franklyn Township just ranked #5 of Top 100 Best Places to Live in America by CNN Money Magazine, Piscataway ranked #23 and Edison ranked #35 seemed to all have easy train access to New York City, yet with good schools and safe, according to Money magazine.

If you think good schools are beyond high schools and also include university, then Rutgers University is certainly an advantage to your kids. It's ranking jumps and acceptance rate jump as well. For example, Rutgers got extra 1,000 freshman accept its admission this year, according Daily Targum, the Rutgers Univ's campus newspaper. I even know many students got admitted to UC Berkeley, John Hopkins Univ, Columbia Univ ... etc chose Rutgers Univ this year.

So, if your kids may someday go to Rutgers Univ, say, best Pharmacy College in the East Coast, you may find out that if you live nearby, your kids can commute and save you over $12,000 a year dorm and dinning hall expense.

I just received an email from Rutgers Univ President saying Barnes and Noble going to run the university store for Rutgers on 11-3-08 and build a huge 46,000 sq ft 3 story state of the art bookstore, you know the area is one of many booming areas in New Jersey, with little impact, if any, from current market situation.

For example, these extra 1,000 new students, 340 are assigned to Crown Plaza Hotel of Somerset (was Somerset Marriott), and 140 another hotel, and yet another hotel, so these hotels all got long term customers, extra business, not to mention the shopping and extra spending by them.

Rutgers also expanding the football stadium from 43,000 seats to 58,000 seats now, and many jobs created, and later when complete, many more events and games will also stimulate the local economy.

[shan1216]

Iam planning to move to nj , l currently live in nyc. lam a college student that works in the city as well. my reason for moving to nj becauseof the simple fact that l cant afford to live in nyc. but lam looking for some where in nj that is safe and not that far and expensive. Can some one please help me

[DodgeViper01]

In that price range I would think that East Brunswick might be a good fit. It is right near Rutgers University and is exit 9 off the turnpike. It is a great central location with a 45 minute commute by car or bus to the city.