relocate to south jersey (Atlantic City, Pleasantville: real estate, property taxes, housing)

[reas]

hello everyone,
we are looking to relocate to south jersey.my husband's job is in northfiled.i've been reading all the forums and it seems that linwood seems to be a good place to live.how is the school system in and around linwood? we have school age children, so education is very important. how are the housing prices ,is it very expensive? how much would a 3000sqft 4br/2ba house cost? is the population diverse?is it rural or suburban? we are not looking to commute more than 30 minutes ,so what are other areas would you'll suggest ? besides the beaches , what other recreation is available?
any advice would be great.

[Pirate Bride]

Hi there!
You have some options in terms of towns/neighborhoods in the area. Linwood is definitely one of, if not the nicest/richest offshore town in the county. The school system is solid. I'm not sure how much a house of that size would cost. Other options you might explore are Northfield on the Linwood side (as opposed to the Pleasantville side), Margate, Longport, Ocean City, and Galloway/Pomona. EHT can vary in terms of quality/niceness (not sure about schools there). Areas to avoid are Pleasantville, Egg Harbor City, Hammonton (some parts are still nice), Atlantic City (obviously).

[Ms.Charlotte]

Originally Posted by reas

hello everyone,
we are looking to relocate to south jersey.my husband's job is in northfiled.i've been reading all the forums and it seems that linwood seems to be a good place to live.how is the school system in and around linwood? we have school age children, so education is very important. how are the housing prices ,is it very expensive? how much would a 3000sqft 4br/2ba house cost? is the population diverse?is it rural or suburban? we are not looking to commute more than 30 minutes ,so what are other areas would you'll suggest ? besides the beaches , what other recreation is available?
any advice would be great.

Linwood is a great town with very good schools. You should know that Northfield sends to the same HS (Mainland) in case you were interested in a home there. Northfield schools are also good. Linwood is pricier. I was living in OC for a while and looking for a house in Linwood. This was a year and a1/2 ago. We couldn't find a 4br 2ba with about 2600 sq. ft. within our budget (which was $500,000).

I definitely would not call Linwood diverse. Northfield is probably more so. Both are definitely suburban. As far as recreation goes, what were you thinking of specifically? OC is less than 10 minutes away.

[jeb412]

We were in the same boat a few months ago. We thought we were re-locating to S. Jersey. The best schools were definetly in the Linwood/Northfield area (Mainland HS). Unfortunetly, there was just no real estate available. There was plenty of affordable real estate in Egg Harbor Twp., but the schools were lacking. I wish I could tell you there were more options, but we ended up not re-locating.

[Ms.Charlotte]

Originally Posted by jeb412

We were in the same boat a few months ago. We thought we were re-locating to S. Jersey. The best schools were definetly in the Linwood/Northfield area (Mainland HS). Unfortunetly, there was just no real estate available. There was plenty of affordable real estate in Egg Harbor Twp., but the schools were lacking. I wish I could tell you there were more options, but we ended up not re-locating.

Did you stay put, or move elsewhere? I guess it's not too difficult to see where I ended up!

[jeb412]

Ms. Charlotte, if my husband had his way, we'd be on our way to Charlotte too. I'm just too much of a wimp at this point, to move away. Who knows, maybe things will change. Currently we are in NE PA, and like it (except for our public high school.) We may be moving south to the Lebanon/Lancaster area, not sure yet. One thing is for sure, I'm glad we decided not to move to S. Jersey. Too bad, S. Jersey definetly has some positives, but unfortunetly they don't outweigh the negatives.

[DecayingAngel]

MsCharlotte wrote:

"We couldn't find a 4br 2ba with about 2600 sq. ft. within our budget (which was $500,000). "

Did you ever think the day would come when any of us would be writing such a statement? Just a few years ago, housing was reasonable and a decent home affordable to anyone. Now we write about the $500,000 range as not being able to buy enough house.

New Jersey has gone insane. The only thing I am trying to figure out is who is behind the orchestration of these ridiculous home prices. It is quite obvious that the huge skyrocketing of housing costs did not just happen so quickly on a whim. And of course, the property taxes....

Just an observation. And I'm not paranoid. I've lived in NJ the bulk of my life and one could expect places like Princeton and some parts north to be expensive (pre-2001 or so, expensive meant maybe $250,000-$350,000) and then suddenly prices everywhere shot up. There are people behind this. Look at the housing prices now. They would have purchased a mini-estate several years back.

Something is rotten in the state of New Jersey; And of course, it spread like wildfire when it appeared that this experiment was working.

[PLNJUS]

Galloway has very good elementary schools. That might be the way to go.

[DecayingAngel]

Originally Posted by PLNJUS

Galloway has very good elementary schools. That might be the way to go.

Galloway is still very nice. Could be a bit pricey, but certainly worth looking into to.

[FergusonDechert]

Upper Township has a great school system. There are several homes available for less than $300k. I am a Realtor in Cape May County; if you have questions, feel free to contact me. ---Doug