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My husband and I both work in the city and are looking to buy our first home and start a family. We are looking for an affordable home (for us that is $250,000 and less). We are open to buying a fixer upper, and have been looking at West Orange, Maplewood, Bloomfield, and Union. Any thoughts on these areas, especially Union?
I wouldn't say Union is a bad town to live in, it's just the schools(and especially the high school) are sub-par. If I were moving to Union, I'd try to buy a house where I could send my kids to Washington or Livingston Elementary School(it's doable with your price range). Just keep in mind that there is low-income housing in town and this tends to bring a degenerate cultural element into town(and the school system, Union busses the low income kids around town). A few years back a teacher was held at knifepoint by one of the students at one of the middle schools. There are also some rough patches near Irvington where I wouldn't live(this part of town is still nothing like Irvington though). The school system is still what you make of it. Many of my friends and family that went through that school system went on to places like Cornell, U.Penn, NYU, Vanderbilt, Columbia, etc; but this was also a few years back. I'm not trying to scare you or anything, just giving you a realistic assessment of Union.
I don't know much about Union, although I've met some people who live there and they seem to like it OK. Maplewood and South Orange are interesting towns, they have a lot of community events for families so that's nice if you're going to have kids, and the schools are maybe a little better than Union (check it out for yourself, that's just my impression).
Don't know much about West Orange or Bloomfield though.
If your child/children are sports oriented, then Union is for you.
Total volunteer sports orientation, soccer, BASEBALL, football!
Sports town, be prepared to get involved!
Taxes High, houses small, congestion, YES!!
I was actually looking to buy a house in union, union county and I was hoping I could get some insight into this town.
How are the schools, esp the High school? Does this have a small-town feel, diverse, friendly ppl?
Thanks alot!
^Read my prior post. I AM NOT A FAN OF THAT HIGH SCHOOL. A couple of months back I was in town visiting my parents and was picking up my brother from school and saw a young woman performing felatio on a young man on the side of the street. Small town feel? No. Diverse? Yes. Friendly people? Friendly is relative since this is New Jersey.
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