Looking for great New Jersey community...please help! (Montclair, Orange: condos, how much)

[calnaido]

My husband and I, with our two children, are looking to relocate to a community within an hour train ride into NYC. We're looking for: safety, diversity, great schools, and affordability. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

[tandcookies]

How much are you looking to spend?

[ambernoble]

When it comes to convenience and ease of commuting, there's little that offers what the waterfront town of South Amboy does.

The bus and train is minutes away, a ferry that WILL be returning in 09', quaint shops on Broadway, the boating regatta on the Raritan Bay in the summer, watching fireworks from your front steps, Wegman's grocery or Pathmark or BJ's or the malls only 10 minutes away and you can get to Manhattan in less than 40 minutes.

Now depending upon the type of home you're interested in (i.e. newer vs. older, large land lot or not, etc) you may also want to consider towns such as Old Bridge, Marlboro, Manalapan and Freehold.

Towns like Matawan also offer a NJ Transit train station, and put you right next to the Garden State Parkway.

If you have additional specific criteria, and we'll try to elaborate further.

All the best,

Moderator cut: removed signature

P.S. Below I've outlined four (4) strong indicators signaling which type of towns you might want to buy a home, because the criteria may ultimately offer a higher rate of return...

1. Any town located near a waterfront and/or beach
2. Any town with a major transportation hub
3. Any town located near major highways (i.e. NJ Turnpike, GS Parkway, etc).
4. Any town where you still see builders wanting to build new construction homes and condos (despite current market challenges).

[Lusitan]

Originally Posted by calnaido

My husband and I, with our two children, are looking to relocate to a community within an hour train ride into NYC. We're looking for: safety, diversity, great schools, and affordability. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

You can find many great towns within an hour train ride of New York. Keep in mind, depending on exactly where in Manhattan you will be working the door-to-door commute can be much longer. For example, a half-hour train ride to New York will equal a 75 minute one-way door-to-door commute for someone working on Wall St.

Best bet is to check out the NJ Transit website (New Jersey Transit - Home) and look at towns with an under 45 minute train ride to New York. Lots of great towns: Montclair, Millburn, Short Hills, Maplewood, South Orange, Westfield, Cranford, Fanwood, and lots of towns up in Bergen County.

Once you've narrowed down your geographic area, you'll face a tougher task with the rest of your criteria.

People's definitions of these terms vary, but in my opinion here's how it generally works in NJ:

"great schools" or "affordable" --- pick one

"safety" or "diversity" --- pick one

Sad but true. There are very few (none IMO) "affordable" towns (at least, in terms of the median income) with "great schools".

And also sad but true, there is very little diversity in towns that are considered "safe" or as having "great schools". Again, people can have different definitions of "safety" and "diversity" (e.g. someone might think a school that is 80% white is diverse, while others would not), but generally that's the case in my opinion.

There are some exceptions, i.e. towns with "great" (although that word is subjective too ... at least "good") schools and lots of diversity: Maplewood and South Orange (two different towns that share the same school district).

You can find the demographic breakdown of most towns and school districts on this site and many others. You'll see what I mean.

Good luck in your search. Just remember that living here is all about compromise: there is no perfect town that will fit all of your criteria.