Top 10 Towns to Raise a Family in NJ (Toms River, Montclair: renting, chapel)

[Jerseyt719]

Originally Posted by RainyInferno

Middlesex County is actually pretty nice too, and it's right in the middle. No need to be north jersey or south jersey :-)

Somerset County is great too!!

[pennquaker08]

For me (and just for fun not taking price into account):

1. Maplewood (Essex County)
2. Princeton (Mercer County)
3. Chatham (Morris County)
4. Moorestown (Burlington County)
5. Haddonfield (Camden County)
6. Lambertville (Hunterdon County)
7. Montclair (Essex County)
8. Hopewell (Mercer County)
9. Alpine (Bergen County)
10. Basking Ridge (Somerset County)

[JamesBoyer]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

matt- honest. I use a century 21 search page that searches all the houses for sale in any area you want. I picked Morris county and had a choice of Chatham and Washington township..

If that site really only gave you those 2 choices i would not use it anymore.

I am a Realtor, not a Broker and I have to say the home search on my own website works much better than that. But then again I paid a considerable sum for it so it better work well.

There are lots and lots of single family homes currently for sale in Morris County priced under 730K and having less then 12K in taxes. What do you think this is, the twin of Essex County? No really, Look at Madison, Florham Park, East Hanover, Parsippany... I but you will be hard pressed to find any home priced under 730K that has taxes of 12K. Most of them will be well under 10K.

Morris County is known for having considerably lower property taxes than Essex.

[Lusitan]

Originally Posted by Matthew in Jersey

or am I simply Don Quixote fruitlessly searching for some Norman Rockwell existence that no longer exists in the Garden State of keeping up with the Jones's?

Yeah, that's exactly what you're doing. None of the towns you mention have a substantially less "transient" population than Montclair, or a substantially lower tendency toward "keeping up the the Jones'"

All those towns (and others that people mentioned) are nice places. But so is Montclair.

You're looking for something that doesn't exist.

[frankgn87]

James, i found out that my site I use is aimed at south jersey and pa. Not North jersey, thats why the North jersey properties are very limited.

Originally Posted by JamesBoyer

If that site really only gave you those 2 choices i would not use it anymore.

I am a Realtor, not a Broker and I have to say the home search on my own website works much better than that. But then again I paid a considerable sum for it so it better work well.

There are lots and lots of single family homes currently for sale in Morris County priced under 730K and having less then 12K in taxes. What do you think this is, the twin of Essex County? No really, Look at Madison, Florham Park, East Hanover, Parsippany... I but you will be hard pressed to find any home priced under 730K that has taxes of 12K. Most of them will be well under 10K.

Morris County is known for having considerably lower property taxes than Essex.

[mike0421]

Well, according to Money Magazine's 2008 list (we all love these lists and their credibility, right?) Franklin Township is #5 in the entire country!
Best places to live 2008 - Top 100 City details: Franklin Township, NJ - from MONEY Magazine

[escapeartist09]

Wondering if you made a choice to move and how it is going. We were looking into towns a year ago. Now we won't move to NJ for another year. Now that prices have dropped a bit Madison is looking better and better. I did not think we could afford it before. Hoping we can now. Any downside to it?

[Busch Boy]

Wow, this is a hard one! Lets see, towns in NJ that are kid-friendly with good schools, neighborly people that aren't snobbish, and void of mcmansions. I'd pick (in no particular order):

1.) Cedar Grove
2.) Rutherford
3.) Fair Lawn
4.) Verona
5.) Highland Park
6.) Metuchen
7.) Secaucus
8.) Leonia
9.) Hasbrouck Heights
10.) Clark

[UrbanQuest]

Some of the teardowns in these rail-road suburbs are McMansions basically. That criteria will be difficult to adhere to 100%. So here is the holy-grail of 10 in the State of New Jersey in no particular order.

1. Ridgewood
2. Westfield
3. Millburn
4. Summit
5. Madison
6. Princeton
7. Chatham
8. Mendham
9. Haddonfield
10. Moorestown

Honorable mentions;

Upper Montclair
Bernardsville
Basking Ridge
Spring Lake
Ramsey
Tenafly
Ho-Ho-Kus
Sparta
Denville
Chester
Clinton
Cranbury
Maplewood
South Orange
Cadlwells
Pennington
Hopewell
Califon
Atlantic Highlands
Manasquan

[Busch Boy]

Originally Posted by UrbanQuest

Some of the teardowns in these rail-road suburbs are McMansions basically. That criteria will be difficult to adhere to 100%. So here is the holy-grail of 10 in the State of New Jersey in no particular order.

1. Ridgewood
2. Westfield
3. Millburn
4. Summit
5. Madison
6. Princeton
7. Chatham
8. Mendham
9. Haddonfield
10. Moorestown

Honorable mentions;

Upper Montclair
Bernardsville
Basking Ridge
Spring Lake
Ramsey
Tenafly
Ho-Ho-Kus
Sparta
Denville
Chester
Clinton
Cranbury
Maplewood
South Orange
Cadlwells
Pennington
Hopewell
Califon
Atlantic Highlands
Manasquan

I guess you have a point here. Some of the towns you mentioned, while nice, have a reputation for being very snobbish and "cliquey" though. The OP's requirements surely makes this hard!