Wayne vs Oakland (Allendale: assessor, new house, to buy)

[sweetpotato]

oakland schools are stronger, not that wayne schools are bad. oakland has more of a small town feel, wayne is huge and more shopping/services within the town. many oakland houses are on a flood plain, just ask your realtor to avoid those. my personal preference would be oakland. i don't think it's a wannabe town at all, it's not like oakland residents are trying to match up to franklin lakes. it's a strongly middle class town that's next to and shares a hs with a very very wealthy town.

[joe moving]

Oakland is better IMO. Bergen county, smaller town, no crime, FLOW schools (I think Oakland all go to Indian Hills? Or they have a choice now???). Theres some flood areas, but it's not like whether it floods or not is going to a mystery to you..... you will know because it will require flood insurance. Realtor will tell you this the second you look at the house. Overrated, maybe. Maybe depends on your budget. For "Cheap but nice towns in Bergen County" I do not think Midland Park is any more $.

We looked quite a bit in Oakland and there are some nice neighborhoods. Lots of septic tank homes though.

[Bergenite]

Oakland- House most likely has a septic system. No chance Oakland will ever convert to sewers. Good luck with that.

Wayne- Most likely not a septic system.

[pbergen]

Originally Posted by joe moving

I think Oakland all go to Indian Hills? Or they have a choice now???

all oakland residents, along with those of franklin lakes and wyckoff, now have the choice of attending high school at either indian hills or ramapo.

[FL Beaches]

Floodsmart.gov: Your premier resource for flood insurance information

If you type an address in the red box on the left side of the home page, it will give you an idea of the flood risk for the property. Not an exact science though.

[Ninjahedge]

Lived in Oakland for...hm...20 years or so when I was growing up and coming back to visit family.

We first came in on Hiawatha Boulevard. Great area, but lousy for bike riding!!! (you gotta have strong legs for those hills!!!)

The schools were, and still are great. The High School is a little depressing (architecturally) but has a great science and math program.

There are a few nice restaurants in the area, and othe necessities are within easy reach (including all teh malls by way of car).

The flood zones are all down by the river. They are pretty easy to fish out (no pun). They used to be, way back in the day, vacation homes/fishing shacks and the like, but they eventually turned into lower income full time residences. You can find them off of, I think, West Oakland avenue on teh way to Pompton Lakes, and over by the back of the Rec field on the other side of the freight tracks.

Honestly, both Wayne and Oakland are not bad. I think academically Oakland is a bit better, but Wayne is HUGE, and has some advantage in that you have more resources available to you when you have that many people.

As for Oakland being the "wannabe", that is just a load. It is what it is. Middle class, from plumbers to doctors.

Oh, it is also a few degrees cooler than the surrounding area due to its slight elevation, so you are SLIGHTLY more likely to get snow (I always remember seeing the snow change driving by from my grandparents in New Milford going up route 208 past the church near (I think) Wycoff....

The further you went, the more flakeys you would see and the more excited you were at the possibility of sledding the next day (as a kid...).

Your choice! Both are good!

[margothault]

Oakland is lovely - but I chose Wayne when I moved here with my husband and daughter from Manhattan. Someone compared Wayne to being the "Paramus of Passaic County" which seems accurate since it has plenty of shopping/restaurants in town. People complain about Wayne not having an actual "town center/downtown" etc, but the neighborhoods (especially the lake communities of Pines Lake and Packanack Lake) make up for the lack of a town center.

As for flood concerns in Wayne, its pretty limited considering the huge size of Wayne and that most of its neighborhoods are actually in hilly areas - so don't let that frighten you either. We all know how the media is when hyping up a particular event. As for traffic, this is North Jersey. There will be traffic everywhere during rush hour no matter what town you're in.

[WayneGal]

Wayne is a large town with a very small area that gets flooding. Most areas do not flood. Please don't mislead people reading this post, making them think that all of Wayne is a flood - it's just not the truth. The taxes are high but so are Oakland's and other towns in Bergen County. However, Wayne has a top notch shool system which consistently gets high rankings. Google passaic county school ratings and you'll see. In most cases, you get what you pay for.

[Cherrycheeks]

If it were me buying, I would go to Oakland. There is a town center and the possibilty of living auto-free. The woods are closer. The traffic is terrible and if you're kids are not rich they may feel inadequate next to the extremely wealthy Wayne teens that drive BMW's to school.

[WayneGal]

I never have had any trouble with traffic in Wayne, other than at the Preakness Mall when high school lets out. But, I will agree that there are kids who drive better cars than I. My kids never cared about that, (they both drove old hand-me-down cars from relatives) hopefully they were raised to know the value of a dollar and the value of earning a dollar. Many kids in Wayne are, some are not. But, I really think that can be said of many areas on the coasts. We seem to be raising an entire generation of entitled young people with our, "everyone who shows up for soccer gets a trophy - whether they play or perform" attitude. Hopefully, we can see some benefit from the dip in our econmy with parents who might finally stop giving to their kids out of guilt and start spending time rather than money.