looking for nice town in northern jersey (Newark, Jersey City: best town, buying a home)

[sjs100]

Hi- My husband and I recently got married and are looking to buy our first home. I work in White Plains and he works in Jersey City. We are thinking of lower westchester, but also want to explore northern jersey. I don't know anything about NJ and would like a town that has some sort of a downtown area, and a liberal, down-to-earth (ie, not snobby or excessive shopping centers) feel. Our budget is around $500k. We would like a town with decent schools, and some diversity. Am I asking for too much? Any help in understanding the towns in northern NJ, porbably bergen county, woudl be appreciated.

[luckyshoes]

Eastern Bergen County might work. Tenafly, Cresskill, Harrington Park are all nice. Northvale, Norwood, Closter. They are all pretty old towns, some have downtowns, some don't, but they aren't sprawling kinds of towns if that's what you are talking about. Your budget is a bit low to be honest but there might be something out there that could work for you. Good luck.

[BPerone201]

Bogota, NJ

Nice, diverse town with decent schools. Your budget could get you pretty far in that town.

[Unknown Rican]

Belleville, North Arlington.

[luckyshoes]

Originally Posted by BPerone201

Bogota, NJ

Nice, diverse town with decent schools. Your budget could get you pretty far in that town.

Not putting down Bogota, but if they have 500K to spend, they can do better than Bogota.

[findinghope]

what about montclair or wanaque...

[JerseyGirl08]

Some of the towns suggested are great but seem far from White Plains. How far are you willing to commute?
Englewood has a great downtown and a lot of the other things you are looking for and it is right off the palisades parkway that will make the commute for both easier. I don't know much about the schools but you can look at some towns right around that area.

[LCMT]

Originally Posted by sjs100

Hi- My husband and I recently got married and are looking to buy our first home. I work in White Plains and he works in Jersey City. We are thinking of lower westchester, but also want to explore northern jersey. I don't know anything about NJ and would like a town that has some sort of a downtown area, and a liberal, down-to-earth (ie, not snobby or excessive shopping centers) feel. Our budget is around $500k. We would like a town with decent schools, and some diversity. Am I asking for too much? Any help in understanding the towns in northern NJ, porbably bergen county, woudl be appreciated.

Best websites to research before buying a home

[BergenCountyJohnny]

I'm in Park Ridge, and you really don't want to live much further south or west of my town. I would say to go with the Pascack Valley area - PR, Hillsdale, Montvale, River Vale, Woodcliff Lake, Westwood, or the more eastern areas like Closter, Old Tappan, Harrington Park, Norwood, Northvale.

They all have some sort of downtown area, pretty much, and I don't know if they're "liberal" or "down-to-earth", a couple of these towns may be perceived as "snobby" but I don't think they are.

To be honest, the best town for you is probably not in NJ, but in Rockland County, NY, and that would be Nyack. Nyack has a definite downtown area which is "liberal" and "down-to-earth" with antique and other similar "interesting little shops", restaurants, pubs/bars, community center (which actually has events), parks (one of which is on the water and has a gazebo where they have many free concerts), health food stores, yoga and new age centers, etc. Nyack is a BOBO town - Bourgeois Bohemian. It's right on the hudson and the Tappan Zee bridge connects this town to Westchester. Commute to JC will be long from there, though.

Actually, you should just live in North Jersey, it will make the JC commute much easier while not adding more than 10 minutes to the White Plains commute. This is how it is for me right now, essentially. I live in a nice town, have my privacy without being completely isolated, but when I want to go to Nyack, it's about a 10 minute ride away. I have great shopping 10/15 minutes away in Paramus, I have a rail line that lets me commute easily to NYC or Hoboken or JC or even Newark whenever I have to work in those places. Also, I find NYC to be pretty conveniently close, it's about 30 minutes to the GWB and another 10-15 minutes from there to the Lincoln Tunnel, plus I have rail and bus to NYC that takes under an hour. Last night I went to the Mets game w/ friends, and coming home, I took a bus from Port Authority to Blvd East in Weehawken where I parked my car (free street parking), and then from there to my doorstep took 30-35 minutes.

I used to work in Cincinnati and would fly in and out of White Plains. It took me 30 minutes from Park Ridge to the airport in White Plains. In rush hour, this is going to obviously double, but that's rush hour. I believe there is a bus that goes from nearby Nanuet/Spring Valley area to White Plains, also, but I've never taken it. If you lived here, you both would probably have the same distance of a commute, you'd both have the options of driving or mass transit. Big-box retail is nearby in Paramus, but is far enough that you won't see it unless you go there. Yes, Northern NJ's downtowns are often tiny and include shopping centers (usually grocery-based), but we do have towns like Nyack and Piermont and Tappan in nearby Rockland County, as well as some of our own towns being interesting, like Ridgewood, or even Ramsey, Hillsdale, Park Ridge.

You could live in Rockland, but the schools aren't as good, the property values don't hold as well as Bergen County, and if you live IN a town like Nyack, your home will be old, expensivee, and small. If you live in a residential area in Rockland, you'd be better off just over the border in Bergen County.

[luckyshoes]

Northeastern Bergen is the way to go. Far better than the Rockland County side in many ways IMO.