Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why not take a look at Rutherford. Better commute than any of the towns listed to both Hoboken and NYC and the schools are pretty good as well. Taxes are on the higher side (about 8-9k). Might be a stretch at 400k but worth a look.
rutherford is a great suggestion, as it's probably the most well-rounded town in southern bergen county. the community has solid schools, a pleasant and walkable downtown area, a mix of stately and modest older homes on quiet, shaded streets lined with mature trees, excellent rail and bus service to nyc, and easy highway access to the city or other points in nj. seriously, you can't beat its location - only 8 miles west (as the crow flies) of midtown manhattan. it also has a bit of diversity (mainly asian and latino), although non-hispanic whites are still the clear majority.
the downsides are the relatively high taxes and a small inventory of newer single family detached homes, although there are some condos that were built during the recent housing boom. of the existing SF detached housing stock, there are quite a few nice victorians, colonials, and tudors, with some in better shape than others, as well as some modest cape cods and generic post-WWII split levels.
other good suggestions in southern bergen county are hasbrouck heights and wood-ridge. like rutherford, they're small towns (approx. 1 square mile) with walkable downtowns, solid schools (esp. HH), a mostly older housing stock (although there is more 1960s-1990s construction in these towns by comparison), and some degree of asian/latino diversity, although not as much as rutherford. HH's downtown is more relaxed than rutherford's (for example, fewer restaurants and cafes) and wood-ridge's even more so, but they're still very walkable and perfectly fine for basic needs (library, hardware store, dry cleaners, rite-aid, pizza, ice cream, etc); they're just not "destination" downtowns.
i'd definitely pick any of the above towns over nutley, clifton, or hawthorne.
nutley is actually a pretty good choice, given its favorable location, nice-yet-unflashy downtown, and solid schools, but one negative is the lack of train service in town, although there are decamp buses to nyc. plus, you could always drive to the park-and-ride bus lot at clifton commons (right by the clifton/nutley border) or to the delawanna or lyndhurst train stations, which are a short drive away and have free parking.
clifton sometimes gets disrespected on this forum, but overall it's a decent town that happens to be really big, which means that some sections of town are nicer than others. it's probably best characterized as a collection of five or six different towns with varying levels of income and diversity - only they all share the same municipal government, school district, police, fire, etc. some areas of clifton are solidly middle class, with well-maintained homes and lawns, while others are filled with modest, worn-looking properties and business districts. while you can definitely find some decent homes within your budget in clifton, the big downside for me is the school district, which has a so-so reputation at best. specifically, there is only one high school for the entire town of 70,000+, which means that kids can and do get lost in the system. i know a couple of guys who went there back in the '90s and still can't believe how massive that school was (and is).
hawthorne is not a bad town at all, and probably nicer overall than clifton, but the schools are nothing special (although not terrible). still, this would be a deal breaker for me if i were to live that far from the city; i figure that if i'm going to do a commute of more than 10-12 miles, the schools have to be better than what hawthorne offers.
if you're willing to look further out from the city, waldwick is a great choice if you can find something in your price range. just by the fact that it has a train to hoboken (and ny penn via a transfer in secaucus), i'm surprised that it remained blue collar/middle class all these years; it wasn't until the recent housing boom that it began to see a greater presence of upwardly mobile white collar professionals. some of that probably has to do with the schools, which are solid by most standards, but not nearly in the class of the elite school districts nearby such as ridgewood, glen rock, northern highlands, ramapo, and even ramsey.
midland park is a really similar town to waldwick in many ways, except that's it's more homogenous and isolated, since it has neither rail service nor direct highway access. it has a very modest downtown area with a few strip malls/chain stores, but ridgewood is right next door if you ever want to go to an elite downtown area. midland park's schools have a solid reputation, but like waldwick, its schools are largely overshadowed by the ones in the neighboring, more wealthy towns. and i think the commute to the city will be more challenging than from waldwick, but don't rule it out, since there is bus service and you can always drive to a nearby town (such as hawthorne or even fair lawn), park in a commuter lot, and then take the train from there.
heading town the central/eastern part of the county, you might want to look into river edge, westwood, and emerson. all three have train stations, and while river edge and emerson have modest downtowns, westwood's is one of the best in the county. all have bus service to the city and relatively good schools (especially river edge, followed by westwood). river edge also has the advantage of being close to route 4/paramus, while westwood and emerson are more isolated from the highways and thus can be a pain to drive to and from (kinderkamack road can be brutal during rush hour).
and fair lawn is a good choice as well. schools are solid, the location is great (2 train stations, plus route 4 and 208 are within town boundaries and numerous other highways and stores nearby), and there a couple of decent and active business districts.
as you're probably aware, anything above route 4 is generally going to be more expensive than the towns south of the highway, so you may not find a whole lot in your price range in these towns. if i were you, i'd probably focus on rutherford/hasbrouck heights/wood-ridge while keeping an eye out on the northern bergen towns just to see what's available.
Although it may push your budget to the very edge, Ramsey and Mahwah have quite a few townhomes which may (barely) fit in your budget. Both are very nice towns.
I've lived in Fair Lawn most of my life. It's a decent town that doesn't have quite some of the prestige of the other towns. Schools are quite good compared to towns of similar demographics. Fair Lawn is slightly more blue collar and more diverse (large Israeli and Russian populations, and a growing Latino population) than towns of similar socioeconomic status. The town is one of Bergen County's larger ones, and there is a wide variety of housing stock in the town. However, most townhouses and condos in the town are quite old.
As Joe said, Waldwick and Midland Park are great small towns, and I also lived in Waldwick for several years. Both are a little nicer than Fair Lawn overall. Both are quite a bit more expensive than Fair Lawn. Honestly, I don't know if it's worth the premium you'd be charged to get housing in Midland Park or Waldwick over what you'd get in Fair Lawn (unless you really want to live in a small town), and prices in Midland Park especially have skyrocketed over the past decade. The towns are not that far apart on the socioeconomic scale. In fact, I would say Fair Lawn's schools are better than Waldwick's (not quite as good as Mildland Park's).
Like Fair Lawn, Waldwick has a pretty wide variety of housing stock (inf fact, the housing stocks of the two towns seem quite similar to me). I think some new townhomes were built a few years ago, but overall, I don't think Waldwick has too many. I think Midland Park's townhome/condo stock may be extremely limited.
Glen Rock, Ridgewood, and Wyckoff would be dream towns for you. Very unlikely you'll find something decent in your budget. South Orange and Verona would also be big stretches.
Hawthorne is a good town, but on the old side overall. Definitely a step below the other towns.
For your budget, Fair Lawn is your best bet if you want a larger town, Waldwick for a smaller town. Midland Park, Mahwah and Ramsey may be possible if you really work hard. Good luck!
Thank you everyone for the feedback and time to help me on my decisions. I will contact my broker and have her help me with Fair Lawn and see if I'll like the neighborhood. My fiancee's family is actually from Glen Rock. I know for a fact we cannot afford anything there.
Hi. For what it's worth, a house on "Delmar" in Glen Rock just sold for like 375(?). 1950s Ranch, clean, but not updated. on a beautiful quiet street. Taxes 9000. 3 bedroom 1 bath. 2 car garage, brand new roof. 1/4 acre. Needed a little work but totally livable.
Just a thought from me, I wish we spent 25k or 50k more and gotten a house we could stay in forever.
if you're willing to look further out from the city, waldwick is a great choice if you can find something in your price range. just by the fact that it has a train to hoboken (and ny penn via a transfer in secaucus), i'm surprised that it remained blue collar/middle class all these years; it wasn't until the recent housing boom that it began to see a greater presence of upwardly mobile white collar professionals. some of that probably has to do with the schools, which are solid by most standards, but not nearly in the class of the elite school districts nearby such as ridgewood, glen rock, northern highlands, ramapo, and even ramsey.
There is a reason for this...
Lots of drugs in the high school, middle class/blue collar residents and 95% of the houses are either small 50s cape cods, or mid sized 60s/70s split levels. very few 2000+ sq ft houses or trendy condos/townhouses which is what the yuppies move into.
It's ok, but i mean not great and i completely see why the rich people dont move to Waldwick. I was visiting a friend who lives in Waldwick this weekend, and walking from his house to the train station (at 11:30 or so at night) I observed some guy and his wife/girlfriend yelling at each other/arguing in front of the house (guy in the door, woman on the lawn), and at the train station, two hispanic guys got into a fight
Its a regular middle class area, im just saying i totally understand why the people you speak of generally dont move to Waldwick.
Lots of drugs in the high school, middle class/blue collar residents and 95% of the houses are either small 50s cape cods, or mid sized 60s/70s split levels. very few 2000+ sq ft houses or trendy condos/townhouses which is what the yuppies move into.
It's ok, but i mean not great and i completely see why the rich people dont move to Waldwick.
Its a regular middle class area, im just saying i totally understand why the people you speak of generally dont move to Waldwick.
yeah, i hear what you're saying. i wasn't aware of the drugs in the h.s. (though i shouldn't be surprised, as that's commonplace at a lot of suburban schools these days) but all of the other stuff coincides with my opinion of the town. as you're probably aware, there's a small section on the east side of town with some relatively large homes (by waldwick standards), including some new construction here and there. these homes may very well be the result of teardowns - smaller 1950s-era capes and ranches getting knocked down and replaced by these newer mcmansions.
with ridgewood as pricey as ever and former middle-to-upper-middle income towns like glen rock becoming wealthier and more expensive in recent years, i guess that made towns like waldwick and midland park that much more attractive to upwardly mobile white collar professionals.
on a totally unrelated note, i've wondered for a while why waldwick and midland park never considered pooling their resources to form a joint high school. i remember thinking about this when north haledon, in passaic county, tried to break away from the manchester regional school district and join midland park's. seems to me that if midland park were to take on a nearby town's students or merge districts altogether, waldwick would be the best fit.
several nearby towns (most notably the ramapo, northern highlands, pascack hills/pascack valley, and northern valley districts) have done really well with regional school districts. waldwick and midland park have pretty similar income and racial/ethnic demographics (although waldwick definitely has more of a latino/salvadoran presence), but for the most part they're middle income, mostly caucasian towns that have historically had a blue-collar feel along with a recent influx of yuppies. and while both midland park h.s. and waldwick h.s. are solid schools, they might be able to move up a tier or so if they were to share resources.
yeah, i hear what you're saying. i wasn't aware of the drugs in the h.s. (though i shouldn't be surprised, as that's commonplace at a lot of suburban schools these days) but all of the other stuff coincides with my opinion of the town. as you're probably aware, there's a small section on the east side of town with some relatively large homes (by waldwick standards), including some new construction here and there. these homes may very well be the result of teardowns - smaller 1950s-era capes and ranches getting knocked down and replaced by these newer mcmansions.
with ridgewood as pricey as ever and former middle-to-upper-middle income towns like glen rock becoming wealthier and more expensive in recent years, i guess that made towns like waldwick and midland park that much more attractive to upwardly mobile white collar professionals.
on a totally unrelated note, i've wondered for a while why waldwick and midland park never considered pooling their resources to form a joint high school. i remember thinking about this when north haledon, in passaic county, tried to break away from the manchester regional school district and join midland park's. seems to me that if midland park were to take on a nearby town's students or merge districts altogether, waldwick would be the best fit.
several nearby towns (most notably the ramapo, northern highlands, pascack hills/pascack valley, and northern valley districts) have done really well with regional school districts. waldwick and midland park have pretty similar income and racial/ethnic demographics (although waldwick definitely has more of a latino/salvadoran presence), but for the most part they're middle income, mostly caucasian towns that have historically had a blue-collar feel along with a recent influx of yuppies. and while both midland park h.s. and waldwick h.s. are solid schools, they might be able to move up a tier or so if they were to share resources.
I believe Waldwick students used to go to Midland Park High School and then sometime in the 50s, they split and Waldwick built its own JR/SR high school. The two towns are very similar demographically, and regionalization might make sense.
Midland Park and Waldwick have pretty much flip-flopped on the prestige scale over the past several years. Waldwick used to be considered a little nicer and more expensive than Midland Park, now the reverse is true, and Midland Park's prestige is growing.
Midland Park High School has the highest average total SAT score of towns in Bergen County in its District Factor Group (a measure of socioeconomic standing developed by the NJ Department of Education). It was bumped up a level, along with Fair Lawn and Rutherford, after data from the 2000 census was compiled. Paramus, a town which until recently was quite a bit wealthier than Midland Park (it's still wealthier, but not by much), and probably has always hat a little more of a prestige factor than MP, came in second. (I completed my teaching practicum at Paramus High School about fifteen years ago and I loved it.) Fair Lawn, which most people would consider less prestigious than Waldwick, Midland Park, and definitely Paramus, came in third. (Another reason why it puzzles me why Fair Lawn is so much more affordable than comparable towns when the schools are better than many in more expensive towns.) Waldwick is seventh. Teaneck is in ninth (and last) place.
These results help to support my idea that Fair Lawn would be a good town for the OP to look in for a house. Buy a house near the Glen Rock or Paramus borders, get a house that looks exactly like one you'd find in Paramus or Glen Rock, have the kids attend Milnes or Radburn elementary schools which are almost as good as the ones in Paramus or Glen Rock, and save $100,000 on a house.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
