Thinking of moving from NY to NJ for schools (Newark: first time home buyer, buyer) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

formerhudson · 09-17-2009, 03:24 PM

Your best schools within an hour are Ridgewood, Tenafly and Glen Ridge--all among the top ten in the state. You can get a smaller house perhaps for 440k in those towns. Rutherford has very good schools. 17 minute commute from midtown by train. Resaerch all of them--they are quite good.

zhelder · 09-17-2009, 03:31 PM

My recommendations would be Fair Lawn or Rutherford. Both are good towns with good schools, and with some work, you may be able to get something for $400K. Both towns have train access too. Fair Lawn's schools are a bit better than Rutherford's, but Rutherford has a nice downtown area and probably a bit better commute to NYC.

tahiti · 09-18-2009, 07:27 AM

I think Glen Ridge is probably out of your reach....even if you find a house in the price range, taxes will kill you.

Shoegal1075 · 09-18-2009, 08:38 AM

Thanks guys - this really helps - keep the towns coming. I feel like I should give you guys a little background on myself and my family. I am a mother of 2 boys an 11 year old and an 8 year old. They are both very into their sports (baseball and basketball). I am a legal assistant and my husband is a steamfitter. As I mentioned before, we are working/middle class. That being said, I still want the best for my boys. Education is a priority for me! They attend Catholic school here and excel at their schooling (thankfully). We are young parents, but desperately want a place where the kids can be safe riding a bike or walking to the park. I'm not asking for Leave it to Beaver, but a nice place to raise the boys. According to statistics, I'm upper middle class (salary wise, my bank account just doesn't know it yet - LOL). I'm not looking for any area specific to anything as far as ethnicity goes. I like a mixed bag, I think that makes things seem a little more real. However, I don't care what color, creed, nationality or race you are, please let's keep the gang and drug activity to a minimum. I'm not implying that any of the towns anyone sent me are this way so, please don't take the statement that way. Any help that you guys give is very much appreciated!

Also, I have one more question - is it a fact that Bergen County has the best schools in NJ?

Whew that was long winded - I'm sorry if I said too much!

Appias · 09-18-2009, 08:59 AM

Have you thought about Maplewood or Cranford? $400,000 would get you a nice 3-4 bedroom house. Taxes can be high, especially in Maplewood, but if you buy for less than your maximum you could do it. Maplewood has a direct train into Penn station. The ride varies between 30-40 min. All parts of town have sidewalks and are within walking distance of the train and town. There are a lot of family oriented activities and it is a diverse town.

Lusitan · 09-18-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by formerhudson

Your best schools within an hour are Ridgewood, Tenafly and Glen Ridge--all among the top ten in the state. You can get a smaller house perhaps for 440k in those towns. Rutherford has very good schools. 17 minute commute from midtown by train. Resaerch all of them--they are quite good.

LOL ... yeah right.

Thanks for the laugh!

FrmlyBklyn · 09-18-2009, 09:04 AM

On the schools - it's really what your child makes of it. There are towns in each county of NJ where the schools as a whole, outperform other towns, sometimes due to socio-economic factors. One should not believe a label that says "this county is better than that county, because that is far from being true.

A little background - Rutherford is in southern Bergen county (next to Giants Stadium), Fairlawn is a little further north in Bergen county, next to Glen Rock (off rte. 17 and rte. 208)
There are affordable towns in NJ, but one thing about NJ is the real estate taxes can litterally "kill" you. From a standpoint of high taxes - Glen Ridge, Montclair, Within an hour's commute by bus - Rutherford, Nutley (Essex), Lyndhurst (Bergen) - all off of Rte. 3 W, Fairlawn (Bergen). Really, you might want to look at gsmls.com - it shows house listings by county and town. The best way is to drive through the towns on a weekend/weekday to see what it's really like.

One caveat about Essex - taxes can be high, but these days there are a number of homes that are selling for lower prices, lower than the limit you set, so there is hope.

FrmlyBklyn · 09-18-2009, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Appias

Have you thought about Maplewood or Cranford? $400,000 would get you a nice 3-4 bedroom house. Taxes can be high, especially in Maplewood, but if you buy for less than your maximum you could do it. Maplewood has a direct train into Penn station. The ride varies between 30-40 min. All parts of town have sidewalks and are within walking distance of the train and town. There are a lot of family oriented activities and it is a diverse town.

Maplewood is in Essex, and is notorious for outrageous taxes, plus if being near the city is one of her criteria - I would say look elsewhere.
Cranford is nice, in Union County, but is also known as the "venice of NJ" - when it rains, it tends to flood, some parts of it have people getting around in canoes - no joke.

Water is another thing - alot of homes in NJ will either have a "french" drain to keep the water out of the basement or have no fix. Be wary of buying a home near a water location - river, pond, stream (which becomes a river when it pours).

FrmlyBklyn · 09-18-2009, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by formerhudson

Your best schools within an hour are Ridgewood, Tenafly and Glen Ridge--all among the top ten in the state. You can get a smaller house perhaps for 440k in those towns. Rutherford has very good schools. 17 minute commute from midtown by train. Resaerch all of them--they are quite good.

All among the top 10 of overpriced real-estate too! A house in GlenRidge for 440k? - where?? A house in Ridgewood for 400K? - you must mean the shoebox located across the street from the town pool or down the road from the rte. 208 overpass, set far away from the town center and neighbors with the Main Line train that passes through the backyard every hour or so.

Shoegal1075 · 09-18-2009, 09:39 AM

Thanks frmlybklyn - that helps to know. This is way harder than I could ever have imagined. I just want to be in a safe friendly area. I don't want to wake up in 3 years and be in a war zone. I'm sure people are like "yea, but you live in queens" - this is true, but I live in a nice neighborhood for the most part. Quiet and convenient to everything, as most of queens is. But, I don't no live in Far Rockaway wher seeing crack viles on the street is the norm - it is not the norm for us so, I don't want ot move somewhere that is common. You know what I mean. When you don't know an area you tend to think of the bad areas (at least I do). I'm just not familar enough with Jersey to know good from bad.