New job in NY - young family - need help (Ridge: rental, homes)

[megale]

we are relocating very soon to NY. we are a young family with two elementary school aged children. schools are extremely important to us, as it a neighborhood with other kids. have been looking in the NJ areas, we would prefer to keep it around the hour commute at most. job is locating right between the two train stations so it's convenient. budget on a home is 500-600, any thoughts of where to be looking?

we like areas of NJ we saw, just wondered what other parts to consider in NY or surrounding areas.

[BXGEAR]

Look into northwestern Brooklyn, Forest Hills/ Rego Park Queens, 72nd St. & Broadway (upper west side), Riverdale and Throggs Neck/ City Island Bronx, Cliffside Park, Fort Lee, Hoboken New Jersey, or you can just look into the suburbs.

[Viralmd]

Manhattan's going to be out of your range, unless you plan to rent, but you didn't say what your monthly rental budget would be.

Your best bet, to avoid tuition at private schools, would be Westchester, Connecticut or NJ. Where is 'work' going to be? East side or West? Because that'll have a role in dictating where you'll want to live: NJ mass transit goes to the West side, but from Westchester or CT it goes to Grand Central on the East side.

What kind of commute is tolerable?

Personally, I wouldn't consider LI. To me it's a wasteland.

[nyasiandudeinnj]

You're actually within range if you're considering Northern NJ, especially in the Bergen County area. Prices for single homes have corrected thus far in the 10-20% range. The total door-to-door commute time is under 1 hour via NJ Transit bus to Port Authority Bus Term.

You can get a really nice 4 BR / 2 bath home with no work needed and basement in the mid to high 400's in areas like Wood-Ridge, Hasbrouck Heights, Rutherford, etc...with decent public school systems. Wood-Ridge already has plans in motion to have a direct train station direct to Midtown Manhattan. Rutherford will most likely be the most expensive of all mentioned in the high $400s to low $500s for single family units.

Hope this helps in your search.

[megale]

sounds interesting about wood-ridge, haven't looked at that area. our NJ searches this far have been around the chatham / morristown areas, would love to get in closer though.