South Jersey to Mahwah NJ housing Family of 5 (Monroe, Warwick: rent, condo)

[Designmomto3]

Hi guys,
I was posting in the jersey forum, but have increasingly been considering the Monroe-Woodbury, Warwick or Suffern school districts, so I thought it might be time to venture into NY territory.

Here is my other post for reference: Relocating from S Jersey to N Jersey

Essentially, we have a hugely tight budget 275,000 and my husband started a new job in Mahwah NJ (at base of the thruway). Our current home has lost $100k in equity, which would have been our down payment. Without it, we'll only have maybe $15k in equity from our starter home. We have a condo down here in Cherry Hill NJ also that will make maybe 10k. Not much of a down payment for N Jersey.

What do you recommend?

[Designmomto3]

Duh, forgot to add the details.

Family of five. Kids are 5 going into kindergarten in Sept, 3.5 and nearly 2. We'd like to buy vs rent in a great school district with solid services for special needs.

Proximity to Mahwah is important since the job is there and so is my mom (babysitter). We're very involved with our church which is Unitarian Universalist. There's one in Ridgewood NJ and some in Orange County.

[Designmomto3]

Bump -- anyone have thoughts on this?

[Dreamshot]

You could look at Monroe...good schools and all the amenities, only a 20 minute ride to Mahwah. Budget might be a little tight but you could probably swing it if you bought a condo/townhouse.

[Designmomto3]

Thanks for the reply Dreamshot. Do you think the M-W schools are better than Suffern ? They both rank pretty high on greatschools.com. Also, what are your thoughts on living near downtown vs. further outside in both towns? Someone mentioned Suffern is not as nice near the town center. Is that also true for Monroe?

[Dreamshot]

I'd give M-W a decent edge, but the difference isn't deal-breaking. M-W certainly has the edge in sports and AP class availability. Suffern has a higher Hispanic population than Monroe; this seems especially apparent downtown. Monroe has a nice but small downtown. There isn't an area in the town that I wouldn't recommend.