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What's wrong with NJ? Lots of very successful people pay top bucks to live there. Wall St., IT, Big Pharma, etc. Are you telling me they're all crazy to be in NJ?
What's wrong with NJ? Lots of very successful people pay top bucks to live there. Wall St., IT, Big Pharma, etc. Are you telling me they're all crazy to be in NJ?
I agree. New Jersey gets a bad rap but many parts of it are beautiful. Still I would not recommend it to someone working in midtown around Grand Central. It’s too hard of a commute in comparison. Jay
top suburbs w/ decent commutes would be short hills, summit and chatham. if you are walking distance from penn station, it's doable. otherwise you'd have to hope on the MTA. most essex taxes are way too high to make it worth it.
If you are into amenities and activities, I would look into Eastchester. It checks all the boxes, but the big plus is a country club with golf, tennis, swimming pools and all kinds of activities for families. It's called Lake Isle Country Club and it's available to Eastchester residents at a low cost.
What's wrong with NJ? Lots of very successful people pay top bucks to live there. Wall St., IT, Big Pharma, etc. Are you telling me they're all crazy to be in NJ?
I'm a Westchester resident, but with a $2M budget, I'd actually suggest looking into the Greenwich or New Caanan area for 2 primary reasons:
1) Taxes are lower - significantly - than Westchester. This is even more true if you are looking for a more expensive or larger square footage home. Again it depends on how long you plan to stay in the home and other factors.
2) You mention being city not country people. Large swaths of Westchester are remote by suburban standards with village/town main street areas that are sparsely populated and narrow roads with no sidewalks. Greenwich/New Caanan have much more vibrant towns, significantly more and bettter shopping options (in my opinion).
Downsides to CT? You're on the I-95/I-287 corridor which sees dense traffic and the New Haven Metro North line is the busiest of all the lines. Since you're from out of state, I feel it necessary to warn that the commutes from NJ, Westchester and CT can be grueling and stressful once you pile on train delays and inclement weather conditions. Add on a drive to the station, traffic, parking, etc and it can quickly become a headache. Living within walking distance to the station can really help alleviate this and cut down your commute times.
As for the Jersey hate here, please ignore it. You'll find all types up here in NY/NJ area and some people can be extremely pretentious. If you ignore that type of attitude and look at the actual merits of each place you'll do just fine.
I love the town of Ridgewood, but in the end couldn't justify the longer commute M-F and prefer the (relatively) better reliability of Metro North to NJ Transit.
I'm surprised that there hasn't been a mention of Pelham.
Great location-wise but the downtown leaves a lot to be desired.
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