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If you take the job in SF, consider living in Alameda just across the bay. It's a really nice town, known for being safe and is in your price range for renting a 2 bdrm. Weather is great and there is even a beach that is safe with really shallow water, which should be safe for your baby. My boss lives in Alameda (the owner of the building I manage). He raised his kids there. I would live there in a heartbeat if I could afford it.
I grew up in San Leandro, nearby, and my family used to go to the Alameda beach when I was a kid. Lots of fun and so much safer than going to the ocean with young kids because the shallow water literally goes out towards the bay forever. Because it's so shallow, the water is actually pretty warm, too. The ocean (on the coast as opposed to the SF Bay) has undertows in most areas that are scary, and the water is cold.
It's pretty difficult to check out what's good for your family if you're not known in the areas you could move to. Anybody know if the NYC area (The Boroughs and burbs) are good for raising kids? I checked some crime sites and saw that shootings aren't uncommon there? I read on the other hand that NYC is one of the safest cities in the U.S. I don't know whether Cali or NY would be a better place for kids...
Last edited by Cityofdreams; 06-13-2013 at 12:26 PM..
You're not going to find anything for $250-$300K in the suburbs of NYC that is of decent size or in a good area. As CKH says, you'll probably have to go a little further out towards the Hudson Valley, NY to get that price.
It's pretty difficult to check out what's good for your family if you're not known in the areas you could move to. Anybody know if the NYC area (The Boroughs and burbs) are good for raising kids? I checked some crime sites and saw that shootings aren't uncommon there? I read on the other hand that NYC is one of the safest cities in the U.S. I don't know whether Cali or NY would be a better place for kids...
You might want to ask in the NYC forum. I do think you should be able to find an apartment in a safe part of NYC easily at that price range, and I know enough about New York City's school system to know they have plenty of fairly-well-respected elementary schools, and tracking programs for gifted kids, so it's not like the middle class bails out (they just jump through a few more hoops to get their kids into the right schools).
It's pretty difficult to check out what's good for your family if you're not known in the areas you could move to. Anybody know if the NYC area (The Boroughs and burbs) are good for raising kids? I checked some crime sites and saw that shootings aren't uncommon there? I read on the other hand that NYC is one of the safest cities in the U.S. I don't know whether Cali or NY would be a better place for kids...
Absolutely, the NYC area (especially the burbs) is good for raising kids. It's just that the areas that are safest AND with best schools are way out of your price range.
Most violent crime occurs in cities, New York included. The city is very safe but it's not a utopia, obviously. NJ's cities like Newark, Jersey City, and Elizabeth are more crime ridden that upscale suburbs, but that's just common sense. It's hard to recommend a good area because it's such a large area. If you want New York, look in the upstate lower counties: Rockland, Orange, Putnam, etc. The further from the city you go, the easier it will generally be to find a house in your price range. In NJ, the more distant metro area counties are Sussex, Hunterdon, and Somerset. I guarantee you that you will still have better luck in the New York counties I mentioned.
I understand that you don't have a lot to work off of when we tell you how expensive this area is, but to go through every town in northern NJ for example and check their average home prices and cross check it with the quality of their school districts is tedious. I recommend you use this very website to find information on towns or cities within the NYC metro area. For example, in Union County, NJ, you can compare and contrast the following towns/cities: Linden and Rahway, Clark, Cranford and Westfield. That's from a low to a high spectrum as far as income and home prices. In Linden, homes are slightly more expensive than Rahway but Rahway's family income is higher so that's the one anomaly of the order of this list. Also, Linden is viewed as not so nice while Westfield is the nicest of that list. Cranford probably has the best schools. This will help you gauge what you can get for your budget and where for at least Union County. Then you can see how affordable the NYC metro area closer to the city is for you. I hope this is at least bit helpful! But this website outside of the forum gives very detailed statistics about each town and city everywhere. I've noticed it doesn't go much into quality of education but that is kind of hard to rate and different lists that are released of the best schools can vary. Generally, the nicer the area, the better the schools. The higher taxes, the better schools. Cities usually have okay schools but tend to be cheaper.
If you contact a realtor for North Jersey or a specific county in any state and tell him/her what you're looking for in your budget and school quality they can help you over email or phone find the best possible town or city for you.
If you are willing to get a fixer-upper, you can find a home on Long Island in a good area with good commuting options to NYC. Just know that a fixer-upper in a good area will cost about $250-300K. However, the commute from LI to NYC is not bad.
@ Jerseygirl. I know.. it's pretty difficuly. If i go by everyone's view in this topic i believe that the prices vary a lot. I'm positive that we are going to find a place near NYC. I've been looking on Craiglist and saw a lot of listings @ Long Island and in the NY state burbs that we could afford. Don't really know what kind of areas though. So maybe i should ask more info in the New York City section on this forums.
From personal experience, you won't find anything remotely desirable with proximity of an hour or less to downtown LA. Houses right now are scarce and getting multiple offers which drives the selling price (on decent places) way over asking.
With a rental budget of $2500 I would think it might be possible. Maybe. You won't get a house though. Are you opposed to apartments or townhomes?
I would suggest looking in Glendale, Studio City, and Burbank for rentals if you pick LA. It's unfortunate but this is a HARD time to buy in LA - you need a budget of $450k or so to be competitive and you still might not get what you want.
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You should visit on kings day (26th of april)..
