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Had posted this under New Jersey and people suggested I post this here ..so here goes...
Hi all,
I have been offered a better opportunity in Cherry Hill...I am yet to make a decision ..A few things I would like to know before we can make a decision..I am hoping people here would help us out....We have no idea about NJ...We currently live in LI... Husband and I both work in IT..We are in our mid 30s...He is an Indian and I am white...We have a five and a half year old daughter who goes to kindergarten....He travels for work M-Th...
The office where I would work is in Cherry Hill...I, of course don't want my commute to be crazy( 30 -35 mins door to door)..The city should have very good schools and a good mix of people from different cultures...Goes without saying that it should be safe and should have a choice of activities our kid could do...she currently does swimming , gymnastics and painting.No offense to anyone but we do not want to be in an all white or all Indian community..We are not really at really high end communities or places but yes definitely something a bit more upscale....We were thinking we would most likely live in Princeton as the school district is good......We are going to rent for the next year atleast..If we like NJ we will most likely buy there or come back to LI and buy here..If we buy in NJ we will most likely buy in a place with a better commute to NYC along with all the criteria listed above...I think my guess is we would be looking at North NJ then?
So my questions are
1)How is the commute from Princeton to Cherry Hill??
2)How is Princeton as a city to live in?
3)Any other city we should consider ?
4)My daughter goes to a private school here but I want to put her in the public school system.Any public school better than the other? If she continues going to a private school any recommendations in the Princeton area?
5) Seems silly but any nice gyms in the Princeton area?
Any info will be very welcome and appreciated..
Thanks!!
Sounds like you are describing the town you will be working in.
Cherry Hill is considered a premium community (although it does have it spots).
Significant percentage of the parents are degreed and in professional jobs.
It is incredibly diverse... only other area more diverse would be the figurine characters at Disney's "It's a small world" :-) (that was an attempt at humor). But a lot of truth to that.
There is a decent percentage of Indian residents. The Indian/White thing.. not a concern at all.
There are two high schools which seem to split the town from very good section, to excellent section
But i'm just a blue-collar boy who knows a lot of cherry hill but has never lived here. You'll get tons of comments on it (or directions to "Search here, its been discussed a 1000x before)
If you want to bring the commute to NYC into the picture... yea princeton is a great option but i feel its even more premium overall (fewer not-so-expensive options). Look at communities adjacent to it near the NJ Transit Train stations,.
I commuted from the Cherry Hill area to Lawrenceville which is just south of Princeton. If you live in Princeton and commute to Cherry hill your commute with traffic will be 1 hour to 1.5 hours.
Princeton has a very good public school district and decent trains into NYC and Philadelphia. So if you can stand the commute or work from a home office this would work.
Cultural diversity is another thing. Although the University is diverse, the population of Princeton is predominately white and conservative. 73.6% white. The area west of Princeton is the more wealthy area.
In all honesty, Cherry Hill itself is exactly the community you described. Princeton is a great town, but you will need to eat the hour plus commute to Cherry Hill. Ultimately, it will become a balancing act where either you or your husband needs to deal with the horrendoues commute (assuming he is commuting to NYC). My advice would be to bias the commute towards one parent and the other just has to deal. Cherry Hill ticks all the boxes and it would mean a near zero commute for you and make it easy for your to get around with your daughter and go places. Your husband gets saddled with the long commute into NYC, but him adding 45 minutes to his already long commute isn't a bad trade-off for eliminating yours, especially when one of you needs to be able to be there for your daughter.
I'm not sure anyone on here can give you too much detailed info on Princeton. For the most part Princeton is considered to be more "North Jersey" than "South Jersey". There is no one I know of that is a regular on this forum that live in that area, but there are people on the main NJ board who do.
Sounds like you are describing the town you will be working in.
Cherry Hill is considered a premium community (although it does have it spots).
Significant percentage of the parents are degreed and in professional jobs.
It is incredibly diverse... only other area more diverse would be the figurine characters at Disney's "It's a small world" :-) (that was an attempt at humor). But a lot of truth to that.
There is a decent percentage of Indian residents. The Indian/White thing.. not a concern at all.
There are two high schools which seem to split the town from very good section, to excellent section
But i'm just a blue-collar boy who knows a lot of cherry hill but has never lived here. You'll get tons of comments on it (or directions to "Search here, its been discussed a 1000x before)
If you want to bring the commute to NYC into the picture... yea princeton is a great option but i feel its even more premium overall (fewer not-so-expensive options). Look at communities adjacent to it near the NJ Transit Train stations,.
Thanks so for your reply...
As of now commute to NYC is not in the pic...DH flies to client location and if I take up the offer I will be local...
What are ths spots on CH that we should be avoiding?? I was looking into rentals and came up with Burrough mills, dwell and grand( these 2 were suggested by someone on the general NJ board)..As of now we are liking Burrough mills a little more..If we can find an independent house in a good loaction and near a good elementary school that would be our first choice...
So what are the better elementary schools in Cherry Hill?? How is Moorsetown, Voorhees and their schools schools..Same as Cherry hill?? One better than the other?? Commute from Moorsetown to CH is decent?? Haddondield sounds good but might be too cliquish....dont want to stand out like a sore thumb...
I commuted from the Cherry Hill area to Lawrenceville which is just south of Princeton. If you live in Princeton and commute to Cherry hill your commute with traffic will be 1 hour to 1.5 hours.
Princeton has a very good public school district and decent trains into NYC and Philadelphia. So if you can stand the commute or work from a home office this would work.
Cultural diversity is another thing. Although the University is diverse, the population of Princeton is predominately white and conservative. 73.6% white. The area west of Princeton is the more wealthy area.
Thanks for your reply....
Princeton is not something we are considering now, esp since schools in Cherry hill , Moorsetown , Voorhees seem to be good too..
In all honesty, Cherry Hill itself is exactly the community you described. Princeton is a great town, but you will need to eat the hour plus commute to Cherry Hill. Ultimately, it will become a balancing act where either you or your husband needs to deal with the horrendoues commute (assuming he is commuting to NYC). My advice would be to bias the commute towards one parent and the other just has to deal. Cherry Hill ticks all the boxes and it would mean a near zero commute for you and make it easy for your to get around with your daughter and go places. Your husband gets saddled with the long commute into NYC, but him adding 45 minutes to his already long commute isn't a bad trade-off for eliminating yours, especially when one of you needs to be able to be there for your daughter.
I'm not sure anyone on here can give you too much detailed info on Princeton. For the most part Princeton is considered to be more "North Jersey" than "South Jersey". There is no one I know of that is a regular on this forum that live in that area, but there are people on the main NJ board who do.
Thanks for your reply...
Great to hear that cherry hill n neighbouring areas have good schools too...Such a relief..whew!!
DH flies to client location every week..he just needs to get himself to an airport...
Any areas of Cherry Hill we should avoid?? Haddondield schools are good too?? How is the area to live and commute to Cherry hill??
Would you be opposed to renting a single family home in CH? I currently live in Philly, but I lived in south jersey for years and I have most of my family there. In fact, I like south jersey so much that while we are waiting on our house to sell, we have our son in private school in south jersey. I drive him there each day. It's a quick shot over any bridge. All of the areas you have mentioned, such as Vorhees and moorestown, are excellent areas, they have low crime and are middle to upper-middle class. There is a lot of diversity in south jersey, so no worries about that. My husband and I are a mixed race couple, as well, and never feel strange about it in any circumstance in this area.
Have you ever heard of greatschools.org ? As a parent who likes to dream of moving all the time, I use that app or website constantly to compare schools. It rates them based on test performance and community ratings. You'll see the schools in CH and other areas you mentioned are pretty good.
As someone else mentioned, Princeton is farther up north jersey. I hear its a nice area, but not the kind of commute you want. I think south jersey has just what you're looking for. Some people give jersey a bad rap, but I really like it.
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