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My wife and I live in Manhattan and we are expecting a baby in Jan. Wanted to request your views and inputs / suggestions for buying a house in Bridgewater, NJ. Any comment shall help!
So my wife works remotely and I run a small business from home (No Office location for both). We started looking houses in Livingston, Warren and New Prov. Our budget is 600-650k. In our budget we found very old houses and then finally settled in bridgewater, NJ. Although that is very far form NYC, and at times, we get scared of being so far from NYC. Does it really matter if we are so far from the NYC life? For the first few years of a baby, will we really have time for ourselves? Sorry if this is a silly question, and yes, we asked ourselves these questions and there is no answer!
Life in Bridgewater:
We want to live in a mix community, Indians, Whites, Blacks etc. A mix of everything. Is Bridgewater a good selection? Our main criteria is school ratings. Any other cities besides bridgewater where we can get high quality schools and new houses.
What about the activities and events in bridgewater. Will we have a good time within the city or we will have to travel in nearby cities for enjoyment? Now I am getting a feel of a really silly post, sorry if its disorganized.
I realize that in bridgewater we are far from all main airports. Is that a bad decision as we travel every 2 months or have visitors every other month.
Personally, the farther I am from NYC or any major city, the better IMO. I think in NJ you usually see better public schools in the suburbs. Bridgewater does have good schools however if you want more accessibility to NYC you may want to consider West Windsor since the northeast corridor NJTransit line is right there whereas you'd be driving to the city in Bridgewater. I lived in West Windsor starting in 5th grade through high school. West Windsor also has good schools and is fairly diverse, mostly white, Indian, and Asian, however I've noted more African Americans are moving in which is great. As to things to do in Bridgewater vs. West Windsor, you're probably going to have to travel for anything fun in either town. Go to Princeton from West Windsor, go to Somerville from Bridgewater. Both west Windsor and Bridgewater are sprawling suburbs and therefore there isn't really a central Main Street for entertainment.
My wife and I live in Manhattan and we are expecting a baby in Jan. Wanted to request your views and inputs / suggestions for buying a house in Bridgewater, NJ. Any comment shall help!
So my wife works remotely and I run a small business from home (No Office location for both). We started looking houses in Livingston, Warren and New Prov. Our budget is 600-650k. In our budget we found very old houses and then finally settled in bridgewater, NJ. Although that is very far form NYC, and at times, we get scared of being so far from NYC. Does it really matter if we are so far from the NYC life? For the first few years of a baby, will we really have time for ourselves? Sorry if this is a silly question, and yes, we asked ourselves these questions and there is no answer!
Life in Bridgewater:
We want to live in a mix community, Indians, Whites, Blacks etc. A mix of everything. Is Bridgewater a good selection? Our main criteria is school ratings. Any other cities besides bridgewater where we can get high quality schools and new houses.
What about the activities and events in bridgewater. Will we have a good time within the city or we will have to travel in nearby cities for enjoyment? Now I am getting a feel of a really silly post, sorry if its disorganized.
I realize that in bridgewater we are far from all main airports. Is that a bad decision as we travel every 2 months or have visitors every other month.
Thanks,
Rajiv Walia
I think you'll love Bridgewater! Since you are going to be near Rte 287 I think you'll find you have accessibility to so many highways, its going to be pretty easy for you to get anywhere. You'll be able to access the train, bus or highways to get to the City; if you drive you'll be able to travel via Rte 78 or the Turnpike and you'll have 2 options to get to the turnpike if there is traffic congestion. Rte 287 to the Parkway will get you to the beach. I think you will find you have lots of options of things to do -- Somerville, Flemington and Bridgewater have lots going on. BW is a big community though are you going to be closer to the Martinsville side or the section that borders North Branch/Branchburg? Either way - its all good!!!!
Moving from Manhattan to any suburb will be a big transition, that's not specific to Bridgewater. Pros of Bridgewater are good schools, good connectivity and proximity to the temple. Its not ideal for NYC commute so if you don't need that, great.
Moving from Manhattan to any suburb will be a big transition, that's not specific to Bridgewater. Pros of Bridgewater are good schools, good connectivity and proximity to the temple. Its not ideal for NYC commute so if you don't need that, great.
Well I do think it makes a difference how distant the suburb is as far as transitioning from NYC to the suburbs. If you're in a nearby suburb like Hudson or Essex county then you're never more than 30 minutes away from the city. In places like Bridgewater you're at least an hour away from the city and the town has a much more isolated feel, so it will likely have a big impact on how often you make the trek into the city. As a "city guy", I'm ok with living in Essex County, but would not be too happy living any farther out.
I have friends that recently moved from Manhattan to Union County (the Mountainside/Fanwood/Scotch Plains area) and are very happy. They actually are able to walk to the bus stop from their house everyday and get into the city that way. They both still work in Manhattan. They are thrilled they are in a nice family oriented NJ suburb with good schools - don't have to pay parking fees at the train station and don't even need to use their car on a daily basis.
Have you considered that section of Union County as an option? There are lots of neighborhoods that are also walking distance to the Fanwood train station.
Edit: Just realized you said you work remotely? Do you need to commute into the city at all?
Some good responses so far! When my family first moved here, I thought I wanted to live in Bridgewater. It's got great highway access (78, 287), shopping mall and most major stores, decent schools. There is a YMCA in Bridgewater as well. However, once we saw other areas we found a nicer community. A couple things in your post struck me, first you mentioned new or newer homes, Bridgewater was built out a long time ago, so a lot of the housing inventory is older homes. Bridgewater does have lower taxes and is ethnically mixed to some extent. Property taxes are lower because of the high amount of commercial properties. You would not know it from the roads though, I think Bridgewater has horrible busted up roads.
Second, the school system in Bridgewater is OK, but it's not top rated. The higher rated schools would be in West Windsor, Plainsboro and Basking ridge.
Only you and your wife can answer how close you need to be to the city. If you are from the city and want to have the theatre, museums and culture then you might want to consider something closer. Bridgewater is not the best location by train- the BW station is served by the Raritan Valley line and that station is not a major stop. Even if you get on at Somerville, its still an hour by train, and you have to change trains in Newark.
If you want newer homes, you might consider Bedminster, not Bridgewater. Better school system too.
Thanks everyone for your valuable inputs.
Commute to NYC is only a plan B in case my wife does not find a job nearby in Bridgewater. I run a business so I think for now none of us has to commute to the city for work, but we are greedy and want to be close to the city to escape life anytime we want for an outing! Workwise, She is in Pharma, and we are hoping she can find something in BW.
West Windsor is slightly farther from NYC so we want to remain under the 50 mile mark from manhattan (For no apparent reason I am afraid!)
My budget is 600k, and the issue with finding anything else closer to the city, means houses built in 1950's..as we are looking for a single home, hence we narrowed down bridgewater. We started with Livingston, Warren, New Prov.. but poof.. did not find what we were looking for!
Schools in Plainsboro - In greatschools.org I saw there is only one elementary, one middle and one highschool, here I mean the ones that are rated. Is there any website that gives more ratings? West windsor is not even rated! (Just a reminder we are having a baby next month so seeing school ratings!)
I will also explore Plainsboro. thanks all once again and please let me know your further views!
Thanks everyone for your valuable inputs.
Commute to NYC is only a plan B in case my wife does not find a job nearby in Bridgewater. I run a business so I think for now none of us has to commute to the city for work, but we are greedy and want to be close to the city to escape life anytime we want for an outing! Workwise, She is in Pharma, and we are hoping she can find something in BW.
West Windsor is slightly farther from NYC so we want to remain under the 50 mile mark from manhattan (For no apparent reason I am afraid!)
My budget is 600k, and the issue with finding anything else closer to the city, means houses built in 1950's..as we are looking for a single home, hence we narrowed down bridgewater. We started with Livingston, Warren, New Prov.. but poof.. did not find what we were looking for!
Schools in Plainsboro - In greatschools.org I saw there is only one elementary, one middle and one highschool, here I mean the ones that are rated. Is there any website that gives more ratings? West windsor is not even rated! (Just a reminder we are having a baby next month so seeing school ratings!)
I will also explore Plainsboro. thanks all once again and please let me know your further views!
Rajiv
West Windsor/Plainsboro North High School
West Windsor/Plainsboro South High School
Both are top ranked high schools. Top 25 in the state. Ranked 10 out of 10 on great schools.org. A trip to NYC is a 50 min train ride from Princeton Junction train station in West Winsdor.
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