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I’m a single professional woman in my 40s with a 2 year old child. Currently (still!) live in NYC crammed into a 1 bedroom apartment and really want to get out of the city and buy a house.
Looking for a town in NJ w/a reasonable commute to the city and with great public schools including the high school – I really want to settle in for the long term and not have to move again. Also hoping for a vibrant downtown, a nice community with down-to-earth people and things to do, and some diversity, including in the types of families that live there (e.g., single parents, same sex couples, etc.). Hoping to like the town for my own sake, not just b/c it's good for my child.
Prefer a train commute over bus. My office is on Wall St so taking the PATH to WTC may work better than coming in to midtown (but I can probably work with either scenario).
I would prefer something in the $400,000-500,000 range but know that will be tough and will consider going up to $600,000 if it's the best way to get the right fit (I know taxes are high and that will be a consideration too).
If your first preference is taking the PATH to WTC, you should look for towns that are a 20-30 minute drive away from either the Newark or Harrison PATH station. Driving to the other PATH stations...Hoboken or Jersey City...is a pain.
Maplewood might not be a bad fit...you can drive to the PATH in either Newark or Harrison (Harrison has cheaper parking, by the way), or you can take a NJ Transit train to midtown. You'll find diversity there, a downtown scene, stuff for both you and your child to do, and the school system's decent.
You might also consider Livingston and Millburn...both very good school systems, especially the high schools, and 20-30 minute drive to PATH.
However, Livingston doesn't have a train station, much diversity (I am sure there are some single parents, but it's mostly all 2-parent families or retirees) or a nice downtown.
Millburn does have a train station, and a nice downtown, but less diversity than Maplewood.
If you're a single woman, you might want to consider a condo/townhouse. Houses can be very high maintenance, especially for a single woman (I say that as a single woman). If you've never owned a house before, it could be overwhelming. Yard (mowing, raking, watering, weeding), roof, siding, sidewalks & driveway (shoveling) are all things that need maintenance. You can find condos/townhouses that are nearly the same square footage as an average house...a giant house just means more cleaning anyway.
Since it is just the 2 of you, I'm guessing you really don't need a very large place (I know you said you were crammed in a 1 bedroom...so I realize bigger than that but...) and with that budget you could probably wind up pretty much anywhere you chose. Montclair maybe a really good fit for you. Trains into the city, GREAT downtown with alot of diversity, lots to do...you should definitely put it on the list of towns to take a look at.
Thanks! I neglected to mention that I'm intending to have another child and I do want at least 3 or 4 bedrooms for us and also visiting family. I would love to own a house at least once in my life - I grew up in a house and I really want that again for myself and my family.
That being said, I would definitely be open to a townhouse if I could find one that felt like a house, not an apartment - with space, a garage and a backyard that I could fence so my kid(s) could play back there. But when I searched around for something like this within commuting distance and in a town like I described in my original post, I came up empty. If I'm missing something and you guys know of anything like that please do let me know.
Re the suggestions of Maplewood and Montclair, I've definitely heard good things, but I thought there were some questions/issues with the high schools there?
I grew up in Glen Rock, and unless things have changed, they have very good schools. I enjoyed my time there, and it was a very safe town. My parents still live there, and up until recently (at my request) they left the doors unlocked at night.
Glen Rock has 2 train stations (main line and ... bergen line(?)), which is nice.
With that being said ... i cannot comment on the home price there .... it may be more than you're looking for.
How about Monmouth County - Little Silver/Fair Haven? You can take the ferry (better than the train, IMHO) and be right downtown. Schools are excellent - up to and including the HS level. Only downside is the ferry is $$$$ (I've heard ~$600/mo).
Re the suggestions of Maplewood and Montclair, I've definitely heard good things, but I thought there were some questions/issues with the high schools there?
Thanks so much!
You heard right about the HS in Maplewood/South Orange. They share a school district and although the towns offer everything else you are looking for the schools are not where I would choose to send my daughter.
I'm also a SMBC and I grew up in South Orange. I had the chance to buy my mom's home there (a beautiful center hall colonial in a nice neighborhood) but I passed because of the schools (and the fact that the house had been broken into twice). I live at the shore now but if I ever decided to move north again my first choices would be Cranford and Livingston. They both have great schools but the towns are far from diverse (mostly two parent households). Both towns have transportation to the city and Cranford has a nice downtown.
Just an observation, the best school districts tend to be in higher income towns which tend to be more likely to be two parent households with less diversity.
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check out Cranford
