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We're relocating from Houston to New Jersey. My husband will be working in Iselin and I have job possibilities in New Brunswick and Princeton. We have two small children (4.5 and 2) and we are interested in a family-oriented community with good schools and outdoor recreation opportunities (bike paths, etc) between these areas. Our housing budget is $500-600k.
I'm actually flying out this weekend to do some driving around and would be very grateful for suggestions! Thanks so much for any guidance.
Welcome! Be prepared for some horrible weather this weekend, unfortunately! Definitely put on your list West Windsor (Princeton Junction), Cranbury and South Brunswick.
Thanks for these suggestions! Really helpful. Could someone comment on what the commute from, say, Plainsboro to Iselin might be like along US-1? Better/worse on I-95?
For Iselin, I would stay along the Rte. 1 corridor. Actually, if you move somewhere near a Turnpike entrance (so on the South or East side of Rte 1), he would be even better off. Once you start going up 206 North out of Princeton, there are some really nice towns, but it's going to add time to your husband's commute. Just food for thought.
I would start with Cranbury if you can, that is a lovely town. As far as schools, you couldn't do better than the Cranbury School which is the public school just for Cranbury for elementary and goes from grades K-8. Cranbury has a real nice small-town atmosphere, a little downtown, really just a perfect family town. Be careful if you look on Realtor, there are parts of East Windsor that show up as Cranbury because they have a Cranbury zip code. You'll want to really make sure that you are looking at house in Cranbury, using Cranbury schools. That's probably the priciest town down there, other than Princeton itself.
East Brunswick is nice too, South Brunswick is also nice. South Brunswick is close to Princeton, East Brunswick is a little further, and is close to New Brunswick. So where you end up working might factor into which one you pick there out of those two.
West Windsor is also a very nice town with really good schools and Robbinsville is another nice town and has good proximity to the Turnpike, although it would be farther for you in either of these towns if you end up working in New Brunswick.
Of course, Princeton itself is lovely, but the priciest down there.
The other thing to watch for is that alot of towns around Princeton have areas that have a Princeton zip code (08540) but are not in Princeton, therefore wouldn't use Princeton schools. As you can see, if you look at homes down there, you want to really make sure you know what you are looking at, and most importantly, what school system your kids would go to. A good realtor would know all of this and make sure you understand.
I agree with Ann77, if you're not intimidated by rush hour traffic then Route 1 or Route 130 to Route 1 (depending on where the house is located in Cranbury, Plainsboro or West Windsor) to Iselin. The NJ Turnpike (I95) is a good alternate in case an accident ties traffic up on Route 1/130.
Also, make sure you understand the property taxes up here ($1000 a month in many places). They are high and will affect how much house budget you have.
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