Purchase House on Elm Street in Montclair? (Bloomfield: townhouse, buy) - New Jersey (NJ) - City-Data Forum

HouseHunters007 · 01-31-2011, 10:04 PM

Hi,

We saw a home on Elm street in Montclair and would love to hear from you folks as to whether this would be a good purchase.

We are married with twins (2 yrs old) and recently moved from Atlanta, GA. I was born and raised in NYC while my husband was born in Florida. Our budget is 500k and are looking for our first home. My husband is a wounded/disabled Iraq vet, and this home appears to have have a decent driveway for his wheelchair equipped van. I work in downtown Manhattan, so commute doesn't seem too bad.

I'm not too good with the north-south directional stuff....so here's my best attempt: it is located between bloomfield ave and harrison ave, and a bit after orange ave turns into Elm; a few blocks from Glenfield Park. I have attached a picture from google maps of the location for those of you I lost in the above sentences :-0

We appreciate and look forward to your thoughts.

Also, if there are other areas worth considering, please let us know.

Thanks in Advance,
James and Amber

Goldendoodle1969 · 02-01-2011, 08:34 AM

That is not the best area of Montclair, but it's not the worst either. The best advice I can give is to walk around the immediate area. We looked at a townhouse in the 50 Pine St complex. There was a lot of shady activity going on around there. The more desirable parts of Montclair are north of Bloomfield Ave. We didn't buy there so my experience is extremely limited so take it with a grain of salt. I can say that the Montclair school system is Magnet so I'm pretty sure you can choose where to send your child regardless of where you live in the district, but I'd double check that.

ansky · 02-01-2011, 08:37 AM

I agree that part of Montclair isn't the greatest. The location you mention is near the Bay St. train station and I know that area is kind of sketchy.

IanErikson · 02-01-2011, 12:12 PM

People gave me a hard time I said the same thing as TDStyles - I agree though, check it out yourself on a weekend night, and mid-day on a weekday- see what its like.

Montclair is a great town overall.

RamCharger1985 · 02-02-2011, 07:47 AM

Elm street isn't the best, but its not like newark or orange. There is a lot of new construction going on in the area. They got rid of that abandoned nursing home and all of the decrepit abandoned buildings on bloomfield ave. The area is coming back strong, its a lot better than it was 15 years ago. The problem is the north side of town and "up the hill", are super super rich. The south side of town (up to walnut street) is more working class.

I will say that the montclair school systems aren't that great, neighboring glen ridge is 10 times better. And the town isn't diverse, despite what a lot of liberal yuppies that live in the upper section would want you to believe. White people on one side and black people on the other side doesn't sound that diverse to me. LOL

MontclairNative · 02-03-2011, 06:28 PM

Elm can get busy during school pick up drop off due to the new Bullock school. Your money will go farther there than upper montclair for sure. Some beautiful homes- some renovated some not. Ask an inspector what you can expect to have to upgrade in the next 5 year if not right aways- roof, furnace, windows (which go hand in hand with utility bills). You have a bit of a walk to Bay st, but not bad. Bloomfield ave and Mission seems to be the hotbed of drug dealing.