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I did post that the job is at Rockafeller Plaza. I don't know what to plan for budget exactly but I imagine my husband will make around $160,000 as salary. So, that with two adults, three children.
Definitely not trying to waste anyone's time here! My husband and I have been reading and re-reading the posts, looking at maps, etc to get a good feel for what everyone is sharing. Thank you for taking the time to share!
As for what I'm looking for in residence - washer & dryer in the unit is preferable as we use cloth diapers. 3 bedrooms would be ideal.
Promise we're not dreaming here. Actual move possibility is in the near future.
I did post that the job is at Rockafeller Plaza. I don't know what to plan for budget exactly but I imagine my husband will make around $160,000 as salary. So, that with two adults, three children.
Definitely not trying to waste anyone's time here! My husband and I have been reading and re-reading the posts, looking at maps, etc to get a good feel for what everyone is sharing. Thank you for taking the time to share!
As for what I'm looking for in residence - washer & dryer in the unit is preferable as we use cloth diapers. 3 bedrooms would be ideal.
Promise we're not dreaming here. Actual move possibility is in the near future.
Thanks!
Look along the Hudson , Harlem , or New Haven line towns...for the best direct commute...
Just stay away from Mount Vernon , parts of Yonkers , The Bronx.... I would research the other towns on the Map...each town is different......there all were a look at , stay close to the city....as in the first 15 stops of each line otherwise the commute will become long and expensive.
Another point to consider - if you live in NYC, you pay about 3% in additional city tax. That's $5k/year you'll be paying for the privilege to call yourself "new yorker".
I don't think I'm unreasonably negative - I think NYC is great for people w/o kids who are really into the urban lifestyle, and who have a lot of friends in the city. Or for those who can afford large clean apartments in quiet areas ($5k/mo). But for a family with three young kids it's just not a good place most of the time. I moved to NYC from Toronto two years ago with my wife and a 3yo son. We lived in a "luxury" apartment building (doormen, gym/pool on the top floor, etc) in UES. Yes, we enjoyed walking to UES museums or taking $5 cab drives to UWS' ones.
But live and dead rats in playgrounds (we did see them, regularly), noise, traffic, etc. was not enjoyable. Or grocery shopping without a car. We did look in Brooklyn - nice areas not very far (Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Clinton Hill) were not much cheaper, so there was no point in renting there vs Manhattan.
We now rent a house with a backyard in NJ, lease a car, etc., and spend less than we did in NYC. Yes, the commute is a bit longer, but NJT trains and buses are also much cleaner than the subway. I sit all the time while commuting now - I can read, sleep, check email, watch youtube, etc. In the subway during rush hours I could do nothing enjoyable.
We did look in Westchester also. Nice areas there are somewhat more expensive than comparable towns in NJ, so we moved to NJ, and are very happy now.
Antrek - Thank you for sharing your firsthand experience. That's really what helps the most. Knowing you're a father, once lived in the city (and what that was like) and even the details on having a longer commute can mean more time for reading, etc. Never thought about his 30 min. city commute being so crammed that he couldn't use the time for something useful.
I did post that the job is at Rockafeller Plaza. I don't know what to plan for budget exactly but I imagine my husband will make around $160,000 as salary. So, that with two adults, three children.
Definitely not trying to waste anyone's time here! My husband and I have been reading and re-reading the posts, looking at maps, etc to get a good feel for what everyone is sharing. Thank you for taking the time to share!
As for what I'm looking for in residence - washer & dryer in the unit is preferable as we use cloth diapers. 3 bedrooms would be ideal.
Promise we're not dreaming here. Actual move possibility is in the near future.
Thanks!
My bad on missing Rockafeller plaza and congradz on the job! Since you have three children, I'd definitely cross of any towns in NJ or NY with bad public school districts such as Hoboken, JC, West NY, Union City in North NJ and pretty much all of NYC. Unless you were thinking private school or taking chance with charter.
As for your husband's commute. I think he is looking at at least hour each way door to door due the job location regardless of where he lives so he may need to accept that fact. Regarding the travel itself, simplest and probably least expensive way to get to Rockafeller from NJ is take bus to port authority and walk it in my opinion. Other two alternatives are...
- Take train to madison square garden and take subway.
- Path or ferry into city and subway.
Be mindful though these is double whammy since you'll need monthly for train, bus, path, or ferry plus MTA which will be additional 104 a month.
Consider Leonia, Fort Lee, Edgewater, Westfield in NJ side. For NY side, parts of Long Island in Nassau county such as Great Neck would work as well as parts of Weschester but you'll need to do research.
Some of the towns I mentioned will definitely be over a hour door to door such as Westfield but that's got pretty dang good school but not really urban.
Another point to consider - if you live in NYC, you pay about 3% in additional city tax. That's $5k/year you'll be paying for the privilege to call yourself "new yorker".
This is great advice and reminder. NYC income tax is surprise for folks who weren't expecting it. On side note in my opinion it works out anyway because in NJ you pay high property tax while in NYC you pay higher income tax. But then again it's matter of sending kids to good public school at cost of high property tax or sending kids to private school and low property tax....
Quote:
Originally Posted by antrek
I don't think I'm unreasonably negative - I think NYC is great for people w/o kids who are really into the urban lifestyle, and who have a lot of friends in the city. Or for those who can afford large clean apartments in quiet areas ($5k/mo).
I actually disagree with that since I grew up in Queens and that has helped me in someways (street smart) as it hindered in some ways (book smarts) as well. Thankfully my parents gave me best of both world by moving to burbs when book smarts became more important.
At that level of income & with your wants/needs, if there are rentals (as opposed to sales) available in Englewood Cliffs you are far better there than about anywhere else. It's a (for close-in NYC suburbs, this is all of course relative) high-nature, very nice town, very close to the city, family sort of place. As an added bonus for someone not intending to use public schools, due to an odd quirk of how town government in the area is set up, Englewood Cliffs students are zoned to Englewood schools, BUT, the municipal budgets are separate. As a result, pretty much no-one in the entire town uses public schools and taxes are ultra-low: this matters more to buyers than renters, but, it will feed into rents that would be cheaper than otherwise for a similar town (again, assuming there is a decent rental market which I'm not sure of, make sure to check).
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