Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
...a house in upscale town such as Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, or Mountain Lakes? What's the minimum you recommend?
Now that we have a newborn baby, like many parents, we want the best education for our daughter. Been looking at places mentioned above because I've read members here saying they have very good public schools.
By the way, I grew up in Passaic, Passaic Park, Clifton, and am currently residing in Garfield.
Average house price in Franklin Lakes is about 1 mil. Mountain Lakes, maybe 800K. Glen Rock, maybe 650K.
Assuming, most people would recommend you spend no more than 3x household income on a house, you're looking at having to make about 250K to 350K per year to live comfortably in these towns.
Of course, we know that in most of NJ, buying a house for 3x annual income is nearly impossible. It's more like 5x-6x in the nicer towns.
Most towns have a wide price range so you can't really generalize. In West Orange you can buy a house for $150k or 5 million. It will depend on your income, savings, and expenses. In other words, nobody here is really going to be able to help. If you find a house you like, figure out what your monthly payment would be and go from there.
...a house in upscale town such as Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, or Mountain Lakes? What's the minimum you recommend?
Now that we have a newborn baby, like many parents, we want the best education for our daughter. Been looking at places mentioned above because I've read members here saying they have very good public schools.
By the way, I grew up in Passaic, Passaic Park, Clifton, and am currently residing in Garfield.
Raised in Morris County...
My parents were able to afford housing in that area and peak, they probably pulled in about 160K - 170K a year. Usually, they made less.
On top of that, they sent two kids to expensive colleges. How?
First off these are not exactly starter towns for your average person. The way you phrased your question seemed a bit naive. It's not about how much you need to make it's about how much you can afford to spend, what you are bringing to the table and what kind of home you want.
If you've got a nice size cash down payment and are also using equity from a current home plus don't have much debt and don't mind living in the smallest house in town and not wearing designer clothes you'd need a lot less income than someone whose a first time home owner is only putting 3% down, has a lot of debt or other financial obligations and has to "keep up with the Joneses".
Have you been to these towns OP? You are aware that you named some of the most affluent towns in the state? There's no magic number that will get you a ticket in it will differ for every body but I'd say it's beyond the early six figures.
Just for fun I did a quick search in Franklin Lakes right now there are 7 houses for sale under $500K, the cheapest one is listed at $225K, which I can almost garuntee you is a foreclosure or a short sale. The next one is a smalll 2 bedroom ranch built in the 50's for $399,900.
How much do YOU need to be able to afford the cheapest house in town?
We looked at a real nice little 3 bedroom ranch on a quiet road in Glen Rock for 385. That was a little while ago too, before things have gone down more. There are quite a number of houses under 400 in Ridgewood right now.
Taxes are a bit higher in these towns though. Figure maybe 7-10 for a cheap 3 br?
Back in 07 we also passed up a nice house in Glen rock for about 400. It backed to the train tracks though. But it has a very deep lot... higher taxes, around 9k
I wont make any assumptions about what you need to make to afford that but there are decent houses under 400k in very nice towns. Just go look yourself on www.njmls.com.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
