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These 3 suburbs have similar commutes into Manhattan and seem to have comparable, good high schools. New Providence in particular seems to have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the NJ Monthly High School rankings over the past 2 ranking cycles. I noticed that it is also the only one that has seen robust population growth in the current census as well as the last one, while Madison and Berkeley Heights have seen modest declines. Can anyone lay out the pros and cons of each and how they see the future of these towns? The one thing that concerns me is the shockingly high property tax rates (as a percent of home values). The schools are good, but not thaat good! I hope it is not an indication of shoddy local government that has padded teacher and police salaries and pensions.
what do you mean the school is not that good? The property tax rate for subject towns is quite normal in NJ, especially in good school district. As far as I remeber, 60%+ of your tax goes to schools. I was living in Jersey City before and I was paying close to 6000 tax on a 2 bedroom condo with crappy school district which I don't even dare to use.
The towns you mentioned are all nice. They used to have lots of old people, but now I start to see quite a few young families moving in due to good school system. My realtor did mention that NP is viewed as an alternative town when people cannot find something they can afford in Summit. However, NP is getting pricy as well. We settled in BH because we love more space and tax is a little bit lower than NP.
what do you mean the school is not that good? The property tax rate for subject towns is quite normal in NJ, especially in good school district. As far as I remeber, 60%+ of your tax goes to schools. I was living in Jersey City before and I was paying close to 6000 tax on a 2 bedroom condo with crappy school district which I don't even dare to use.
The towns you mentioned are all nice. They used to have lots of old people, but now I start to see quite a few young families moving in due to good school system. My realtor did mention that NP is viewed as an alternative town when people cannot find something they can afford in Summit. However, NP is getting pricy as well. We settled in BH because we love more space and tax is a little bit lower than NP.
By "not that good" I mean that the SAT scores (and the colleges into which students matriculate probably) are not as good as Short Hills, Tenafly and the Princeton area high schools, or even Ridgewood high school. By high tax rate, I mean it is significantly more as a percentage of home value compared to the 2-2.25% rate you see fo Short Hills and Summit.
I don't take SAT so I don't know how good is good. I know that SAT is only an index number. What I care more is the postive competition environment. I want a school district that has good education resource, but not too much stress on academy only. The "better" schools districts you mentioned above are way more expensive than subject towns and tax is higher, too. The tax rate in Summit is 3.5%, not something between 2 to 2.25%.
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