Help - New college graduate, working on Wall Street, looking for place in NJ to shorten commute and ideally buy a house (Newark: apartment, condos) - New Jersey - City-Data Forum

ThirdEchelon · 09-01-2012, 02:02 AM

Hello,

I am a 22 year old who just recently graduated from college. I have been offered a job on Wall Street and will start that job in September. I came to this forum to ask for advice regarding which place to live in NJ so that my commute to Wall Street (downtown Manhattan) will be shortened. I want to also be able to buy a house in that area within a year or so. I will give you more background about myself and would appreciate any and all help I could get. Thanks!

Currently, I am living near Metuchen with my parents. My commute to my job takes approximately an hour or an hour and 10 minutes. I take the NJ Transit to Penn and then take the #2 train downtown. This is too long of a commute for me because it eats up two hours of my time everyday. I am worried that once the crunch at my job starts, I will be working long hours and this commute will be a killer. (I am not in ibanking so no worries there.) Most of my coworkers all moved to NY and have decided to enjoy the nightlife and city life but I do not want to live in NY for several reasons. I grew up in NJ and love to live here. All of my family and friends are here and I enjoy spending time with them. NY is great to visit but not a great place to live for me. Most importantly, NY is a very expensive place to live.

In order to save money so I can pay off my student loans faster and also to help out my parents financially, I have decided to live at home and commute to work. Currently, we are living in an apartment and wish to purchase a home in NJ in such a location that the commute to Wall Street (I work literally right next to the New York Stock Exchange) would be approximately 30 minutes (perhaps 45 minutes but less is better in this case!). Of course, finances are an issue so listed below are my target price for a house:

Ideal House Type: Single family home with at least one garage (two would be ideal) - Preferably newly constructed or not older than 10 years
House Cost: $400K - $450K
School District: Not a concern for me because I am an only child and I do not plan on living here long enough to raise a family.
Crime: I want a low crime district. Metuchen/Edison is a safe place and I would prefer something like that. I have heard horror stories about Camden and Newark so I want to avoid areas like that.
Diversity: I am an open minded and very tolerant person so I do not care about the ethnicity of my neighbors but my parents would ideally like to live in a place where there is at least a small percentage of South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) However, this criteria is not of paramount importance.

I am currently earning $80K a year and my student loans are actually very low (YAY!!!). I plan to move within the next year and by then my loans will have been paid off and I am helping take care of my parents debt. My parents and I have saved up a decent amount of money and can make a down payment of about $30K to $50K. I just want to take advantage of these historically low mortgage rates and house prices.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance. If you can link me to other websites that can help with this, it would be appreciated.

qpoiz · 09-01-2012, 08:00 AM

I doubt $400K-$450K will get you a <10yr old house within 45min of the Financial District (in a livable town, that is). Right now you live in Metuchen, and if you read the forums, you'll find that it is a very desirable place to live for those that commute to the city; a 1hr 10min commute to work is NOTHING for someone your age.

I think it is a very wise decision (and a very noble one) to help your parents out and buy a house, however, I think you are aiming a little too high in terms of price and a little too low in terms of commute time.

I would suggest you continue your research and continue to save. If you're aiming for a 20% down payment for a conventional loan on a $450K home you are looking at having $90K for down payment. Then there is also your employment history, which right now hasn't even started.

Good Luck!

Mightyqueen801 · 09-01-2012, 08:04 AM

qpoiz is correct. Your commute time is unrealistic from most suburban towns. However, I do suggest you look at Rutherford for the shorter commute and houses in your price range. Also Lyndhurst. They are the last stops, except of course for Secaucus Transfer on their respective train lines, and the trains end up in Hoboken, so the last leg of your commute is an easy ten-minute PATH ride to WTC (or you can take a ferry--costs a little more).

tahiti · 09-01-2012, 08:10 AM

Your housing budget is out of whack with your earnings unless mom and dad are helping with monthly expenses. This isn't 2006.

sonofagunk · 09-01-2012, 09:35 AM

So right now your commute is 1:10 minutes and 40 minutes of this is the train ride. So for you to make your commute 30 minutes you would have to find a place were the train rides is about 0 minutes, right (you are not going to live on top of the train station and you will still have about the same commute when you get to the city)? It is called manhattan. Your friends that live there probably have a 30 minute commute.

captne76 · 09-01-2012, 12:21 PM

Wondering if taking the train to Newark Penn and then the PATH to WTC would affect the commute time any? Just for thoughts.

nj97 · 09-01-2012, 02:04 PM

for you to be 30 mins to downtown..you might need to live on the path line..so look at houses in Jersey city around journal square (walking distance), grove st, exchange place etc.. but house prices maybe more than 450 in the grove st area..
you might also look at Union City, North Bergen and those areas..but then your commute is more like 40 mins if you take the bus to port authority and take the subway downtown. you probably need to work with an agent for more ideas.

EBWick · 09-01-2012, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nj97

for you to be 30 mins to downtown..you might need to live on the path line..so look at houses in Jersey city around journal square (walking distance), grove st, exchange place etc.. but house prices maybe more than 450 in the grove st area..
you might also look at Union City, North Bergen and those areas..but then your commute is more like 40 mins if you take the bus to port authority and take the subway downtown. you probably need to work with an agent for more ideas.

JC has a large Indian IT population. Grove St. is a decent area to live. Lots of condos there and 20 minutes to NYC on the PATH.

paulig · 09-17-2012, 10:37 AM

Why not Secaucus? 20 minutes bus ride to Port Authority.

MiamiLIFE · 09-17-2012, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EBWick

JC has a large Indian IT population. Grove St. is a decent area to live. Lots of condos there and 20 minutes to NYC on the PATH.

I agree on JC. Great location in terms of access to city and specifically lower Manhattan. In addition, great access to the highways so getting out in NJ is no problem. JC not that cheap, but I realllly love it here. Highly recommend it, if you can swing it financially.