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.
Yes doesn't sounds like it will work for us. We have a big RV that would probably get broken into often. Not interested in sending my little guy to private school. It's just too much money. Now looking at Watchung....
Some background first; wife and I (and a baby, and a dog) recently moved in to New Jersey (about 5 months ago) from Lansdale, PA (35 miles from Philadelphia)
We're now looking into buying a house sometime in the first quarter of 2014.
Now, I've been looking a lot online and have several options, and Plainfield certainly is one of them, the houses are just too beautiful (waaaaaaay too beautiful) and with a great price. (for obvious reasons of course)
Now, in reality how dangerous is it? (if people that actually live or lived in Plainfield could chime in, that would be great)
Looking at a website with crime stats and maps, Plainfield has a 13/100 security level. Morristown (township) is 25/100. Being that Morristown (township) is like 4 times the size of Plainfield, in comparison Plainfield isn't that bad.
Actually, downtown Morristown is the worst of the whole township, but for the month I lived there it was pretty tranquil, we actually fell in love with the town, could walk our kid and dog at nights without any issues. Yes there are some depressed areas right around the green, but is no wild west.
Is Plainfield like this? I mean, as long as you know what areas to avoid at 2 am, and if you live in the nice part of the town, what's the problem?
Now, besides crime (it's concentrated in an area, not rampant everywhere) the other issue are schools.
Schools indeed are terrible, which brings me to another question. How are public schools assigned?
I ask this because, looking at Plainfield properties in Zillow, it shows that the assigned school to a certain house is actually located 6 miles away in Stirling instead of the public school a few blocks away in downtown Plainfield.
Is this accurate? or is it just the website tricking people? Can you be assigned to a better school in another township?
Some background first; wife and I (and a baby, and a dog) recently moved in to New Jersey (about 5 months ago) from Lansdale, PA (35 miles from Philadelphia)
We're now looking into buying a house sometime in the first quarter of 2014.
Now, I've been looking a lot online and have several options, and Plainfield certainly is one of them, the houses are just too beautiful (waaaaaaay too beautiful) and with a great price. (for obvious reasons of course)
Now, in reality how dangerous is it? (if people that actually live or lived in Plainfield could chime in, that would be great)
Looking at a website with crime stats and maps, Plainfield has a 13/100 security level. Morristown (township) is 25/100. Being that Morristown (township) is like 4 times the size of Plainfield, in comparison Plainfield isn't that bad.
Actually, downtown Morristown is the worst of the whole township, but for the month I lived there it was pretty tranquil, we actually fell in love with the town, could walk our kid and dog at nights without any issues. Yes there are some depressed areas right around the green, but is no wild west.
Is Plainfield like this? I mean, as long as you know what areas to avoid at 2 am, and if you live in the nice part of the town, what's the problem?
Now, besides crime (it's concentrated in an area, not rampant everywhere) the other issue are schools.
Schools indeed are terrible, which brings me to another question. How are public schools assigned?
I ask this because, looking at Plainfield properties in Zillow, it shows that the assigned school to a certain house is actually located 6 miles away in Stirling instead of the public school a few blocks away in downtown Plainfield.
Is this accurate? or is it just the website tricking people? Can you be assigned to a better school in another township?
Thanks.
For those of you who haven't got the answer they are looking for my suggestion is simple. Just keep asking until you get the one you're looking for.
I was just speaking with a friend of a friend who lives there. Plainfield the town is actually quite expansive with golf courses and large residential areas, big old stately houses like you might find in Upper Montclair, etc. Then there are the more populated sections near the railroad tracks. You should be fine driving through either part of town any time of day or night. Walking through the parts down by the tracks could get iffy.
You'd have to figure out the school system stuff but otherwise its an older residential town, by older residential I mean if you look at maps from the 1700's 1800's etc you see it was a commuter train town to Newark & NY back then too.
So what I'm saying is it has good parts and some iffier sections. Some of the good parts are quite nice, big mansions with gardens and backyard waterfalls, ponds, etc. You'd be surprised.
Now, I've been looking a lot online and have several options, and Plainfield certainly is one of them, the houses are just too beautiful (waaaaaaay too beautiful) and with a great price. (for obvious reasons of course)
Worth reminding you that the taxes are very high, which is part of why the prices are so low. Other issues discussed below:
Quote:
Looking at a website with crime stats and maps, Plainfield has a 13/100 security level. Morristown (township) is 25/100. Being that Morristown (township) is like 4 times the size of Plainfield, in comparison Plainfield isn't that bad.
Actually, downtown Morristown is the worst of the whole township, but for the month I lived there it was pretty tranquil, we actually fell in love with the town, could walk our kid and dog at nights without any issues. Yes there are some depressed areas right around the green, but is no wild west.
Is Plainfield like this? I mean, as long as you know what areas to avoid at 2 am, and if you live in the nice part of the town, what's the problem?
No, much of Plainfield is unsafe, and much of it you will find actively unpleasant to be in during the day, especially if you are not a minority. Sleepy Hollow is okay, but I still wouldn't be walking around at night.
More importantly,whatever site you looked at is very, very wrong. Plainfield and Morristown are not in the same league at all for crime. It's a little pocket of concentrated poverty and crime in an otherwise largely nice part of the state. It has large problems with drugs, violent crime, gangs, etc. Look at the actual crime statistics to give yourself a clearer picture: //www.city-data.com/crime/crime...ew-Jersey.html//www.city-data.com/city/Morris...ew-Jersey.html (Ctrl + F "crime" on the morristown page to find it).
Quote:
Schools indeed are terrible, which brings me to another question. How are public schools assigned?
I ask this because, looking at Plainfield properties in Zillow, it shows that the assigned school to a certain house is actually located 6 miles away in Stirling instead of the public school a few blocks away in downtown Plainfield.
Is this accurate? or is it just the website tricking people? Can you be assigned to a better school in another township?
The site is completely tricking people if that is the case. Plainfield kids go to Plainfield schools, only. IIRC Plainfield does have a charter school or two which appear to be somewhat better than the general schools, I have no idea what the eligibility is for that. That is still a part of Plainfield schools though.
My only other guess is that their records are based on where the kid living in that house actually goes to school. It is possible that they pay tuition to another public school district or have some other connection to have their kid enrolled there such as a parent that teaches at the school. The other possibility would be divorced parents with one living in Plainfield and the other up in Stirling, I could easily see things getting confused in the records Zillow aggregates to produce their results.
To be more blunt, I'm pretty sure anyone thinking of allowing Plainfield students to go to school in Stirling, would be run out of Stirling with an angry mob behind them.
If you have kids, I wouldn't move there, considering the tuition costs you'll be paying for a decent school (either public elsewhere or private), you might as well just buy a house in a better town. If you don't have kids, live in the nicest sections near the border with better towns, and think the tax numbers still work out, maybe.
Jedisalf, if your family enjoyed Motown, why not move there and look for houses there? The taxes are lower and the schools are fine. House prices are higher though.
Jedisalf, if your family enjoyed Motown, why not move there and look for houses there? The taxes are lower and the schools are fine. House prices are higher though.
Morristown is one of the places we would like to live.
As you mentioned prices are higher, but we do have some options in that area.
The main thing driving our house search (besides schools and overall area) is that we're actually looking for an old house, by old I mean late 1800's early 1900's, with historic architectural features.
That's why I asked about Plainfield, the old house stock (in good conditions) is amazing, plus with a great price.
Last edited by jedisalf; 09-30-2013 at 08:47 AM..
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.
