Bridgewater, Raritan Somerville area (homes, public school, taxes)

[NJfriend]

We are looking at homes in Somerville and Raritan, mostly for lower prices. We don't need to commute to the city, but may need to go in for work at some point and are happy with NJ's lack of home schooling requirements. We like a town with walkable sidewalks, friendly community, and decent schools in case we send children to public school. Besides any floodzones, does anyone have any information that we should know about that area. Specifically, why is it so much cheaper than the other towns? Why are the taxes so high in Somerville? Are there towns further away from the NYC that are even more affordable that also have the same things that we like?

[millerm277]

Bridgewater-Raritan HS is much better than Somerville HS, although Somerville isn't awful, BR is just quite good.

Other than that, just richer areas vs poorer ones. More minority population, somewhat less nice, etc. It's certainly not a bad area, just there are differences from a richer town.

As far as what you want, not really, at least in the Westward direction. There is cheaper and nice, but not walkable, more rural.