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I've been reading this forum for the past few weeks trying to piece together information for my house search. My girlfriend and I are going to be looking for a house in the next year or so, and we wanted to get some help on where to look. Below is a list of what we have going for us:
200k budget
I work in Basking Ridge, she works in Paramus. We'd like the commute to be about the same for both of us
No kids, not planning on having any for a while
Low taxes
We're just looking for a starter home, 2 bedroom condo / town house in good condition in a good neighborhood with a healthy nightlife (i.e. plenty of bars). Anyone have any recommendations for where we should be looking?
Take a look in at the condos in Hackensack. They will fit your budget.
I am not aware of any areas in NJ that have a healthy nightlife except for Hoboken and Montclair and they are both over your price range.
I've been reading this forum for the past few weeks trying to piece together information for my house search. My girlfriend and I are going to be looking for a house in the next year or so, and we wanted to get some help on where to look. Below is a list of what we have going for us:
200k budget
I work in Basking Ridge, she works in Paramus. We'd like the commute to be about the same for both of us
No kids, not planning on having any for a while
Low taxes
We're just looking for a starter home, 2 bedroom condo / town house in good condition in a good neighborhood with a healthy nightlife (i.e. plenty of bars). Anyone have any recommendations for where we should be looking?
I am afraid to tell you but with criteria such as this you are not going to find anything that give you all of your wants. There are not that many towns with a good nightlife, and the ones that do have one will be outside your housing budget and or tax constraints. Then add to that the desire to have something equidistant/equal time commute for both of your jobs....it just does not exist. There are places that do fit most of your needs and come close to the other desires.
If you want lower taxes you are looking at Morris County (forget anything in Essex). In order to equalize your commutes as much as possible you'd have to stick to the most eastern edges of the county. Finding a 2 bd for <200K is going to be rough, however upping your budget a bit to ~250 and you can find a few.
I did a quick search and found a couple of places on the market in Morristown, one for just over your budget and one within your limit, but both were in the heart of the hollow, which is def. not a good neighborhood, and safety is an issue. Morristown does have great nightlife, a wonderful walkable downtown with shopping, entertainment, and restaurants, so it meets your desires there. The commute would be lopsided as Morristown to Basking Ridge would be easy, but the commute to Paramus would be ~1 hr. Perhaps looking at towns nearby Morristown might be your best bet. (Florham Park, Morris Plains, etc) You'd be 5 - 10 minutes from all Morristown has to offer, but may find something in your price range in a nice neighborhood, and a safe area.
West Caldwell or Caldwell are places to consider. Not a busy nightlife scene but there is some. The work commutes would be fairly equal for both of you, and you should be able to find a nice place for ~200K to 250K but as the towns are in Essex County your taxes will be high.
West Orange is also a possibility, but then there are some safety issues. Taxes will also be an issue, and you'd have to deal with the nightmare that commuting on 280 entails.
Basically it comes to the old, "you can't get everything you want, where you want, for the price you want"....something is going to have to give a bit....
Yeah you're going to be hard-pressed for $200K...I had bought 3 yrs ago a short sale 2BR, 2BA condo for $225K in Union City in Hudson County. Our budget was under $300K that we wanted to spend but this place fit our location perfectly. Its not top of the charts safe where we are in UC but its nowhere being unsafe like Camden or Newark.
Point being is you're likely going to have to revise your criteria and see where you can budge somewhat.
1. Budget is too low
2. Any place you actually could find for that range is probably not going to fit your expectations, will be in crappy area, and will likely to require renovation/update
3. If you are buying a real estate together, have a lawyer draw up a contract and sign that before you buy one. Contract is to stipulate how it will be paid, how to pool money to maintain, what to do in case of separation, how to split the sale of proceeds, etc. Just as if you were buying an apartment with say a stranger. Otherwise you could get burned very badly. Buddy of mine bought a house with gf and she got a new job in another state, wanted to sell. He didn't and because they didn't have anything, even verbal agreement. It went to court and it sucked hard for both of em.
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