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I have no car so I'm looking for somewhere to live that's as self contained as possible. Ideally, I'm looking for:
A downtown area with a bit of everything - grocery stores, a cinema, a bar or two, miscellaneous shops, some nice restaurants.
A safe area
Train station nearby with no more than an hour commute into either Broad Street or Penn Station in Newark (I've tried buses...they're too unreliable!)
No more than $650/month rent in a shared house (I'm prepared to have to hunt for a long while to get that price!)
I have no idea where to start! I'm going to start visiting some of the towns on the NJTransit lines, but my time is limited so I'd appreciate it if people could narrow the list down for me a bit.
I may get crap for this suggestion, but you may want to check out New Brunswick. I'm not going to lie-parts of this city are terrible, but there are sections that I think are decent. You'll have to do your homework to find the safer side of town, but it has everything else you're looking for. Great restaurants, a supermarket, The State Theater, 2 great hospitals, college crowd (home of Rutgers), and the train is right there. Personally-I wouldn't want to live there, but I'm not looking for the same things you are. I went to college there, survived, and my car was never broken into
Thanks regarese. Decent areas within partly dodgy cities is not first choice, but would be OK. It's very difficult as an outsider to know that about a city. However, it would be important that I have a safe route from the train station to the house...work means I often return home after 9pm.
Check out my current town, Robbinsville (Washington Twp), in Mercer County. Many people here take the train in Trenton, Hamilton, or Princeton to Philly, Newark, or NYC. All 3 train stations are about 20 - 30 minutes away, and you would have an easy time finding someone to share a ride with. I can't say for sure how long the train ride would be. 75% of Robbinsville is contained in a enormous housing development called Foxmoor. Foxmoor currently has a shopping center with a grocery store, a few small restaurants (Italian, Chinese, and Friendly's), eye doctor, dollar store, kid's hair cut place, adult hair salon, karate studio, candy/ice cream store, coffee/donut/bagel shop, bridal boutique, bank, Eckerds...I think that is everything. Then there is a center within Foxmoor with a church and medical offices. They just built a huge Roma bank headquarters with professional offices on the edge of Foxmoor, and now they are building a huge "Town Center" attached to that. The town center is technically a separate development but it is attached to Foxmoor and they flow together. It will have several restaurants (I believe Outback Steakhouse will be one) plus many small stores, like Banana Republic, Gap, that sort of thing. It will have a park in the middle of the "Center" with a walking trail. It is supposed to be really nice and I believe it will be completed by spring at the very latest. They have also been building tons of houses and town homes. The older condos in Foxmoor rent for about $1200 - $1400 so I believe it would be reasonable to get one to share and then your rent would be around $650.
With all due respect, and the honest of answers, there is absolutely no place you can live in NJ or even rent for those kinds of places. I have very poor cleaning people who have moved from other countries and are very nice people, but even they are paying close to 2000 to live in a slum city and in a slum city. That is why I am moving out.. NJ is absolutely not a state where the middle class call make it, unless you are making at least $200K at a minimum.. It is a very sad state of affairs.
Nancy
pls let me know if I can offer any additional advice,
Let's not over-dramatize it, please- there's enough people here on the NJ board doing that already.
While I'll agree that the cost of living in NJ is high, it's not as bad as you make it sound. There are plenty of places that you can rent for far less than $2,000 that aren't in "slum cities", and last I checked, I was making far less than $200k/year and my family is doing just fine.
I will say that the OP's request for a rental for $650 in a place that's safe and in walking distance to transit, shopping, etc., may be a stretch, but you're taking things to the other extreme.
No one I know pays more than $1600 a month for an apartment, and none of them live in horrible areas. If willing to share, you can find places where your share of the rent will be well under $1000, utilities included. New Jersey is expensive but it's not as awful as many people make it out to be.
Your budget may be an issue, but some towns to look into are Metuchen, which has a nice downtown area, busses and train service. Also, Red Bank which is a wonderful place to live, great downtown, lots of things to do, but pricey. I agree that New Brunswick has what you're looking for but can be dicey.
Robbinsville is definitely beautiful, but you do need a car to get around. It has quite a rural feel to it.
Good luck to you. Not long ago I was looking for that same type of town-Red Bank was perfect for us, but the schools were an issue.
Random, I'm not sure about how much rent is, but Red Bank in Monmouth County is a self-contained city. It also has the train station in town. There are many shops, cinema, theatres, restaurants, and grocery stores. In the summer, there are many festivals, and the city is off the river, so there are boat races, too.
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