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We are a young family with a 3 yr old and looking into moving to a safe, family friendly neighborhood in NJ; North/Central. Budget is about 350,000 for a single family home. We love to walk so preferebly with lots of shopping, cafes, parks, daycare, great schools, close to trains or public transportation near the area. We love the Hoboken or downtown JC vibe but don't like the vehicle traffic, poor parking and school ratings. Can anyone please recommend a good city that fits our needs? Thank you very much.
Please consider Cranford. You will find everything you are looking for here.
Not only is the whole town walkable with sidewalks on every street, it is a beautiful town with many small lovely houses and stately mansions. Cranford has a charming downtown with many restaurants (asian, cuban, french, italian, american), gift shops, ice cream places, a canoe club, the list goes on... We have a train station, a variety of parks, top notch schools including the High School, and a safe environment with great neighbors. Not a lot of traffic either.
There are also two public swimming pools with kiddie pools, swim classes and playgrounds. A community center with an open gym and many classes for the young/adults. You will find many preschools in town and in Westfield next door (Westfield has a Y as well). And to top all that, there are lots of houses in your price range on the market. Be sure you look to buy away from the river which can flood during extreme situations like a hurricane. Many houses for sale are outside of the flood zone. Most people have lived here for generations, but there are many new families moving in all the time, so it is very easy to meet new people! We love Cranford.
We are a young family with a 3 yr old and looking into moving to a safe, family friendly neighborhood in NJ; North/Central. Budget is about 350,000 for a single family home. We love to walk so preferebly with lots of shopping, cafes, parks, daycare, great schools, close to trains or public transportation near the area. We love the Hoboken or downtown JC vibe but don't like the vehicle traffic, poor parking and school ratings. Can anyone please recommend a good city that fits our needs? Thank you very much.
My first thought would be to look at Morristown, it meets all of your criteria.
We are a young family with a 3 yr old and looking into moving to a safe, family friendly neighborhood in NJ; North/Central. Budget is about 350,000 for a single family home. We love to walk so preferebly with lots of shopping, cafes, parks, daycare, great schools, close to trains or public transportation near the area. We love the Hoboken or downtown JC vibe but don't like the vehicle traffic, poor parking and school ratings. Can anyone please recommend a good city that fits our needs? Thank you very much.
cranford is not an option because of few options in your budget, and like koala said, flooding. morristown could be an option, it has everything you mentioned, but there are very few options in your budget. verona is an idea, there are some options in your budget, there are buses on bloomfield avenue, and the willowbrook and livingston malls are close. schools are good too. west caldwell is also an option.
350k isn't going to get you much in Cranford, unless you look into flood zone houses.
The OP did not mention that they wanted to get a lot of house for the money. Hence, Cranford fit the bill. There are always a few houses for sale in Cranford in the 350K, and less, range that are outside of the flood zone. Just stay away from the red area:
cranford is not an option because of few options in your budget, and like koala said, flooding. morristown could be an option, it has everything you mentioned, but there are very few options in your budget. verona is an idea, there are some options in your budget, there are buses on bloomfield avenue, and the willowbrook and livingston malls are close. schools are good too. west caldwell is also an option.
Verona does provide you with an urban feel, plenty of shops, etc, but there are very few SFH under 350k and those that are within the budget are quite small. You also would need to take into consideration the sky high taxes in Essex Co, which will likely decrease the max purchase price for the OP to less than 350k. Schools in Verona are meh...not bad, but certainly not as the OP mentioned, "great". Their median SAT scores are only slightly above the state average, and only 85% of their HS graduates passed as competent or better on HSPA exams. The number of students taking AP classes are fairly low, and of those who do take them, only 74% pass the AP test.
West Caldwell has the downtown, and the schools though slightly better performing than Verona, do not rise to "great". (ave SAT scores are 1594, state ave is 1550, 86.5% of graduates pass HSPA, the HS offers more AP courses than Verona, and 89.68 of those who take the AP tests pass.) Again though, you'd be facing the sky high Bergen Co taxes, which will impact the budget.
The OP did not mention that they wanted to get a lot of house for the money. Hence, Cranford fit the bill. There are always a few houses for sale in Cranford in the 350K, and less, range that are outside of the flood zone. Just stay away from the red area:
Of course there are a few houses in that price range, but I bet those are either very small houses or need a lot of TLC (or both). OP should take a look as Cranford is a great town and decide for himself, but the choices are very limited for that budget.
what you are looking for is not possible without some compromises. I would strongly consider Highland Park NJ. It has a small downtown, its right across the river from New Brunswicks vibrant downtown, and depending on what side of town you live on easily accessible to either the Edison or New brunswicks njtransit stations. This is the NEC line, NJTransits best. The schools are good as well. We looked there, but couldn't find something we liked in our timeframe.
Now, may I also suggest North brunswick. 10-15 min from downtown New Brunswick. 20 min to downtown Princeton. 5 min from downtown Milltown NJ. A NJTransit station is being built IN TOWN. A transit village is coming. The land is cleared, the Costco is already going up. Check out more info here....
Call me a homer if you like, but I see property values increasing here when that station is done in 4-5 years. An opportunity to get in early for some appreciation in the short term.
Good luck with your search.
Last edited by TonyStarksNJ; 08-31-2013 at 08:28 AM..
TonystarksNj this has me intrigued... how would yoy rate NB schools? I'm def interested in that area. Do you think the new train will alleviate some traffic down there? I always get nervous about the congestion in middlesex county.
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