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Hi everyone – I’m a longtime NYC resident who briefly moved to the Philly burbs and I am now coming back for work. I'm a mid-40s professional and single parent of two young kids (ages 6 and 3) who are with me full time. Trying to figure out the best options for towns – have been getting great info from these forums and have answered the sticky questions below.
Where are you coming from? NYC by way of a brief detour in Philly
Why are you moving? Work
Where will you be working? NYC midtown west (50th/8th Ave).
Will you buy or rent? Buy.
What is your budget? $500-$600k if possible and hoping to go no higher than $625k, also hoping taxes are not higher than $12k and the lower the better!
What kind of place are you looking for? House w/3-4 bedrooms, modest yard, easy access to train station.
Will anyone be moving with you? Yes, my two kids ages 6 and 3.
Do you need/want good public schools? Yes, including high school - I want to buy and put down roots and stay put, so the schools need to be good all the way through.
Briefly describe the kind of neighborhood you'd like to live in: Friendly, welcoming, relatively down-to-earth (even if residents are upper middle class, lol) - I am hoping to build a community for myself and my kids and make new friends.
List three things that are important to you in order of importance:
1. Good to great public schools but would prefer them not to be super competitive pressure cookers (mutually exclusive??)
2. Reasonable commute to minimize time away from kids (prefer direct to Penn Sta and ~45 min on train)
3. Easy access to stores for errands (groceries, etc) - a good downtown would be nice but may be asking too much w/my other criteria.
I've been considering what seem to be the usual suspects but want to make sure I'm not missing other options: Summit (direct train but keep reading it’s “snobbish”?); Westfield, Cranford, Ridgewood (but with all of these I'm concerned that no direct train will lead to more chances of delays/running late). I have mostly ruled out Montclair/Maplewood due to not being comfortable with the high schools. Am I missing other towns? Thanks!
You could go a little further out to Madison (train might be 10 minutes longer than your target), but it's got very good schools, nice downtown, easy train access and you'll get a little more house for your money than some of the other towns you mentioned.
Not anymore in Madison. Home prices seem to have sky rocketed and those that are in that price range go FAST. Anything decent is selling quickly and usually over asking (at least the homes we have been looking at).
As duc says you will get less house for your money in Madison than in Cranford, and even than in Westfield imo. Montclair and Maplewood are good school systems, not sure what the issue is there, they seem like good fits.
Hi everyone – I’m a longtime NYC resident who briefly moved to the Philly burbs and I am now coming back for work. I'm a mid-40s professional and single parent of two young kids (ages 6 and 3) who are with me full time. Trying to figure out the best options for towns – have been getting great info from these forums and have answered the sticky questions below.
Where are you coming from? NYC by way of a brief detour in Philly
Why are you moving? Work
Where will you be working? NYC midtown west (50th/8th Ave).
Will you buy or rent? Buy.
What is your budget? $500-$600k if possible and hoping to go no higher than $625k, also hoping taxes are not higher than $12k and the lower the better!
What kind of place are you looking for? House w/3-4 bedrooms, modest yard, easy access to train station.
Will anyone be moving with you? Yes, my two kids ages 6 and 3.
Do you need/want good public schools? Yes, including high school - I want to buy and put down roots and stay put, so the schools need to be good all the way through.
Briefly describe the kind of neighborhood you'd like to live in: Friendly, welcoming, relatively down-to-earth (even if residents are upper middle class, lol) - I am hoping to build a community for myself and my kids and make new friends.
List three things that are important to you in order of importance:
1. Good to great public schools but would prefer them not to be super competitive pressure cookers (mutually exclusive??)
2. Reasonable commute to minimize time away from kids (prefer direct to Penn Sta and ~45 min on train)
3. Easy access to stores for errands (groceries, etc) - a good downtown would be nice but may be asking too much w/my other criteria.
I've been considering what seem to be the usual suspects but want to make sure I'm not missing other options: Summit (direct train but keep reading it’s “snobbish”?); Westfield, Cranford, Ridgewood (but with all of these I'm concerned that no direct train will lead to more chances of delays/running late). I have mostly ruled out Montclair/Maplewood due to not being comfortable with the high schools. Am I missing other towns? Thanks!
I agree with you about Summit's schools being quite competitive in nature. Yes the schools are top tier, but the word I get from parents in the district is that the HS and middle school tends to be a bit competitive. Some students thrive in this atmosphere, while others wilt. I did find it interesting speaking with a woman who teaches at Summit HS, she complains that for her the competitiveness is more amongst the parents, not the individual students, and she is sick of parents calling her asking her why little johnny only got a "B" on the last assignment, because certainly it was worth an "A". I do not know this woman well, and it could well be I was speaking to her on a bad day, so I would not make any conclusions based on this one conversation.
If you are considering Cranford, please, please, make sure the home is not located within the rather large flood zone. Cranford has a sizable area that frequently floods. Any home in the flood zone requires flood insurance which is quite costly. To get an idea of the extent of flooding check on youtube for "Cranford, NJ" & "flooding" Also check out the FEMA flood maps, although they are currently being adjusted, it will at least give you and idea of areas to avoid. http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/program...dixi_union.pdf Google "flooding, Cranford, NJ" to get an idea of the frequency of flooding. The good news is that Cranford is a wonderful town with good schools, one just has to be careful and do their due diligence in research. You'll also be pushing pretty close your desired limit on taxes.
Like you I'd cross of Montclair and Maplewood. Mostly because of issues with the schools and tax rates. In Montclair and Maplewood the taxes are exceptionally high. The taxes on a 500k home will be in the 15 to 16K range. From what I am hearing the schools in Maplewood are trending downward. The elementary schools are OK, but you start running into issues in Middle and HS. Montclair seems to be having a hard time with their schools as well. They once were award winning, (back in the 80's) and rated amongst the very best HS's in the state, now they are ranked 99th out of 328 in the state on NJ Monthly rankings. I definitely would not call it bad, more "Meh" I also find there whole district to be set up rather oddly. All of their elementary and middle schools are what they call magnet schools with specialties. (One elem for environmental science, one Montessori, one global studies, one university tract, one science and technology, two "gifted and talented") The three middle schools are categorized as Visual and Performing Arts, Liberal Arts, and University STEM. Which then all funnel to one HS. I personally have ambivalent feelings about the system - how can a parent tell if their 4 yr old will be interested in/have an aptitude for a specific/focused education? Lately there seems to be a war going on about the schools/new superintendent and the parents. An unlikely clash between a superintendent and a community
It certainly seems that there is unrest over the schools, and one worries how it will play out. Will the new Superintendent stay on, or will she be forced out, and then who will they find as a replacement? Who will serve as acting Superintendent while the formal search is undertaken. All this turmoil does not bode well for a stable learning environment.
I'd recommend adding Madison to your short list. The midtown direct train to NYC Penn takes 53 minutes. Wonderful safe community with a walkable downtown, filled with restaurants, shopping as well as entertainment venues. Plenty of parks. Wonderful small town Mayberry RFD vibe, a real sense of community. A truly great place to put down roots and raise a family. The schools are top notch, some of the very best in the nation. Don't just take my word on that, look here: Madison High School in MADISON, NJ | Best High Schools | US News and https://app.box.com/s/7c300516930c32f71a8e Please also check earlier threads on this forum regarding more details on Madison)
I'd also recommend looking into New Providence. It is located a few stops east of Madison on the Morris Essex midtown direct train line, so the commute will be shorter (47-50 min) and the schools are top tier. The one downside is that there is no real downtown area, though you are certainly close enough to Summit, Madison, Springfield, and Millburn and their downtown areas. Millburn is also one to look into, though there may not be a large number of homes on the market in your price range, still worth looking at and considering. Berkeley Hts is also a contender. The schools are good, and you'll likely get more house for your dollar than in other towns.
Montclair and Maplewood taxes are insane. I mean really nuts. We were considering those towns too but a house that's like 600k has taxes that are like 25k. I'm just guestimating right now but that's kinda what we have noticed. Madison taxes seem reasonable - but the town is tiny thus very limited inventory.
One of my husband's old coworkers said her house sold within a day. Sigh. I think we might just keep living where we are.
Cranford/Westfield, take the bus instead of train, then you can walk to office from Port Authority. Door-to-Door will be approx 1.25 - 1.5 hours (I do this commute daily)
Praxix. Are you concerned that the time for the buses will increase with the traffic that will be caused by the Pulaski closing down on side? I'm curious b/c we were considering mountainside but worried about the bus commute.
Praxix. Are you concerned that the time for the buses will increase with the traffic that will be caused by the Pulaski closing down on side? I'm curious b/c we were considering mountainside but worried about the bus commute.
Pulaski? Sorry I am not familiar. Bus is dependent on traffic, but even at very heavy traffic, it would typically take another 15-20 minutes. Sure, it is not ideal but you are just sitting there, so relax, read a book or take a nap.
NJ Transit train can have delays too, and it is not uncommon as I have experienced it many times at various time of the day.
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