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Looking to relocate from North Jersey and have narrowed our search down to Little Silver and Fair Haven.
I have been to the elementary school at Little Silver and love the community feel.
I have appointments to see the elementary school at Fair Haven soon.
Can anyone tell me if there is any advantages between the communities as far as family activities, how well the towns are run,etc? Are the communities supportive of the schools and pass school budgets?
Also, can anyone tell me the positives and negatives of both HS? Are there areas that I need to avoid (flood zones,etc) in either town? If so, I am very interested in knowing where would be the better areas to focus our home search.
Thanks in advance!
I can't answer all your questions. I live in the area, but moved down here after my daughter graduated from high school.
However, I have an acquaintance who works for the Little Silver school system (not a teacher). She says the schools are very good and it's very community-and-family oriented.
We moved to Little Silver 14 years ago, when our first two children (twins) were 1 (my kids are now at Markham Place School and RBRHS. The year before we moved, my brother and his family moved to Fair Haven. His children went through the public schools there and are now all in college). I am so happy we chose to live and raise our children in Little Silver. The public schools have been phenomenal. I love the small town community feel here. The same can be said of Fair Haven which may even have a more cozy small town feel. Here are a few reasons why I am glad we chose LS over FH (FH knowledge and experiences have come from my brother's family, our interactions with our own friend's living in FH and through school and recreaction sports)
1. FH seems to be too small town - it seems like everyone knows everyone else's business. Where as LS has the type of small town feeling where you know everyone but people don't get in your business.
2. Although LS's sporting fields are not anything to brag about, FH's are almost always in worse shape. The recreation programs for both towns seem similar.
3. I appreciate our public HS's socio-economic and cultural diversity. While RFH is also a fantastic school, the absurd amount of wealth many students have can be daunting to others. And (based only on personal knowledge) RFH has a greater issue with drug use among its students).
4. I think that the LS police are much more vigilant and tough (you can decide if you like that or not). Both towns' Fire Departments are very active socially but FH does have the annual Fireman's Fair!!!
5. Both towns have crappy supermarkets, but LS has 3 pharmacies and and 2 ice cream shops, FH has none.
As a result of SANDY, I think only one home is FH was destroyed. Most of FH sits on higher ground on the Navesink. While here in LS, probably 50-100 homes were flooded (mine incuded). But after living here 15 years and having neighbors who have lived in LS for 70+ and never seen anything even close to the flood waters of SANDY, I do not fear anything like this happening again. We are not going anywhere.
When you drive through LS you will clearly be able to tell which areas were flooded, mostly the Little Silver Point Road/Winding Way neighborhood, because there are a lot of new homes being built.
Depending on your budget, FH probably has more 'affordable' homes but both towns have plenty of homes at the very high end of the price spectrum (relatively speaking). FH has more 'pretty' older homes. It seems like so much of LS was built during the ugly 60's (but that is changing quickly as builders buy the old ugly ranches and build shore colonials. Drive around to the north and south of Point Road School and you'll see what I mean, especially "Kelly-ville", the area of Westwood, Winding Way and Lippingcot Roads.
Good luck. I hope this helped. And I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have
McSmith,
Thank you so much for your reply! This is exactly the type of info I was hoping for.
Since I have first posted, I have been down to both Little Silver and Fair Haven and visited both high schools.
While RFH high school is undeniably a wonderful school with a strong academic focus, for our children it is not the best fit.
We love the family , close knit community that Little Silver offers and have decided that we are going to focus our efforts there.
I greatly appreciate the info re: flooding on Little Silver Point Road. We are seriously considering a home there. Do you know if there was flooding by the Parker Ave stretch?? It looks like at that end you are a little further from the Silver Springs creek, although you can still see some of the high grass in that area. Was wondering if there was a lot of mosquito/biting fly activity in the summer in that area as well?
Are there certain neighborhoods that are more desirable than others?
Also, silly question but do you know if most homes there are without basements? Seems like most of the homes we have seen are without basements. Just wondering if it's just that the inventory is low now (may be better to wait a few months to see) or if that is just the way it is.
I really appreciate your help as we are very excited about moving to the area
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