Possibly moving to Berkeley Heights, NJ from NH (Livingston, New Providence: insurance, how much)

[shree_lk]

Any and all comments/suggestions/tips are much appreciated - we are a family of three with the youngest going to elementary school and will start middle school in a year. any suggestions on towns that are pet and kid friendly of course it has to be affordable and short commute to Berkeley Heights, NJ
any insight into the cost of living housing - rental/own are much appreciated; taxes; insurance

Thanks

[JerseyGirl415]

Hi, you need to answer questions from this thread: Questions For Future and Potential Residents which gives us some very useful information, like your budget, so we can determine what towns would work best for you and your family. Without info found on that linked thread, we really can't help much other than offer the basics.

[samanthayakobchuk]

I agree. Answering those questions would really help. "Affordable" has a different meaning to each person.
I take it that a job is taking you to Berkeley Heights? It's a beautiful area (I lived there when I first got married) and has great schools and generally large lot sizes. Home prices generally start in the $400k range and go way up. I don't know what taxes are like in NH, but you may have "sticker shock" here in this area. They're not too high compared to neighboring towns, but since lot sizes are generally a little larger than other towns in the county, they're a bit up there.
Frankly, all neighboring towns are also very nice -- Warren, Watchung, Long Hill, New Providence, Mountainside, Chatham -- but for more affordability, I would go slightly west. Warren, Bernardsville, and Basking Ridge all have great schools and are great towns to raise families, and taxes are generally lower. They're all within 15-20 minutes (at the high end) from Berkeley Heights.

[shree_lk]

Thank you much ! i will try to answet the questions in the link

[designer_genes]

I was born and raised in Berkeley Heights and only just left home for good to move to Baltimore for graduate school. So from the perspective as someone who was raised in that town, it is an amazing place to live. A very good town to raise a family in. Governor Livingston is a great high school and I got a quality education.

However, now that I have lived in Baltimore (a very different place from BH) for a year now, I can provide some perspective on some things that I am only realizing now that my childhood lacked. The principle thing being diversity. I was exposed to none of it. If diversity doesn't matter to you, then that's fine. But, moving to Baltimore was a huge culture shock for me because of the upbringing I had.

Related to that, pretty much everyone I went to high school with was spoiled as anything. I was one of the only liberally-minded people at that high school and it seemed like all most kids were concerned about was what color Audi their parents were getting them for their birthday or how drunk they were going to get that weekend. Because of that, GL was frustrating. Everyone had everything handed to them on a silver platter.

So, in the end, when I think about the place that I grew up, I am very torn between feeling so lucky that I lived in such a nice town with almost zero crime, I wanted for nothing, and that I got a great education at a top notch school. But, I also feel like I was extremely sheltered and the move to Baltimore has made me see just how much.