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Totally off the OP, but my husband has noticed within his company people are very pro their boro and quickly dismiss or have negative comments about other boros. i.e. We were looking at a home in a particular boro and a coworker said "hope you are prepared to buy your kids all the top line stuff and name brand clothes, if not she'll be exiled at school." Going on to call it "snobby" then another coworker said only blue collar people live in ---------boro. Then they all exclaim how they'd never live anywhere but there current boro. I guess being from the south we don't have a boros and neighboring towns we don't really look one way or another about. Is this normal or is this just office hijinks? In reading some of the other threads I noticed similar patterns just curious.
Last edited by christinlilly; 04-24-2014 at 10:06 AM..
Reason: Spelling
That stinks, but then again we haven't settled on a house yet, but noticed Wayne taxes were HIGH!
1.) taxes are high, but home prices are much lower so it's kind of a wash when it comes to monthly payment. It's one of the few towns in NNJ with good schools that you can get a 2500sqft colonial for under $600K.
2.) Wayne is enormous. It is the geographic size of Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff combined.
3.) there is a massive range of affluence of people in Wayne from the ultra rich to the ultra Blue Collar
4.) Wayne does not have the panache of a Franklin Lakes or Wyckoff, personally I don't feel like Oakland has much in the way of panache either.
5.) What Wayne does have is excellent schools, amazing parks and rec areas( in additon to the pool there are 3 lakes, 2 natural private for residents of certain communities, and 1 man made open to the public(residents). As well as about 18 public parks/playgrounds/dog runs/sports fields and a massive indoor ice skating facility
6.) I commute to NYC and this is the biggest drawback of the town. The train is infrequent, indirect and inefficient. The bus is the bus and is not great. So my commute consists of driving 20 minutes to a neighboring train station and then taking a train the rest of the way. So commuting door to door is over an hour(like an 1:15 minutes and my office is literally next to Penn station)
7.) There is an area in Wayne that floods(not often but when it does it can last for several days), the area is very small in comparison to the size of the town.
Good luck with your search!
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 04-24-2014 at 11:02 AM..
1.) taxes are high, but home prices are much lower so it's kind of a wash when it comes to monthly payment. It's one of the few towns in NNJ with good schools that you can get a 2500sqft colonial for under $600K.
2.) Wayne is enormous. It is the geographic size of Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff combined.
3.) there is a massive range of affluence of people in Wayne from the ultra rich to the ultra Blue Collar
4.) Wayne does not have the panache of a Franklin Lakes or Wyckoff, personally I don't feel like Oakland has much in the way of panache either.
5.) What Wayne does have is excellent schools, amazing parks and rec areas( in additon to the pool there are 3 lakes, 2 natural private for residents of certain communities, and 1 man made open to the public(residents).
6.) I commute to NYC and this is the biggest drawback of the town. The train is infrequent, indirect and inefficient. The bus is the bus and is not great. So my commute consists of driving 20 minutes to a neighboring train station and then taking a train the rest of the way. So commuting door to door is over an hour(like an 1:15 minutes and my office is literally next to Penn station)
7.) There is an area in Wayne that floods(not often but when it does it can last for several days), the area is very small in comparison to the size of the town.
Thanks. My husband's coworkers have been so persnickety about their particular areas of residence that is been hard to get a good perspective on other areas! He will be working in Mawah so the good thing is he won't have to worry about NYC transit. We have got to hurry our house hunt, closing here is in June!
Thanks. My husband's coworkers have been so persnickety about their particular areas of residence that is been hard to get a good perspective on other areas! He will be working in Mawah so the good thing is he won't have to worry about NYC transit. We have got to hurry our house hunt, closing here is in June!
Yup, prefect summation: persnickety...welcome to northern nj. Keeping an open mind is almost impossible That said I would definielty include the northern parts of Wayne in your search including the Pines lake, Lionshead Lake and Black Oak Estates section. They all will offer a good commute to Mahwah. Mahwah(lowest property taxes of all mentioned towns) itself as well as Ramsey are also great communities that offer slightly more in the way of value as compared to Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff(which are also awesome communities if you can afford what you want there)
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 04-24-2014 at 11:00 AM..
i.e. We were looking at a home in a particular boro and a coworker said "hope you are prepared to buy your kids all the top line stuff and name brand clothes, if not she'll be exiled at school." Going on to call it "snobby" then another coworker said only blue collar people live in ---------boro.
This sort of conversation is definitely prevalent in Bergen county. Heck, I'm guilty of that sometimes. For the area you're looking at, Franklin Lakes (FL)/Oakland, it's almost night and day in terms of socioeconomic demographic. If you don't live in a $1m+ home in FL, you're practically ostracized. In Oakland, $300k to $500k homes are the norm and the demographic is predominantly working class.
For what it's worth, Oakland, Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff all share the same high schools (kids from all 3 towns have the choice of going to either Ramapo or Indian Hills high school). FL has the lowest effective tax rate out of the 3.
Here's how the property tax rates rank in Bergen County for some of the towns you may be interested in (70 towns):
This sort of conversation is definitely prevalent in Bergen county. Heck, I'm guilty of that sometimes. For the area you're looking at, Franklin Lakes (FL)/Oakland, it's almost night and day in terms of socioeconomic demographic. If you don't live in a $1m+ home in FL, you're practically ostracized. In Oakland, $300k to $500k homes are the norm and the demographic is predominantly working class.
For what it's worth, Oakland, Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff all share the same high schools (kids from all 3 towns have the choice of going to either Ramapo or Indian Hills high school). FL has the lowest effective tax rate out of the 3.
Here's how the property tax rates rank in Bergen County for some of the towns you may be interested in (70 towns):
Totally agree. I do think Wyckoff, while expensive, does have a very nice balance of everything and from my experience does rank lower on my snob-o-meter than ridgewood, allendale, glen rock or even ramsey. Franklin Lakes does have a less expensive area on the Oakland border so you can "get into" the town at a reasonable price and take advantage of the low taxes but keep in mind that 90% of the town is homes that are in the $1MM-$10MM range so if you are not in one of those homes you will probably end up feeling "less than" eventually.
Totally agree. I do think Wyckoff, while expensive, does have a very nice balance of everything and from my experience does rank lower on my snob-o-meter than ridgewood, allendale, glen rock or even ramsey.
I think the snob factor is less in Wyckoff because we really don't have much to brag about quite frankly when it comes to town amenities. No trains to NYC and we don't have a true "downtown" to speak of other than the Boulder Run shopping center area.
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That said I would definielty include the northern parts of Wayne in your search including the Pines lake, Lionshead Lake and Black Oak Estates section. They all will offer a good commute to Mahwah. Mahwah(lowest property taxes of all mentioned towns) itself as well as Ramsey are also great communities that offer slightly more in the way of value as compared to Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff(which are also awesome communities if you can afford what you want there)
