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I have also checked out fair lawn/Glen rock - my issue with both the locations is lack of train to mid town (unless you buy a house within walking distance of the station, so you end up traveling on a bus every day to Manhattan - If one is ok with that then of course there are options in those 2 towns). I personally prefer a train ride into Manhattan. In addition - I personally prefer a community feel as against a single family home.
Glen Rock, Fair Lawn and Ridgewood have train stations right in the middle of the town. Fair Lawn has two train stations. It is possible to buy houses within walking distance from the train stations. If not, then within easy biking or driving distance.
All three towns have schools that are way better than what is available at Wood Ridge or for that matter Hoboken. Wood-Ridge's high school was ranked 232 in 2014, Hoboken's 274. Fair Lawn's was 70 and even better in the other towns: Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014
Thus, you don't need to send your kids to private school in all these thee towns.
I did not see many community features in Westmont station when I last visited in March. Not even playground for kids although there is dog run. Looks like the whole area is just going to be built out with very little empty space left.
so I was in on sunday to look at some of the models, turns out the selling price of the Lancaster models are now over 600k looking like 650k with upgrades, anyone think that's worth it or way too much too soon? i'm in the same boat as most of you, married, living in Hoboken, working in the city, looking for more space for my soon to be new born and hoping for some upside in a new construction development where i'll stay for 10 years or leave when the abatement ends.....thoughts?
As an early buyer, even I am a bit shocked at how fast homes have sold and prices have gone up. I think even Pulte has well, given that sales have been running about "twice as fast as expected" per the article below. Mayor Sarlo also mentioned that Pulte sold 80 of the 92 townhomes it constructed in 2014, a "record for the company". I think the 'market' has spoken though. People are still buying Manchester's and Lancaster's in the mid to high 500K range. And High Point is planning to sell their Wright Place townhomes sell in the 600 to 700K price range.
For the schooling issue, keep in mind that high school test score rankings in places close to Bergen County Academy and High Tech (which both Wood-Ridge and Hoboken fall into respectively) will be skewed lower because of magnet school placement than places in say North Bergen County or Southwest Hudson County. Our long-term academic plan is to put our kids in the W-R public school system in elementary, intermediate, and middle school, and then have them test into Bergen County Academy in Hackensack for high school. We specifically stopped looking at Secaucus because it is only eligible for High Tech in high school, and not McNair in Jersey City (we initially got High Tech in North Bergen confused with the one in Freehold, haha).
It's probably just sour grapes, but we actually kind of like the fact that the Wood Ridge school system is more athletically than academically focused. We think it's very important to emphasize teamwork and physical activities at a young age. The wife and I both grew up in a stereotypical academically-focused immigrant household, and we want our kids to have a more well-rounded, outdoors'y childhood than we did. Plus, IMHO, the commoditization / lowest common denominator trend of education with all the Common Core curriculum stuff de-emphasizes the importance of teachers and fellow students and places the burden on parents for their children's individualized academic success. So that means I care about commute time, a suburban type community, and relatively low housing prices and property taxes.
Plus it's not like Mayor Sarlo / Wood-Ridge does not realize the importance of improving the school system ranking in terms of increasing residents' property value. That's why the town passed the school improvement referendum recently.
Last edited by ChinoJedi; 04-28-2015 at 05:10 AM..
Glen Rock, Fair Lawn and Ridgewood have train stations right in the middle of the town. Fair Lawn has two train stations. It is possible to buy houses within walking distance from the train stations. If not, then within easy biking or driving distance.
All three towns have schools that are way better than what is available at Wood Ridge or for that matter Hoboken. Wood-Ridge's high school was ranked 232 in 2014, Hoboken's 274. Fair Lawn's was 70 and even better in the other towns: Top Schools Alphabetical List 2014
Thus, you don't need to send your kids to private school in all these thee towns.
I did not see many community features in Westmont station when I last visited in March. Not even playground for kids although there is dog run. Looks like the whole area is just going to be built out with very little empty space left.
There will be a ~$17 million park with "new athletic fields for soccer, football, baseball, and softball" available sometime in 2017. I think it's slated to be quite large as well per the latest architectural diagrams.
Personally, lack of a tiny playground is not a show stopper for me, although it would have been a nice to have and i did mention to the builder. (Pulte can definitely take that much space for a playground for kids). The one thing i would say though to buyers in wood ridge is to budget some resources for private school for kids.
Fair lawn was not for me (at least the houses i looked was not very accessible to train stations, and if one has the time/patience/money - then maybe persisting with fair lawn is an option worth considering). We prefer town homes for the moment in a community style living, so wood ridge is a better option. Trust me when i say this - i have thought this over for over a year now.
But again, ask someone living in Fair lawn - they would have a totally different view. One can read all the views on this forum, but the decision has to be made based on personal likes/dislikes and preferences.
Personally, lack of a tiny playground is not a show stopper for me, although it would have been a nice to have and i did mention to the builder. (Pulte can definitely take that much space for a playground for kids). The one thing i would say though to buyers in wood ridge is to budget some resources for private school for kids.
So basically, to live comfortably at Westmont station a family with let's say two kids has to be able to afford a 600K three bedroom townhouse and then two private school tuition payments? Plus also Wood Ridge property taxes in five years? So basically this is a place for upper/uper middle class or lower level rich with a family income of at least $250-300k. Nothing wrong with this of course, if that is what people want.
But I guess only in America, upper middle class lives in houses made out of plywood and thin studs. I would be scared living right next to Avalon aprtment building also built out of plywood. God forbid there is fire, I think everyone remembers what happened in Edgewater.
So basically, to live comfortably at Westmont station a family with let's say two kids has to be able to afford a 600K three bedroom townhouse and then two private school tuition payments? Plus also Wood Ridge property taxes in five years? So basically this is a place for upper/uper middle class or lower level rich with a family income of at least $250-300k. Nothing wrong with this of course, if that is what people want.
But I guess only in America, upper middle class lives in houses made out of plywood and thin studs. I would be scared living right next to Avalon aprtment building also built out of plywood. God forbid there is fire, I think everyone remembers what happened in Edgewater.
While I don't disagree with your overall premise, lets not get overdramatic. You certainly do not need to make 250k-300k a year to afford a 600k property. Also, this caters to NYC commuters who for the most part will commute to higher earning jobs, as well as people moving from NYC in search of more space but still some type of urbanish community feeling. As to your point about construction, that is the case everywhere, not just here. Fires do happen but you can't think transitively from one Avalon to the next.
Lastly, demand seems to be there so I am as baffled as you.
So basically, to live comfortably at Westmont station a family with let's say two kids has to be able to afford a 600K three bedroom townhouse and then two private school tuition payments? Plus also Wood Ridge property taxes in five years? So basically this is a place for upper/uper middle class or lower level rich with a family income of at least $250-300k. Nothing wrong with this of course, if that is what people want.
But I guess only in America, upper middle class lives in houses made out of plywood and thin studs. I would be scared living right next to Avalon aprtment building also built out of plywood. God forbid there is fire, I think everyone remembers what happened in Edgewater.
I was actually thinking about this yesterday. In terms of all the neighbors that I have met, if you exclude the empty-nesters, I wouldn't be surprised if the median income for Pulte homeowners is in the $200-$300K range (with condo homeowners on the lower end, and townhome homeowners on the higher end). I think that there are three general types of buyers so far at Wesmont:
1) empty nesters downgrading from their $1M+ SFH with $20K+ property taxes in probably northern Bergen county, Westchester, or Long Island
2) DINK's NYC commuters but soon to have kids moving out of NYC, Hoboken, or other urban but not family friendly areas.
3) young NYC commuter families: dual income parents with grandparents, nannies, or daycare to watch over their small child(ren).
Here are some further observations:
1) $125K or $150K times two is not that hard for NYC commuters with 5+ years of work experience. I definitely don't see recent college grads moving in to Wesmont yet.
2) There seem to be a lot of people working in white collar industries like law, medicine, insurance, and finance, and these are well-paid industries.
3) Every household it seems has 2 cars (even many of the condos). And luxury brand cars (especially SUV's) seem to be very popular. So people are obviously not hurting for cash.
4) I have not yet met any of the more traditional single earner households that one would see in parts of Westchester, Long Island, or further from NJ like Short Hills or Northern Bergen. This make sense, as I think Wesmont, and townhome communities in general, should be viewed as a 'starter' home for most buyers.
At a 2.5-3.5x multiple, a 600-700K townhome in Wesmont wouldn't be that difficult for a 200-300K household to afford.
Last edited by ChinoJedi; 04-30-2015 at 04:32 AM..
So basically, to live comfortably at Westmont station a family with let's say two kids has to be able to afford a 600K three bedroom townhouse and then two private school tuition payments? Plus also Wood Ridge property taxes in five years? So basically this is a place for upper/uper middle class or lower level rich with a family income of at least $250-300k. Nothing wrong with this of course, if that is what people want.
But I guess only in America, upper middle class lives in houses made out of plywood and thin studs. I would be scared living right next to Avalon aprtment building also built out of plywood. God forbid there is fire, I think everyone remembers what happened in Edgewater.
(This is kind of a cheeky response, but thought it was worth pointing out)
Well, there's already been one dumpster fire in the Avalon building, which the various neighborhood fire departments responded VERY quickly to. And, as I'm sure my neighbors can also attest to (and my son loves to watch), other fire truck visits to the Avalon building afterwards.
Plus, as Pulte will point out during the pre-construction inspection, each column of condos/townhomes has fireproof/fire-resistant materials between other columns. So if a column of condo or townhome burns, it shouldn't spread to other columns before the fire department can respond.
My husband and I bought a townhouse and were looking at the Montclair, Ridgewood, and Glen Rock areas before buying here! I can definitely see this development and community being a mix of all three areas in the future! I'd love to see block parties in the future! The top 3 reasons that appealed to us are: 1. Location....its a 25 minute commute you can't find that anywhere esp. with new development and this size, 2. Schools might be a problem right now but since we are all young families it is going to double in size...so it should definitely be getting better, 3. The overall possibility for this development esp. if you've seen other communities being built up (roosevelt island and lower east side come to mind for me) this is going to be huge in 5 years and we can't wait to be a part of it with our new neighbors!
FYI, for NJT bus commuters, another forum posting from 6 months ago recommended the NJT MyBus Now website versus texting NJT MyBus. Has anyone had any experience comparing the two at stop 12282 (to NYC) or 12272 (from NYC)?
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