Indian family looking for good suburbs with easy commute to lower Manhattan (Newark: mover, how much)
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Hi, we will be moving from northern Virginia. My job is in lower Manhattan close to Fulton Street subway station. I am looking for information on nice suburbs in New Jersey to buy a single family house, within an hour of commute from my work. I am looking at spending around $1 million for a 3-4 BR house. We also have a 5 year old daughter who we would be looking to send to a private school, so location close to a nice private school is also a consideration. We would also like to be close to Indian things and other Indian families for social activities. I have done research in the forum and Metuchen/Metropark came up as options but it seems that the commute to work would be around 1+1/2 hour, while I would like something closer to an hour. I have also thought about South Westchester in New York, but it seems that the houses there are very expensive and it may not have as much of an Indian presence. My wife who is in IT would also be looking for a job in the area, but it seems that she is more likely to find something in New York than in New Jersey. I am not sure what the opportunities are in South Westchester area though.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback, thoughts or suggestions.
I suggest Basking Ridge. There is an Indian population there, although not huge. The Indian shopping and functions are down in the Edison/Woodbridge area, which would be about a 30 minute drive.
Edison does have a good Indian population but traveling time alone is about 1 hour. Your total commute time will likely be closer to 1.5 hours depending how far the station is from home and work. You have to take the NJ transit train to Newark then transfer to the Path to World Trade Center (WTC)....
There are two areas I know of that also have good Indian populations and are closer.
1. Jackson Heights in Queens, NY - Lotsa Indians in this area... The school system isn't the best but since you're open to private school you should be fine. You can take the E train into the WTC stop - 2 blocks from the Fulton stop.
2 Jersey City, NJ - Alot of Indians in the Little India area of Journal Square, your commute could easily be 15 minutes since JC is just across the river from the downtown Fulton stop. JC has the #1 high school in the state and there should be good private school options too. You can take the path into WTC and the Fulton stop is only 1 block away.
Piscataway near Dunellen Train Station area is good. I am working at lower Manhattan and found commute great. My son at Piscataway High School just won a medal at Science Olympia at Princeton Univ today, competing with other high schools such as Montgomery, Princeton, West Winsor, East Brunswick, JP Stevens ...etc. His Indian classmate father told me Piscataway is 10th Indian community in the country. The best nice new house here is only $650k to $800k. My son went to kindergarten called Early Learning, then Grandview elementary school, then Arbor Intermediate School, then Schor Middle School, the Piscataway High School. and After all these years, I found the best location in town may be somewhere near JFK Library where I am going to buy a $$800k house and move there soon because there is going to be a huge brand new YMCA center built and Senior Center and near Rutgers Univ.
Hi, we will be moving from northern Virginia. My job is in lower Manhattan close to Fulton Street subway station. I am looking for information on nice suburbs in New Jersey to buy a single family house, within an hour of commute from my work. I am looking at spending around $1 million for a 3-4 BR house. We also have a 5 year old daughter who we would be looking to send to a private school, so location close to a nice private school is also a consideration. We would also like to be close to Indian things and other Indian families for social activities. I have done research in the forum and Metuchen/Metropark came up as options but it seems that the commute to work would be around 1+1/2 hour, while I would like something closer to an hour. I have also thought about South Westchester in New York, but it seems that the houses there are very expensive and it may not have as much of an Indian presence. My wife who is in IT would also be looking for a job in the area, but it seems that she is more likely to find something in New York than in New Jersey. I am not sure what the opportunities are in South Westchester area though.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback, thoughts or suggestions.
based on your criteria, i'd highly recommend north edison, which is a neighborhood within the northern section of edison township. there are plenty of upwardly mobile, upper middle class indian families in that area. not to mention, the oak tree rd indian shopping area, which straddles the boundary between edison and iselin, is right there. highway and mass transit from the area is great (although you'll have to drive to the metropark train station) and in general it's a very pleasant place to live. the indian community in central nj is huge, but edison is undoubtedly its heart and soul, and north edison is the township's nicest area.
i realize that this area is a little farther from your job than you'd like, but the truth of the matter is that commuting into the city isn't super fast from any part of nj unless you live near a PATH station in hoboken or jersey city or your job is a short walk from ny penn station (meaning that you don't have to transfer to a subway once you get off the nj transit commuter train). for most of us, commuting from nj into manhattan means transferring at least once, if not twice, which of course wastes time and energy, and ultimately means that it'll take a lot longer to commute, door-to-door, than you would ever expect given the actual distance between your home and your office.
look at it this way: my hometown near giants stadium is literally 10 miles, door-to-door, from midtown manhattan. if i were to drive to work at 3am, i could get there in less than 20 minutes, easy. but during rush hour? there's no quick and painless way of getting in.
driving during rush hour would take an hour and a half at the minimum, and easily could be two hours or more. the bus during rush hour takes 45 minutes to an hour to the port authority bus terminal, THEN i'd have to switch to a subway to get to the office. this doesn't even take into account bus delays, an accident that ties up the lincoln tunnel, subway delays, etc; the door to door commute would be anywhere from 70 to 90 minutes from the time i leave the house to the time i walk in the office.
if i were to take the train, i'd have to leave at least 10 minutes before the train arrives to find parking; then train takes 20 minutes to get to hoboken (or 11 min. to secaucus), but either way i have to switch trains twice to get to work. bottom line, there's no way i can get from southern bergen county to the office in midtown manhattan in less than 70 minutes during rush hour - and my town is way closer (and has far fewer indians) than edison. so that 90 min commute from edison isn't really that bad considering it's 3 times as far from manhattan as my town.
bottom line, i'd go with north edison if i were you. when you consider how much of a pain it is to commute from the suburbs, the 90 minute door-to-door commute doesn't sound so bad in comparison.
Hi, we will be moving from northern Virginia. My job is in lower Manhattan close to Fulton Street subway station. I am looking for information on nice suburbs in New Jersey to buy a single family house, within an hour of commute from my work. I am looking at spending around $1 million for a 3-4 BR house. We also have a 5 year old daughter who we would be looking to send to a private school, so location close to a nice private school is also a consideration. We would also like to be close to Indian things and other Indian families for social activities. I have done research in the forum and Metuchen/Metropark came up as options but it seems that the commute to work would be around 1+1/2 hour, while I would like something closer to an hour. I have also thought about South Westchester in New York, but it seems that the houses there are very expensive and it may not have as much of an Indian presence. My wife who is in IT would also be looking for a job in the area, but it seems that she is more likely to find something in New York than in New Jersey. I am not sure what the opportunities are in South Westchester area though.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback, thoughts or suggestions.
to add a few more thoughts:
i have met a fair number of indians from westchester county, mainly scarsdale, but you're right, it's extremely expensive (much more so than central nj) and the indian presence is nowhere near what you'll find in the edison area. and it cannot compare with edison/iselin for authentic indian restaurants, shops, etc. much of westchester is a great place to live, but since you're looking for a place with an indian presence, i wouldn't recommend it. for the same reason, i wouldn't really recommend northern nj - like westchester, it's very expensive, and although the indian population has been increasing steadily, there are far fewer indians than in central nj. and there isn't any single enclave or shopping area that can compare with the oak tree rd shopping district for indians. parsippany in morris county is arguably becoming the preeminent indian town in northern nj, but it can't compare with edison as far as an indian presence - and it'll take you just as long to get to work in lower manhattan.
as for the other suggestions in this thread -
i wouldn't recommend jackson heights, queens or jersey city. i'm very familiar with both areas, and while both have large indian populations, i'm suspecting you want to move to a nicer area - and neither is particularly nice. you can buy a nice house within your budget range in edison, not to mention it's family-friendly. jackson heights and jersey city are totally urban and, while not super dangerous or anything, they're undoubtedly inner city areas, and to me that's not conducive to raising a family; i grew up in the suburbs but went to high school in jersey city (had a lot of indian classmates, btw), and believe me, i didn't have a good impression of the area at all. i wouldn't want to raise my kids (if i had any) in either area, no matter what race i was; it's just too urban, too hectic, and the quality of living is far lower than in nj's (mostly) nice suburbs.
someone else in this thread mentioned basking ridge, which is a gorgeous and very wealthy town. but the indian presence there, while growing steadily, can't compare with edison's - did you know that there are over 20,000 indians in edison alone?!? that figure doesn't even include other south asian groups such as pakistanis and bangladeshis. the indians i've met from basking ridge, parsippany, and other areas of northern nj liked their towns - but they still always went to oak tree rd to eat, shop, and meet up with their indian friends. and it's a long drive (30-40 minutes) from those towns to edison; not worth it considering a larger indian presence in close proximity to your house is important to you.
for what it's worth, i've been noticing that a lot of indians have been moving further south and southwest from edison into places like somerset county (especially montgomery township) and lower middlesex county (especially plainsboro and south brunswick). these are all nice towns, but they're even farther from nyc than edison, so you probably won't be interested. and i'll bet anything that most of the indian residents in these towns head up to oak tree rd every weekend to catch up with friends, eat, shop, etc.
Thanks for your replies. It has been very helpful. Piscataway and Basking Ridge seem good places but would have even longer commutes than North Edison which would become an issue, especially if my wife also ends up working in NYC. In other thread, someone had suggested driving from New Providence to Newark station and then taking PATH, which saved time in commuting to lower Manhattan. I was wondering if similar option of driving from North Edison to Newark exists and would save time.
Thanks for your replies. It has been very helpful. Piscataway and Basking Ridge seem good places but would have even longer commutes than North Edison which would become an issue, especially if my wife also ends up working in NYC. In other thread, someone had suggested driving from New Providence to Newark station and then taking PATH, which saved time in commuting to lower Manhattan. I was wondering if similar option of driving from North Edison to Newark exists and would save time.
At your price level, there's no reason to live in Piscataway. This is a very middle class community and for someone with a lot of money it doesn't make sense. You can do much better.
At your price level, there's no reason to live in Piscataway. This is a very middle class community and for someone with a lot of money it doesn't make sense. You can do much better.
totally agree with this. piscataway is nothing special.
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