manalapan, monmouth county (Freehold: for sale, house prices, buying)

[shiri71]

i went and saw a new house being built at manalapan, monmouth county.infact, was surprised to see all the builders right from toll brothers, hallmark, hovnanian, kara all have developments coming ... thou' ofcourse the prices vary.

any idea how are the schools in that region?

[exhdo1]

Originally Posted by shiri71

i went and saw a new house being built at manalapan, monmouth county.infact, was surprised to see all the builders right from toll brothers, hallmark, hovnanian, kara all have developments coming ... thou' ofcourse the prices vary.

any idea how are the schools in that region?

Where are you moving in from? I live in Western Monmouth County (Manalapan area). P.M. me and I'll give you any info you need to know about the area. Just be forwarned I will be brutely honest. If thats not your cup of tea than maybe you may not want to hear from me. By the way building in all the surrounding towns Colt's Neck, Marlboro, Freehold Township and Northern Howell hasn't slowed much. I don't believe any builders are building spec homes right now in this economy so I would guess anything thats currently being built is in contract. Drive by any of these developments and you will see 3-5 homes in various stages of construction, and were talking about 800K plus homes. The resale market has slowed though. Good luck with your search.

[damageddude]

Originally Posted by shiri71

any idea how are the schools in that region?

I live in Manalapan and our son just entered kindergarten after several years in the town's pre-school program for children with special needs (our son had a hearing problem as a baby and had trouble speaking).

We were very satisfied with the special needs program as he had almost caught up to where he should be for starting kindergarten by this fall. His teachers and their aides (plus speech therapist and anyone else I'm forgetting) were fabulous, very attentive to his needs etc. He now goes to kindergarten in the AM and then for the special needs program in the PM for additional refinement (and should mainstream next year). So far we are also satisfied with those programs too.

I've heard good things about the middle schools and high school (curriculum) and I've heard bad things (drugs). The good seriously outweighs the bad, but since it will be some time until our children are of that age, we're not seriously looking.

The negatives: kindergarten is only 1/2 a day, which doesn't provide as much education as some would like (though since our son is still in special needs, he gets a full day). A few of our friends registered their children for private kindergarten in some of the facilities around here. Some of the school buildings are over 40 years old and will need some renovation work soon (one friend who teaches at the HS complained about a leaky roof a few years back). There may be overcrowding issues at some schools.

BTW, there is plenty of older housing for sale around the various developments. In my development (Monmouth Heiights) it was becoming fashionable (until the market cooled) to buy an older house and then practically rebuild it as house prices were cheap (compared to the rest of the town) and our lot sizes generous. Figure you buy a place for $400k-500k and then spend $200k rebuilding it like you want and it's still cheaper then buying in one of the new developments.

[shiri71]

thanks a lot for input. indeed helped me lot.