Is Springfield, NJ one of the few true middle class towns left? (Montclair: houses, neighborhoods)

[Craig-D]

I'm curious as to how one defines a middle-class town? Is it based upon average home price, or average household income? I reside in Rutherford, and I don't know how you'd classify it - it's definitely not rich though. It ranges from middle class to upper middle class, but isn't definitively either. Homes here range from below $300k for a small fixer upper all the way up to $2 million for a large custom home that was previously on the market.

To me, a rich town is one like Alpine or Saddle River where you aren't getting a home for under a million. And an upper middle class town is a place like Basking Ridge, Ridgewood, or Fair Haven where you'd be hard-pressed to find homes below $600-$700k and something decent is more like $800k and up. In terms of household income, I think you cross into upper middle class once you hit $200k per year. I define rich as when household income hits $500k. By these definitions, I'd say the overwhelming majority of NJ towns are middle to upper middle class.

[CdotSmith]

Originally Posted by nykstevenyg

How do you guys think West Orange compares to Springfield and Bloomfield. My take is Springfield is slightly better but West Orange is better than Bloomfield. I'm looking at housing in West Orange and Springfield. More so West Orange since there are more smaller cheap homes.

WO is bigger, you could walk the whole town of Springfield in a couple of hours. Springfield the taxes are cheaper, 5-10 minutes away from 3 Shoprites, Kings, Wholefoods, Trader Joes, Aldis, an Asian Supermarket and Target. Close to Millburn, Westfield, Maplewood, SO, and Cranford downtowns. About 10 minutes from Turtle Back Zoo in WO. Sits between 22 and 78.

I lived in WO about 15 years ago, have friends and family in WO, a great town but the taxes are higher and it depends where in WO you live. You could be by Montclair, Livingston, SO, Orange close to 280, close to Rt 10 by South Orange Ave etc.

[CdotSmith]

Originally Posted by Craig-D

I'm curious as to how one defines a middle-class town? Is it based upon average home price, or average household income? I reside in Rutherford, and I don't know how you'd classify it - it's definitely not rich though. It ranges from middle class to upper middle class, but isn't definitively either. Homes here range from below $300k for a small fixer upper all the way up to $2 million for a large custom home that was previously on the market.

To me, a rich town is one like Alpine or Saddle River where you aren't getting a home for under a million. And an upper middle class town is a place like Basking Ridge, Ridgewood, or Fair Haven where you'd be hard-pressed to find homes below $600-$700k and something decent is more like $800k and up. In terms of household income, I think you cross into upper middle class once you hit $200k per year. I define rich as when household income hits $500k. By these definitions, I'd say the overwhelming majority of NJ towns are middle to upper middle class.

This is Springfield, I seen house listed up to 1 million. The houses by the Golf Course(The PGA Championship is being played here this year) are sheesh.

IMO Springfield neighbor Millburn is a majority Upper Middle Class town (housing prices, probably more NYC lawyers and bankers, Essex count taxes, more $300,000+ a year earners) and Shorts Hills, which is in Millburn, is the wealthy town(think Hedge Fund Managers, a couple Billionaires).

Then Springfield other neighbor Summit, where Eli Manning lives and Rex Ryan used to live, is like $350,000 small homes to 2 million dollar homes.

[Shoshanarose]

Springfield sounds nice.
Once concern I have about Springfield: are there are a lot of Trump supporters?

[G1..]

Originally Posted by Shoshanarose

Springfield sounds nice.
Once concern I have about Springfield: are there are a lot of Trump supporters?

bumped for this?

[Shoshanarose]

Originally Posted by G1..

bumped for this?

Yes. It's a concern!

[MemoryMaker]

Just curious..how would you guys classify Lodi, Garfield and Hasbrouck?

[swilliamsny]

Originally Posted by Shoshanarose

Yes. It's a concern!

Are you kidding me? You're more worried about whether your neighbors will be Trump supporters than whether your house will retain its value, whether the schools are good, whether traffic will make your quality of life miserable, or any other number of things that will actually have any effect on you???


You may as well move to Newark. Not too many rich people or Trump supporters there.

[Shoshanarose]

Originally Posted by swilliamsny

Are you kidding me? You're more worried about whether your neighbors will be Trump supporters than whether your house will retain its value, whether the schools are good, whether traffic will make your quality of life miserable, or any other number of things that will actually have any effect on you???


You may as well move to Newark. Not too many rich people or Trump supporters there.

I'm worried about both.

We don't have kids,so schools are not a concern.

I am worried about things like traffic, train access to NYC (where I work) - which for Springfield is limited, being near family (primary),etc.

But yeah,I don't want to live in a political or social environment that will be toxic to me. Meaning Trump supporters.
So yeah, I want to know: are there a lot of them in Springfield?

[MemoryMaker]

Originally Posted by swilliamsny

Are you kidding me? You're more worried about whether your neighbors will be Trump supporters than whether your house will retain its value, whether the schools are good, whether traffic will make your quality of life miserable, or any other number of things that will actually have any effect on you???


You may as well move to Newark. Not too many rich people or Trump supporters there.

She probably doesn't wanna get ran over by some big Ford F150 pick up truck with a dolly parton bikini air freshener over the rear-view mirror.

At least the pink-haired SJW's driving the little Subaru's with coexist bumper stickers can't do any harm..