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My wife and I are considering moving from Jersey City to Summit. I work in mid-town near grand central and my wife works in Summit. Living in Jersey City, I love the short door-to-door commute (~40 mins for me). But the lack of good public schools is forcing our hand to move out to the suburbs with good public schools.
Our top priority is a good public school district, with diversity and a reasonable commute to grand central ( hopefully nothing more than an hour).
What is the general consensus of Summit, Millburn and ShortHills ? What is the average door-to-door commute from those towns to grand central ? Are there any other towns worth considering ?
Where are you coming from? Jersey City
Why are you moving? For good public school
Where will you be working ? If NYC, what part of NYC? very close to grand central
Will you buy or rent? BUY
What is your budget ? 1M
What kind of place are you looking for ? Considering Summit for now as its minimizes my wife's commute
Will anyone (spouse, children, pets) be moving with you ? spouse and two kids
Do you need/want good public schools? yes, absolutely.
Briefly describe the kind of neighborhood you'd like to live in
(examples: families with young children, young, mature, artsy, diverse, safe, close-knit, block parties, etc)
Ideally we want a diverse neighborhood with families that have young children.
In your price range I would checkout Berkeley Heights ,New Providence and Chatham in addition to the other towns , all have very good schools .The commute itself isn't bad at all but the parking at the station in Millburn /Short Hills and Summit is hell.
In your price range I would checkout Berkeley Heights ,New Providence and Chatham in addition to the other towns , all have very good schools .The commute itself isn't bad at all but the parking at the station in Millburn /Short Hills and Summit is hell.
Thanks for that. I have heard about the horrible parking situation in Millburn and Summit station. Any idea what the door to door commute is from Summit to grand central ?
Thanks for that. I have heard about the horrible parking situation in Millburn and Summit station. Any idea what the door to door commute is from Summit to grand central ?
Can’t speak to that line. But I take the Montclair line. Direct 40 min on paper. The peak morning train Realistically pulls in 3-5 minutes late 50% of the time, 10 minutes late 30%, 15 minutes late 10% and the remaining 10% is major delay or cancelled train. Mostly due to the train sitting on the tracks near secacus waiting for the green light to go thru the tunnel. There is congestion with Amtrak trains. The train times on the schedule are kind of best effort. I wouldn’t set your watch to it.
I would take the train time and assume maybe 5 minutes of addition travel. Plus however long it takes to get to the station from home, plus 3 minutes to deboard and get out of the trenches at penn, plus whatever your commute is from penn to Work.
If you’re comparing train times to Westchester, by any chance, it’s not apples to apples. I would say NJ Transit is at a solid 5 min deficit as to what the schedule says.
To get a true 1 hr door to door during peak hours would be tough unless you worked by penn or could walk to the station from home. My train is 40 min on paper and my door to door is realistically 70-80 min to 50th and 7th (taking the 1 train two stops and walking half a block)
Snapshot of how a 40 min train on paper = 70-80 min door to door
725 leave Home
740 train departure
820 arrival (realistically 823-30)
+5 min to get off the line that deboards the train and goes up stairs from platform, walk to subway platform
+7 min short wait for subway, two stops and walk half block
Why not stay in a hotel in Summit for one or two nights and check out the commute in person?
In your price range I would checkout Berkeley Heights ,New Providence and Chatham in addition to the other towns , all have very good schools .The commute itself isn't bad at all but the parking at the station in Millburn /Short Hills and Summit is hell.
NONE of those towns are what I would consider diverse, and only Chatham is going to give the OP a shot at a commute less than an hour.
Berkeley Heights is almost 87% white, with another 8% Asian. Commute to Grand Central is going to be 75-80 minutes on a perfect day. 90 minutes door to door is more likely. New Providence is about 73% white, and nearly 13% Asian. Being in New Providence shaves less than ten minutes off the commute. Closer to an hour, but still over. Chatham is over 87% white.
Note to OP: Summit is not any more diverse than the towns listed here. If you want diversity, look at Maplewood/South Orange. 56% White. Also much closer to the city, and not a terrible drive to Summit.
NONE of those towns are what I would consider diverse, and only Chatham is going to give the OP a shot at a commute less than an hour.
Berkeley Heights is almost 87% white, with another 8% Asian. Commute to Grand Central is going to be 75-80 minutes on a perfect day. 90 minutes door to door is more likely. New Providence is about 73% white, and nearly 13% Asian. Being in New Providence shaves less than ten minutes off the commute. Closer to an hour, but still over. Chatham is over 87% white.
Note to OP: Summit is not any more diverse than the towns listed here. If you want diversity, look at Maplewood/South Orange. 56% White. Also much closer to the city, and not a terrible drive to Summit.
Got a link to your numbers? As for the "much closer comment" that is off.....by a bunch.
You really need to specify what you mean by diversity. If you move to a rich town, most everyone will be rich. If having African American Wall Street banker as a neighbor satisfies your checkbox, then you should be ok.
Got a link to your numbers? As for the "much closer comment" that is off.....by a bunch.
Took me a minute to look up train times. Average time from Berkeley Heights to Penn Station is 62 minutes. New Providence saves you 8 minutes on that time. Maplewood to Penn can be as short as 30 minutes I'd call that a lot closer.
I think you just like to argue.
Last edited by swilliamsny; 10-22-2018 at 12:43 PM..
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