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Hello - We are a family of 4 (5 YO and 2 YO) and planning to buy house in South Brunswick due to the reviews of it having a good school district and diverse population. Can you please advise with the below:
1. Which are the good elementary schools?
2. Based on the good elementary please suggest good areas/communities to search for houses to buy? We are open to both townhouses and single family houses. Our budget is up to 600k.
For 600K, you could probably get a "decent" SFH in SB. SB is a good pick, a lot of indians and there's a new Shoprite on Route 1. To me SB is becoming the new "Edison"
Other areas I could probably recommend would be:
West Windsor/ Plainsboro- Competitive, Diverse, top notch schools but your SFH will be smaller/out dated or a decent townhouse
Not sure where you are working but wouldn't hurt to look at East Brunswick as well but it's more crowded
For 600K, you could probably get a "decent" SFH in SB. SB is a good pick, a lot of indians and there's a new Shoprite on Route 1. To me SB is becoming the new "Edison"
Other areas I could probably recommend would be:
West Windsor/ Plainsboro- Competitive, Diverse, top notch schools but your SFH will be smaller/out dated or a decent townhouse
Not sure where you are working but wouldn't hurt to look at East Brunswick as well but it's more crowded
Thank you HastroX. We heard about Princeton Walk community, with decent SFH and Townhouses. Have you heard about the community and any thoughts would be appreciated. Also, are there any other good residential communities in SB?
Yes, we were actually looking to buy a townhouse before in the princeton walk community. Nice, family oriented community which connects to route 1 for commute for work basically.
For 600K, there's actually SFH for ~lower to mid 500s so within budget. My only problem is they have a HOA being 500$/mo. which is pretty steep when your sharing the same amenities i.e. indoor/outdoor pool, gym, etc. with other townhouse communities who are only paying $400/mo/. or 300$/mo. Add property taxes as well and you're looking at paying 15-20K annually just for HOA +Property taxes
Yes, we were actually looking to buy a townhouse before in the princeton walk community. Nice, family oriented community which connects to route 1 for commute for work basically.
For 600K, there's actually SFH for ~lower to mid 500s so within budget. My only problem is they have a HOA being 500$/mo. which is pretty steep when your sharing the same amenities i.e. indoor/outdoor pool, gym, etc. with other townhouse communities who are only paying $400/mo/. or 300$/mo. Add property taxes as well and you're looking at paying 15-20K annually just for HOA +Property taxes
Thank you again Hastro!
In your previous reply, you suggested West Windsor/ Plainsboro as well and that they are Competitive, Diverse and with top notch schools. With your experience, can you suggest some good residential communities for our budget? Thank you again.
Niche.com can also give you insights as well. I think it all comes down to where you and your partner's work location and how tolerable you are willing to comute. WWP have top elite public schools on all grade levels, large family home sizes (2500 sq ft- 4000+) but you're looking to spend 600 to 900K+ for anything updated/modern. WWP is definitely diverse in terms of basically only asian/white. They also have close by Wegmans, Target, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, etc. as well as Shoprite/Costco in Lawrenceville.
If you look at school ratings, Lawrenceville is pretty much 6/10, South Brunswick is 7/10, WWP is 8/10, Princeton is 9/10. I would say each number higher on a school rating adds another estimated 100K to 150K for the same home.
Most families who live in WWP tend to move out after their kid goes to college since WWP have high property taxes and it doesn't make sense for families to pay taxes in something they don't use (unless they have some personal attachment to it)
You could also check out Hillsborough or Pennington or Montgomery. Great schools, but not really diverse and also more suburban rural feel
Niche.com can also give you insights as well. I think it all comes down to where you and your partner's work location and how tolerable you are willing to comute. WWP have top elite public schools on all grade levels, large family home sizes (2500 sq ft- 4000+) but you're looking to spend 600 to 900K+ for anything updated/modern. WWP is definitely diverse in terms of basically only asian/white. They also have close by Wegmans, Target, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, etc. as well as Shoprite/Costco in Lawrenceville.
If you look at school ratings, Lawrenceville is pretty much 6/10, South Brunswick is 7/10, WWP is 8/10, Princeton is 9/10. I would say each number higher on a school rating adds another estimated 100K to 150K for the same home.
Most families who live in WWP tend to move out after their kid goes to college since WWP have high property taxes and it doesn't make sense for families to pay taxes in something they don't use (unless they have some personal attachment to it)
You could also check out Hillsborough or Pennington or Montgomery. Great schools, but not really diverse and also more suburban rural feel
Thank you HastroX. This is really helpful!
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