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Not an expert in those towns, but I think it's more likely that "they are what they are". Those towns have been hot for the entirety of my 10 years in NJ, and have been targeted by the Brooklyn crowd during that whole time (and I know many people from here that have moved there as well). I don't think now is any different. The schools are solid, and a notch or two below the usual highly ranked districts, and I don't think the rankings have budged much. My personal opinion, with high parent involvement "solid" schools should be perfectly fine, it just won't have the omnipresent peer pressure to succeed.
Usually, the people that move there are less concerned with those list & rankings anyway. At the end of the day, once you factor in the exorbitant property taxes (and the $$$ over ask), your monthly carrying cost for SOMA isn't much different than some of the surrounding towns with higher ranked schools at this point anyway. So the people targeting top school rankings will inevitably sort themselves into Westfield/Summit/Millburn/etc. anyway.
Westfield is cheaper than most of South Orange/Maplewood/Summit/Millburn as is.
Thank you - that's helpful! Given they were once wonderful, it makes me wonder if they can get better again... they're becoming very affluent towns, which doesn't necessarily correlate to an improvement in schools but that's what the few people I know who moved there are thinking...
South Orange and Maplewood have always been affluent towns. You will not find many people without money that live there. Just look at median income and how much taxes are paid on average
During my home search I would look in Maplewood and the houses that bordered Irvington were always significantly cheaper. So it’s definitely mostly affluent but has its less desired parts. Whereas I’ve always thought of Westfield as a whole to be desirable (although I could definitely be wrong).
Westfield is cheaper than most of South Orange/Maplewood/Summit/Millburn as is.
Huh? Pretty sure that's not correct at all. In terms or pricing I would group South Orange and Maplewood together. Then Westfield, Summit, and Millburn as being more expensive and grouped together.
From my experience people who look at Westfield also look at Summit, Millburn, Chatham, and maybe Livingston.
When I was a kid I lived nearly on top of the site that used to be Olympic Park in Maplewood right on the Irvington border. Maplewood is not on a par with Westfield you can get a house much cheaper near Seth Boyden than you can get in Westfield. Yeah Maplewood has desirable sections but there are some that are not so good.
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