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We are moving to NJ and have narrowed our house search down the the above towns. They all seem to be good choices, from what I can tell. I'm looking for any cons on the above mentioned that I may not be aware of, no taxes or anything financial. I'm looking more for crime, etc. Also,which one is your pick if you had to move there? Thank you for you help!
They are all very nice towns and have good schools etc... I think Mt. Lakes would be my last choice.
Honnest opinion, there is a "snob" factor in all of them, if you can keep up with the Joneses, great, if you can't... good luck. BIL is in Chatham now and he likes it, but he can not keep up... not so bad for him, but bad for his kids. That said, they are nice towns.
Well, let me just say up front that I am a little biased because I recently moved to Mountain Lakes after looking at some of the areas you listed (Chatham, Mendham, Madision). I have no idea where you work or what your preferences are, so let me summarize.
Madison and Chatham: pretty much the same place, they are right next to each other. Very nice areas that are a little more urban than Mtn Lakes and Mendham. They have very nice downtown areas, very good schools and easy access to the train that will take you into the city.
Mendham: much more rural than Madison and Chatham and consists of a lot of farmland, etc. Again, very good schools, not much of a downtown area and access to the train is a little more difficult than in all of the other places.
Berkley Heights: don't know any information because I was looking primarily in Morris County.
Mountain Lakes: again, not entirely objective, but in my mind Mountain Lakes offers the best of all worlds. It isn't as "urban" as Madison and Chatham with a lot of parks, protected forest lands and some really unique topography. All of the properties I looked at in Madison and Chatham were 1/4 acre flat stamps with a fence. Mountain Lakes has dozens of ponds, lakes, streams and other unique elements. With that said, while being more "rustic" you are a very short drive (5 min) from downtown Denville- a very charming downtown that is smaller than Madison but had some great restaurants. You also have such amenities like beaches that are public to Mtn Lakes residents only, and then you have the private Mtn Lks club for something a level higher. Add to that two train stations to choose from (Denville & Mtn Lks), access to all major roads (23, 46, 10, 80, 287) and one of the top 5 school systems in the state, it was almost a no-brainer to me.
Tall guy does give excellent advice.
But I've heard the schools are more into sports than academics these days - if you can beleive what you read on the internet!
We are moving to NJ and have narrowed our house search down the the above towns.
Moving from where (if i may ask)? Judging by your nickname I think I know from where, hehe......
Quote:
Originally Posted by Avalanche
They all seem to be good choices, from what I can tell.
Yes. I believe all are very low crime. For me taxes (the royal can of worms here in NJ) would be a huge concern. I assume Mt. Lakes and Chatham are more than Madison. Do not know about B-Heights. I think Mt. Lakes is way over-priced and the train service is dismal
on that route (i.e. extremely slow, infrequent, none on weekends).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Avalanche
Also,which one is your pick if you had to move there?
If I had to pick one of these Madison hands down. Nice town center, college town w/o tons of kids around, great food, good parks, rec. trails nearby, the train to Hoboken/NYC 7-days a week, close to RT287 (i.e. easy to get to north jersey or central jersey).
It really depends what you are looking for. Like others have mentioned Madison and Chatham are very nice towns with cute down towns and an easy commute to NYC. They are much larger than Mountain Lakes which has a population of about 4,000 compared to 16,000 or so for Madison. Mountain Lakes is the type of small insulated town where you get to know everybody and everybody's kids. It's the type of place where kids ride their bikes to school and leave them unlocked outside all day and nobody steals them. It is VERY kid focused and I would never advise anyone to live there that wasn't raising kids.
I don't think the real estate in ML is any more over priced than any of the other good towns in NJ. You do pay a premium to live in ML rather than a neighboring town but that is true of any town with a great school.
Oh, and the train to NYC goes direct from Denville (next town to ML) and it runs every half an hour even (gasp) on the weekend. Lots of people take the bus to NYC and that stops right in ML and that runs on the weekend also.
Oh, and the train to NYC goes direct from Denville (next town to ML) and it runs every half an hour even (gasp) on the weekend. Lots of people take the bus to NYC and that stops right in ML and that runs on the weekend also.
Are people from ML opting to drive to Denville for their (electric) train versus using the diesel train in ML? I heard the # of riders using the ML train station is about 3 dozen (no more) is this true?
Are people from ML opting to drive to Denville for their (electric) train versus using the diesel train in ML? I heard the # of riders using the ML train station is about 3 dozen (no more) is this true?
Some people take the ML train to Hoboken and then the Path to Wall street. More take the direct to Penn train from Denville but the majority take the bus (takes the same time - 1 hour or so).
Once you move here to New Jersey if you believe that you may have to sell and move again in the next 7 to 10 years, I would recommend Chatham, Madison, Summit, Or New Providence. These are all towns that people tend to consider commutable into the city on a regular basis. I have lots of experence with locations that are desirable for commuters and areas that are not. I should I am a REALTOR and work with these people all the time. 50% of my buyers lived in NYC before I helped them find their new home. They still have to go to NYC for work so they want what you want.
These towns have held their values much better than the state averages because 1 they are desirable, 2 they have good schools, and 3 we are seeing a reversal of the drive until you can afford the mortgage payment syndrome of the 1990's and early to mid 2000's. More of those people are choosing to move closer to the city to cut their commute times and make life easier than are choosing to move further out.
The projections of the Otteau Group and other Real Estate statistics are that the old trend of people moving further and further out is over and actually reversing. This means that some parts of New Jersey will continue to see property values decline while other areas such as talked about above will continue to see prices steady to increasing.
I did not specifically mention Berkeley Heights but it is right next to New Providence, one train stop further out, and it likely will see similar performance to New Providence.
If it were me I would not make the mistake of going further west then Interstate 287 just because you can get a bigger house and yard for the money. In my informed opinion you will not be doing yourself any financial or lifestyle good there.
Moderator cut: you cannot link to your own listings
Thanks for all of the info. everyone! For some reason I still have Mendham at the top of my list? I know some of the other areas are better for commuting, but evertime we drive thru Mendham I just love it! We also have two big dogs, so we need a little bit of land. It seems like Madison doesn't offer too much property with the houses? At least in our price range. Annyway, thanks for all of the info.
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