Warren or Basking Ridge? (Plainfield, Summit: new house, neighborhoods, buyers)

[ineoxs]

We are moving to Chicago, IL to New Jersey earlier next year. I will be working in Summit and narrowed down our searches to Warren and Basking Ridge areas for our Family (spouse, 3.5 years old son, 4.5 months old daughter).

We like two houses in Warren (Conklin Ln.) and Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.). Both houses are priced around the same and are pretty much same distances (maybe 5 mins more for the Warren house) from Summit.

Both houses fit our wishlists:
1. New development community
2. Communities for our family to walk-around in the evening or weekends
3. Close to work (Warren via King George & 78, Basking Ridge via Long Hill & River)
4. Close to shopping areas
5. Close to highways
6. Lower tax rates (Warren 2.03% and Basking Ridge 1.93%)

What we dislike about the houses/communities:
1. Warren (Conklin Ln.)
- Little hilly area and roads leading to the house are not in that good condition. Not sure how the roads will be during the winter. Being in the hilly area not sure if we will be impacted during any power outages or waters on the low areas during rainy season or flooding.
2. Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.)
- Right next to the NJ train line. Though the trains go by pretty quickly and we don't even notice or feel the trains passing by it might affect when we try to sell the house as a lot of people don't prefer being close to train lines.
- Millington Quarry is right opposite of the train tracks

School:
1. Warren (Conklin Ln.)
- Watchung, Middle, Tomaso
2. Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.)
- Ridge, W Annin, Cedar Hill

I wanted some feedback from this forum for these two houses/cities/areas in-terms:
1. Traffic
2. School
3. Resell value
4. Other advantages/disadvantages or areas that we should be looking into before making our decision

Thanks very much.

[PDD]

Both great towns but IMO the Warren house,

No train, no quarry.

I know the area well.

[millerm277]

I can comment on Warren, and I'm pretty intimately familiar with those specific roads:

Going towards King George, I have never seen significant flooding. That stream is also just a stream (starts over near the center of town), it will not remain at a high water level for a long period of time post-storm like a river does. I believe there may be some points where it floods going the other way towards Vosseler, but again it's not common.

Snow kind of depends on your comfort. The main roads are usually cleared fine and going towards King George should be fine. The little backroads to your west/south will require you to know what you're doing (ex: Most people find this road somewhat unnerving in good weather), but you have no need to actually be taking them.

Going down the hill towards 22, out of the main roads Mountain Ave/Morning Glory Rd usually stays open. Vosseler and Warrenville are usually closed.


Warren in general had significant power outages after the recent disasters. On the other hand, so did every other town in the area (and most of the state for that matter), and on the plus side I'm about 95% sure you are still in the PSEG service area rather than being on JCP&L (who has a much worse reputation for service restoration), as people I know a few streets over are on PSEG.

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As for traffic, most of the town is basically traffic free and I-78 usually is as well east of the I-287 split.

The one thing that will affect you on the way home, is that Warrenville Road/Mt Bethel Road will have a lengthy backup coming up to the turn for King George by the church/cementary, adding a couple minutes. If you are heading into the center of town after work for groceries or something, there will be another backup coming down into the town center.

There's nothing else in town that's worth noting for traffic problems, and you have a lot of alternate routes since there's a lot of side roads with 35-40mph speed limits.

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Schools are good. Schools are also good in Basking Ridge. I would not make this a significant factor in your choice, the differences are minor.

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They're both great towns which are doing well. Being next to a quarry and a train line isn't great for resale value, on the other hand it's already factored into your purchase price (and the train line is electric with no freight trains, which helps), so I doubt the BR house will track differently than the rest of the town does going forward.

[SomervilleCat]

Originally Posted by ineoxs

We are moving to Chicago, IL to New Jersey earlier next year. I will be working in Summit and narrowed down our searches to Warren and Basking Ridge areas for our Family (spouse, 3.5 years old son, 4.5 months old daughter).

We like two houses in Warren (Conklin Ln.) and Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.). Both houses are priced around the same and are pretty much same distances (maybe 5 mins more for the Warren house) from Summit.

Both houses fit our wishlists:
1. New development community
2. Communities for our family to walk-around in the evening or weekends
3. Close to work (Warren via King George & 78, Basking Ridge via Long Hill & River)
4. Close to shopping areas
5. Close to highways
6. Lower tax rates (Warren 2.03% and Basking Ridge 1.93%)

What we dislike about the houses/communities:
1. Warren (Conklin Ln.)
- Little hilly area and roads leading to the house are not in that good condition. Not sure how the roads will be during the winter. Being in the hilly area not sure if we will be impacted during any power outages or waters on the low areas during rainy season or flooding.
2. Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.)
- Right next to the NJ train line. Though the trains go by pretty quickly and we don't even notice or feel the trains passing by it might affect when we try to sell the house as a lot of people don't prefer being close to train lines.
- Millington Quarry is right opposite of the train tracks

School:
1. Warren (Conklin Ln.)
- Watchung, Middle, Tomaso
2. Basking Ridge (Keystone Ct.)
- Ridge, W Annin, Cedar Hill

I wanted some feedback from this forum for these two houses/cities/areas in-terms:
1. Traffic
2. School
3. Resell value
4. Other advantages/disadvantages or areas that we should be looking into before making our decision

Thanks very much.

So normally I would say that Basking Ridge is the winner but I really wouldn't buy a house right by the train in Basking Ridge. That just seems like a bad investment. You are having reservations and many others will as well. Would you want your kids playing by that?

I like Basking Ridge over Warren because the community feels closer. Basking Ridge has a quaint downtown and even though it's big it can feel like a very small town. Warren doesn't really have that same feeling but you are closer to more.

I definitely disagree with a previous poster saying the town is basically traffic free. I've been stuck in horrible traffic in Warren. Mostly coming from 78 and trying to go south. Go to google maps any weeknight at 5pm and you'll see the red light up. Of course if you have non traditional hours it would better but you're going to have to be driving your kids around and that'll be a pain but plenty of people do it!

So my choice for you is Basking Ridge but a different house.

[millerm277]

Originally Posted by SomervilleCat

I definitely disagree with a previous poster saying the town is basically traffic free. I've been stuck in horrible traffic in Warren. Mostly coming from 78 and trying to go south. Go to google maps any weeknight at 5pm and you'll see the red light up. Of course if you have non traditional hours it would better but you're going to have to be driving your kids around and that'll be a pain but plenty of people do it!

That would be the area I mentioned (coming down Mt Bethel Rd/Warrenville Rd from exit 36). Exit 33 is generally fine, maybe a minute or two at the bottom of the hill coming into Martinsville.

Are you thinking of exit 40/Hillcrest Rd? That's a mess worth avoiding, but that's more for getting into Watchung or North Plainfield/points South, rather than Warren. (And if you are going to Warren, you can at least take a right on Twin Oaks and cut through the neighborhoods out to Stirling Road instead of waiting in that traffic down to the circle.).

Here's a map of typical traffic at 6pm on a Monday. The two black areas are the backups I mentioned, the red is exit 40. The rest of the town is basically free of significant issues.

[ineoxs]

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate it.

We decided to go with Warren. Basking Ridge is a nice area but the location where the new house is located right by the train tracks and quarry is the deal breaker for us. Our realtor made the same suggestion as well. The price might be factoring in all these already but during resell a lot of the buyers might have the same first impression that we had even before entering the house.

We are planning to get a generator so power outages won't be a big factor. Not too worried about the snow either since we use winter tires and also pretty used to driving in the snow.

As for traffic I will be taking either Exit 36 (King George Rd.) or Exit 40 (Hillcrest Rd.) to go to Summit. Here is the map. Exit 33 (Martinsville Rd.) will be little further and might add additional 10 mins. I drove Exit 36 (King George) before during rush hour and yes during rush hours there is a little congestion till the senior living place but after a while traffic picks up. Exit 36 (King George) might be faster since I don't have to go through all the signals on Mountain Blvd.

Now we have to start researching some pediatricians, doctors, and dentists.

Again, thanks everyone for your input. Happy Holidays .