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I will be relocating to NJ and am in the process of trying to zero in on an area so look for a home. I am moving from a quiet community in Upstate NY and was hoping to find something similar, but don't have $500k+ to spend.
I am mainly looking for a safe area that won't be more than an hour drive to Manhattan via the GWB. I know the bridge is a nightmare in the morning, but I would be going across between 12 and 3pm and then back around 7pm. How is it then?
Edison looks like a nice area on paper, low crime rate and affordable home costs...whats the catch? What about the Clara Barton area or Nixon Park?
I believe that Edison is heavily populated by people from India--I don't know if that matters to you or not...it would be a nice place to live if you like to go to the shore because it's not that far. If you're commuting to Manhattan from Edison you would take the Holland Tunnel, not GWB, unless you are working way uptown. To get to GWB from Edison will take more than an hour, I think, but the tunnels won't. I thought about moving back to NJ a few years ago but decided to stay where I am now. I looked at Woodbridge, Colonia and Rahway, which seemed kind of dumpy, but Edison looked ok to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jug831
I will be relocating to NJ and am in the process of trying to zero in on an area so look for a home. I am moving from a quiet community in Upstate NY and was hoping to find something similar, but don't have $500k+ to spend.
I am mainly looking for a safe area that won't be more than an hour drive to Manhattan via the GWB. I know the bridge is a nightmare in the morning, but I would be going across between 12 and 3pm and then back around 7pm. How is it then?
Edison looks like a nice area on paper, low crime rate and affordable home costs...whats the catch? What about the Clara Barton area or Nixon Park?
Any other areas to recommend?
Last edited by INeedAChange; 05-28-2007 at 10:38 AM..
Reason: add something
I believe that Edison is heavily populated by people from India--I don't know if that matters to you or not...it would be a nice place to live if you like to go to the shore because it's not that far. If you're commuting to Manhattan from Edison you would take the Holland Tunnel, not GWB, unless you are working way uptown. To get to GWB from Edison will take more than an hour, I think, but the tunnels won't. I thought about moving back to NJ a few years ago but decided to stay where I am now. I looked at Woodbridge, Colonia and Rahway, which seemed kind of dumpy, but Edison looked ok to me.
Rahway is going thru a big change
Have you ever visited the Inman Hgts section ,The Milton Lake Section
The Hospital section ? If all you know about Rahway is around the 1-9 area (which they are also building up)
Come back for another look
I will be relocating to NJ and am in the process of trying to zero in on an area so look for a home. I am moving from a quiet community in Upstate NY and was hoping to find something similar, but don't have $500k+ to spend.
I am mainly looking for a safe area that won't be more than an hour drive to Manhattan via the GWB. I know the bridge is a nightmare in the morning, but I would be going across between 12 and 3pm and then back around 7pm. How is it then?
Edison looks like a nice area on paper, low crime rate and affordable home costs...whats the catch? What about the Clara Barton area or Nixon Park?
Any other areas to recommend?
Yes, Edison is one of the 10 safest town, in addition to Brick town others mention. Edison has 3 zip codes, and Cara Barton 08837 could be the most affordable area, however, 08817 is closer to Edison Train Station.
Although you may drive to NYC, most people living at Edison take NJ Transit, 40 minutes to Midtown Penn Stn, and you can then transfer subway over.
If you are looking for house that near Edison Train Station, you can look for Central Av area, but if you are looking for condos, Edison Hollow South is only 5 minutes walk over to the train station.
Other rental apartments include Edison Village, Blueberry Village, Rivendell, Rivendell Heights, Rivendell Villages, The Commons (condos), Edison Manors (townhouses), Starpoints (townhouses), Woodhaven (condos) ... they all be able to walk to Edison Train Station. There are some others as well, but may be longer walk, but there is also shuttle to and from Edison Train Station, $1 per trip.
Agree that Edison has a lot of folks from India. Guys at work (who are recently from India), actually call it "Little India." They tend to put a few families in each single family house... and thus, real estate values have not been trending up. Family members sold at a big loss last year.
Since the big Ford plant shut down a few years ago, that area has been in a transition. A lot of folks sold and moved away.
Agree that Edison has a lot of folks from India. Guys at work (who are recently from India), actually call it "Little India." They tend to put a few families in each single family house... and thus, real estate values have not been trending up. Family members sold at a big loss last year.
Since the big Ford plant shut down a few years ago, that area has been in a transition. A lot of folks sold and moved away.
From my understanding, because Indian think family relationships are very important, and they visit each others, especially, when wife has new born, their in laws and parents would come to help out and visit for a few months. So, when you see may be more than one family in one house could be just temporary.
Another situation is that Indian are very nice people that they help other Indian family as well. And when they have new comers relocate to the area, the normally will host the new comer family for a while and help them find their own condo or apartment.
So, what you said to my experience could be just a temporary observation. You need to make more Indian friends to get to know their culture better. e.g. two singles sharing a 1br condo at Edison Hollow South, as soon as one went back to Indian married, they will find another 1br condo so that two good friends would not live in their own condo with their wives.
As to real estate at Edison, it has been very popular and many sold as you can see in Craigslist north jersey craigslist > real estate for sale: search for "edison" (http://newjersey.craigslist.org/search/rfs?query=edison&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max - broken link)
One of the most potential area in Edison is where ex Ford Assembly you mentioned. e.g. Edison Glen across street just had a 1br condo sold at $213,900. 1br 1ba Condo at Edison Glen near Metuchen Train Stn just Sold... (http://newjersey.craigslist.org/rfs/336524181.html - broken link)
Many people sold because they want to buy bigger home, and that tells Edison real estate has been very active, otherwise, these houses would not have been able to sell so quick...
That area currently has BJ's (like Coastco), China Buffet, Chuck E Cheese, Home Depot, World Carpet, Kim Men huge Chinese Supermarket, Pening Malasia restaurant, not far from Metuchen Train Station and Middlesex County College now has NJ Star program FREE for two year college is top 20% in high school, and NJ Star II program FREE for last two years when transferred to, say, Rutgers Univ.
And, there is a huge Mercedez Benz, Infinity ... dealer there, now a brand new Lexus Edison just grand open.
Even better, the best gas price stations area along that area, and Great Shanghid luxuary restaurant with very affordable cost ...etc.
You will see many more people moving to the area ... and of course, that will help people buying bigger home and move up ...
Edison is a nice place to live and it is over crowded. But that isn't new, NJ over all is over crowded. I'm not sure if thats a good thing. I lived in Edison since 89 went to primary school all the way to high school and a had great life. Now I'm moving to VA due to job and I will miss this place. Being Indian, I can tell you that Indians are not any better or worst then anyone else, so don't move to Edison just because you learned from your friend/family that a lot of Indians are camped out here. I think about all the distractions that exist in Edison and wonder how my kids will ever concentrate in school. Anyway distractions exist everywhere thats point less to ponder. Good Luck I'm now amongst the thousands that flock to oaktree rd. on the weekend from all over the tri-state area
Don't forget there are 4 Chinese schools in Edison and several Chiense supermarkets, and the mayor is Korean American. And most of the government officers are white, so are teachers. So, Edison is a very mixed town.
When my parents came to the US, they landed at Chinatown in SF, why? you got all the support, including same culture and language, later move out of Chinatown to bigger apartment, then to South SF, then to El Cerrito ...etc.
So, for people new from India, Greater Edison area is an easy start and you will found many people from even same town of India who can share their tips with you, same culture to start with. and maybe can walk to NYC train station.
Later, after you got your car, got enough saving, rent your own bigger apartment, then got your green card and may be bought a townhouse at Piscataway, South Plaifield ...etc.
Edison got all the needed Indian stores, restaurants, ...etc. just like Chinatown got all we needed including Chinese newspapers that is so important to my parents to start American life.
compare Edison and Piscataway, which one is better (environment, school system, communte time and childcare)? We currently have 17-month-old and may plan to have another one some time later. My husband is considering to buy new townhouse(3 bdroom+full basement) in Edison. The zoned school is Edison high, not North Edison so I have a little bit concern. The rating of Edison high in greatschool.net is only 6. However, my husband think North Edison is over crowded and no new community release recently so that most new comers will move to Edison High zone and the rating probably will go up by the time when our 17-month-old goes to high school. What do you think? or we should consider Piscataway instead as it's a new developing town and lots of wall street professional move to the area, too. (we both work in NYC)
If you're looking around Edison, don't forget Metuchen.
Edison is shaped like a donut; Metuchen is the "donut hole." It has its own NJ Transit station, right on the Northeast Corridor line. In the area around the train station there is a compact downtown area, very walkable, with nice restaurants, used bookstores, a live (not movie) theatre, etc.
I'm moving out -- my job moved to Pennsylvania -- but I wish I could stay.
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Don't forget Metuchen
