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I know there are a lot of relators on here and people who can offer advice. I have had to lower my home buying budget and think that these are my new options:
Perhaps a Townhouse / Condo in a good school area, but I sacrafice space, have to pay fees. (Manalapan.Freehold, etc)
Or a house in Freehold boro where the elemenatry schools may not be as good but your closer to the boro, things to do.
If someone can offer suggestions on other towns that would be great. Budget is 270k, trying to stay between Asbury Park, and North towards East Brunswick. We felt Freehold was more of the central area we were looking for.
Having kids = needing good schools, IMO. I would take the smaller house in the good school district over the bigger house in the so-so school district. With that said, I have no experience or knowledge of the areas you are looking at, but if you know that one district is definitely better than the other, that is where I would look.
Schools are something you need to deal with daily for a long time and your life will most likely revolve around the school activities. When it comes to other things, so what if you need to drive a couple miles to eat out or go shopping?
Do you already have kids? Because if you do the answer is very clear cut, you sacrifice the space. At the end of the day your job as a parent is to best prepare your children for success in the world a better school district will do that an extra 500 sq ft of space in their childhood home will not.
I'm not familiar with the areas you mentioned but if you are talking about the number 10 ranked school district vs. the number 12 ranked school district it's not big deal you can go with either. If you are talking about the #10 vs. #55, obviously go with #10.
If you do not have children yet and do not plan to within the next year or two I would say shop based on which house you like.
IMO being close to downtown is not all that big of a deal unless your talking about being close to one of the very few awesome downtowns in NJ (ridgewood and Hoboken come to mind). Other than that you can always drive to the action. I used to live in Lyndhurst, not anything special but lots of little eateries, deli's some shoppping. etc. When it came time to move we were reluctant to move to our current town which has nothing but the bare essentials. Then I stopped to think for a moment, besides the supermarket, drug store and occasional pizza or chinese food I drove to different towns to do almost everything anyway.
We dont have kids yet but do plan on having one in the next 1-4 years.
We are looking in the Central NJ, Monmouth County area nowhere near Hoboken.
We dont mind driving to things, were just thinking of what will be best for us to sell 5-10 years down the line.
For example if we move to Freehold Twp where the schools are better we could only afford a 2 bedroom.
If we stay in Freehold Boro the schools arent as good, but we could get a full house with yard and the high school is great.
Also considering Middletown which i know little about.
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