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i'm a 27 year female working in midtown manhattan. i'm thinking of either getting a studio or 1 bedroom coop in queens (woodside, jackson hts, sunnyside etc.) or a single family home/condo in jersey city all depending on what my budget of 150k can afford.
I've never lived in jersey city and currently live in bushwick, brooklyn. Right now, i'm still deciding what to do. I've checked out the River View area of jersey city heights and think its great but worried about 1. commute by bus 2. proximity of nearby restaurants/stores/things to do however i like the fact that i can actually get SPACE and not a shoebox.
so question is...
Coop in Queens or Condo/SFS in jersey city? what would you guys do?
queens would be a quicker commute however 1. small space (possibly considering children in the future) 2. small coop appreciation
I'll choose Jersey City, but depends on how far you are looking at. Union City is a changing city and close to the city and will be priced in your range. You could ride the bus and be in Manhattan in 15 minutes. Plus moving to Jersey City you get more for your money. Why would you want to live in a studio apartment, vs a comfortable 1 or 2 bedroom for the price. I can't tell you about the education system in Jersey, since you are considering having children. I know more about Brooklyn and Manhattan schools. Do your homework regarding Jersey City. Go to the Jersey site here and post questions, you'll get more answers from those who live in the community.
My husband and I had this exact dillema last year. We wanted to buy in Queens but for what we could afford, we found only very small older units available in our price range. He wanted a garage space as well.
When we looked at Jersey City we found we could get MUCH more in JC Heights then we ever imagined for the same cost of a 1 bedroom in queens. We bought a 3 bed 2 1/2 bath with back yard and garage for around the same as a 1 bedroom in queens.
There are some differences in queens and JC though.
I found in queens I had more access to good restaurants and food shopping. In JC, the only places we really like to go are downtown JC and Hoboken. Very few restaurants that I like in the heights area. Most are pretty run down it seems, but there are a lot of food places so you might find some that you like.
Not much social life in the heights. You have to go downtown or hoboken for that.
I take the $1.50 van to Journal Square and then take the path to midtown. The vans run all the time day and night up until about 1 am. They go to Journal Square and to Port Authority. To go to Port Authority it's like $2.00.
Property taxes are higher in JC then in Queens too. Good luck!
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queens vs jersey
