Tell me about Verona (Bloomfield, Montclair: best neighborhoods, broker, houses)
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I wanted to get some thoughts about Verona. We live in Montclair currently, and are looking to get some insight into the town. Specifically the schools, the community, diversity, activities for kids etc. The appeal is being able to upsize and get a little more(more house, more yard, more space, slightly less tax burden, etc) for our money. But we do not know much about the community. I see it isn't the most diverse town which is important to us and why we like Montclair. However, we are also looking at surrounding towns as we look to upsize and Verona came to mind and seems to fit the bill on paper.
From some internet research it seems that the school district is good and i do get the impression they are seeing overflow from people moving out to the area getting priced out of Montclair and some of the other more expensive towns which seems to bode well for the town as well.
So yes, any comments on the best neighborhoods, the best schools, the community in general, likes/dislikes would be very helpful. We will be commuting to NYC so it seems the area around Verona Park near Bloomfield ave is the ideal fit. But i would be curious to hear other options for commuting.
Anyway i just wanted to get some thoughts from anyone with insight.
Good schools. Good town overall. Nothing really stands out to me about it vs most nice north Jersey suburbs to me except the sports team nickname and that it’s close to Montclair.
I think that your point about the overflow from Montclair is probably a good point. I would definitely check a bit more about the schools and such but it sounds like a place that is not bad at all but will likely see an upswing.
Again, I am not too familiar so I strongly encourage more investigating. Hopefully some others with better information and more attuned will comment here.
We looked at GR/Montclair a few years ago and purchased in GR. Verona was our back up since it was simply easier to buy a house (they don’t have BS price low sell high brokering tactics that are common in Montclair and GR). Verona has a conventional selling process like, well, the rest of the country.
That said, Verona is not “hot” like the other two towns. This is mostly due to no midtown direct train. During our search we met others that also had Verona as a backup if they continued to lose out on Montclair bidding wars. When we looked into Verona, we thought the schools were fairly good, maybe half a notch below GR, but still quite fine from elementary thru HS. Although we did drive by an elementary school and were pretty unimpressed with the physical condition of the school (I think there were bars on the windows). Either way, Verona is regarded as a fine town. It is slightly less desirable than Montclair which is why you could get a slightly bigger house/yard and save on taxes. If you don’t commute to midtown, or you take the bus from Montclair, I could definitely see the allure of moving into Verona. I would probably consider the same. But that said if I commuted to an NJ office by car, I’d probably avoid this area all together as the property taxes aren’t worth it if you don’t need the proximity to NYC
Also, I would venture to say that even though Verona is getting some overspill from Montclair it’s either those that don’t need the train or are comfortable doing a bus commute. Although, I will say, unless Verona decides to miraculously get a train station in the future, I don’t see it ever catching up to Montclair nor do I expect it to appreciate anywhere near the same % as Montclair over a 10-20 year period. So if you were to stay in Montclair, the additional appreciation would offset your higher taxes and you’d be better off when you sell the Montclair house in the future going into retirement, rather than a house in Verona. But that obviously doesn’t get you the bigger house/yard that you’re looking for in the interim, which you’d get in Verona.
I think your first step should be to talk to a broker and figure out what you could get for your house and what needs to be done. The market is tricky. For example, they may tell you to put 50k in your house to do light renovations, price low at x99k, and then expect bid to land between 10-20% above that level. So the price you’d get for your house may be a bit gray, but it will undoubtedly go quick. Given those unknowns if you’re house isn’t bid up to a level where you could transfer over to the larger house in Verona it could backfire. Amy Owens is a very prominent realtor in Montclair and maybe it’s worth reaching out to her.
I go to Verona Park all the time with my kids. If you can find a house in that part of town that is within walking distance to the park, that would be a big bonus. The town is very small and there is no "bad" neighborhood. Verona has a small business district along Bloomfield Ave. with a few stores and restaurants, although nothing really stands out compared to what you would find in Montclair. There is very little diversity in town (90% white according to City Data), so if diversity is important then Verona is probably not for you.
Another town you can consider is Cedar Grove. It is very similar to Verona in terms of size and demographics, although with less character in my opinion. In Cedar Grove you would be close to the Montclair State Univ. train station.
I second that. The park is super nice and they installed a massive playground which is pretty much as good as it gets as far as playgrounds go. It’s got to be the nicest playground I’ve seen in NJ. Climbing walls etc....it’s basically a mini Central Park with peddle boats and stone bridges. I was curious and looked at some neighboring houses on zillow and was very surprised at the value vs Montclair...and that’s for park facing houses.
Another very nice neighborhood is the after glow section. We looked at two houses there. You could walk to paths in eagle rock and walk to the decamp bus on Bloomfield Ave. although this area was a bit isolated both geographically and demographically.
We looked at GR/Montclair a few years ago and purchased in GR. Verona was our back up since it was simply easier to buy a house (they don’t have BS price low sell high brokering tactics that are common in Montclair and GR). Verona has a conventional selling process like, well, the rest of the country.
That said, Verona is not “hot” like the other two towns. This is mostly due to no midtown direct train. During our search we met others that also had Verona as a backup if they continued to lose out on Montclair bidding wars. When we looked into Verona, we thought the schools were fairly good, maybe half a notch below GR, but still quite fine from elementary thru HS. Although we did drive by an elementary school and were pretty unimpressed with the physical condition of the school (I think there were bars on the windows). Either way, Verona is regarded as a fine town. It is slightly less desirable than Montclair which is why you could get a slightly bigger house/yard and save on taxes. If you don’t commute to midtown, or you take the bus from Montclair, I could definitely see the allure of moving into Verona. I would probably consider the same. But that said if I commuted to an NJ office by car, I’d probably avoid this area all together as the property taxes aren’t worth it if you don’t need the proximity to NYC
Also, I would venture to say that even though Verona is getting some overspill from Montclair it’s either those that don’t need the train or are comfortable doing a bus commute. Although, I will say, unless Verona decides to miraculously get a train station in the future, I don’t see it ever catching up to Montclair nor do I expect it to appreciate anywhere near the same % as Montclair over a 10-20 year period. So if you were to stay in Montclair, the additional appreciation would offset your higher taxes and you’d be better off when you sell the Montclair house in the future going into retirement, rather than a house in Verona. But that obviously doesn’t get you the bigger house/yard that you’re looking for in the interim, which you’d get in Verona.
I think your first step should be to talk to a broker and figure out what you could get for your house and what needs to be done. The market is tricky. For example, they may tell you to put 50k in your house to do light renovations, price low at x99k, and then expect bid to land between 10-20% above that level. So the price you’d get for your house may be a bit gray, but it will undoubtedly go quick. Given those unknowns if you’re house isn’t bid up to a level where you could transfer over to the larger house in Verona it could backfire. Amy Owens is a very prominent realtor in Montclair and maybe it’s worth reaching out to her.
Thanks good point about appreciation. We hadnt thought about that. We are fine with decamp. Take it every day now and we know the good and the bad commute wise. We definitely would prefer to stay in Montclair and the schools seem to be better imo, but for the type and size of home we want(im also not a huge fan of the super old housing stock), it would be more difficult but not impossible. Looking to stay under 800k. But maybe going a touch higher will change things.
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