Voorhees? (Camden, Linden, Lindenwold: sale, apartment complexes, house)

[gypsygreentea]

Hi everyone,
We are currently living in Bergen County, where the schools are great but the costs are high . We want to find a place in NJ with equally (or better) schools, nice quality of life and reasonable home prices and taxes. People have told us about the Cherry Hill area and specifically about Voorhees. Is this a good choice? We are looking at homes listed online and the prices seem incredibly low to us, but that might be reverse sticker shock given the crazy prices in our area. Is this still a decent area or are the many homes on sale signs of a problem?
Any feedback and suggestions about the area would be most appreciated.
Have a good evening and Happy Mother's Day to all!

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by gypsygreentea

Hi everyone,
We are currently living in Bergen County, where the schools are great but the costs are high . We want to find a place in NJ with equally (or better) schools, nice quality of life and reasonable home prices and taxes. People have told us about the Cherry Hill area and specifically about Voorhees. Is this a good choice? We are looking at homes listed online and the prices seem incredibly low to us, but that might be reverse sticker shock given the crazy prices in our area. Is this still a decent area or are the many homes on sale signs of a problem?
Any feedback and suggestions about the area would be most appreciated.
Have a good evening and Happy Mother's Day to all!

gypsy, I do not recommend Voorhees if you will be sending kids through the school system. Between the 2 towns, Cherry Hill would be better.

Haddonfield & Moorestown have the best schools.

You are looking at housing prices in South Jersey. The economy revolves around Philly, not NY. The only similarity to North Jersey is high taxes. People are moving out (I did) because of job losses & high taxes. We will tell you if the places should be avoided. (I'm assuming that you know that the top of the list to avoid is Camden.)

I told you Cherry Hill & Voorhees in the other thread because I thought that you would not be using the schools, however both towns have the Jewish presence that you are looking for.

[gypsygreentea]

Thanks for clarification, Southbound. Indeed we need quality public schools.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by gypsygreentea

Thanks for clarification, Southbound. Indeed we need quality public schools.

OK, then let's start with the usual mantra, Haddonfield, Moorestown, Cherry Hill, Haddon Heights. Moorestown Friends is the best private school in the area, just an FYI.

Will you be working from home, or will you be commuting to the NY metro area?

[Whoelsebutcharles]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

gypsy, I do not recommend Voorhees if you will be sending kids through the school system. Between the 2 towns, Cherry Hill would be better.

Haddonfield & Moorestown have the best schools.

You are looking at housing prices in South Jersey. The economy revolves around Philly, not NY. The only similarity to North Jersey is high taxes. People are moving out (I did) because of job losses & high taxes. We will tell you if the places should be avoided. (I'm assuming that you know that the top of the list to avoid is Camden.)

I told you Cherry Hill & Voorhees in the other thread because I thought that you would not be using the schools, however both towns have the Jewish presence that you are looking for.

I remember seeing a chart of the Camden & Burlington County towns here on the forum showing color-coded property tax rates and out of them, Voorhees had the lowest, lower than Mt. Laurel and Evesham which are in Burlington County. It was the same color as Maple Shade and Delran I'm almost positive. Voorhees likes to put itself in the same league as CH and Haddonfield with its "success address" banner on the water tower, but it isn't. My cousin actually said the township got rid of that nickname because it's gone downhill.

My aunt and uncle have lived in the town since 1983. Cousins went through the school system, and, while I've never heard them say anything bad about it I do remember an incident when my older cousin wanted to go to Cherry Hill East and tried to say she was living at my grandmother's. There's gang activity in many of the (dirt cheap rent) apartment complexes there now as well. It was an ongoing issue in Echelon Glen by the mall, now its even hit one (can't remember the name) on Evesham Rd. Hopefully the reconstruction of the Echelon Mall/Voorhees Town Center helps save it from further decline, but it certainly isn't what it was say 25 years ago. I don't think it was ever on par with Cherry Hill or Haddonfield though.

[GoPhils]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

gypsy, I do not recommend Voorhees if you will be sending kids through the school system. Between the 2 towns, Cherry Hill would be better.

I told you Cherry Hill & Voorhees in the other thread because I thought that you would not be using the schools, however both towns have the Jewish presence that you are looking for.

I recommend Voorhees . Haha, hopefully the OP saw the discussion about it in the "relo to philly south jersey areas for family" thread. I understand your concern about Eastern (despite it still being in the top 5 ranked schools in SJ), but to recommend Voorhees assuming they wouldn't need the schools and then to specifically not recommend it because of the schools may be taking it a bit far. The issues that exist at Eastern exist at nearly every school in SJ.

That said, I like Voorhees because it is usually more affordable than Moorestown, Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. In this case, coming from Bergen County, price doesn't seem to be as big of an issue, and since you said something about a Jewish community, Cherry Hill is probably the best bet. I think 95% of the synagogues in South Jersey are in Cherry Hill.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by Whoelsebutcharles

I remember seeing a chart of the Camden & Burlington County towns here on the forum showing color-coded property tax rates and out of them, Voorhees had the lowest, lower than Mt. Laurel and Evesham which are in Burlington County. It was the same color as Maple Shade and Delran I'm almost positive. Voorhees likes to put itself in the same league as CH and Haddonfield with its "success address" banner on the water tower, but it isn't. My cousin actually said the township got rid of that nickname because it's gone downhill.

My aunt and uncle have lived in the town since 1983. Cousins went through the school system, and, while I've never heard them say anything bad about it I do remember an incident when my older cousin wanted to go to Cherry Hill East and tried to say she was living at my grandmother's. There's gang activity in many of the (dirt cheap rent) apartment complexes there now as well. It was an ongoing issue in Echelon Glen by the mall, now its even hit one (can't remember the name) on Evesham Rd. Hopefully the reconstruction of the Echelon Mall/Voorhees Town Center helps save it from further decline, but it certainly isn't what it was say 25 years ago. I don't think it was ever on par with Cherry Hill or Haddonfield though.

Thanks, Charles. I lived in Cherry Hill the better part of 40+ years. Before Echelon Mall was built, nobody really thought much about Voorhees. The apartments behind the mall were very nice & reasonably priced when they were built & for years later. My hairdresser lived there & had become partially disabled & I would go there to get my hair done. I haven't been there since she died, though. It's not surprising because that isn't far from all of the apartments in Lindenwold which, though they were extemely nice & desireable when they were built, have been sketchy for at least 2 decades.

All of those expensive housing developments were built in Voorhees, I suppose, because Cherry Hill was about built out. I thought it made for kind of an odd mix.

While I never heard anything bad about elementary schools in Voorhees, I've known that they send their kids to Eastern Regional for highschool, & while it's absolutely not as bad as Overbrook Regional, it's an odd mix that has created social problem for decades.

I first became aware of Eastern Regional when I was a senior in high school, in 1969. The kids from Ashland, which sits between Cherry Hill & Voorhees, along Burnt Mill Road, went through the Cherry Hill school system. That year the state wanted to move them to go with the kids from Voorhees. The parents screamed bloody murder about it & it was dropped. The parents' main objection was that they did not want their kids going to Eastern Regional.

I heard bits & pieces over the years. I had a neighbor who was divorced & his kids went there. He was very unhappy about that. After his mother died, he moved into her house & sold his house next to me to his son. The son told me bits and pieces. It's just not a school that I would recommend, although it looks great on paper. This was around 2004.

I would recommend Voorhees to people who did not intend to use the school system. If they had no kids, grown kids, or planned to send their kids to Moorestown Friends, but I just would not recommend it if their kids would end up in Eastern Regional.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by GoPhils

I recommend Voorhees . Haha, hopefully the OP saw the discussion about it in the "relo to philly south jersey areas for family" thread. I understand your concern about Eastern (despite it still being in the top 5 ranked schools in SJ), but to recommend Voorhees assuming they wouldn't need the schools and then to specifically not recommend it because of the schools may be taking it a bit far. The issues that exist at Eastern exist at nearly every school in SJ.

That said, I like Voorhees because it is usually more affordable than Moorestown, Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. In this case, coming from Bergen County, price doesn't seem to be as big of an issue, and since you said something about a Jewish community, Cherry Hill is probably the best bet. I think 95% of the synagogues in South Jersey are in Cherry Hill.

That's your right. I have heard enough that I won't recommend the school. I don't care how good it looks on paper. If someone wants to move to Voorhees, I wish them luck, however, since this particular OP thinks that Cherry Hill prices are cheap, she can, apparently, afford the towns with the best schools, & if, by chance she were to choose Haddonfield or Moorestown, she can always use the JCC facilities in Cherry Hill or Voorhees. No harm, no foul.

[gypsygreentea]

Thanks for presenting multiple sides to the issue. I guess there are strong opinions about this... we are just in initial stages of inquiry and there are multiple things to consider - where I find a job, where we can afford to buy or rent, where the good schools are... if and when all these things come together we'll make the move, but for now all these opinions are very helpful. Thanks!

[Gerania]

The discussion about Eastern High School is in here: relo to philly south jersey areas for family

The school has a good rating and (after reading that thread) it seems that if you live in a nice house and have enough disposable income, your child will succeed. I know little about the school and have no further comment about it.

Eastern Voorhees is different, and newer, than the Echalon, Ashland areas.