I think we need a new sticky.... ;) (Newark, Jersey City: to rent, house)
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"Realistic vs. Unrealistic Expectations for Aspiring NJ Residents Who Need to Commute to Manhattan" (since this seems to be 1 out of 4 posts lately...)
- Your door to door commute won't be 20 minutes long, even if you live in a tent on the banks of the Hudson
- You won't be able to find a 4 br, 2.5 ba, 3000sf house on an acre of land in the NYC 'burbs for $100K, or $800/mo to rent; and yes, your property taxes really CAN be that expensive--we get that you paid $67K for that kind of house in your old city/state, with $1K/yr in property taxes, but it's not going to happen here
- The places with the fastest/easiest commutes won't have stellar public schools--you'll have to prioritize one over the other to some extent
- Don't be upset or defensive when people nicely try to make you understand these things--if you are so easily ruffled, perhaps you should rethink your decision to move to NJ
There are so many variables to commuting, between where the actual residence/office are in relation to the bus/train station, cars, traffic, and the fact that jobs are not secure these days, it is very difficult to pick a place to live where commuting times is restricted to a small window.
I used to live in Brooklyn and it takes me anywhere from 40-55 minutes door to door commute. Now that I have moved to Westfield, the door to door is 1.5 hours on a typical day. I think this is a win and well within my own expectation. I can shave 15 minutes of the commute if I buy a second car.
"Realistic vs. Unrealistic Expectations for Aspiring NJ Residents Who Need to Commute to Manhattan" (since this seems to be 1 out of 4 posts lately...)
- Your door to door commute won't be 20 minutes long, even if you live in a tent on the banks of the Hudson
- You won't be able to find a 4 br, 2.5 ba, 3000sf house on an acre of land in the NYC 'burbs for $100K, or $800/mo to rent; and yes, your property taxes really CAN be that expensive--we get that you paid $67K for that kind of house in your old city/state, with $1K/yr in property taxes, but it's not going to happen here
- The places with the fastest/easiest commutes won't have stellar public schools--you'll have to prioritize one over the other to some extent
- Don't be upset or defensive when people nicely try to make you understand these things--if you are so easily ruffled, perhaps you should rethink your decision to move to NJ
Excellent suggestion! We should also include, "yes, we already know that NJ sucks and that it is corrupt. We live here for the jobs!"
How about "Everybody who has children wants 'great schools'. There is no need to specify that. You will get the schools that exist in the town you can afford."
The other one that drives me nuts is that these people all specify that they want to live somewhere safe, as if unsafe is the default in NJ. Of course you want to live somewhere safe. Do you even have to SAY that?
In most cases you'll be lucky if you can get from your door to the appropriate bus or train in 20 minutes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Praxis
There are so many variables to commuting, between where the actual residence/office are in relation to the bus/train station, cars, traffic, and the fact that jobs are not secure these days, it is very difficult to pick a place to live where commuting times is restricted to a small window.
I used to live in Brooklyn and it takes me anywhere from 40-55 minutes door to door commute. Now that I have moved to Westfield, the door to door is 1.5 hours on a typical day. I think this is a win and well within my own expectation. I can shave 15 minutes of the commute if I buy a second car.
Exactly. People who don't commute haven't any idea of the intracacies involved. If any of these would-be residents are reading this, here are my own commuting details.
It takes me about 7 minutes to drive from my house to my train station (which costs me $360 a year to park there) and then I need a couple of minutes to walk through the lot and get to the other side of the tracks because the parking spaces on the side of the tracks where in the inbound trains are go to the residents of the town where the train station is. Meaning, if I leave my house one minute too late for some reason, I will be standing on the other side of the train tracks watching my train fill up with the passengers who got there on time and will have to wait another 10/15/25 minutes for the next one.
It takes me about 55 minutes to get to Newark Penn Station. I get off the train there and switch to PATH. Usually there is one waiting or about to arrive, but other times the train is full or there are delays. Mostly I make the connection, though.
It then takes about 18 - 20 minutes on PATH, usually standing, to get to Exchange Place in Jersey City. I then have a five-minute walk to the office. Total commute time is therefore around one and a half hours, and I'm not even in Manhattan.
In the office we moved from, it was NJ Transit to Hoboken, PATH Hoboken to 23rd Street, and an eight-minute walk to the office. Total time was around 2 hours.
From Midland Park, my commute was: leave the house and walk a block to where the bus to the city stops. Get on the bus and get a free ride showing my monthly rail ticket to Ridgewood train station, about a six-minute ride. Catch the Ridgewood train to Hoboken, and then the PATH to 23rd. Total time was about and hour and 20 minutes. Now if you look at NJ Transit's train schedule, you can see that on an express train, Ridgewood to Hoboken is about 35 minutes. On a non-express, 45. Those numbers on that schedule do not tell the whole story.
Even when I worked at the World Trade Center, it was at least an hour and ten minutes, including getting up to the office from the PATH well, lol, which involved the big escalators and two elevators to get to my floor!
I would also like to ban the use of the word "diverse" or "diversity" when asking about towns. Thx!
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