Moving from North Jersey to South Jersey - need some help (Toms River: real estate, apartment)

[camster99]

We are toying with the idea of moving from Bergen county to somewhere in south Jersey. Basic reason is that the kids are going to be graduating high school and we want to get more for our money without moving out of state.

We love Ocean City and LBI so I just explored some of the neighboring towns and all I can say is in WOW - I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH YOU GET FOR YOUR MONEY.

'Little Egg Harbor', 'Galloway' and 'Egg Harbor'. I can't even get an apartment in Bergen County for 300-400k but these towns have mansions for that price.

As the saying goes - 'if it looks too good to be true, it probably is'. What's the catch? What is wrong with these 3 towns? There must be something that I'm overlooking.

Here is what we are looking for:

Obviously a safe town, family oriented would be preferred.
The closer to the shore the better - ideally a 15-20 minute drive to the water would be ideal.
Some type of a town center - good restaurants, Starbucks and all that fun stuff
Low (or lower) property taxes.

I'd love to get some suggestions. We are completely open to exploring any town at all. We both work at home so I don't care how close it is to any office complex, trains etc.....

Thanks all!

[captne76]

My personal guess is you will get much more real estate down there for your money because there is less employment in those areas so people make less or travel further.
Ocean City itself to me is a quieter summer sort of place but thats just my take on it because we only go that way in the warmer months.

[JERSEY MAN]

There's no "catch". Many nice waterfront homes for 300K from Toms River on down. Taxes 6/7K. Good high paying jobs are not close by. But sun and fun and water is great.

[boater1]

Any home you might look at, which is any where close to a body of water.
Be sure you inquire on requirement and cost of flood insurance

In neighborhoods, close to the ocean or Bay, take a good close look around the neighborhood.
Look for signs of abandoned / foreclosed houses.
After Sandy, many houses were abandoned, because owners couldn't pay flood insurance, nor re-hab house to comply with a lower rate (like raise the house)

[jaymoney]

The catch is that they're not built to commute into New York every day.

That and the hurricanes.

[Gerania]

Some type of a town center...

That's where you're going to have a problem. Southern New Jersey doesn't have a lot of that going on.

[DannyHobkins]

Well if you're looking at the shore be weary of some of the towns as the government subsidies tend to attract drug addicts.

[melissanj0927]

Do you have kids? Is school districts a concern?

Stafford Township is great for school districts, and just on the other side of the bridge from LBI.

[bigh110]

stay out of Atlantic county because higher taxes due to the closing of the casinos and their related business. go to cape may county you will pay much less for taxes. i myself live in upper township NJ i go from my driveway drive 2.4 miles to step foot on 34th st beach in OCNJ. i have a 2100 sq ft house taxes are $4150 a year. thats less than my pa house which is 4400 and 1520 sq ft. my taxes are lower due to the power plant in beasleys point which contributes greatly to upper township tax base. plus you have a good school district with OCNJ high school and upper township elementary and middle school. Marmora, Ocean View, Tuckahoe are all close to the beach and around 300k will get you a updated 2,000 to 3000 sq ft house. 150k will get you a decent fixer upper. somers point is 5 miles away with a decent town center.

[camster99]

Thanks for the info. I was looking through Zillow at Upper Township and there are some great homes with reasonable taxes as you mentioned. I'm still very skeptical of these great prices --- again, I'm in Bergen County where the same $400k home in Upper Township would be well over $1M. It's almost too good to be true.

I was reading a lot of posts about these 'biting flies' -- most of it appears to be in Little Egg Harbor and LBI. Have you experienced anything like this in Upper Township? Some of these posts say that it is 'unbearable' to go outside certain times of the year because of these flies. Is there any truth to that?

Another town that is getting some good reviews is Cape May Courthouse. Can you tell me anything about this town?

Anything else that you can tell me about Upper Township and the areas nearby? The more information I have the better --- I love the fact that it is so close to Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon etc......we love that area.