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We're moving into the area from Missouri and were wondering what suggestions you have for places to live. We'll be working in Ewing and have heard that parts of Ewing and Hopewell are good, as well as Princeton. However, we don't know much about cost of living in those places.
The other thought we've had is if it is better (or cheaper) to live in Bucks County PA.
Any thoughts or advice you could share would be appreciated.
Welcome to New Jersey! I'm from Missouri too. I moved up here because my hubby's family are all up here. You are going to be flabbergasted at first at how different housing prices and especially taxes are from MO. Ewing does have some nice areas with a little better pricing than some areas, however.........nothing is cheap around here! It all matters to what price range you are looking for. Hamilton township homes run around $335,000 on up for anything decent and that is still an older home. It's in a good area though. I think you get more ground for your money in Ewing. That's a matter of opinion however. Happy Holidays and I hope you find what you are looking for!
Thanks for the info. We haven't figured out too much about pricing because we're still trying to figure out what "reasonable" is for NJ. Definitely a vast difference from MO. We're open to a townhouse or maybe to rent, initially as we get a feel for the area.
Is PA a lot cheaper? Someone told me that but its hard to get a good idea online. If we end up in PA are the schools as good? I've read good things about the Hopewell schools.
ditto viralmd re: Bucks County. Be cautious with Ewing and Lawrence Township, as they border Trenton and the border areas can be just as bad as Trenton.
How long of a commute can you live with?
Have you determined a price range for housing?
Hello Missouri!
We relocated here from MS and were shocked at the prices, but that was 16 years ago. We now live in West Windsor (across Rt 1 from Princeton). We moved here because of the schools. If you have kids that would be a big consideration. Christina is right, Ewing, Lawrenceville and Hamilton all border Trenton so parts of these townships are iffy. Also insurance in quite a bit higher in these townships because they do border Trenton (car and homeowner). I know this because we rented in Lawrenceville before we bought. The schools are also vastly different, if you have kids I might suggest that you check out the stats. Hopewell schools are really good but prices in that township are quite high as are the taxes, a good percentage of the taxes fund the schools so consequently the better the schools the higher the taxes. Check out realtor.com for housing prices. I can tell you that our small (2400 sq foot home) is 50 years old, has 3 bedrooms/2 baths and was recently assessed at 509,000, our taxes are about 10,000/yearly. Hamilton and Ewing are less expensive and Princeton is very, very expensive. Hopewell and Pennington (good school districts) are about the same as West Windsor.
Don't mean to shock you but this area is very expensive compared to some other States-just thought I'd cushion the blow for you! Good luck with your search!
Thanks for all the info. We have a daughter, although she's only a year old so we have some time before school. We were thinking in the $300k - $350k price range for a house or townhouse (more because that's what we thought we'd have to get to have somewhere nice to live - we don't need a big house but some of the things on realtor.com, etc imply you need to spend that much to have a decent place in a decent neighborhood). That's a big step up from what we have here, but that's the cost of living for you. I wasn't expecting a 2400sq ft home to be over $500k. Is $300k unreasonable then? Seems like there's some stuff on realtor.com that would fit that bill, but its hard to tell if they're really good locations or not.
You may want to consider Burlington County. It is not a long commute to Ewing, you would take I-295 North and the traffic is generally not unbearable (as per NJ standards). I have a couple of coworkers who live in Eastampton and they can get to Trenton in 25-30 minutes; Ewing is only a little further and you might not live as far south as Eastampton. I think you would have an easier time finding good homes in that price range in Burlington County, rather than Mercer or Hunterdon Counties. Overall, the schools are good, crime is reasonably low. Avoid Willingboro and Burlington City; some parts of Bordentown are dicey and other parts are very nice. Other than that, I haven't heard anything negative about the other towns in Burlington County.
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. I moved up here because my hubby's family are all up here. You are going to be flabbergasted at first at how different housing prices and especially taxes are from MO. Ewing does have some nice areas with a little better pricing than some areas, however.........nothing is cheap around here! It all matters to what price range you are looking for. Hamilton township homes run around $335,000 on up for anything decent and that is still an older home. It's in a good area though. I think you get more ground for your money in Ewing. That's a matter of opinion however. Happy Holidays and I hope you find what you are looking for!
