Uncertain what to choose between NoVa, NJ suburbs of NYC and NJ suburbs of Philadelphia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Real estate taxes in nj are crazy high because there's no sales tax.

Not true by the way.

Sales tax is 7% but not charged on things considered essentials.

[Anonymous]

NJ Doesn't have sales tax on most food and clothing purchases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Randolph, which is next to Morristown, for 5 years. I moved there from Arlington. Every single day of those 5 years, I wanted to move. It is awful, it is not a suburb the way the DC suburbs are suburbs, the towns you mention are much more provincial, much less diverse in every way, and as lovely as they are to look at, we could not take it any longer and moved. FYI, the total commute into the city, when you add in the drive to the train station, parking, the train ride itself, and getting wherever you need to go from Penn Station, is 2 hours. Each way. And the trains are regularly delayed.

Exactly.

I think it matters what you mean by diverse. I find more racial and religious diversity in Northern NJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Randolph, which is next to Morristown, for 5 years. I moved there from Arlington. Every single day of those 5 years, I wanted to move. It is awful, it is not a suburb the way the DC suburbs are suburbs, the towns you mention are much more provincial, much less diverse in every way, and as lovely as they are to look at, we could not take it any longer and moved. FYI, the total commute into the city, when you add in the drive to the train station, parking, the train ride itself, and getting wherever you need to go from Penn Station, is 2 hours. Each way. And the trains are regularly delayed.

Exactly.

I think it matters what you mean by diverse. I find more racial and religious diversity in Northern NJ.

I am the PP who lived in Randolph. Everyone was white. Every single person. Occasionally I met a black person but I think that happened maybe 2 or 3 times in 5 years. There were almost no Asians. Virtually no Hispanics (although Morristown itself and Dover were exceptions). No mixed marriages. I met one single parent family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Randolph, which is next to Morristown, for 5 years. I moved there from Arlington. Every single day of those 5 years, I wanted to move. It is awful, it is not a suburb the way the DC suburbs are suburbs, the towns you mention are much more provincial, much less diverse in every way, and as lovely as they are to look at, we could not take it any longer and moved. FYI, the total commute into the city, when you add in the drive to the train station, parking, the train ride itself, and getting wherever you need to go from Penn Station, is 2 hours. Each way. And the trains are regularly delayed.

Exactly.

I think it matters what you mean by diverse. I find more racial and religious diversity in Northern NJ.

I am the PP who lived in Randolph. Everyone was white. Every single person. Occasionally I met a black person but I think that happened maybe 2 or 3 times in 5 years. There were almost no Asians. Virtually no Hispanics (although Morristown itself and Dover were exceptions). No mixed marriages. I met one single parent family.

Me again. No gay people. No international families.

[Anonymous]

All of those send better than the cesspool that is nova

[Anonymous]

I have friends in Morris County. It's very pretty there and there are some nice towns, but as others mentioned, taxes are very high and the commute to NYC is not fun. But if you can work in New Jersey, it wouldn't be bad. Go check it out and see what you think!

South Jersey is a different animal. Slower paced than Northern New Jersey. There are some very cute towns like Haddonfield and Moorestown (not Morristown) with good schools. Cherry Hill has good schools, too but is more sprawly.

I think you get more of a community feel in New Jersey (either North or South) than you do in NoVA. It's much less transient and each town generally has established borders more than the county sprawl of Fairfax. School districts are generally township based, for example. Again, I think a visit is worthwhile. You will know when you see them whether you like them or not. Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

We moved to DC from Chestnut Hill recently. It was by far the best place we have ever lived. Great community and lots of families. I felt the Philadelphia area to be much more family friendly then DC. I appreciated the diversity of Cheatnut Hill/Mt Airey. You also have two train lines into center city philly in CH and its extremely walkable but with a small village feel but you have the convenience of the suburbs 10-15 min away. There is the school issue but there are a few affordable private schools in the area or you could live a few streets over in Wyndmor for the better school district. Your tax load will be lighter on the PA side but if your in Philly public schools aren't a good option. Also, your over cost of living (especially housing) is a lot lower in Philly compared to DC metro area.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks much for your replies. According to the map even a commute from Sewell NJ to Haddonfield would be around 40 minutes. So clearly living on the PA side is not an option.

We almost drove up to both the Philly and the Northern NJ area this weekend, but because of the snow I'm glad we didn't.

Are the schools generally a lot better in Northern NJ than in Southern NJ?

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Southern NJ is very nice. Depends where you are considering in NOVA to know if it's better or worse. NJ is more middle class/blue collar than NOVA whereas NOVA has a large rich and poor population.

[Anonymous]

I consider real estate taxes in Nova to be low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks much for your replies. According to the map even a commute from Sewell NJ to Haddonfield would be around 40 minutes. So clearly living on the PA side is not an option.

We almost drove up to both the Philly and the Northern NJ area this weekend, but because of the snow I'm glad we didn't.

Are the schools generally a lot better in Northern NJ than in Southern NJ?

Thanks again.

I grew up in South Jersey and have close ties there still, so I can speak to that. Even though mapquest says a Sewell to Haddonfield commute is 40 min, it really won't be as draining as a 40 min commute in NoVa or North Jersey bc there's simply less population density there; I wouldn't even attempt a daily commute from the Main Line/Phil suburbs. Schools in Northern NJ generally rank higher, but if you want to be in SJ -- the top 4 districts are Moorestown (different from Morristown in North Jersey), Haddonfield, Cherry Hill and Voorhees; those 4 compete very well with the rest of the state and all of those are commutable from DH's job in Sewell.

One thing no one has brought up -- what industry is your DH in and how excited is he about this offer? If he's in medicine or anything healthcare related -- ignore this, as South Jersey and Phil have become huge medical areas. But the economy in EVERYTHING else is pretty stagnant in South Jersey regardless of what locals believe -- business, engineering, and law; there are lots of professionals there working at jobs that are far less challenging that what you'd find in NYC and DC and for less pay -- likely bc they are from SJ and don't want to leave. Point is, if you go with an offer in SJ, you DH should be 100% certain re the job, the company and the bosses/coworkers. If he gets there and in 1 yr decides it's not for him, there's a huge chance you'd have to move to another area or back to DC or whatever. Moving has its costs obviously, keep in mind the housing market in SJ is nothing like NOVA. Sure you get a lot for your money, but selling a house there is no easy feat. I have friends in NOVA who have sold homes within 1-2 weeks of listing even when the economy was in the tank; in SJ -- it is not at all uncommon for a house to sit on the market for 1-2 YEARS -- simply bc you don't have people moving into the area since there isn't much job creation. Local south jersey folks won't tell you this stuff bc they tend to be very tied to their community -- much more than DC/Nova -- for many/most, they were born and raised there and wouldn't dream of dealing with the stress of NYC or DC -- so in their minds Phil/South Jersey is the best there is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks much for your replies. According to the map even a commute from Sewell NJ to Haddonfield would be around 40 minutes. So clearly living on the PA side is not an option.

We almost drove up to both the Philly and the Northern NJ area this weekend, but because of the snow I'm glad we didn't.

Are the schools generally a lot better in Northern NJ than in Southern NJ?

Thanks again.

I grew up in South Jersey and have close ties there still, so I can speak to that. Even though mapquest says a Sewell to Haddonfield commute is 40 min, it really won't be as draining as a 40 min commute in NoVa or North Jersey bc there's simply less population density there; I wouldn't even attempt a daily commute from the Main Line/Phil suburbs. Schools in Northern NJ generally rank higher, but if you want to be in SJ -- the top 4 districts are Moorestown (different from Morristown in North Jersey), Haddonfield, Cherry Hill and Voorhees; those 4 compete very well with the rest of the state and all of those are commutable from DH's job in Sewell.

One thing no one has brought up -- what industry is your DH in and how excited is he about this offer? If he's in medicine or anything healthcare related -- ignore this, as South Jersey and Phil have become huge medical areas. But the economy in EVERYTHING else is pretty stagnant in South Jersey regardless of what locals believe -- business, engineering, and law; there are lots of professionals there working at jobs that are far less challenging that what you'd find in NYC and DC and for less pay -- likely bc they are from SJ and don't want to leave. Point is, if you go with an offer in SJ, you DH should be 100% certain re the job, the company and the bosses/coworkers. If he gets there and in 1 yr decides it's not for him, there's a huge chance you'd have to move to another area or back to DC or whatever. Moving has its costs obviously, keep in mind the housing market in SJ is nothing like NOVA. Sure you get a lot for your money, but selling a house there is no easy feat. I have friends in NOVA who have sold homes within 1-2 weeks of listing even when the economy was in the tank; in SJ -- it is not at all uncommon for a house to sit on the market for 1-2 YEARS -- simply bc you don't have people moving into the area since there isn't much job creation. Local south jersey folks won't tell you this stuff bc they tend to be very tied to their community -- much more than DC/Nova -- for many/most, they were born and raised there and wouldn't dream of dealing with the stress of NYC or DC -- so in their minds Phil/South Jersey is the best there is.

The stagnant economy thing includes Philadelphia -- not just the SJ suburbs BTW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks much for your replies. According to the map even a commute from Sewell NJ to Haddonfield would be around 40 minutes. So clearly living on the PA side is not an option.

We almost drove up to both the Philly and the Northern NJ area this weekend, but because of the snow I'm glad we didn't.

Are the schools generally a lot better in Northern NJ than in Southern NJ?

Thanks again.

Best schools in SJ are moorestown, haddonfield, cherry hill east. Second tier would be medford and voorhees.

I am from SJ, moved to NOVA, and moving back to SJ in the next few months. I would stay here in NOVA but need the free child care (family)!

[Anonymous]

I am so glad to stumble upon this thread! My family will be moving to SJ this summer and we are starting to look at real estate. We'll need to be within 20 minutes or so of Moorestown.

We currently like in Silver Spring and like the laid back atmosphere, the diversity, and the sense of community. Can anyone with experience in the area share what neighborhoods might be most like SS? We live in a part that might be comparable to Takoma Park but is a little less crunchy. I grew up in Somerset and am not interested in some place that is that exclusive. We're looking to spend less than $500K on a home.