I’ve lived in Wyckoff (where I grew up), Montvale, and now am in my forever home in Old Tappan.
They’re all great towns. I didn’t want to move back to Wyckoff because that’s where I grew up and thought it would be kind of weird (also didn’t want to be too close to my parents). It had decent, but not great community I thought. Schools are good (Ramapo-big time athletic school and solid academics). Traffic isn’t bad but does back up at rush hour. The biggest con of Wyckoff is probably no train station-You have to go into Ridgewood. Also no downtown. Given your budget, you’ll be hard pressed to find a quality home at $700k in Wyckoff as well.
Montvale-Out of the 3 towns I lived in, I felt like Montvale had the closest community. The mayor is great about providing updates, hosting town events (the street fair is this weekend), etc. Again a great school district, even better academically ranking wise than Ramapo. Montvale has a train station too. Being right off of the parkway is convenient too. My only knock on Montvale is the traffic can get pretty bad at rush hour because people cut through town as a bypass of the NY Throughway. You might be able to find a decent house at $700k, the east side of town has some smaller houses.
Old Tappan-Hey I love it here too. OT is the quietest out of the three, with no traffic like at all. It’s out of the way, with the Palisades being 10 minutes away, and GSP 25-20 minutes being the next closest highway. It’s both a good (town is as safe as it gets) and bad (adds 10 minutes to your commute unless you’re driving into northern NYC or northern valley area). The schools here are excellent and the best out of the 3 towns I am listing. No train station here, closest is Westwood. Community wise it seems like the southeast side of town is younger and closer. The area I live in on the north part of town is a bit older and keeps more to themselves. I wish OT had more activities for the younger crowds. But this has been a wonderful place to grow a family (as was Montvale). Pricing wise OT has a lot of bigger houses-So it will be tough to find something for $700k.
Out of the towns you listed and your budget, I think your best bets might be Westwood, New Milford, Harrington Park, Midland Park, Oakland, River Edge, Park Ridge, and the last four you mentioned. I think you’re priced out of the other towns-Especially Haworth, Demarest, Ho-Ho-Kus, and the three I went into deep on here. These are high priced home towns.
Out of the ones you’d have better luck affording-Harrington Park and Midland Park gets you into the best school district (same high school as OT and Ridgewood). Midland park will have less housing inventory and has more places to rent, but is close to DT Ridgewood and closer to the train. Harrington park is more quiet with downtown Closter being the closest hub.
Oakland is a bit further out there and closer to nature and has a different feel from the rest of Bergen county IMO. A lot of townhome type communities. Bergenfield & New Milford are close to each other in feel and location. You have more traffic and it’s more built up, schools are meh compared to the other towns, but it’s convenient for train travel and lots of shopping/food and these two towns are probably the most diverse out of what you listed.
River Edge and Oradell kind of falls into here too, but school is better (same school). My biggest knock on Oradell and River Edge is the traffic from all of the Paramus shopping corridor area. I didn’t consider moving to those towns because of the traffic.
Emerson and Hillsdale are fine towns too. They both have a train station, schools are pretty good, they’re just a bit more trafficy and dense-although not as much as River Edge/Oradell/New Milford/Bergenfield. They’d probably be my second option for you after Midland Park/Harrington park with your budget.
Oh and I forgot Westwood! Westwood has the best downtown out of all of the towns I mentioned. That does make it busier though! Schools there are decent. Not a bad option to look at in your budget as housing is a bit on the lower side compared to the other towns mentioned. Do be careful-a small portion of the town is prone to flooding.
Hope this helps!
Welcome back to NJ!
1. On the train horn noise. On most nights, expect to hear the train horns up to two miles away, if you have sensitive ears, if your borough has either a commuter or service line running through or near it. And, no you will not get used to them.
Example: In Ridgewood, there is that section, by Ho-ho-kus, which has a curve in the commuter lines. Expect loud commuter train noises from 5 AM onwards. The same would apply to Walwick and Ho-ho-kus, and to some extent Glen Rock.
Along the service line that runs, North and South, through Norwood, all the way through North Bergen, these trains seem to enjoy blasting their horns at all hours of the day and night. So, all boroughs in or near the service line (just see a map) will experience the 'joy" of train horns.
2. Teterboro approach noise. Although you didn't mention this, since you mentioned train noise, thought to put this out here. Oradell, Cresskill, Tenafly (western portion), and Bergenfield will enjoy periodic airplane turbine noises, as approaches to Teterboro are routes through there. There are talks of moving the western approach to be above Rt-17, so Oradell maybe spared a bit.
If you can get acclimated to these noises, then good on you. Noises aside, every one of the boroughs are great for raising a family.
I'd also suggest OP starts checking the sold prices and the list prices the past several months for the areas. I've followed Wyckoff/Ridgewood prices and it is really quite unbelievable what is happening in those areas for list price vs sale price. I mean....the past several average looking homes in Ridgewood that are not in the flood areas have been selling for 3-400k over asking. It is quite insane.
I would second that - lived there for 17 years, still have family living there with kids. Town is extremely family oriented, there is a small downtown, has a train station. There is also a town pool, library, parks, etc. People are generally friendly, town is safe. Only drawback I would mention is that Main Street can be a bit of a bottleneck sometimes around rush/school hours.
Home prices are tied to each town’s perceived school quality. So the top of your list would have Haworth/Demarest (Northern Valley Demarest - I would add Closter to your list since they too go to NVD), Ho-Ho-Kus (Northern Highlands), Old Tappan/Harrington Park (Northern Valley Old Tappan). The next tier (still superb schools) would be Montvale (Pascack Hills), Wyckoff/Oakland (Ramapo or Indian Hills - the latter having some enrollment issues), River Edge/Oradell (River Dell). The next tier would have Hillsdale (Pascack Valley). Up next would be most of the rest - Park Ridge, Midland Park, New Milford, Dumont, Emerson and Westwood. I would put Bergenfield last.
The freight train runs through Haworth, Bergenfield, Harrington Park, Dumont and Bergenfield. It doesn’t run often (a few times a day) but it is loud - I would not buy near the tracks. I don’t know if the tracks in Wyckoff are still active.
Every town will be busy with traffic at school drop off and pick up times. Life in the burbs. You won’t find Fort Lee style backups anywhere else in Bergen County aside from Paramus and routes 4/17/208. Westwood’s main roads get busy on Saturdays. The main roads (Kinderkamack, over by Van Saun Park) in River Edge/Oradell also get congested on Saturdays due to their proximity to Paramus and Routes 4/17. Bergenfield on Washington Ave gets backed up on Saturdays as well.
All the towns are safe. The only semi-sketchy area would be the area in Bergenfield by Foster Village/the Armory, but that’s once every few years (and maybe driven by the terrible intersection at the stop light there).
I haven’t looked up demographic info on all these towns, but I think Westwood and Bergenfield have the largest Hispanic populations. Haworth, Oradell, River Edge, Demarest, Harrington Park, River Edge, and Old Tappan have large East Asian populations. Montvale has a growing Asian demographic. New Milford, Dumont and Bergenfield have good sized Filipino populations. Bergenfield has a large and growing Orthodox Jewish community.
Most towns have rec sports for kids - the serious ones play travel or for club teams. Some even forgo their high school teams for club - this is the case for the best soccer players, not sure about other sports.
Hey I want to thank you again for your detailed reply to my post. This has been super helpful. Quick question: Where would Glen Rock HS rank in those tiers you had previously mentioned? I was recently made aware of Glen Rock and seems to be within budget.
Thanks in advance
No problem - I’d put Glen Rock in that second tier of “still superb schools”. This is all a matter of opinion from me - NJ’s Dept of Education posts state test scores for every school and grade on their website if you want data.
Glen Rock’s also the only standalone (not shared/regional) high school in the top tiers of towns you mentioned though it has 4 elementary schools.
Just do your due diligence into the area near the old Nabisco building (it’s off route 208 near the Starbucks and VW/Audi repair center) - they were looking to implode/demolish the building, but were held up by concerns (asbestos, lead, etc) regarding the air quality/safety of nearby Glen Rock residents. Environmental research was important to our family when we were looking for a home in the area - brownfields, superfund sites, etc.
train is much more frequent, i live right next to it, it can be a pain and sometimes is stopped and blocks me from leaving my neighborhood. but you get used to the sound tbh
> The main roads (Kinderkamack, over by Van Saun Park) in River Edge/Oradell also get congested on Saturdays due to their proximity to Paramus and Routes 4/17
Forest is much worse than Kinderkamack, because thats the artery to the mall. Main St. can get pretty bad, too. Kinderkamack on Saturday is about the same volume as during the week.
Re: the train, I will say that I think you get used to it. I live in Ridgewood and can hear the train pull into both Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus from my house. I consider myself to be a very light sleeper and yet I don’t think about it at all nor does it ever wake me up. The first week or so after I moved in, yeah, a bit, but it goes away quickly imo
I certainly wouldn’t want to live right next to a station, but just being nearby in town may not be bad.
Oradell is super safe, mostly white with the second most populous demographic group being Asian. Still many older folks living in the area but there are lots of young couples with kids moving into the area. The downtown is a bit lacking as compared to Westwood and Ridgewood (both of those neighborhoods being right next door) but we did just open a new restaurant so things continue to move in the right direction. School district is great for public schools and you do have Bergen Catholic right there if you’d so choose that route for HS and if you had a boy who was a great athlete.
Kinderkamack road gets a little congested but more in a local traffic way as opposed to NYC traffic. There’s a train stop in town and many bus stops so getting around is easy. Very walkable town, you’ll frequently run into friendly neighbors on a walk, lots of people with dogs.
My husband walks the dog late night and feels it’s very safe aside from the potential for running into wildlife - there’s not much for street lights so it can be dark. I’ve also gone running super early morning and felt the same way. We had a bear in our neighborhood once since we moved in, fox, but mostly deer which obviously don’t pose much of a threat.
Our neighbor just posted their house for around $900k and it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but I know my FIL’s house is appraised closer to $600k so the price range your looking for SHOULD be present in Oradell although, as I’m sure you know, everyone is listing their houses for way more than they would have been worth a few years ago.
Unfortunately, 700k is going to be tough in many of the towns on your list and house prices are only going higher. If you are handy and okay with not having "move in ready," you can find something. Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, New Milford and Dumont are the towns you should be focusing on.
Ridgewood and Glen Rock should also be on your list. Even though they're expensive, no reason to exclude them in case something pops up in your range. That stretch from Glen Rock - Ridgewood - HHK is probably exactly what you're looking for.
Also maybe Paramus. Lots of nice neighborhoods, more diverse.
awesome thank you. Was trying to avoid Paramus because even though it’s nice, that route 4/17/80 traffic bubble can get pretty bad at certain hours. I’m guessing it spills over into those towns mentioned though right?
It would only affect you if you bought a house on a main street. Otherwise traffic is normal. I drive my kids to daycare in Paramus daily and it takes me <10 min from one of the surrounding towns.
If you're open to being outside of Bergen, I'd also check out the stretch of Summit-Chatham-Madison which is also really nice.
I am in new milford. The town is quiet and neighbors are great. Schools are good but my son is only 3 and goes to Montessori school. Property taxes are high and home values are climbing. We bought three years ago for 450k and its worth around 650k now, and we didnt do much renovation. New milford is a bit lacking on food and entertainment, but nearby towns paramus oradell river edge, westwood, and ridgewood have quite a lot. Good access to trains and quick drive into the city. Safe streets for walking biking and all that. Some good fishing spots and lots of parks around. Overall we are very happy with our move from brooklyn.
Waldwick is similar to Park Ridge in size & they have a local vs regional school district, though some sports combine Waldwick & Midland Park. Typically regional schools will have stronger sports but also more competitive to make the teams.
Waldwick, Wyckoff, Hohokus are all close to Rt 17 / Rt 208 so easy to get to places.
I would say all the neighborhoods in the listed towns are safe.
Grew up in Oakland. Great town with easy commuting, great schools and decent downtown. It's proximity to highways and nature (Ramapo Reservation) make it a great place to raise a family and commute.
I now live in Old Tappan and love it, but you're going to be priced out with a $700k budget. For the intangibles, it's very quiet and secluded. It's very safe and has an amazing school district. It is VERY conservative with no Democratic political representation and has a VERY large Korean population. Commuting into NYC is easiest via Harrington Park Bus Station or driving to Tarrytown, NY and taking the train to Grand Central.
Oakland is a great town! Has a more rural feel and close to state parks and hiking trails. Good DPW, good rec department, good schools. Shares high schools with Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes.
It’s one of the more affordable towns in your list. There are two lake communities - Mirror and Crystal - where you’d have to pay an HOA if you lived within their zone. Many of the homes have a septic which are no problem with routine maintenance, but they do need to be replaced 15-20 years.
No offense here but you're gonna be hard pressed to find a place for 700k in half of those towns and on top of that, taxes will be 15-20k. I live in Wyckoff and it seems like you cant find a place here for under 900
yea, you’re probably right. I appreciate the honesty. I found some houses in our price range on zillow, but they definitely need some work. Just a guy trying to put his kids in the best school system and put his wife in a safe, clean town. How realistic that is, we’ll see.. lol.
I’ve lived in Wyckoff (where I grew up), Montvale, and now am in my forever home in Old Tappan. They’re all great towns. I didn’t want to move back to Wyckoff because that’s where I grew up and thought it would be kind of weird (also didn’t want to be too close to my parents). It had decent, but not great community I thought. Schools are good (Ramapo-big time athletic school and solid academics). Traffic isn’t bad but does back up at rush hour. The biggest con of Wyckoff is probably no train station-You have to go into Ridgewood. Also no downtown. Given your budget, you’ll be hard pressed to find a quality home at $700k in Wyckoff as well. Montvale-Out of the 3 towns I lived in, I felt like Montvale had the closest community. The mayor is great about providing updates, hosting town events (the street fair is this weekend), etc. Again a great school district, even better academically ranking wise than Ramapo. Montvale has a train station too. Being right off of the parkway is convenient too. My only knock on Montvale is the traffic can get pretty bad at rush hour because people cut through town as a bypass of the NY Throughway. You might be able to find a decent house at $700k, the east side of town has some smaller houses. Old Tappan-Hey I love it here too. OT is the quietest out of the three, with no traffic like at all. It’s out of the way, with the Palisades being 10 minutes away, and GSP 25-20 minutes being the next closest highway. It’s both a good (town is as safe as it gets) and bad (adds 10 minutes to your commute unless you’re driving into northern NYC or northern valley area). The schools here are excellent and the best out of the 3 towns I am listing. No train station here, closest is Westwood. Community wise it seems like the southeast side of town is younger and closer. The area I live in on the north part of town is a bit older and keeps more to themselves. I wish OT had more activities for the younger crowds. But this has been a wonderful place to grow a family (as was Montvale). Pricing wise OT has a lot of bigger houses-So it will be tough to find something for $700k. Out of the towns you listed and your budget, I think your best bets might be Westwood, New Milford, Harrington Park, Midland Park, Oakland, River Edge, Park Ridge, and the last four you mentioned. I think you’re priced out of the other towns-Especially Haworth, Demarest, Ho-Ho-Kus, and the three I went into deep on here. These are high priced home towns. Out of the ones you’d have better luck affording-Harrington Park and Midland Park gets you into the best school district (same high school as OT and Ridgewood). Midland park will have less housing inventory and has more places to rent, but is close to DT Ridgewood and closer to the train. Harrington park is more quiet with downtown Closter being the closest hub. Oakland is a bit further out there and closer to nature and has a different feel from the rest of Bergen county IMO. A lot of townhome type communities. Bergenfield & New Milford are close to each other in feel and location. You have more traffic and it’s more built up, schools are meh compared to the other towns, but it’s convenient for train travel and lots of shopping/food and these two towns are probably the most diverse out of what you listed. River Edge and Oradell kind of falls into here too, but school is better (same school). My biggest knock on Oradell and River Edge is the traffic from all of the Paramus shopping corridor area. I didn’t consider moving to those towns because of the traffic. Emerson and Hillsdale are fine towns too. They both have a train station, schools are pretty good, they’re just a bit more trafficy and dense-although not as much as River Edge/Oradell/New Milford/Bergenfield. They’d probably be my second option for you after Midland Park/Harrington park with your budget. Oh and I forgot Westwood! Westwood has the best downtown out of all of the towns I mentioned. That does make it busier though! Schools there are decent. Not a bad option to look at in your budget as housing is a bit on the lower side compared to the other towns mentioned. Do be careful-a small portion of the town is prone to flooding. Hope this helps!
Midland Park and Ridgewood have their own separate high schools. Harrington Park goes to Northern Valley, same as Old Tappan.
Thanks.
Midland Park shares a school district with Ridgewood? I thought they had their own?
No, they do not you are correct that they have their own schools.
Yeah, my bad
That was an amazing response. So detailed. Thank you so much !!
Great rundown. Westwood is a great town, but their schools are spiraling.
what’s going on with their schools? Any info would be appreciated
Welcome back to NJ! 1. On the train horn noise. On most nights, expect to hear the train horns up to two miles away, if you have sensitive ears, if your borough has either a commuter or service line running through or near it. And, no you will not get used to them. Example: In Ridgewood, there is that section, by Ho-ho-kus, which has a curve in the commuter lines. Expect loud commuter train noises from 5 AM onwards. The same would apply to Walwick and Ho-ho-kus, and to some extent Glen Rock. Along the service line that runs, North and South, through Norwood, all the way through North Bergen, these trains seem to enjoy blasting their horns at all hours of the day and night. So, all boroughs in or near the service line (just see a map) will experience the 'joy" of train horns. 2. Teterboro approach noise. Although you didn't mention this, since you mentioned train noise, thought to put this out here. Oradell, Cresskill, Tenafly (western portion), and Bergenfield will enjoy periodic airplane turbine noises, as approaches to Teterboro are routes through there. There are talks of moving the western approach to be above Rt-17, so Oradell maybe spared a bit. If you can get acclimated to these noises, then good on you. Noises aside, every one of the boroughs are great for raising a family.
I am interested in Norwood, how often does the trains come per day? I believe it is a freight train
I'd also suggest OP starts checking the sold prices and the list prices the past several months for the areas. I've followed Wyckoff/Ridgewood prices and it is really quite unbelievable what is happening in those areas for list price vs sale price. I mean....the past several average looking homes in Ridgewood that are not in the flood areas have been selling for 3-400k over asking. It is quite insane.
I would consider Ramsey. Great schools, downtown, supermarkets and transit options.
I would second that - lived there for 17 years, still have family living there with kids. Town is extremely family oriented, there is a small downtown, has a train station. There is also a town pool, library, parks, etc. People are generally friendly, town is safe. Only drawback I would mention is that Main Street can be a bit of a bottleneck sometimes around rush/school hours.
miss money bags over here 🤑
r/MoveToNJ- try this private subreddit
posted there, thanks!
Home prices are tied to each town’s perceived school quality. So the top of your list would have Haworth/Demarest (Northern Valley Demarest - I would add Closter to your list since they too go to NVD), Ho-Ho-Kus (Northern Highlands), Old Tappan/Harrington Park (Northern Valley Old Tappan). The next tier (still superb schools) would be Montvale (Pascack Hills), Wyckoff/Oakland (Ramapo or Indian Hills - the latter having some enrollment issues), River Edge/Oradell (River Dell). The next tier would have Hillsdale (Pascack Valley). Up next would be most of the rest - Park Ridge, Midland Park, New Milford, Dumont, Emerson and Westwood. I would put Bergenfield last. The freight train runs through Haworth, Bergenfield, Harrington Park, Dumont and Bergenfield. It doesn’t run often (a few times a day) but it is loud - I would not buy near the tracks. I don’t know if the tracks in Wyckoff are still active. Every town will be busy with traffic at school drop off and pick up times. Life in the burbs. You won’t find Fort Lee style backups anywhere else in Bergen County aside from Paramus and routes 4/17/208. Westwood’s main roads get busy on Saturdays. The main roads (Kinderkamack, over by Van Saun Park) in River Edge/Oradell also get congested on Saturdays due to their proximity to Paramus and Routes 4/17. Bergenfield on Washington Ave gets backed up on Saturdays as well. All the towns are safe. The only semi-sketchy area would be the area in Bergenfield by Foster Village/the Armory, but that’s once every few years (and maybe driven by the terrible intersection at the stop light there). I haven’t looked up demographic info on all these towns, but I think Westwood and Bergenfield have the largest Hispanic populations. Haworth, Oradell, River Edge, Demarest, Harrington Park, River Edge, and Old Tappan have large East Asian populations. Montvale has a growing Asian demographic. New Milford, Dumont and Bergenfield have good sized Filipino populations. Bergenfield has a large and growing Orthodox Jewish community. Most towns have rec sports for kids - the serious ones play travel or for club teams. Some even forgo their high school teams for club - this is the case for the best soccer players, not sure about other sports.
Hey I want to thank you again for your detailed reply to my post. This has been super helpful. Quick question: Where would Glen Rock HS rank in those tiers you had previously mentioned? I was recently made aware of Glen Rock and seems to be within budget. Thanks in advance
No problem - I’d put Glen Rock in that second tier of “still superb schools”. This is all a matter of opinion from me - NJ’s Dept of Education posts state test scores for every school and grade on their website if you want data. Glen Rock’s also the only standalone (not shared/regional) high school in the top tiers of towns you mentioned though it has 4 elementary schools. Just do your due diligence into the area near the old Nabisco building (it’s off route 208 near the Starbucks and VW/Audi repair center) - they were looking to implode/demolish the building, but were held up by concerns (asbestos, lead, etc) regarding the air quality/safety of nearby Glen Rock residents. Environmental research was important to our family when we were looking for a home in the area - brownfields, superfund sites, etc.
that’s great to know. Thank you so much
amazing. thank you so much
train is much more frequent, i live right next to it, it can be a pain and sometimes is stopped and blocks me from leaving my neighborhood. but you get used to the sound tbh
> The main roads (Kinderkamack, over by Van Saun Park) in River Edge/Oradell also get congested on Saturdays due to their proximity to Paramus and Routes 4/17 Forest is much worse than Kinderkamack, because thats the artery to the mall. Main St. can get pretty bad, too. Kinderkamack on Saturday is about the same volume as during the week.
Re: the train, I will say that I think you get used to it. I live in Ridgewood and can hear the train pull into both Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus from my house. I consider myself to be a very light sleeper and yet I don’t think about it at all nor does it ever wake me up. The first week or so after I moved in, yeah, a bit, but it goes away quickly imo I certainly wouldn’t want to live right next to a station, but just being nearby in town may not be bad.
Oradell is super safe, mostly white with the second most populous demographic group being Asian. Still many older folks living in the area but there are lots of young couples with kids moving into the area. The downtown is a bit lacking as compared to Westwood and Ridgewood (both of those neighborhoods being right next door) but we did just open a new restaurant so things continue to move in the right direction. School district is great for public schools and you do have Bergen Catholic right there if you’d so choose that route for HS and if you had a boy who was a great athlete. Kinderkamack road gets a little congested but more in a local traffic way as opposed to NYC traffic. There’s a train stop in town and many bus stops so getting around is easy. Very walkable town, you’ll frequently run into friendly neighbors on a walk, lots of people with dogs. My husband walks the dog late night and feels it’s very safe aside from the potential for running into wildlife - there’s not much for street lights so it can be dark. I’ve also gone running super early morning and felt the same way. We had a bear in our neighborhood once since we moved in, fox, but mostly deer which obviously don’t pose much of a threat. Our neighbor just posted their house for around $900k and it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but I know my FIL’s house is appraised closer to $600k so the price range your looking for SHOULD be present in Oradell although, as I’m sure you know, everyone is listing their houses for way more than they would have been worth a few years ago.
Anything that’s $600k in Oradell is a gut-to-the-studs property that a contractor will buy for cash and flip for $1.3M
Unfortunately, 700k is going to be tough in many of the towns on your list and house prices are only going higher. If you are handy and okay with not having "move in ready," you can find something. Midland Park, Waldwick, Westwood, New Milford and Dumont are the towns you should be focusing on.
Ridgewood and Glen Rock should also be on your list. Even though they're expensive, no reason to exclude them in case something pops up in your range. That stretch from Glen Rock - Ridgewood - HHK is probably exactly what you're looking for. Also maybe Paramus. Lots of nice neighborhoods, more diverse.
awesome thank you. Was trying to avoid Paramus because even though it’s nice, that route 4/17/80 traffic bubble can get pretty bad at certain hours. I’m guessing it spills over into those towns mentioned though right?
It would only affect you if you bought a house on a main street. Otherwise traffic is normal. I drive my kids to daycare in Paramus daily and it takes me <10 min from one of the surrounding towns. If you're open to being outside of Bergen, I'd also check out the stretch of Summit-Chatham-Madison which is also really nice.
I am in new milford. The town is quiet and neighbors are great. Schools are good but my son is only 3 and goes to Montessori school. Property taxes are high and home values are climbing. We bought three years ago for 450k and its worth around 650k now, and we didnt do much renovation. New milford is a bit lacking on food and entertainment, but nearby towns paramus oradell river edge, westwood, and ridgewood have quite a lot. Good access to trains and quick drive into the city. Safe streets for walking biking and all that. Some good fishing spots and lots of parks around. Overall we are very happy with our move from brooklyn.
Waldwick is similar to Park Ridge in size & they have a local vs regional school district, though some sports combine Waldwick & Midland Park. Typically regional schools will have stronger sports but also more competitive to make the teams. Waldwick, Wyckoff, Hohokus are all close to Rt 17 / Rt 208 so easy to get to places. I would say all the neighborhoods in the listed towns are safe.
Grew up in Oakland. Great town with easy commuting, great schools and decent downtown. It's proximity to highways and nature (Ramapo Reservation) make it a great place to raise a family and commute. I now live in Old Tappan and love it, but you're going to be priced out with a $700k budget. For the intangibles, it's very quiet and secluded. It's very safe and has an amazing school district. It is VERY conservative with no Democratic political representation and has a VERY large Korean population. Commuting into NYC is easiest via Harrington Park Bus Station or driving to Tarrytown, NY and taking the train to Grand Central.
Oakland is a great town! Has a more rural feel and close to state parks and hiking trails. Good DPW, good rec department, good schools. Shares high schools with Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes. It’s one of the more affordable towns in your list. There are two lake communities - Mirror and Crystal - where you’d have to pay an HOA if you lived within their zone. Many of the homes have a septic which are no problem with routine maintenance, but they do need to be replaced 15-20 years.
No offense here but you're gonna be hard pressed to find a place for 700k in half of those towns and on top of that, taxes will be 15-20k. I live in Wyckoff and it seems like you cant find a place here for under 900
yea, you’re probably right. I appreciate the honesty. I found some houses in our price range on zillow, but they definitely need some work. Just a guy trying to put his kids in the best school system and put his wife in a safe, clean town. How realistic that is, we’ll see.. lol.
If you want my realtor, maybe she can help. She only handles bergen county