footballwidow

Hi,

My family will shortly be relocating to the New Jersey area on an L1 visa. I would really appreciate any inside info on nice areas to live within commuting distance of New York. At the moment Hillsborough, Branchburg, and Bridgewater are being considered . We are relocating with our two kids so good schools are important. If anyone is familiar with these places and can give me the low-down it would be much appreciated!

neil

I don't know Branchburg, but Hillsborough and Bridgewater are both sprawling towns where all houses look very similar and there's no real town centre - I don't know anything about the school systems there but wouldn't expect they're at the top end, probably about average for the state. I also don't know much about the trains from that area into NYC but I don't think they're on one of the better lines for commuting. I'm in Highland Park which isn't too far from these places and is close to New Brunswick and Edison train stations - it's probably worth a look on http://www.njtransit.com to see train timetables for anywhere you are considering. Highland Park and Edison seem to have pretty good school systems; we have friends out in Madison (further north and west) which apparently has a very good school system and is also on a good train line into NYC.

Jerseygirl

Hello and welcome to BE

My daughter went to school in Martinsville not too far from Bridgewater. It's a pretty built up area...less so if you look a little further north.

Neil is correct...if your husband is commuting into NYC on a daily basis you need to live close to a commuter line. Try using the search option at the top of the page...there have been quite a few threads about moving to NJ.

Bob

welcome to BE.

Have a search through old threads, quite a few threads on places to check out over the last few weeks, especially posted by englishmum....and also some stuff in the wiki.

Englishmum

Ha ha yes....

......too hot and bothered right now to post the same info about NJ again and again and again....to O/P just do an advanced search (see pink box at the top of this page for "New Jersey" in the USA forums and trailer park forums....tons of recent info in the archives on this site. Or just go back a few pages as I posted stuff only about a week or fortnight ago.

For a decent quality of life for the commuting spouse, it's a good idea to keep the commute (door to door) to an hour; this is doubtful for the towns you've listed and I've only heard of Bridgewater - that's a long commute into NYC.

Last year my husband brought over a Scottish guy and his family from the London office and they traded in their Home counties house for a McMansion out past Lambertville on the NJ/PA border. He commutes by bus into Times Square but often he ends up spending a night in NYC if the buses are screwed up....and there are often problems in the winter. The children never see their father during the week due to long working hours and the long commute. Just something to think about.

pickledpossum

Ditto Seems there are alot of us moving over to NJ in the next coming months, we are also seeking out good family suburbs with great schools as we have 2 kids, 7 and 8. Take a look at greatschools, a website that gives info on schools in NJ areas. My OH will also be commuting to NY and we would like to keep the commute down to around 45 minutes/1 hour, so have been looking at areas surrounding Essex County.

Shall be interested in what you find out, and good luck with your move We are on a H1B/H4 so shant be arriving until the end of September. (From Oz as this is our second international move Happy days

P.S. Hoboken looks interesting