best new jersey towns

I would move south. There is pleanty of home inland in Cape May or Atlantic County that are close to all the beaches , your away from the summer traffic but not to far that your out in the boonies and there is tons or stuff to do around here besides surfing. Nice houses are less than 130k and there are a variety of stores in the area also

 

And when you say a couple minutes... you mean 30?

 

well im not too sure about where you could go, all i could tell you is to find a place where you dont have to go down joline ave, especially weekends in the summer around 5. just dont do it, its a parking lot

 

Having grown up in southern jerz, I would say stay away. There is NOTHING to do there in the off season and you're at least an hour from anything. I have found that slightly inland in Monmouth County is the place. I'm in Farmingdale and can get to more than a dozen great breaks in 15-20 minutes, plus I can also get to NYC in less than an hour and have a nice size property with extremely low taxes. Being inland you don;t have to deal with the tourist BS either.

 

this area is 10 minutes from the casino pier,10 minutes from bay head,15 from jenks,20 from manasquan inlet,has great beachbreaks in between,is a nice 1.5 hour drive to cape may for those north wind east swells,i think we've got 'em all beat for every kind of swell,and the 2 months of crowds aren't that bad as the beachbreaks have mellow guards and big surfing areas.ortley,lavallette,ocean beach,chadwick,silver,normandy,mantoloking.

 

avalon is an awesome, core group...as long as ou have 750k....nowadayz

 

Not sure how far inland you would like to be and/or how close to work for you and/or wifey, etc. but you may want to consider Bridgewater or Somerset County. It's about 1 hour from the beach, 35 min from Newark airport and close to a ton of jobs.

Although I live in Bridgewter, I've been begging the wife to move to Monmouth County for a while now (even though I don't know too much about it) but there seems to be a lack of jobs nearby and the commute could be very long to NYC (I think the train connects in Newark) or other areas with plentiful jobs.

Taxes - Somerset County is probably fairly similar to other areas in NJ (1.9% property tax on price of home) so say you buy a ~2,300sf 4br house on 1/2 acre it would cost roughly $500k and property taxes would be somewhere in the $9-10k range. No matter how you cut it, NJ sucks.

Here's my suggestion - move to SoCal. It cost of living and salaries are the same as NJ but the surf and weather are soooooooo much better and it's completely acceptable to blow off work where there is a swell...everyone does it.

 

in manasquan my property taxes yearly for this year are just below 8 grand. i forget the exact figure off the top of my head, but it's about between $7950-$8000 a year. the value of the home is damn close to $600k, but i got it for $535k. it's 4 bedrooms, over 2000 square feet, and the lot is almost 6000 square feet, plus a two car garage. the couple who had the house built 50 years ago were the previous, and original owners of the house. they were around 80, and moving to florida. actually they didn't even live here year round anymore. a lot of people i know who still live in north jersey[bergen county] where i lived most of my life say thats dirt cheap as some of thiers are 10k grand a year, but the value of some of their homes is 100k grand less. a lot of people called me crazy, because i had a good amount of money where i could have bought a house in wall township, lakewood, brick, or even point boro in cash. i wanted to be where i could ride my bike to the beach though so i took out a loan, and put the rest down from the money i have saved through the years, the profit i made on the house i sold 8 years ago in north jersey, and an inheritance. i love it, and wouldn't have it any other way at least not in jersey.

i wanted to settle in cape may. i rented there for over a year, but couldn't afford to buy. at least not on my own. the only reason i was able to afford the rent was, because i had two roommates. now in north cape may, and the parts north of the ferry, and even west cape may by the farms, and rio grande i found stuff in the 200k range. i could have easily bought in cash, and had some left over. my buddy bought a house in north cape may in a nice little quiet neighborhood for $223k grand. 1200 square feet, 3 bedroom, one car garage, and under $3k grand a year for property taxes.


here is the money situation though, and the cost of living. while the cost of living in monmouth county, and ocean county is a little bit lower than bergen county, and even the suburbs in essex, and points west the wages are A LOT lower. in fact when the business i worked for 17 years folded i inquired about a job down in monmouth county doing the same thing. 17 years of experience, and the highest they could go was $9 an hour less that what i was making up in north jersey. i'm not personal about my salary so i'll put it right out there. up there i made $26 an hour. in monmouth county they told me they would gimme $17. they said the highest paid guy they had on the pay roll was in his 50s, and had over 30 years experience, and he was making shy of $20 bucks an hour. and that was just one of the places i inquired with. everyone else only wanted to pay me $15-$17 an hour. i've since started working for myself, because if i hadn't i would have never been able to afford another house. at least not to finance, so manasquan is a great place for me. i am hoping to raise a child here once myself, and my fiance are married, and settled. it's mostly older people in my neighborhood. a lot of retired folks who bought their houses when the area was relatively affordable.

 

Brielle is a nice little town to live in. It's a very laidback town with not much usually going on there because of it's small size but it's a 5 minute drive to Manasquan, Point, Spring Lake, or Sea Girt. The average home is 387,000 dollars according to realestate.aol.com

 

Agree with your recommendation. Red Bank is a cool town and it is not too far from the beach.

 

the more south you go from mon cty, the more 'piney' it will be. less to do, less connected..

 

First time home buyer...Just bought a place in mt. holly (bit of a fixer upper, but worth it)...taxes for me are around 3,000. Single family home with 4 bed/1 bath. My realtor was all time and has worked in the shore area. If you are really serious...PM me and I can give you her number... she was a real worker!

However, I work outside of Trenton and needed to find something close to family, church, and relatively close to work. This was my best bet. I'm about 40ish min from LBI and 60 to Belmar...not my ideal location, but wifey is happy and I can cruise down 195 to Mom. Cty. after work. Overall not that bad for me...but taxes in Burlington county (in some areas) are way better than Ocean/Monmouth (nt., Eatswell). If you are looking north and want to be a bit inland...my recommendation is anywhere off of 195 (nt., Freehold, Jackson, etc...it pretty much cuts NJ in half and a straight shot to Monmouth). If you are looking south...and want to be right on the beach...I recommend Margate...places are moderately priced comparatively...close to AC/Ocean City (north end), and LBI is about 30 min(ish) away. Up north, I looked at Brick, FOrked River, Lakewood, and Redbank...all pretty good, but again way out of my price range...my $0.02.

 

I'll second that recommendation for Margate if you don't mind being south and want to be close to the beach. My wife and I love it here. Prices are reasonable, for the Jersey Shore. You can be in Philadelphia in just over an hour. Sponging definitely puts you in the minority around here, but people aren't a-holes about it. The crowds can get heavy on weekends in the summer, but nothing like what you see at the more tourist-oriented beach towns, and during the week it can be pretty peaceful, even in the summer.

If you're looking for real bargains (once again, at least as far as the Jersey Shore goes), Ventnor is a great spot.

If you don't want to be right on the island, Northfield has some nice spots.

If you need to be further north, I dig Red Bank.

 

I agree with a lot of the posters here on Monmouth County, I love my town to death (Keyport) but it is too far inland and would not reccomend moving here for some other reasons. But I have friends all over the county and I would have to say that I'd kill to live in Atlantic Highlands or Highlands. The area's on top of Mount Mitchell overlooking the skyline are amazing, there are also has great hills for longboarding, great restaurants, and a ferry to NYC is only 40 minutes away. Plus Sandy Hook is 5 minutes away, Monmouth Beach 10, etc. Great location, it does have some bad areas but the nice sections are great.

 

$5,500 property tax in spring lake.(4Bedroom 2 bath)
You pay more for the house but taxes are low, and the town is real laid back central to all the beaches from AP to Manasquan.

 

Huh!?

Unless your wifes parents live there, why in the world would you want to move to New Jersey? I moved away in '94 to get away from the cold winters, rediculously high taxes and the most intrusive, over regulating state(and local) government there is. Yes, except for the Trenton and Camden corridors, NJ is beautiful, but too many negatives. By the way, I ended up in Virginia. Much milder winters, reasonable taxes, surf as good as the "shore" and about 2.5 hours from Hatteras, which has probably the best waves on the East Coast. And by the way, we don't have to pay for "beach passes". Good luck!

 

new jersey surf is good,virginia non-existent in comparison.
my beach community is empty 10 months a year

 

wall township 5 min from belamar 10 min from asbury sick surf inlets fishing and **** check it out and shark river hills for sure is sick

 

Red Bank. I moved here in 2003 and hope to never leave. I'm an hour drive from Manhattan, 15 minutes from surf, two doors from good kayaking and crabbing and the town is completely walkable, trains to NYC, restaurants, movies, etc.

I bought my 2BR home for $198k and just had it appraised at slightly above that. Taxes are about 5k..I actually just won an appeal so am not sure what the exact figure is now. Be sure to check out the west side of town - it's waaay more affordable and its reputation as crime ridden is greatly exxagerated and outdated.

I'd be happy to show you round town if you drop me a line.

 

and as for rocketjet's remark about beach passes, I never, never pay for beach passes. You only need them during peak tourist hours of peak tourist season. I go in the am or evening and in the ten other months of the year. I don't want to be on the beach midday in July or August anyway.