Cost of living monsey vs passaic vs far rockaway

amother

Firebrick

Mon, Nov 30 2015, 8:40 pm

how does the cost of living compare in these three areas. the housing market, property tax, tuition, free busing, availability of buying a two family house and renting. can u live with one car in any area or not.

amother

Aubergine

Mon, Nov 30 2015, 9:51 pm

I'm in passaic. Property taxes are insane, we pay 20,000 a year. No that is not a typo. In general, NJ property taxes are much higher than Ny. There is also the tax issues of working in ny , living in nj.
There is no free school bussing here. There is a bus service, which is great, but expensive. Ppl carpool here, unless you're close enough to walk to the school.
Also, there is no city bus, like there is in Bp/flatbush. However, there are decent transportation options to Manhattan.
Tuition is high here, no question. Not sure how it comps to other places.

amother

Olive

Mon, Nov 30 2015, 10:43 pm

$20k is on the high end for Passaic. 3 bedroom homes are in the $10k range. My neighbors pay $16k for a 5 bedroom house, new kitchen and nice size property. There are a decent number of 2 family houses but rentals are limited, it can take a while to find the right place to rent or buy.
Commute to the city is much cheaper than the Monsey bus or LIRR and it's nice to have the option of the train and the bus and the Spanish bus. There no frum bus with a minyan like Monsey has. I'm not sure what the tax issue is of working in NY, it just means filing another State return and paying the difference in price which is not so significant.
If your dh is commuting to the city and you're walking distance to public transportation you can manage with one car. That was a requirement for us when buying a home and it's worked out well.
Tuition is $10k a kid plus fees (which really add up!) for YKP which is the big school. I don't know how that compares to the other cities.
No busing for kids is a huge pain. If you work full time it's really difficult. There is a private bus you can pay for but most people carpool or pay for carpool.

amother

Jade

Mon, Nov 30 2015, 10:44 pm

Another passaic person here (actually clifton to be more accurate). I pay about $15k in property taxes and tuition is high (a little over $10k/child). You can definitely live with one car if you live near a) the school and/or b) the train/bus in to NY. Carpooling is a pain in the neck!!!

On the other hand, I find the overall gashmius level here is less than anywhere else in the tristate area (and definitely monsey and far rockaway). Kids still dress pretty simply (for the most part), people are on the low key side . . .

nyer1

Mon, Nov 30 2015, 10:59 pm

honestly, they probably even out to about the same. passaic homes might be cheaper, but property taxes are more than in far rockaway. but in far rockaway, you have low taxes but well priced homes are hard to come by. personally. I think you get the most bang for your buck in monsey, but it's really far from nyc, if that affects you at all.

amother

Firebrick

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 9:59 am

Thanks all for your responses. Any monsey/far rockaway ppl have anything to add? Is there free busing in Far Rockaway? Someone mentioned that Passiac is the most simple of the three. That would be a huge thing for me. Do you agree with that statement?

nylon

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 10:25 am

FR absolutely has the lowest property tax but then you pay city income tax, so that comes out a wash. Monsey property taxes are also high and despite the recent caps on increases I believe that New York is headed for crisis point, so I would not bargain anything based on whose property taxes are lowest now. East Ramapo has kept its tax increases lower than surrounding districts by cutting programming, but there are a lot of politics going on.

New York State mandates private school busing according to certain distance criteria (I believe that this is also subject to whether the district provides more than minimum busing, private school busing has to be the same). So NYC will bus if you meet the requirements.

gold21

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 11:49 am

simplest, least materialistic crowd-

I would say Passaic

housing prices-

Far Rockaway is quite expensive, but a number of Far Rockaway families are moving to Inwood now (its an up and coming area right next to FR), which is much more affordable

Monsey itself is not cheap, but Chestnut Ridge is really taking off and its much more affordable (its an up and coming area right next to Monsey)

Passaic- housing prices are reasonable, but taxes are very high

cost of living-

I would say monsey has the most affordable shopping, camps, etc

Amarante

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 11:57 am

FWIW, NYC property taxes are always going to be lower than Nj or even NYC suburbs because there is a HUGE commercial tax base which doesn't exist in NJ or suburbs. Residential property in NYC is also taxed at a lower tax rate than commercial property in NYC which is another significant savings.

There are few guarantees but almost 100% certainty that residential property in NYC will always be taxed at a more favorable rate than NJ or suburbs like Long Island because of public policy and because NYC has other income sources.

Ema of 5

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 11:57 am

gold21 wrote:

Lots of people are also moving to bayswater. It's quieter, more bang for your buck than FR, and just as close to all the shopping, which is in Lawrence/cedarhurst anyway.

amother

Coffee

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 2:07 pm

eema of 3 wrote:

Lots of people are also moving to bayswater. It's quieter, more bang for your buck than FR, and just as close to all the shopping, which is in Lawrence/cedarhurst anyway.

Huh? It's not just as close. FR is 5 minaway from shopping, bayswater is more like 15-20 min away

amother

Ginger

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 2:17 pm

Passaic cost of living is a lot higher than monsey.

Monsey has cheaper grocery prices, clothing, babysitting, playgroup, tuition.

Probably cuz it's bigger so businesses have more competition.

amother

Firebrick

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 3:45 pm

which of the cities has the most businesses in it or nearby? I am not going to be commuting to the city. In which of these three places can I expect to find a decent job closest to my house?

gold21

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 3:47 pm

hmmm. definitely not monsey. a lot of monsey people commute to midtown.
a lot of passaic people commute to manhattan as well, its a pretty decent travel time.
I would have to say far rockaway, since its near the 5 Towns and Long Island...

but I dont know for sure...

Ema of 5

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 4:38 pm

amother wrote:

Huh? It's not just as close. FR is 5 minaway from shopping, bayswater is more like 15-20 min away

Bracha is 7 minutes from my house. That's closer than when I lived in FR. Darchei is 7 minutes from my house.

amother

Cerulean

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 5:33 pm

I am elsewhere in NJ. Are the schools that people send to in the Passaic area very nearby? There is certainly a k-12 busing subsidy in NJ, if the school is not-for-profit (most if not all Jewish schools are), out of district and between 2-20 miles from home. The local district either provides transportation or provides payment to the families.

amother

Lemon

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 5:53 pm

the vast majority of pplein Passaic/ Clifton send locally for elementary school. I do know people who send to YNJ and in cases of special ed to Monsey but they are definitely the exception.Those that send out drive.

amother what type of job are you looking for? Most people commute to the city.

spring13

Tue, Dec 01 2015, 7:16 pm

Schools in Passaic are right in the midst of the residential areas, there's no way anyone's getting busing subsidies. I do not love the carpool drama, but it's part of life in a lot of places, not just here.

Most people in Passaic don't work right in town, it's more of a bedroom community. It's not far from a good chunk of northern and central NJ, so people I know work all over the place - down towards Elizabeth, out to West Orange, all over Bergen county, Manhattan, even Westchester. Where you're likely to find a job depends on what you do. But I doubt that FR is full of industry and business, and Monsey only is if you're working for the kind of place that only exists in a large frum community. Expect commuting to work in any of these places.

Passaic is most definitely simpler/less materialistic than Monsey or the 5 towns/FR. There are frum-trend-obsessed people, but I'd say a majority are more down to earth.