Submitted by IndividualBad9136 t3_10p9wxt in jerseycity
Hey Y’all,
We are looking to buy a place in Jersey City for an easier commute to Long Island City. Looking to stay 5 or so years. Can’t afford to purchase in Hoboken or high income areas of Jersey City.
Just curious if this is a dangerous area - have a wife (lesbian couple) and 10 month old daughter.
Edit: thanks for everyone’s feedback! I appreciate you taking time out of your day to respond!
So we use to live in Easton,Pa which was about a 2+ hr commute, we currently live in Staten Island and it’s about 1.5. Do you think it’s worst than Staten Island?
it’s prob about the same. i’d move to queens. the problem is you aren’t gonna buy something with multiple bedrooms for $500k or less in queens, and even if you could find something in that budget that meets your needs the vast majority of apartments (as you aren’t getting a single family/detached home for that price) are co-ops which generally have unique and unnecessarily difficult rules and financial requirements, making buying somewhat more difficult. not impossible but difficult.
I hear ya. Well thank you, I’ll look into the queens area!
good luck! i lived right next to LIC for 10 years right around the LIC/sunnyside border and i loved it. we only moved to jc for a more affordable apt as we were looking to buy a 2bd with more space.
Thank you so much! I do think LIC could be fun to live near just cost is pretty steep but I guess that’s just the way of the land these days.
yeah it’s tough. best of luck to yas!
Genuinely curious, what led you to accept a 2+ hour commute in Easton?
We loved Easton and the community. At the time we were not working in office everyday so we only had to do the commute like 2 to 3 days max. Then COVID happened and we were home full time for a long while but long story short company went bankrupt and had to get another job which is located in LIC. And it just wasn’t doable anymore, especially since we now had a baby, so we sold and moved to SI.
I think a lot of folks in this sub would say Greenville (Cator Ave's neighborhood) is a "bad area." I'm not in Greenville, but not too far away - and my perception is that it's JC's least-gentrified neighborhood, with some pockets of long-time residents who look after each other and do a nice job maintaining their property, and other pockets that are sketchy with drug / gang activity.
If you and your wife have lived in urban areas before and are comfortable with that kind of mix - yeah, consider it. Otherwise, something in the Heights, Westside, or Bergen-Lafayette might be a better fit.
Great, thank you! She’s from Brooklyn I’m from middle of nowhere AZ/Texas but am okay with mix as long as I don’t have a drug deal going down on my stoop.
This is a terrible idea. The commute from JC to LIC is absolutely horrible, you should look on the other side of Manhattan.
Okay great, will do, thank you!
is your commute via car or public transit?
edit: i’ll shoot straight with you, i wouldn’t buy in that area. have you considered the west side? affordable and safer IMO with better mass transit options (better in that you aren’t further from the path)
edited again: others have made valid points re: your commute. where are you living now that you think JC is an easier LIC commute? what time of day are you typically commuting? i moved to JC from LIC and did the drive frequently when we were looking/in contract and it’s not exactly a quick drive unless you do it mad early (like pre-7am) or mad late.
edited for further commuting context that they’re about to close the holland tunnel NJ bound tube overnight for two years so this is perhaps a complicating factor if you drive.
Where are you moving from that you think Greenville is a better option? This is a bad idea, even if you weren't commuting to LIC.
Commuting to LIC makes it an even worse idea. Via public transit it's 3+ methods of transit, when timed perfectly, is over an hour. And driving? Unless you work off hours you are driving through 5 miles of local roads to get to the Holland Tunnel, then sitting through rush hour Holland Tunnel traffic, then driving across Manhattan during rush hour, then taking another bridge.... just... no. This is the worst idea.
So we moved from Easton, Pa to Staten Island, currently about 1.5 hrs from Staten Island LIC - driving (project manager so car is needed to get to different sites).
I am not sure why you think Jersey City would be an easier commute than Staten Island to get to LIC, especially if you need to drive. You need to cross two rivers and travel through Manhattan to get from Jersey City to LIC. Have you checked Google maps during rush hour to get an idea of how long this will take? I suspect 2+ hours.
Edited to add: and if you happen to work off hours where there isn't rush hour traffic, sorry no luck there either as the Holland Tunnel closing 6 nights a week for the next 2 years. You quite literally will pass your current home to get home (LIC>Brooklyn>Staten Island>Bayonne>Jersey City).
Some folks at the job made the suggestion. Commute wise, based on google map in terms of time travel was a tad less for JC vs SI so just figured. But thanks for your feedback! This is why Reddit is helpful for me!
There are very few areas in Jersey City where this commute would be fast, but Greenville is not one of them. Maybe I could see you wanting to do this commute via public transit from JSQ or downtown, though downtown sounds out of your budget - but I would never recommend ever going to Brooklyn/Queens with a car from NJ during standard working hours... It's just a nightmare.
And the Holland Tunnel closing complicates non-standard working hours.
Good luck, hope you find something that works out for you!
Yeah, seems like this is not the way to go. Thank you, I really appreciate your insight!
Thank you for the feedback
Don't forget that living somewhere in Queens will save you $5,000 a year in tunnel tolls and gas getting to LIC. Not to mention the years taken off your life by sitting in traffic.
The only other viable plan is to do what my wife did when we lived on the upper west side and she needed a car to drive around Staten Island where she worked. She left the car there on Staten Island and commuted by public 5 days a week bringing the car home on the weekend. I have a client who works in LIC and lives in Journal Square. He doesn't mind his commute, it's actually only about an hour door to door.
Wow, she’s a trooper! Yeah, I think overall consensus is between the commute & just outside cost it doesn’t make much sense moving to LIC.
How the fuck is anywhere in Jersey City a good commute to LIC, much less the south end? If you're driving, you're talking Holland Tunnel through downtown Manhattan up the FDR and into Queens or all the way through Staten Island and Brooklyn on the BQE - those routes suck and are constantly congested. Not to mention an extra couple hundred dollars in tolls every month + gas and wear & tear.
If you're doing it by public transportation, that's a good hour+ each way even if you make all your connections between the PATH and the MTA. Why wouldn't you just get a condo in Elmhurst or Jackson Heights or North Corona or Forest Hills? The briefest of zillow searches shows plenty of them available for significantly less than that.
We are doing the commute from Staten Island right now. Some people suggested JC was an easier commute than SI. 🤷🏻♀️ It says only 54 mins so idk I guess I thought that was decent. We were commuting from Easton, Pa which was about 2+ hr commute. Thanks for the feedback!
>We were commuting from Easton, Pa
I would drive my car into the ocean before I commuted ~5 hours a day.
Lol. Yeah my pregnant wife was not at all happy. We absolutely loved it there but the commute was just not worth it, especially with a baby. Wasn’t doable.
… why not just move to LIC?
Lol LIC is crazy expensive. More so than JC.
I would love to, but unfortunately, I really don’t have the ability to buy anything in LIC. Which is what I was hoping to do but probably not gonna happen anytime soon.
Those people are probably just trying to make fun of SI.
That listing history suggests this is a sketchy build. Bought the lot for $260,000. Listing suggests new construction. Listed mid last year for $900k, now < $500k. Investors are either taking a huge loss, or this thing is made of cardboard and a teenagers socks from under the bed.
It has two apartments. The $900k was probably for both....they sold one and are now trying to sell the other.
Makes sense
Seems more likely that they initially tried to sell it as a 2-family but decided to convert it to a condo.
Quick search on the county register's site pulled up the new deed establishing the condo December 2022.
Live near the Path trains or the NJ transit trains.
Greenville is very much block by block. This block… not the worst, definitely not great.
I’d recommend driving out to see it on a Friday night and see how you feel about the neighborhood.
Btw this style build is common in JC. Price very much reflects the area (nicer area even in/around Greenville you’re looking at 600-700k per unit). Obviously without seeing it myself I can’t speak to build quality, but I imagine location is a leading factor in price.
Can you afford Bayonne? Yeah, it's not JC or Hoboken but prices here haven't jumped as high as the cities just north of here.
I’ll take a look over there too. Based off my responses from everyone. Commuting from the area perhaps may be a headache. I’m not to familiar with the areas of NY vs. NJ. But trying to get acquainted and I think this was a good start and eye opener for me! I really loath using google maps becoming I feel like oh so very often the times that are projected are not reality. Even with me living in SI it states should only take 45 mins but it take 1.5 hours. Thank you for your response though and will definitely look into it.
My wife has family on Danforth on the other side of MLK and that particular area and the surrounding 2-3 blocks are safer than the rest of Greenville and getting better. JFK blvd is a very busy area and Danforth leads to a major commercial road, and can get noisy
Also consider Union City, West New York, North Bergen. Just be sure it includes parking. Good luck!
THIS is the sleeper move. I'm mad I didn't think of it myself. But I'd only go this route on public transit - you'd fly to Port Authority in that bus lane in no time!
Driving though... having to cross two rivers and drive through Manhattan still sounds like torture to me. OP, if your work hours are off peak, this may be a serious option for you.
Oh, wow, thanks! I’ll look into these! I really appreciate it!
yes. very bad bad not good at all. everyone who enters the house is shot on sight. sarcasm aside, this wouldnt be a good commute tbh look for stuff in queens or eastward
Awe no, sorry I hope my post didn’t come off offensive. I was just saying like dangerous in terms of my kiddo playing outside and stray bullets catches them. I grew up around some rough areas and this did in fact happen twice in my life. So I just want to make sure my wife and child are safe just hanging outside on a nice day.
But Yeah, I think queens seems to be the best area in terms of commute and even price! Definitely gonna look there! Thank you, and again sorry if my post came off insensitive to the area.
Nah it's cool. I wasn't offended, I was just being sarcastic because we get a lot of people asking similar questions. This city has definitely seen a decrease in crime (though that would come with being priced out of the area). This city used to be kinda like that 20ish years ago but it's not like that now. The only part of my post that you should have taken seriously is the queen's and eastward thing because you'll save a lot of time commuting for basically the same rent prices you would see here if not less
What made you chose Staten Island? My buddy commuted from Staten Island to LIC daily and he said it was tough. I believe he took Staten Island railway to the Staten Island Ferry to the NYC Subway.
If you chose Staten Island because maybe you wanted something a little less dense in terms of population density, maybe you could look into Long Island: Nassau County?
Triangle Park is up the block and it has been the scene of shootings this past year. Cops are stationed there though. That being said, that block is actually not bad. You are close to the lightrail and multiple bus stops. As for your commute, I go to LIC once a month and live in the Greenville area. It does suck but its not the end of the world. I have to be in the office by 7 am and leave around 4, so i am catching the beginning of rush hour. Driving in is easy but the afternoon sucks. I know a lot of people who work in Queens and live in JC and they do just fine with the commute (they use public transportation). Obviously living in queens would be easier but don't think commuting from JC is impossible. A lot of homes in queens are selling for over 600K so i can see why JC is an option.
Yeah, I think that was a really big thing for us is the affordability of JC compared to these others areas. I’d I didn’t have to do it every day and could take public transportation a few days I don’t think I’d mind as much. But right now hours are wonky and need my car.
Thank you though for your insight!
As others have pointed out you should take the cost of using your car (tolls, gas, etc) into account. But even after taking the cost of commuting into account, it is probably less expensive to live in NJ. Depending on your workhours, traffic may not even be that bad.
Best of luck!
Yeah, I think perhaps I should try the drive a few times to get a better idea. But I do believe you’re right, in terms of expenses. I think it’s a bit cheaper but not as significant as one would hope. But, I guess that just nyc/nj for ya.
Thanks so much for your insight!
NJ_Bus_Nut t1_j6jlb99 wrote
Dangerous or not, I'm more concerned about your commute.