Property Taxes - 1/6/2010

Property taxes are extremely high & rising fast in Montclair. The majority of the money goes to school taxes. Unfortunately, that premium does not seem to be reflected in the quality of city services (e.g. when it snows we are often the last town in the area to be plowed). We will see firtst-hand how the schools utilize the extra money when our daughter enters the system next year.

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Montclair, NJ - 11/24/2009

Great city with access to NYC via train or bus transportation. Easy walkable town with art museum, shops, and NYC-quality restaurants. Great place to live if you want a break from the City, but yet work in New York or just love to get away to NYC for culture and adventure.

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Great Suburban New York Community - 5/2/2008

Montclair is a great town in the New York Suburbs. It is a vibrant community with something for everyone - cultural institutions, restaurants, stores, parks, theater, movies. Nice tree lined streets and most homes built between 1900 and 1940. Commuting to New York by train with many homes in walking distance of multiple train stations. The only negative is high property taxes.

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A mini city - 3/23/2008

Montclair is a vibrant community, full of restaurants, movie theaters (3), theaters, and an upcoming performing arts center, as well as wonderful shops and a museum. Visually, it's a beautiful town full of Victorian homes, and tree lined streets, and it's 35 minutes by direct train or bus to Manhattan. I've lived here 20 years and sadly, the only negative is the tax burden, so I'm looking to fulfill a dream of mine and move to a houseboat somewhere in this area. I'd love to hear from anyone who has done this or is doing this!!! CLAIRE CILIOTTA

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Great Houses, Great Trees, Progressive Populace - 7/17/2006

We moved here from NYC in '99 because you could get more for your money and the place is diverse and tolerant -- things we grew to love about living in NYC for over 12 years. Beautiful homes in general...lots of diverse housing stock (although center-hall colonial is probably 50% of stock). Most homes are turn of the century, with some from the 50's. Some new Mc-Mansions put up recently and half of the town all ticked off about that. Mixed-used development going in center of town...new parking decks alleviating some of the parking problems but it'll certainly get bad again. Lots of parks (that dont get much use oddly enough). Lots of old-growth trees since the town is old. Decent commute to NYC via many trainstops (five I think). Door to door is 50 minutes to an hour depending how far you live from station and how far is work from NYC stations. Mid-town direct a boon for those working in midtown (and boost to real estate prices a couple years back). Progressive/liberal people...lots of artists and writers and banker husbands to afford the expensive real estate (houses range from $300k in 'minority' areas to $3.5MM mansions on the hill, with typical 4 Br/ 2 ba in the $700k - $1MM range). Diversity but not exactly integrated...southeast section of town is mostly black while Upper Montclair is pretty much all white. High school is 50/50 but kids are not mixing all that much...teens joke about how high school floors are stratified...smart kids on top and thugs in the basement...sad thing is is that its not a joke, its the reality. Montclair is a magnet for well-off minorities but, sadly, there just arent enough of them in this country. Solid museum in town; great restuarants...although most all are BYOB due to lack of liquor licenses. Good sports teams for kids...soccer very popular and lacrosse a very solid program in the schools. Schools are good (not great, not excellent) and getting better. Plenty of private schools here too. Like so many places, there are a lot of people in brand-new SUVs crowding Starbucks and Whole Foods...mostly housewives who are probably members of the Junior League and in-between spin-class and yoga class before heading over to one of the few nearby Country Clubs or local Swim Clubs. Meanwhile, more modest income people go to one of many local public schools. Taxes are substantial. Typical is $1000/month for a modest home; double that if you have a large and/or trophy home in the n

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Diversity - it's not over-rated as much as over-s - 4/26/2006

I've lived in Montclair for almost 15 years and have to admit that I'm tired of hearing about it. In case you're wondering, I'm a "minority" and granted, you won't easily find another suburb where we're almost 50% of the population and holding steady. Schools are adequate, but minority children still lag behind - despite the large sums spent on "closing the achievement gap". All that said, I would still recommend Montclair. It is a nice place to live if you can afford it. Great parks and recreation programs for all ages.

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Pleasant, but you pay for it. - 11/22/2005

Montclair is a lovely town that manages to have a good mix of things to do while maintaining the quiet charm of a suburb in most places. It's clean, it's safe, it's diverse... 3 of the main reasons I live here. Politicially it's very liberal. The schools are good (or were when I graduated in the early 90s), there are lots of parks, and great places to shop and eat out. Real-estate is EXTREMELY expensive here, though. I bring in a low six-figure salary and I could never even begin to think about owning a house here, unless it was a fixer-upper in a bad part of town. So needless to say it's a rich town, so the people can be uppity sometimes, but they're no worse than most places in NJ. So in summary: it's a great place, but unless you have lots of money or don't mind renting, it's tough to afford living here.

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