Seven months pregnant, working for a young and vibrant .com company, my husband and I still didn't want to leave NYC. We searched for two years uptown, downtown, midtown NYC. We made trips to Brooklyn, and Bronx until one of our friends mentioned Hoboken, NJ to us. We said "NEW JERSEY"? We thought, we would never leave NYC for "NEW JERSEY". Not sure why, none of us are true New Yorkers. I am from Iran and Fred is French, but after living four years in NYC, you are a true New Yorker, no questions asked.
Our first visit to Hoboken was as quick as taking the subway from 23rd street to WTC. We walked as far as 222 Grand Street to visit a For Sale By Owner. The owners were proud of their detailed upgrades, but we didn't buy that home. We hired a local expert, a great agent who made this process a lot easier for us. We were planning to have a baby and if we moved to New Jersey, we wanted to buy a car to enjoy outdoors more often, so parking was a big deal to us. Our agent worked with our must-haves (top floor, 1500 sqft, elevator, parking and a window in the kitchen... I was not an easy buyer). We loved our home, it was love at first sight. Lots of natural light from double exposures (north and south) more than 1500 sqft and a lovely window in the kitchen) and we raised two boys there.
We met so many international families in the park who have made the same decision and had moved from NYC to Hoboken. The proximity to bus stops to Port Authority, PATH to NYC and easy access to NJ TPK, Lincoln, and Holland Tunnel gives this town an incredible accessibility to NYC and suburbs. That is my story from 12 years ago and, interestingly enough, not much has changed. I still welcome the same demographic: young professionals who are looking to nest in a simpler place than NYC, but still wish for short commute to work every day.
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