If you're a MAGA hat wearer you'll fit right in. Seeing people fly Confederate flags off the back of lifted trucks blowing thick black smoke is not uncommon. It's getting better, but it's still pretty bad.

I've lived in Washington Township (which surrounds the town of Washington), and I recently moved from Oxford. It really can be much cheaper to live there than even a little bit farther east, like Hackettstown. And it's not exactly "rural" living--both of those places I owned had things like natural gas, public sewage, public water, (Comcast) cable, etc. The people are generally nice enough, and the crime rate is lower than more urban areas.

The biggest negative I found is that it can be a little bit far to get anywhere. It was like 10 minutes to a (mediocre) grocery store, and more like 20-25 minutes to a Walmart or Home Depot or some good restaurants. And, of course, if you commute anywhere to work, that extra time and miles can really add up. So, it always seem like such a "chore," to go out and get any real shopping or errands done.

Hope that helps some.

The biggest thing with that area is nothing is convenient for commuting. You are half way between 80/78 and it’s a nice drive to even get a train if you work in the city. With that said yes it is a Republican area but what another poster said is just a stupid exaggeration. You 1000% also don’t have a nightlife there and are totally car dependent so it really will depend on what stage of your life you are in if it fits or not.

Yup totally agreed - I think I’d really only be able to swing it if I were working fully remote.

It's interesting how different parts of NJ each have their own unique culture. It's really the neighboring counties of NYC and a few others that are ridiculously expensive to buy a house and it's because the land has a premium cost.

It can be done but you would be looking at 2+ hour commutes each way with things running smoothly. I work remote so things are good for me but local job prospects are minimal at best.

I live in Washington Township and love it. I moved here from Union County five years ago and would never move back east because it is too damn crowded and too damn expensive.

Traffic out here is rarely if ever an issue and yes you get a lot more for your money with real estate.

As others have said shopping and other things can be a bit more of a drive, but then again, you have the parks and trails everywhere here. I absolutely love it.

Yes you do have to see a random Trump flag waving fanatic driving a rusty old Pickup , but it is better now than it was three years ago!

> It was like 10 minutes to a (mediocre) grocery store, and more like 20-25 minutes to a Walmart or Home Depot or some good restaurants.

It's amazing how spoiled we are in NJ compared to much of the rest of the country. Only 10 mins to a grocery store?! And having a decent selection of restaurants within 30 mins!

Washington is nice, I would stay away from Oxford. Mansfield is comparable and closer to the shopping and restaurants in Hackettstown.

Lived in Washington for the first 18 years of my life. I felt a small swell of pride reading someone call it, “nice.” Never heard anyone say that before.

Exactly what I was going to say. The people are overwhelmingly racist and big time trumpers. I wouldn’t move here again knowing what I know.

I grew up in Western Jersey and am currently looking into buying a home. Right now we rent in Netcong, we previously lived in Newton. We managed to avoid spending a crazy amount in rent but it definitely more expensive. I’d look at Stanhope, Byram and Netcong area. Stanhope and Byram are in Sussex county but very close to major highways and good food nearby.

Not far from the city, or path trains with route 80 right there. Hope this helps and best of luck

What do most people do for work out there? I’d love to live somewhere like Sparta, but I’m a lawyer and will need to work in NYC for several years.

Suburban hell: isolated from society in McMansions. Lots of depression. Total car dependency. Economic segregation.

Living in north warren currently. We love our small town and the different pace. If you live right in one of the small downtown areas it’s charming and you can have some walkable food or entertainment. A bit further out of town is nice since it’s a short drive in but more isolated(we like this). Prices are affordable as are taxes. Yes there are racists and political extremists but we don’t see them regularly and they mostly keep it to themselves. We love living rural but it is not for everyone.

I presume you mean just the NW area of NJ based on those counties, but for what it’s worth, Mercer county is pretty great once you you get away from Trenton.

My wife and I live in Hopewell, NE of Trenton, W of Princeton and it’s a very nice area. Safe, quiet, not quite as expensive as some areas up north, but a little pricer then some of the more rural areas of the state. You’re pretty much in the center of the state so it’s only about 55 mins to NYC, 45 to Philadelphia, 45 to the shore given the proximity of major interstates like TP, 195, and 295.

Its also has some decent nature stuff in the area between the Sourlands and places in and around Princeton. Some good restaurants in Hopewell and Princeton area too, some cultural stuff is to be had in Princeton as well.

The taxes are moderate for NJ, again lower than what one would expect to pay in NE counties, but definitely a little higher than some Southern ones, but we can’t complain too much, my wife is a public special Ed. school teacher, and I work for both Princeton Univ, and the US Dept. of Energy at the National Lab.

True. Bit if a Klan problem out there too.

A lot of people commute to NYC, Morristown, Bridgewater, Princeton, and other areas.

Depends on where you work. If you work in the city, don't move west.. But working in New Brunswick or Princeton? Like 45 minutes from where I am and not a bad drive because most of it is back roads.

What's Western NJ? Never heard of it.

Of course there is a western NJ.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Jersey

He should have just said Skylands region. Forget Pineys, the Skylands is where the real rednecks in NJ live. It's beautiful up there but

The people are not overwhelmingly racist. You are clearly the prejudice one here, lumping in hundreds of thousands of people into your jaded view.

I lived and worked in that area for a while -- there's a bunch of low-rise office complexes scattered about, especially along the I-287 corridor (Parsippany, Morristown, Bridgewater, Somerville). They're back offices for NYC-based businesses, IT departments for bigcorps (Verizon had multiple offices in that corridor when I worked for them), and lots of "professional" offices (doctors & lawyers). You'd also get the occasional interesting business -- NJ Rock Gym was in one of them at one point.

as an NJ native living in GA for past four years for college we certainly are very spoiled haha! it feels like it takes all day to run simple errands because everything is so far 😂

Its quiet, safe, low taxes but you better love to drive. I commutes into nyc so it was long, now I work local. It’s honestly so much nicer than eastern jersey and I don’t know what all these people mean, we have LGBTQ flags all over our small town. It’s stereotypes because eastern jersey has plenty of bigots

Lol. All you need to do is look at the voting records to see how backwards warren and Sussex county are. Bunch of confederate flag flying, trump loving racists. Doesn’t matter how nice they are to your face.

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Yea do you live here? I do. First off, there has been klan activity in Oxford photo documented as recently as 2003 where a group of them posed in front of the Oxford sign. If you follow the washington area community groups on Facebook you'll see examples of people who moved to the area and then were surprised that "my kid got called the N word while walking home from school".

Then there's the less direct, "acceptable" (to them) racism of people reposting things like Michelle Obama as a monkey, etc. For every 1 person that objects, 10 others stand up and call them karens for not being able to take a joke.

The prevailing attitude from the majority of the community is that unless you literallt have a POC hanging from a tree in your yard, you're "not racist", and that flying of Confederate flags /racist jokes / hazing of LGBTQ people is ok as this is all just freedumb of speech. And all the racists/homophobes react just like you did here when someone calls them out on problematic behavior.

It's not a progressive area and it's not a welcoming environment for POC, LGBTQ or anyone else who isn't straight, white and Christian. It's just not, and when people are looking to move here they should be warned so their families do not have to deal with unexpected/undisclosed behavior.

It's not about your feelings, ts about warning people and keeping them safe and informed.