Depends who you ask. With home prices in Lakewood becoming more and more unrealistic for the average home-buyer, and Lakewood busting at its seams, many Yidden – from Lakewood and otherwise – have started to move into other neighborhing towns.
But the ‘welcome’ by many neighbors of Jackson and Toms River, has varied by neighborhood.
Frum residents who recently moved to neighboring towns had some surprisingly different vibes from some of their neighbors.
One neighborhood – apparently had a ‘strong’ campaign going, and residents took to their lawns to show it with pride. They made it quite clear they won’t sell their homes – even if it meant walking off with a chunk of profit.
Yet other neighbors – within the same community – even laughed it off.
“I’ve had neigbors telling me they were excitied to sell their homes,” said a Frum Toms River resident, who now sits on a large parcel of land he purchased for about the price of a townhome in Lakewood.
But others who have new Frum neighbors, and – despite some vicious attacks online – had nothing but nice things to say.
“Look, they don’t bring drugs, they don’t bring crime, why should it bother me?” said a non-Jewish neighbor. “I’ve had some really bad experiences with criminal activity, partying and more from previous neighborhoods, so it’s actually quite comforting knowing I can allow my children to play outside without worrying.”
The question on the minds of many, is, where is this explosive growth leading? North? South?
Only time will tell.
[TLS-M.K./TLS-CAC/TLS-CCP]
the correct phrase is “… bursting at the S-E-A-M-S…”
NOT “…bursting out of its seems” !
seams not seems
I was wondering as well; I guess just like we’re all not the same and are resentful when we are lumped together, not all Jacksonites or Toms Riverans (?) are the same or have the same reactions to our moving in. I think those for and against both have at least some valid points…
One thing I don’t understand is the claim that I’ve heard residents of nearby communities making that the Orthodox move in and then their property values plummet. Meanwhile, I’m watching how the first Jew buys a house at rock bottom price and the next few houses suddenly shoot up $50k, and continue to climb as the neighborhood turns frum. They may not want to move out and resent the changing neighborhood, but their homes are now worth a lot more than ever. Am I missing something?
Was this written by a realtor?
Can someone explain to me why we pay for bussing and special services for people living and paying property taxes in other towns?
to seichel we don’t
To Eli
You mean the busses don’t go into Jackson or Tom’s river? Or that kids from those towns attending Lakewood schools don’t get ANY special Ed?
Umm, if someone wants or needs to sell, they sell, if someone doesn’t want to move, they don’t sell. What does being glad to sell mean?
Folks, lets get this straight, wherever you live, your town will pay for your bussing, services, etc. if you live in Jackson and decide to send your children to a lkwd private school, jackson board of ed will pay. they happily save 10K by you not sending to their puc school system…
We just moved to Jackson and we love it.
The neighbors so far have been very friendly.
We have a huge property.
The area is spotless and gorgeous. And whoppeee NO BASEMENT TENANTS !!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!!!
Yes , life is a bit different in Jackson. No speeding cars. Lawn Care
We have to drive to get anywhere. Quiet Culdesacs, deer, trick or treaters, neat lawns , no garbage , quiet block.
But overall, we love it , come on board. At least 30 new families moved in , in the past year.
“They made it quite clear they won’t sell their homes – even if it meant walking off with a chunk of profit.”
As amazing as it may seem to the frum population looking to buy, some people genuinely like living where they do. Lives aren’t directed by where you can make a profit, but where your family lives. Just because someone wants to move into a town doesn’t mean other people ought to vacate their homes. The ‘strong’ campaigns are about supporting communities and encouraging families to stay there, not simply letting more realtors turn a profit. This is a disappointing post from TLS.
@kollelwife the property values go down largely because the neighborhood makeup changes. As neighborhoods become predominantly orthodox, only those families will want to move in, limiting the housing market. Furthermore, as orthodox families will not send their children to public schools, the property taxes increase (as in Lakewood) to support a number of additional private schools. You cannot realistically claim that property values only increase if the actual result is limited housing and increased property taxes.
@straightouttalakewood. You’re confusing fact with fiction.
fact: property values go up.
fact: private schooling does not increase the tax burden it lessens it.
To number 11 I totally agree that not everyone views their home as an investment first, but the property values thing is just not true. When Orthodox move in property values rise. This is a fact and is born out by what is happening now in the areas of Jackson that Orthodox Jews are moving into.
In a non orthodox environment, there is no such thing as someone NEEEDING to move into a specific neighborhood. They may like a neighborhood, but are not limited to it. By the Orthodox, they need to live in a neighborhood that is walking distance to a Synogogue and close to kosher food and schools, that is why the homes in these neighborhoods tend to skyrocket.
Completely agree with straightoutoflakewoods comment.
TO # 10, Be careful what you pray for. By inviting more people to move to Jackson you will lose many of those advantages you’re enjoying now.
“Vicious attacks online” please provide a link to these sources.
W e moved out of Lakewood in 2000, after living there 30 years. Where my 1 1/2 story 3 bedroom 2 bath home for 4 people stood is now 3 huge homes, do not know how many families live in each. This is on a lot of 100 x 120 feet. I imagine there are about 9 families living on that same space. It is the same all over Lakewood. Lakewood is a mess. It is too crowded, Who wants to live like that? Probably 50 to 60 living on the same space where 4 used to live.
I think that’s what a lot of people in toms river and Jackson are afraid of. Sadly there is no example that we all know of of the Orthodox Jews not living like that. No one wants their town to become that kind of a mess.
Now this is the way it is supposed to work. If we had avoided overbuilding lakewood, then we would have spread into the neighboring towns long ago. Instead we overbuilt Lakewood and created huge infrastructure issues (e.g., traffic) just to push off the inevitable. The inevitable was that eventually there would be no room and we’d need to move into the neighboring towns.
But hey, at least the builders made $$$.
the busing is not that straight forward–I live in Jackson and my children went to a small private school in Lakewood and there were no other children in may area going to that school–Jackson would not bus they reimbursed me the busing money which no where cover the cost of transportation–the township does not have to bus to out of town schools for one or two children per school. when they were in Catholic HS in Belmar I had to take them to a central pickup location
For most TR residents, this is a quality of life concern. We have seen what has happened to Lakewood, a once beautiful town that’s been run into the ground. A place where seemingly every building is a tax exempt place of worship. A demographic that gives nothing back to anyone outside their group, but thinks nothing of taking everything they can. A Rabbi (Chabad TR) that’s looking to bring in an attorney from Washington DC that specializes in anti-Semitic law. This is nothing more than a concerted effort to break up an established community. I, for one, will maintain focus on making sure Toms River sticks to the Master Plan.
Bomber Chin……the Lakewood Tax Collector was recently quoted in the APP as saying there are approximately 350 tax exempt properties out of 26,500 or just over 1%. By the way, the largest religious one is Georgian Court University which is about 500 acres.
And what u dont realize is that most and I mean most towns in Monmouth and ocean county have about .1 % of tax exempt not 1%. That 10 times the normal.rate. Do your homework. Thats a large amount of revenue. Smoke and mirrors.