Montclair Has One Of ‘Best Commutes To Manhattan’ In NJ: Report

MONTCLAIR, NJ — If you want to have an easy commute to Manhattan, Montclair is a pretty good place to live, a recent study says.

Several municipalities in Essex County, including Montclair, cracked the top 40 in Property Shark’s “best New Jersey commuter towns to Manhattan.”

With an average commute time of 70 minutes, Montclair ranked 37th highest on the list, which considered towns and cities with a population above 25,000 that are located within a 30-mile radius of downtown Manhattan.

Bus, rail and vehicle travel were all factored into the study, as were housing costs, schools and crime. Learn about the methodology and see the full list.

According to Property Shark:

“Manhattan is an employment hub overflowing with opportunity. However, commuters from all over the surrounding areas – who are unable to afford the borough’s prohibitive housing costs – crowd the highways at rush hour. For housing and commuting alternatives, we looked over the Hudson to see which New Jersey towns were best for those working in downtown Manhattan. Hence, we compiled a list of New Jersey commuter towns located within a 30-mile radius of downtown Manhattan (using Google Maps) and calculated the average commute time via mass transit. We set the travel time for 9 a.m. on Monday.”

Property Shark added:

“Furthermore, because commute time is not the only concern when it comes to location, we also broadened the scope and looked at the following attributes for each town: median home price, school rating according to GreatSchools.com and crime rate according to the FBI database. We weighted the metrics of each attribute as follows: 40% for commute time, 30% for home affordability, 15% for crime rate and 15% for school score.”

Other Essex County municipalities to make the list included:

• #6 – Newark
• #7 – Nutley
• #15 - West Orange
• #19 – East Orange
• #30 – Maplewood
• #39 - Livingston

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