Hillcrest Neighborhood/Milo Park

Hi Everyone, I have been lurking for a while now because my family and I will be moving to Maplewood/South Orange (hopefully this summer). We have been looking at several houses and we really like one on Parker and Orchard. I am not very familiar with the area, so I was wondering if this area is safe since it is so close to Irvington. I noticed a lot of the houses look like flips, which can always be a gamble. Thank you for all your help, and I cannot wait to join your wonderful community!



I wouldn't hesitate to buy there. In terns of safety, it will be very unlikely that you will face things such as mugging, home burglary etc. I'm less confident to say the same thing about bike theft, overnight car break-ins, garage break-ins and perhaps outright car theft. ("Porch pirate" package thefts also kind of on the rise.) This stuff happens there, and throughout many areas/neighborhoods of the towns out here. Then again, if you look at police blotters (weekly online police reports), a lot of car "break-ins" happen as the car is left unlocked. For many folks, good lighting, alarms and cameras seem to be effective.

Parker is a busy street, and a lot of the bigger streets have complaints about speeding cars, but this one seems to have fewer complaints than some of the others.

Regarding flips, someone else will know better than I would on giving advice. Part of the "problem" is a lot of home sellers are looking at the same design and staging trends, so it can be hard to tell what's going on. There are "burned by the flipper" stories and complaints out there. Best of luck!


I lived at Parker & Boyden for over 20 years, up until 2011. In that time we had one break-in and one stolen car, both in 1991. After that no problems whatever. I usually didn't bother locking the front door when I was home.


Yes, Parker can be busy but that's true for lots of streets.


Thank you for the feedback. I currently live in Queens so finding cars broken into and missing wheels are a common occurrence, so that doesn't get me rattled as much as the thought of muggings or armed break ins do. I do see a lot of listings around Boyden Ave and Orchard as well as several foreclosures. Does anyone know if this could be because of crime nearby? I saw an old post about drug dealers near here? I could be mixing it up with somewhere else as I am still getting used to all the street names... 


More likely due to economic downturn from which NJ was slow to recover along with recent real property valuation which impacted real property values in some parts of town including the one in which you are looking.


Use common sense, lock cars, garages and sheds. If you don't have a remote start then don’t let your car idle with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked unattended to warm up on cold winter mornings (I still laugh when I remember the broadcast WO put out on SPEN one morning about multiple car thefts starting with “our residents are giving their cars away again”).


Is there a particular size home you’re looking for? 


We've been looking at 3 bed 1.5-2 baths in Maplewood and South Orange under $500K. A couple of the places we looked at have lowered their prices, which surprised me because I was told that this town was hot and I would get into bidding wars. Maybe it is just the season, or the new tax law that is making people nervous. 

 Leaving keys in the car to warm it up is such a suburban idea. I would never have thought to do this! lol


The area you're looking in is desirable, to use the real estate term, but the reality is that demand and interest decrease somewhat as you go further from the town centers and the train stations, so that's probably why you're not seeing crazy bidding wars. Not entirely different from how city residents value proximity to the subway or Prospect Park etc.



Yes to apple44's comment.

We moved from Jackson Heights 8 years ago. Where are you coming from?



ravenmad007 said:

We've been looking at 3 bed 1.5-2 baths in Maplewood and South Orange under $500K. A couple of the places we looked at have lowered their prices, which surprised me because I was told that this town was hot and I would get into bidding wars. Maybe it is just the season, or the new tax law that is making people nervous. 

 Leaving keys in the car to warm it up is such a suburban idea. I would never have thought to do this! lol

Ah, then you won't be interested in my house, not that it is on the market yet.  We love the town, but we've out grown our 2 bed 1 bath house.  Now that child #3 is getting potty trained, the strain of five people sharing one bathroom is too much  gulp  



ravenmad007 said:

 Leaving keys in the car to warm it up is such a suburban idea. I would never have thought to do this! lol

I grew up here and I would never do it either.  It's mind boggling, to be sure. 



zuluqueen said:

Yes to apple44's comment.

We moved from Jackson Heights 8 years ago. Where are you coming from?

We are moving from Kew Gardens. Looking forward to a backyard!



spontaneous said:



ravenmad007 said:

We've been looking at 3 bed 1.5-2 baths in Maplewood and South Orange under $500K. A couple of the places we looked at have lowered their prices, which surprised me because I was told that this town was hot and I would get into bidding wars. Maybe it is just the season, or the new tax law that is making people nervous. 

 Leaving keys in the car to warm it up is such a suburban idea. I would never have thought to do this! lol

Ah, then you won't be interested in my house, not that it is on the market yet.  We love the town, but we've out grown our 2 bed 1 bath house.  Now that child #3 is getting potty trained, the strain of five people sharing one bathroom is too much  gulp  

Yes we have only one bathroom now and #2 is starting potty training and we need another bathroom so badly! would it be difficult to add on another bathroom to your house? 



ravenmad007 said:



spontaneous said:



ravenmad007 said:

We've been looking at 3 bed 1.5-2 baths in Maplewood and South Orange under $500K. A couple of the places we looked at have lowered their prices, which surprised me because I was told that this town was hot and I would get into bidding wars. Maybe it is just the season, or the new tax law that is making people nervous. 

 Leaving keys in the car to warm it up is such a suburban idea. I would never have thought to do this! lol

Ah, then you won't be interested in my house, not that it is on the market yet.  We love the town, but we've out grown our 2 bed 1 bath house.  Now that child #3 is getting potty trained, the strain of five people sharing one bathroom is too much  gulp  

Yes we have only one bathroom now and #2 is starting potty training and we need another bathroom so badly! would it be difficult to add on another bathroom to your house? 

It would be difficult, unless maybe in the basement which is unfinished.  We have a very small home, which is why we are moving.  Tiny house, tiny lot.  When we bought the house we didn't have kids and it was just the two of us, it fit us fine.  Now three kids later and less than 800 sq ft, we're squished.  Plus the lot is only 25x100, so not a lot of room for expansion.  Oh, and the bedrooms are tiny, 8x10.  As soon as we move the first thing we're getting rid of our full sized bed and buying a king  oh oh 

When we do get the house on the market it'll likely be perfect for seniors who want to stay in town or single parents of one, possibly two, kids who want the school system.  It's affordable by Maplewood standards, but the trade off is that it's also very small.



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