For many working professionals in Manhattan who also happen to be parents of young children, there comes a time when a decision must be made: to stay or not to stay. Although city life is the top choice for many professionals pre-kids, when children begin to reach school age, many parents make the decision to leave the city for greener pastures: the suburbs surrounding Manhattan.
With one of the top school districts in New Jersey, Tenafly may be the perfect location for many of those seeking for their children fine education and the staples of American youth lifestyle – little league, a strong community, and the like. Parks such as Roosevelt Common provide a lovely playing ground for children and a relaxing oasis away from the city for adults. Tenafly offers a comprehensive recreation program, with a multitude of sports teams and park facilities serving many of the families in the town. For example, the soccer program in Tenafly has on average 850 children enrolled in any given year. Tenafly also has swim and golf clubs.
Tenafly also offers charming downtown area with a variety of unique shops and restaurants, a movie theatre, and a hotel. Nearby Englewood also has a vibrant downtown scene.
The community here is diverse in ethnicity and background and is generally affluent. Census data shows that besides English, five other languages are spoken at homes in Tenafly, with Hebrew and Korean leading. There is a large Jewish population in Tenafly, and Jewish residents have several synagogues to choose from. Many professional athletes, actors and other prominent professionals from the city have moved to Tenafly in recent years, including actors Ed Harris and Mira Sorvino. The town also touts historic landmarks – suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived here, and her home is now a landmark, as is the home of bandleader Glenn Miller.
The median household income in Tenafly is $109,887, which is well above New Jersey’s state average of $67,142. In 2009, the average single-family home in Tenafly sold for $873,973 down from $915,581 in 2008. Average sales of condominiums also went down in price in 2009, landing at $519,167 from $667,815 in 2008.
A popular destination for commuters, Tenafly is eight minutes from the George Washington Bridge via Route 9W or the Palisades Parkway. Despite potentially taxing traffic, driving is the top choice for many commuters here due to the proximity to the bridge and many report an overall commute from Tenafly to midtown of under thirty minutes. There is no train service from Tenafly, though there has been talk of installation of a light-rail line. Some commuters take New Jersey Transit or Coach busses, and others drive to nearby Edgewater Landing for a ferry into the city.