Lakewood versus Monsey

IDK about everything, but I’m sure housing is cheaper here & it’s very hard to get your kids into school.

DO NOT MOVE TO MONSEY WITHOUT SCHOOLS FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Schools are legit overloaded.

(Mostly Monsey here, as it’s where I live 🙂 )

Schooling is hard in both places. The more on the modern side you get the easier it is, but even so, even the more moderate yeshivish places, like YSV, are very crowded (there is a freeze on the number of classes in the boys’ school, and it’s mostly siblings and children of alumni). The chassidish places are apparently impossible.

Home prices depend on the neighborhood. I know little about Lakewood, but in Monsey, housing has been getting more and more expensive, especially in the main areas. Home prices on my block, for example, have quite literally tripled over the last fifteen years. In some areas they’ve quadrupled. If being near shopping and many minyanim is important to you, be prepared to shell out. There are outlying neighborhoods which are cheaper, though, so if that’s an option for you, look into it. House sizes depend a bit on the neighborhoods, but there can also be a variety of sizes in the same neighborhood, depending on when it was built- some blocks are developments, some are older…

Commuting times to where? Monsey is doable to Manhattan, Lakewood is much farther.

I believe that you need cars for both. Monsey has very limited public transportation largely dependent on neighborhood- there are several areas where public transportation is a reasonably viable option, but it’s really not common.

Monsey’s also very safe. (Ramapo was the second safest town in the country in 2011!) There has recently been some crime, but it’s still bH very rare.

We’ve got public parks, decent (if crowded) infrastructure, mandated school busing, the Palisades Mall, some nice new restaurants… it’s a cool place 🙂

It would seem that both communities need new yeshivas. It shouldn’t be to hard to put down a prefabricated classroom for kindergarten students on vacant land. The setup cost will be minimal especially if they lease the land and the classroom. Then every year add another grade it is doable. The problem is paying the staff, will tuition cover it? Unless you have enough parent paying tuition you are going to have problem covering payroll. I have heard that even wealthy people have trouble getting their kids into yeshivas in Lakewood.

According to the East Ramapo School Monitor’s report estimates that by 2024 there will be 48,000, double what it was in 2014, yeshiva student in Monsey. Where are you going to find the seats for all these students. You will also need to find another funding source other than tuition and fundraising to support it.

theprof1 -“The biggest problem in Lakewood, more than in Monsey, is the yeshiva situation”

That’s one of the problems! I’ve found in life that the Frum communities, everywhere, tend to sweep a lot of problems under the carpet.

Theprof1:

Where are all the rich people who sold their house in Flatbush for $2 million and bought a new one in Lakewood for $500,000.00. Unless they bought the house over 20 years ago they cashed out with at most $900,000, with $500,000 for the new house and the balance for new furniture and taxes. You will be surprised how quick you can $400,000.00. Especially if charity and or savings is a low priority. Or they used their equity in the house for their business which is not doing good. In any case most of this money is gone.

Every area has it problems while Brooklyn has a lot of yeshivas at reasonable tuition and lots of shuls, houses are very expensive and even apartments are expensive. Most young couples move out of NYC as soon as they marry or upon having a child because it’s so expensive which is why Monsey & Lakewood are growing so rapidly. So in a few years, the neighborhood changes people die or move away to be with family and there wouldn’t be enough people for all these Brooklyn shuls. The same thing will apply to yeshiva at least elementary school with fewer local people starting families in Brooklyn the yeshivas will find it harder to fill their classes.

Lakewood is considered more in-towny than Monsey, theres a little more pressure in Lakewood because theres so many more prople per small amount of space. in Monsey people are more private, and tend to mind their own business( not in a snobby way)

Writersoul, you can correct me if im wrong, which I know you will;)

Hashemisreading: Sorry!!!! Don’t mean to be that irritating…

But if it helps, I know little about Lakewood (know almost nobody there) but my impression has been that you’re probably right 🙂

Joe: Increasingly large numbers of students are coming in from RCSD, but still not that many in relation to the numbers of kids in ERCSD. Also bear in mind the kids (for sure in Monsey, not sure about Lakewood) who take private buses (as they have in many chassidish schools), or that the Monsey total includes a decent number of kids attending other forms of private schools. I don’t know how many kids in Lakewood are going to non-Jewish private schools, but Monsey has a reasonably large number.

Okay, that’s good 🙂