When I was almost six my family moved into a four-bedroom house in Passaic, NJ. It is large for the price we paid (better than anything else on the market at the time) and appropriate for the household size. It was considered affordable, but not by much as my parents had to get a waiver from the bank to get permission to take out a mortgage this large as it was more than the recommended borrowing amount. Five years earlier, about a 15-minute walk from where we live, someone made an offer for a similar size house for 100,000 less (because of the housing bubble prices rose significantly). My parents wanted a suburban city and opted for Passaic over Monsey (Rockland County) and Far Rockaway (Queens), the other places with large Jewish communities they were considering, because more of their friends had moved here. Since my parents did not grow up Orthodox, their friends who also do not come from religious backgrounds are like family. On Shabbat and Jewish holidays when most of our neighbors are eating festive meals with cousins, grandparents and other relatives, we invite these families and they invite us to celebrate together. So far, we have lived here 14 and a half years and are not planning to move anytime soon. Although I still live at home, once I graduate and get married my goal is to move to Israel.
This is my little brother standing on our lawn with our street in the background, after he finally got a haircut last summer.
149 Mineral Spring Avenue New Jersey, United States of America (Directions)