Is Manville really that bad?
We are looking for a likely permanent home in the Bridgewater/Hillsborough area and there are a few that my realtor brought us to in Manville that were right in our budget and looked very nice and move in ready as opposed to all of the other more expensive ones that need work that we saw in the surrounding towns.
I checked the FEMA map and it isn't classified as a flood risk and the previous owners all said that there haven't been any instances of floods. I am a little wary since one of them has a finished basement that we would be using as a living room, but there's no signs of water damage.
I grew up in central NJ and I've heard a lot of hate for Manville but it doesn't seem any worse than other towns like Sayerville, Jamesburg, most shore towns around Keansburg, Piscataway, North Brunswick, etc. I've lived in North Jersey as well, and it seems nicer than most towns in the Dover/Denville, Boonton area, nust with much less of a downtown. We've toured one of the houses and the area was reall quite. It could be just that area of Manville that the houses are in.
Edit to add: We're not concerned with schools, no kids and will not have any, and I'm typically not a "good walking around town" type. If i want to go out I'm fine going to Bridgetwater or somewhere else not too far.