Moving to NJ – questions about commute / possible flooding concerns to be aware of

Hello everyone! I know, I know, another moving to NJ post! Sorry! I’m a long-time lurker on the sub and have faithfully read through almost all of the previous moving to NJ posts – I’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions from those, so thank you very much to those who comment on these.

A little bit about us and what we’re looking for before I get to our questions. We have 2 kids, hybrid work schedules so while we don’t have to commute every day, one of us would be going to Newark for work a couple of times a week, and the other would be commuting to NY Penn about once a week. We are looking for what so many on the sub want – good schools, decent commute to NYC, a safe neighborhood. We would also like to be in a somewhat walkable community with a decent downtown near us since we have parents living with us who no longer drive. Not mentioning taxes since I know those are pretty much going to be high. We are looking in the $700K-$1.2 million range. We’re not looking to move for another couple of years so are still very much in the research phase.

We have honestly been all over the place and have looked at some suggestions from this sub already – visited Madison, Chatham, Summit, Westfield, Cranford, Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Wyckoff, Midland Park, Ramsey.

One of the suggestions here was to consider Monmouth County – namely Rumson, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Shrewsbury, Middletown. Just looking at pictures, it obviously seems beautiful and being close to the beach would certainly be wonderful in the summer. However, I have some concerns. 1) What if we get more hurricanes/tropical storms? How exposed are those areas? Seems like they were hit hard during Sandy and that’s why homes sometimes say they have whole house generators. 2) How bad is the commute really? I know Red Bank and Middletown have train stations and there is the ferry, but it seems like this could easily add up in commuting time.

Would we ultimately regret being so far from NYC? Seems like there are tons of places that could fit the bill in Bergen, Union, Morris Counties and we will keep researching those too, but with proximity to NYC probably comes more traffic and density. Should we keep Monmouth on our list or is it too far out to be comfortable?

Grateful for any insights! If we’re not considering something we should be, would love to know. Sorry for the lengthy post! Thank you!