The New York Times recently reported that it's 18 percent cheaper for a family to live in a Brooklyn two-bedroom apartment than a house in suburban New Jersey. New York City's higher income taxes are canceled out by high New Jersey property taxes; the cost differential comes from transportation expenses and home upkeep.

All I could think while reading the article was that Hoboken is an even better deal than both the house and apartment. You get the cost efficiency of apartment living and not needing a car along with a lot more space (a family of four crammed into a $675,000 two-bedroom, 1-bath apartment? Seriously?) And the price is right. You can get a 1,500 square foot Hoboken three-bedroom condo for $595,000, the same price as the suburban home referenced by the Times. The property taxes also compare favorably at around $10,000 versus $16,000 for a house in South Orange.

The main cost variable cited in the article is school. Private school tuition in Hoboken ranges from $6,000 to $16,000 per year, and Brooklyn tuition tops the charts at $25,000-$30,000. My kids attend Hoboken public schools, so that eliminates tuition expenses for the time being. And even if I have to pay for private high school, that expense ends after four years, whereas you have to pay for property taxes as long as you live in a house.

What it really comes down to are lifestyle choices and comfort level. For the first five years we lived in Hoboken, my husband and I missed Brooklyn Heights terribly. We actively looked at properties in both Brooklyn and Hoboken when we bought our two-bedroom apartment six years ago. We ultimately bought a 1,050 square foot new construction South West Hoboken condo with gym and PATH shuttle, private washer/dryer, parking and enormous outdoor space: amenities unheard of in Brooklyn.

But it wasn't until we had children that we truly fell in love with Hoboken. I have written about visiting the local firehouse, taking toddler classes at the local fencing club, and the many unusual and delightful child activities within walking distance in this mile-square town. But there is so much more that makes Hoboken a perfect amalgam of urban and suburban living. Movies in the Park on Wednesday evenings, the Arts & Music Festival, Kids Night Out at Stevens Institute of Technology, inexpensive family swim sessions at the Olympic-size indoor swimming pool across the street from my apartment, Hertz hourly rental cars on the corner outside my building permanently obviating the need for a second car, the 24-hour PATH and Light Rail that make commuting so easy and convenient, having enough outdoor space to grow our own raspberries, the list goes on and on.

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://hobokenmomcondo.com/momblog and follow her at http://twitter.com/zhobokenmom