Glen Oaks Homes for Sale

Living in Glen Oaks

Glen Oaks is one of the largest detached neighborhoods in Gloucester Township, built between 1967 and 1975 across a wide set of streets north of Chews Landing Road. It sits close to the township's civic center — the municipal building, police and fire are right there — and it consistently trades near the top of the township's detached market.

The street names are the signature, and they are more deliberate than most. Bull Run, Antietam, Vicksburg, Stone River and Cedar Creek are Civil War battlefields. Grant and Lincoln are the two men most associated with how that war ended. Around them the plan widens into American history generally — Brandywine and Princeton from the Revolution, and Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, Kennedy and Roosevelt for the founders and presidents. This neighborhood went up during the Civil War centennial years, which is almost certainly why the theme starts where it does. Practically, an address here is unmistakable, and it makes the community easy to orient yourself in once you know the pattern.

The houses are substantial and consistent. These are two-story colonials and bi-levels, with ranchers and traditionals in the mix, and the striking thing across the whole pull is how few small ones there are — nearly every home in Glen Oaks is a four-bedroom, and five-bedroom homes are common rather than exceptional. Two and a half baths is standard, three in the larger plans. Formal living and dining rooms, eat-in kitchens, family rooms with gas fireplaces, full basements and attached garages with interior access are the norm here rather than the upgrade. Builder model names still surface in listings, so plans do repeat — worth knowing which one you are standing in before you compare two houses.

Two things about the address will confuse a search. Glen Oaks spans two mailing cities on the same ZIP — Clementon 08021 and Laurel Springs 08021 — depending on which end of the community a home sits. Both are post offices, and both Clementon and Laurel Springs are separate boroughs with their own school districts. Glen Oaks is in neither. Every home here is Gloucester Township, on Gloucester Township taxes and in Gloucester Township schools. This is the community where that field gets filled in wrong most often — listings here name Clementon Borough or Laurel Springs depending on the postmark. If schools matter to your search, confirm on the specific property rather than reading the field.

Location is a real argument here rather than a throwaway. Much of this community is within walking distance of Veterans Park, and the shops and restaurants along Chews Landing Road are close enough to walk from a good portion of it. The PATCO Speedline is minutes away, which is the practical Philadelphia commute, and Route 42 and the Atlantic City Expressway put the shore points within reach the other direction. Hospitals and the township's municipal services are all nearby. For a neighborhood this large the interior streets stay quiet, because the plan runs on loops and cul-de-sacs rather than a grid.

Fifty-odd years in, what has been replaced is what separates two comparable houses, and listings here are specific about it — roofs and sub-roofs, windows, siding, remodeled baths, perimeter drain systems with sump pumps, gas heat and central air replaced on their own schedules. That work is real money and it does not appear in a square-footage number. For comparison elsewhere in the township, Broadmoor is the closest equivalent in age, size and tier, Timberbirch is the bi-level and split-level neighborhood a few minutes east, and Cherrywood is the large attached community on the same postmark. Schools follow the standard Gloucester Township path — the township district through the middle years, then Black Horse Pike Regional for high school. The recently sold homes across Gloucester Township are the clearest read on where these are landing.