[pspano]

I am a federal employee as well and originally from NJ - born in and lived a few towns away from Newark and would recommend he stay away from that surrounding area. What agency will he be working for and what will he be doing? He should speak to the local Human Resources Rep and tell her/him what his desires are and they should be able to point him in the right direction. Are they doing anything to assist with his relocation? Also whomever his new supervisor is going to be should be able to help as well. I have to agree with one of the other posters with Monmouth County. I lived there prior to moving out of state for another federal job. Little Silver, Shrewsbury, Red Bank, Middletown all pretty nice areas. If I recall correctly Little Silver and Red Bank have train stations.
Now that he is in the federal gov't, later on down the road he can look for a transfer to Florida to be closer to Mom and Dad :-).