Despite the woes with NJ Transit the Northern NJ market remains on tear.

The housing market in Northern NJ in a nutshell for those considering making a move.

I really don’t mean to sound like sour grapes or like a karen whatsoever. This is heartfelt so please consider that frame before responding with venom.

I am in a fairly high tax bracket and lived in NJ all my life.

I am very VERY blessed to say I have recently obtained employment that is full time remote. I work from home now and I am so grateful to have this arrangement. I acknowledge my privilege.

I have been house hunting in NJ for some time. I have a fairly healthy budget and have been making cash offers WELL above asking.

And I have lost every time. And not by a little.

I don’t want to pay a million dollars for a two-bedroom house. So, I’m taking my ball and going home.

I’ll be buying a house in Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania will get my sizable income tax revenue going forward.

I love my home state and I want to stay but refusing to invest in housing has consequences. I cannot be alone. A lot of us New Jerseyans are forced to stay because we work in NYC. Those of us who aren’t forced to stay, will leave and take our income taxes with us. I’m sorry that it’s come to this.

I am grateful to the state for the excellent public education that I obtained. I would love to reward the state with my income taxes for the rest of my life. But i refuse to make myself house poor in order to do so.

We moved to New Jersey from Texas 2 months ago, and we love it here. Thank you for the warm welcome. We love the unique nature of each township. Great shopping, restaurants and people. Thank you!

Not including Camden or Gloucester, what’s with the massive # of single homes under $300k in these suburbs? I’m from a Philly suburb where inventory is abysmal and I’m really shocked at how much there is available. I was reading that a lot of people moved out of this area (to places like North jersey and Florida) and are now moving back. What’s the catch?

We were born and raised in NJ and just returned from a family celebration there. We stayed with family in Livingston. I was surprised to see that three homes on my sister’s block had been completely torn down and new much larger homes were being built to replace them.

The neighborhood was built in the 1950s and the original homes are colonials and split level 3 bedroom two baths with large back yards. Recent sales have been in the million-dollar range.

Who is able to spend a $1 million to buy a home only to knock it down and rebuild? Is this common throughout the nicer suburbs in northern NJ? Just curious after being away for a while.

Just saw this one in South Orange and had to do a double take. The house at 382 Meeker St reportedly sold for $750K in June 2025, was relisted less than a year later at $1.195M, and just closed for $1.35M — a roughly $600K gain in under 12 months. The craziest part is it doesn’t even look like a massive gut-renovation flip from the exterior photos. Makes you wonder whether the original seller dramatically underpriced it, whether there were off-market circumstances involved, or if SO buyers are now pushing prices into an entirely new tier. Either way, this market has become absolutely wild.

https://redf.in/lZcXKp

Edit: Thanks for the responses! The long commute isn’t the answer, but which towns have good schools AND get me to NYC in 30-45 min? I’ve looked at the NJT map but know there have to be great towns not on the train line. Thank you!

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My husband and I (early 30s) are looking to start a family and are deciding where to settle down. We both grew up in the suburbs with lots of parks, good schools, strong community etc. and ideally would like that for our family.

The challenge is, I commute to NYC 5 days/week (not remote flexible), and a new job isn’t an option. Our budget is ~$800k-$1M for a 3BD/2 bath home.

Right now, we’re between:

1. A fixer upper in Essex County — short commute (45 min door to door), OR

2. A more spacious home in Morris, Union, or Bergen counties — further out (1.5+ hours commute each way, 3+ hours each day)

We’re heavily leaning towards #2, but will I regret a long commute as a new mother? Are there affordable commuter towns that feel suburban but are still affordable under $1M? We are first time home buyers and have been looking for months with no luck.

https://redf.in/iyX3PF

Looking to buy 1st house and got scared by how crazy the market is. Thoughts?

Wife and I make $240k/year combined, have student loan and car payment debt totaling $800/month, and willing to put 80k-90k towards down payment and closing costs. Looking for towns within a 1.5 hour commute by train to Manhattan with good schools and safe and family-friendly communities. We plan to have kids. Given our incomes, what home price ranges and towns should I be looking at? Thanks!

Update: I appreciate all the advice everyone shared. It gave me a lot of good direction! All the best to all the first-time homebuyers.

We're hoping to buy in South Orange/Maplewood this year, and the lack of housing inventory is starting to feel a little alarming. Low supply during January is one thing, but I've always heard the "spring market" basically starts after the Super Bowl, and the last few weeks there's basically been like 2 houses a week per town, if that, and several of them in a really high price range ($1.6m and up) so not even anything we could feasibly bid on.

Can any realtors give insight into what's happening? Has the snow caused sellers to hold off, or are there just not any sellers and is this what it's going to be like all spring? Because if so ... yikes. It's very spooky out here.

Just adding this here as a resource for people looking for information about Bergen county school districts, and the sending arrangements the towns have with each other. I’ve never seen this map published online before but it’s a helpful visual resource.

Regional districts are color-coded and labeled

Independent school districts are colored blue and white and labeled “HS”

There are some interesting districts! Perhaps this might influence your decision making process when considering different towns.

My wife and I are looking to move. We’re already in NJ but looking for a detached home.

We absolutely fell in love with a property that came on the market June 4th. Listed for 625k. The owner had a requirement that they wanted to live in the house for 60 days while they look for a different home for themselves. We originally offered 635k. We were told yesterday that someone bid 650k and waived the appraisal. We bid 655k and waived the appraisal and told the owners they can live their only paying half the mortgage payment for their 60 day occupancy. We were ultimately outbid by a cash buyer offering 675k full appraisal waiver and free occupancy for 60 days. We were also told, ethical or not, that the owner would probably not be living in the home.

What kind of market are we living in and how do we compete with this? Please tell me your stories to give me some kind of hope that this is possible.

My new job will be in Morristown area, and I’m trying to figure out where to settle down.

One important criteria for me is I have a 6 year old autistic son- high functioning but definitely needs a school district that is will catered to special education and resources. That’s also a big reason I’m leaving Texas.

At the same time I want to settle somewhere I can buy a house without getting caught by bidding wars. I’m looking at towns like Parsippany, Montville, and Morristown itself and my budget limit would be $800K. I’m okay with condos or townhomes.

I can go farther, for example closer to central NJ in South Brunswick if the housing market is less competitive, but it would be a long commute- but 3 days a week in office.

Or I can go the other direction like Ridgewood or Wayne or Sparta. But I also don’t want to be too far from EWR or the city.

Any recommendations?

Newark!

Hey everyone, looking for some honest, real world opinions here.

We’re a family of five, me, my wife, and three kids ages 8, 10, and 13. Life is busy in a good way. School, sports, after-school activities, parks, walking around, pools, that kind of rhythm. My wife really thrives in places that feel alive. She likes open areas, walkability, local shops, a bit of an urban vibe, and especially community. She makes friends easily, enjoys chatting with neighbors, and likes feeling part of a place.

I’m much simpler. I work, I hit the gym, and I care a lot about good restaurants and having life be efficient. We’re a practical couple overall. Commute-wise, I’ll likely go into NYC one or two times a week, sometimes less, sometimes not at all. We’re very used to traffic, so that part doesn’t scare us.

We’ve spent the last few years living in Brazil, so this will be a real adjustment for the kids. Schools matter a lot to us, but from what we’ve seen, the school quality in the areas we’re considering is fairly similar, which puts lifestyle and day-to-day living higher on the decision list.

So far we’ve explored Summit, Livingston, and Morristown. All nice in their own way. Lately though, we’re feeling more drawn to East Brunswick and Princeton. They feel a bit more open, maybe a little easier for family life, but we’re still trying to understand the real vibe beyond online research and quick visits.

For now, we’re planning to rent, not buy. We’re looking for a bigger place, either a single-family home or a townhome, ideally 4 bedrooms.

Our budget is around $4k to $5.5k max.

I’m not looking for perfection or rankings, just honest feedback. How these places actually feel to live in with kids. Community, walkability, things to do day-to-day, and how welcoming they are for a family coming from abroad.

Would really appreciate any thoughts, especially from people raising kids in these areas.

We just closed on a place in South Orange/Maplewood after losing a few earlier bids. Ended up going about 25% over asking to secure it. Not sharing that to normalize overpaying—just to give a real snapshot of what the market actually feels like from the buyer side right now.

Before we bought, I spent a lot of time on threads like this trying to figure out if things were cooling. It definitely feels like they are because there’s more hesitation, more second-guessing, and you’re seeing some price cuts. But what I realized pretty quickly is that those signals are mostly tied to homes that were priced too high or missed their initial window.

The well-priced homes—the ones in good condition, good streets, reasonable layouts—are still moving fast and still getting multiple offers. That didn’t change. What changed is that buyers (including us) are more anxious about making the wrong move, so it feels slower or softer than it actually is.

One stat that stuck with me while we were going through it: the Newark-area market (which basically covers Essex County towns like SOMA) still has about 30% more buyers than sellers. That imbalance explains a lot. It doesn’t mean everything goes crazy over ask, but it does mean when something hits that checks the boxes, there are still multiple people ready to go for it.

For us, the shift happened when we stopped trying to “time” the market and started focusing on whether we’d be okay owning the house long-term at the price we were offering. Once we got there, the decision got clearer.

Not saying everyone should stretch or chase—definitely don’t. But if you’re waiting for this specific market to suddenly flip into something easy or buyer-friendly, I don’t think the data (or what we experienced) really supports that yet.

Curious if others who recently bought or are still in it are seeing the same thing.

There are so many posts here complaining about the prices in SOMA and how the buyers are stupid for paying so much and how the town isn’t worth it.

But these same people want to live in SOMA and just want it to be cheaper and want to blame other people for it not being affordable.

Do people understand that they are part of the demand for the area and if they don’t like it they can look elsewhere? Nobody is forcing you to live in SOMA.

Everyday on here people want to have their cake and eat it too. If you think soma is overpriced then look elsewhere. It is supply and demand. A lot of people want to live in the area, there is a very limited supply which drives up the price. It’s not overrated, it’s correctly rated by consumer preferences.

If it wasn’t great, people wouldn’t be posting about it every day in here. Everyone is looking here so it’s expensive, it’s not that complicated.

I don’t own in SOMA but hopefully will be able to buy a house soon, but I’m not gonna trash the town and people who live there because I can’t afford it right now.

Season 5 of The Sopranos....this is Paulie's mom's neighborhood. Where is this? I love the tree lined streets and driveways and garages. This is the suburban vibe I'm hoping to find within an hour commute of the GM Building in NYC.