Jaw-dropping report shows how unaffordable suburban NJ now is

For those of us who grew up in the Jersey suburbs, don’t you look back at your childhood and wonder how your parents made it? How did they pay a mortgage, feed you and your siblings, give you everything you needed and some of what you wanted, possibly with simple jobs and maybe mom only working part-time?

It’s not that our parents and grandparents were financial geniuses. It’s that the suburbs of 70s and 80s New Jersey aren’t the same suburbs today.

The shocking report that puts it in perspective

If you’re 30 and still living under your parents’ roof because even rent is astronomically expensive, or if you’re a young couple that can’t get out of an apartment and into even a modest starter home, don’t feel like you’re a loser. Here’s what’s happened.

PropertyShark analyzed data from close to 400 suburban markets around New York City. Now we all think of insane property values in the Big Apple. But there, between 2016 and 2025, sale prices for NYC real estate went up 43%. Bad, right? But the median sales price of a home in the suburbs rose 86% in those nine years.

Read More: What $400,000 buys at Jersey Shore vs Florida in 2026

Let that sink in a second.

Average, hardworking people used to live in Jersey’s suburbs when we were kids. Things changed.

"Consequently, what was once a suburban ecosystem with a wide range of price points in which NYC buyers could still find relatively affordable communities has since consolidated into a far more expensive market dominated by mid- and high-priced suburban communities," according to the report.

In 2016, 34 suburban towns in the New York metro had median sales prices over $1 million. Now? It's 98 suburban communities have homes that are that expensive.

Almost half of our suburbs have homes priced between $500,000 and $750,000. For young people trying to get their lives started, the news is grim. Now, only 8% of our suburbs have homes valued at under $500,000. So 92% are over half a million bucks average.

Worse, there are literally no NYC suburbs left in New Jersey with a home below $250,000. Not one. Nothing.

I read this on northjersey.com  and thought of a conversation I recently had with someone who couldn’t understand why she couldn’t get ahead. I think we’re all feeling that we’re the only ones, that we must be reckless with money, lack discipline, etc.

It’s not you. It’s this. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. You can read the full report from PropertyShark.com here.