Study says Jersey City, NJ is popular for inbound moves

We hear a lot about people moving out of New Jersey, but there’s at least one town where people, specifically renters, are moving in, and the town is Jersey City.

According to research done by Storage Café, Jersey City was among the most popular destinations for renters in 2021. Their numbers show that three times as many renters came to Jersey City than left.

As you might expect, most of the influx came from New York City;

“The job market is becoming increasingly attractive in Jersey City and the housing market allows for more room to roam, as apartments are larger in Jersey City, 786 sq. ft. vs. 723 sq. ft. in Manhattan, on average.”

With all the move-ins, Jersey City is getting more of a young vibe, as 69% of inbound renters are millennials — as are 72% of the incomers from the Big Apple — and 19% are Gen Zers. New York City, by contrast, saw twice as many renters leave as arrive, the most striking negative net migration in the nation, and they chose Jersey City more than anywhere else.

The methodology, according to the website:

StorageCafe looked into 3.4M rental applications from RentGrow from 2021, illustrating renter interest across 257 markets with populations of over 100,000. We determined preferred migration destinations based on their applications, and we determined each destination city’s relative ranking for net renter migration — inbound minus outbound — as a proportion of its population.

Nationally, renter applications rose 10% in 2021. The Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area had the two most popular cities for inbound renter migration (Lewisville and Irving). Jersey City was 8th.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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