Three New Jersey towns among ‘America’s hottest neighborhoods’

Redfin, the real estate website, has named its 10 hottest neighborhoods for 2021 and three of them are in New Jersey, more specifically, South Jersey. That’s pretty impressive as we tied California with the most places on the list.

The three South Jersey towns are: Stratford in Camden County (#4), Somerdale, also in Camden County (#8), and Washington Township in Gloucester County (#9).

Redfin describes Stratford as “a cute little area bordering Gloucester Township, which is a half-hour drive to Philly and minutes from the Atlantic City Expressway that goes to the Jersey Shore.” About Somerdale, Redfin says, “People come to this area because they can get a lot of bang for their buck—$300,000 will buy a beautiful 4-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home with a basement. The area has shopping, restaurants, decent schools, and proximity to Philly and the Jersey Shore.” And Washington Township is described as “a very friendly, affordable suburb with great school districts.”

The rankings are based on an analysis that ranked U.S. zip codes by year-over-year growth in listing views. They use a formula called the Redfin Compete Score — a measure of how difficult it is to win a home based on factors including days on market, share of homes that sold above their listing prices and sale-to-list price ratio. All data represents October 2020. Among several factors, the pandemic seems to be playing a role, “Remote work is allowing Americans to live where they actually want to live. People are no longer tied to the cities where their offices are located,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.” The list is heavy on family friendly suburbs of major cities.

According to Redfin, here are the top ten hottest neighborhoods in the country:

1. Lake Tahoe, CA
2. Chester/Andover, VT
3. Big Bear, CA
4. Stratford, NJ
5. Sebago Lake, ME
6. Lakes Region, NH
7. Fall River, MA
8. Somerdale, NJ
9. Washington Township, NJ
10. Mountain House, CA

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.