New Jersey rental market data

The measured metro midpoint shows rent growth of 3.8% and home-value growth of 2.8%. Rent growth spans 2.5% to 4.4% between the 10th and 90th percentiles, while price growth spans 0.6% to 3.9%. The supplied rent-minus-price growth spread is 1.0 percentage point, indicating modestly better income momentum than acquisition-value momentum at the distribution midpoint.

Atlantic City illustrates the pattern with 4.4% rent growth, 3.7% price growth and a 6.5% gross yield. That combination supports further income screening, but it does not show the rent achievable for a particular unit or the return after operating expenses.

Across all 21 measured counties, 232,601 movers came in and 251,971 moved out, producing net migration of -19,370. That equals -2.1 per 1,000 residents. This conflicts with treating current rent growth as proof of broad household expansion.

Employment is subdued but not uniformly weak. Median metro job growth is 0.2%, with a 10th-to-90th-percentile span from -0.5% to 1.4%; Atlantic City records 1.6% growth. The positive Atlantic City reading is a genuine counter-signal, so the statewide migration total should not be applied mechanically to each leasing market.

The median county has 52.7% of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent; the 10th-to-90th-percentile band is 47.3% to 56.9%. Overall vacancy is much more dispersed, with a 4.9% median and a 3.0% to 17.1% 10th-to-90th-percentile band. High rent burden therefore does not imply uniformly tight physical occupancy.

Cape May County reports 54.9% overall vacancy, a 19.7% renter share and a 77.7% single-family share. Passaic County has 3.7% vacancy, a 46.9% renter share and 57.1% rent burden. The packet cannot determine why Cape May County's vacancy is so high or how much of it is available for year-round rental, making that a specific gap for local screening.

Atlantic City has 63 median days on market and 5.2 months of supply, compared with 42 days and 3.4 months in Trenton and 34 days and 3.6 months in Vineland. Its 97.8% sale-to-list ratio also trails Trenton's 100.3% and Vineland's 98.8%, pointing to more exit friction among these highlighted markets.

The reading is not uniformly weak: Atlantic City's price-drop share is 21.6%, below Trenton's 23.3% and Vineland's 27.0%. Atlantic City also records 3.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents versus 2.5 in Trenton. Permits do not reveal whether units will be completed or offered as rentals, so they should not be treated as a direct rental-supply forecast.

Atlantic County pairs a $387,883 measured price with $2,085 monthly rent and a 6.5% gross yield. Cape May County pairs an $804,637 price with $2,179 rent and a 3.3% gross yield. Their five-year FHFA appreciation measures are 80.5% and 78.7%, respectively, yet current annual appreciation is 7.8% in Atlantic County and 3.9% in Cape May County.

Historical appreciation does not remove exit risk. Cape May County has 65 median listing days and a 45.0% pending ratio; Atlantic County has 52 days and a 42.3% pending ratio. The figures support county-specific entry and exit assumptions, not a conclusion that appreciation will continue or that gross yield will survive expenses.

The median effective property-tax rate across 21 counties is 2.1%, with a 10th-to-90th-percentile span of 1.6% to 2.6%. Median annual tax is $8,909, and the corresponding band is $6,562 to $10,001. Cape May County combines a 1.2% tax rate and $5,306 median tax with a 0.25% county climate-loss ratio; Salem County combines a 2.9% rate and $7,018 median tax with a 0.20% loss ratio.

FEMA's mutually exclusive leading-hazard labels classify 20 counties under inland flood and one under coastal flood. Those labels identify only each county's leading hazard; they do not show that every parcel has that exposure. County loss ratios and tax medians therefore cannot replace an address-level insurance quote, flood review or property-tax bill.