New Jersey rental market data

Apartment List's recent-lease rent measure increased from $1,970 to $1,982, a 0.6% gain. Its separate Vacancy Index rose from 4.7% to 5.3%, an increase of 0.5 percentage point. That pairing supports limited current rent growth and some occupancy loosening.

The separate time-on-market series does not confirm a leasing slowdown: it moved down 0.2 day to 29.5 days. Current state vacancy was also 1.9 percentage points below the 7.2% national reading. A screen should therefore test achievable rent and stabilized occupancy independently rather than treat the higher vacancy measure as evidence that listings have become broadly illiquid.

Across all 21 counties in the migration data, 251,971 people moved out and 232,601 moved in, producing net migration of negative 19,370, or negative 2.1 per 1,000 residents. That is a demand caution, but it is an aggregate movement measure rather than a count of renter-household change in any specific submarket.

Employment is a counter-signal. Across six measured metros, job growth had a 0.2% median and ranged from negative 0.5% at the 10th percentile to 1.4% at the 90th percentile; Atlantic City recorded 1.6%. Screening should connect a property's tenant base to local employment and household retention rather than use statewide net migration as a stand-in for local rental demand. The packet does not map movers by tenure, age or destination, and its migration release predates the current rental measures.

Across the 21 measured counties, the median share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent was 52.7%, and the 90th-percentile reading was 56.9%. The median renter share was 29.0%. Tenant affordability therefore warrants direct income and rent verification rather than an assumption based on county tenure alone.

The county examples show why overall ACS vacancy is not interchangeable with rental availability. Ocean County had 58.3% rent burden, 17.7% vacancy and a 19.3% renter share. Passaic County had nearly comparable burden at 57.1%, but vacancy was 3.7% and renter share was 46.9%. Cape May County's vacancy was 54.9%, while renter share was 19.7% and single-family share was 77.7%. The packet does not split these ACS vacancies by seasonal or rental-market reason, so the figures cannot establish apartment availability or expected unit occupancy.

Across the four metros with Redfin resale coverage, median marketing time was 38 days, median supply was 3.5 months and the median share of listings with price drops was 25.1%. Atlantic City was slower than the other highlighted markets: 63 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. Atlantic City's sale-to-list ratio was 97.8%.

Atlantic City also recorded 1,372 permitted units, or 3.7 per 1,000 residents, versus 980 and 2.5 per 1,000 in Trenton. This pairing is relevant to entry-price and exit-liquidity assumptions, but it does not show that the permitted units were completed, became rentals or competed with a particular property. Rental operations and resale liquidity should remain separate parts of the screen.

Across 21 counties, the median effective property-tax rate was 2.1%, with a 10th-to-90th-percentile range of 1.6% to 2.6%; median tax was $8,909. The highlighted counties do not rank the same way on tax and expected hazard loss. Cape May County had a 0.25% climate-loss ratio, a 1.2% property-tax rate and $5,306 median tax. Salem County had a 0.20% loss ratio, a 2.9% tax rate and $7,018 median tax. Hudson County had a 0.19% loss ratio, a 1.8% tax rate and $9,555 median tax.

FEMA assigns inland flood as the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for 20 counties and coastal flood for one. Those are county-level top-hazard classifications, not statements that every parcel is exposed. The screen can flag counties for deeper tax, engineering and insurance review, but the packet cannot price a specific property's coverage, deductible or expected loss.