Top Cities in New Jersey

New Jersey at a Glance

Boardwalk Empire, Bruce Springsteen, and board games: with a history verging on mythological thanks to pop culture depictions, New Jersey has captured the American imagination since the Roaring Twenties. New Jersey’s coastline, known as the Jersey Shore, offers more than 140 miles of oceanfront activity, like surfing, fishing, and shark-spotting. Atlantic City, arguably one of the most widely-recognized localities in the state, is home to the famed Boardwalk and serves as the gambling nexus of the East Coast. Hoboken, North Wildwood, and Ocean City are other popular beach destinations. Inland, New Jersey earns its nickname of “the Garden State” with dozens of botanical gardens, arboretums, and agro-tourism destinations. The New Jersey Botanical Gardens in Ringwood feature 96 acres and hundreds of specimens, and the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, the state’s largest horticultural park, boasts 127 acres. Outdoor enthusiasts will revel in the state’s parks and multi-use trails, best exemplified by the Pinelands National Reserve, more than a million acres of wilderness adventures. Indoors, educational exhibits abound at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden and the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.

Top Cities in New Jersey

• Absecon  
• Adelphia  
• Atlantic City  
• Atlantic Highlands  
• Blawenburg  
• Brick  
• Brigantine  
• Cherry Hill  
• Convent Station  
• Egg Harbor Township  
• Ewan  
• Fort Monmouth  
• Glasser  
• Ironia  
• Jackson  

Why You’ll Love Living in New Jersey

New Jersey has a high concentration of affluent residents, boasting the second-most millionaires of all US states. Nine New Jersey counties rank on the list of 100 wealthiest counties in the nation, and the state has the third-highest per-capita income. These positive rankings are due in part to the diversity of New Jersey’s economy. Pharmaceuticals, finance, and chemicals are among the top industries in the state, but agriculture, publishing, and tourism are significant sectors as well. NJBIZ rated Bohler Engineering, Transwestern, and Edward Jones as the three best employers among large companies. Finance website Nerdwallet recently listed the best cities in New Jersey for job seekers; Hoboken, Lakewood, and New Brunswick cracked the top five. Hunderton, Morris, and Somerset are the state’s top three counties by per capita income, while Atlantic, Passaic, and Cumberland rank at the bottom of that list.

The cost of living in New Jersey is about 32 percent higher than the national average. This figure is largely due to the cost of housing, which is nearly 70 percent above the US mean. The median home price in New Jersey is $338,000, though this figure varies greatly by locality. In Alpine, for example, the median list price for a single-family home is just over the million-dollar mark. In Newark, it’s $264,000, while in Camden, the median is $90,000. The Garden State was hit harder than most by the 2008 recession, then battered by back-to-back years of major storms, Irene and Sandy. Now, the tide seems to be turning. Thanks to low interest rates and high consumer confidence, real estate analysts are forecasting good things for the state’s housing market, with some predicting sales figures at their highest since 2006. New construction is expected to represent a significant portion of sales in the near future, and realtors are counting on Millennials to bolster the market among first-time homebuyers.