New Jersey's housing affordability depends more on geography than some people think. There are relative bargains to be had, and nearly all are in South Jersey.
Consider this: If you could buy a house anywhere in our high-cost state for less than $40,000, wouldn't you at least think about it?
You can find that house in Salem City. An nj.com slideshow that detailed the 19 New Jersey towns with the lowest typical house price puts the average price in Salem at $39,517. The data is based on 2015 reports from the state Division of Taxation.
Salem has the lowest price of the low-price 19. Millville was the the most expensive on the list at a still reasonable $127,967 average.
All but two of other 17 bargain communities (Trenton and Phillipsburg, Warren County) are located in Burlington County or south. To be precise, six of the 19 are in Camden County, four are in Cumberland County, two each are in Atlantic, Salem and Burlington counties, and one is in Gloucester County.
No, the house you get might not be grand. Yes, it might be in a town with a crime, image or employment volume problem. But that doesn't mean you won't be fairly safe, that you can't easily travel to work, or that you'll have to settle for a dilapidated property. Most of the homes pictured in the slideshow, to illustrate a town's average price, are single-family ones. There is a three-bedroom Millville house shown at $128,900. It has a garage and a well-maintained, large lot. It doesn't look like a fixer-upper.
Even No. 17 Atlantic City at a $127,629 average is a steal, despite all the negative headlines the city has generated lately. It depends on how you look at it. If you're retired, but want to be near the shore and its amenities, compare the Atlantic City price to those in other beach-access towns. Right next door in Ventnor, the average is $237,000, according to Zillow. Looking in Ocean City? Zillow's average home price is $512,300. You can play a lot of golf for the $385,671 difference.
It's not our job to be the principal cheerleaders for the local real estate market. Yet, we have to wonder if South Jersey is saying enough about some tremendous housing opportunities.
That also goes for the affordable housing advocates and developers who insist that there is no place where working-class families can live in this state. Why, other than higher potential profits, are they so bent on new construction when almost half the state has sub-$100,000 units that can be quite livable with the right amount of TLC?
Some public policy initiatives, such as repair and rehabilitation grants or low-interest loans, could be targeted to these communities. If our state's Economic Development Authority can grant big tax breaks for corporations to move jobs from Cherry Hill to Camden, why not do something similar for families willing to relocate within New Jersey?
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