Are you in one of the 9 counties in NJ with highest home value?

If you’ve been kidding yourself that New Jersey is affordable, this report ought to put that fairytale to rest.

The Garden State has been too expensive for too long. But since housing turned to a hot seller’s market in the last few years and inventory of available homes became so low, it’s driven home prices higher, rents higher, led to buyers pulling their hair out and home inspectors finding less work.

Consider this. Nationwide the average home price stood at $342,685 in December. But here in New Jersey it was $495,287, or $152,602 higher. That’s more than 50% higher.

Over that fairytale yet?

It gets worse. Well, worse if you’re looking to buy. Great if you’re looking to sell and downsize.

Zillow data shows 9 New Jersey counties are among the highest home values in America. (According to nj.com Zillow’s calculation of “typical home value” is a trimmed mean, and acts like a median value would to arrive at a more accurate representation estimate.)

So what are the 9 New Jersey counties with the highest typical home values? Let’s do this like an old Kasey Kasem-style countdown.

9 Union County $545,106

8 Hunterdon County $550,457

7 Essex County $567,414

6 Hudson County $572,347

5 Somerset County $579,358

4 Morris County $601,937

3 Bergen County $645,603

2 Monmouth County $652,722

1 Cape May County $681,756

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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