Richest Zip Codes in NJ

We’re a New York and Connecticut brokerage, so read this as research rather than a pitch. We’re not licensed in New Jersey and this page doesn’t offer to represent you there. What we do have is the arithmetic, because our clients ask us to compare the two sides of the river constantly.

The most expensive zip codes in New Jersey, in 2025 numbers

These come from PropertyShark’s 2025 ranking of the most expensive zip codes in the United States, which is the current one. Ranked by median sale price, not by income.

Alpine has now spent ten consecutive years among the country’s top enclaves and has been New Jersey’s most expensive zip nine times in ten. For a zip code that’s a dynasty. It sits at number 13 nationally, which puts it ahead of most of the Hamptons.

Note what happened in one year. Alpine rose 31% and Deal rose 20%. Any list you find with 2023 numbers on it is describing a different market.

It’s New York money, and the map says so

One line in PropertyShark’s own report explains the whole list. Of New Jersey’s leading zip codes, only two lie outside the New York metropolitan area, and both are Cape May shore towns.

Everything else on the list, Alpine and Deal and Short Hills and Allenhurst, sits inside the orbit of one city. It is a New York wealth map printed on New Jersey.

That matters if you’re the one comparing. You aren’t choosing between New Jersey and New York. You’re choosing which side of the Hudson your commute starts on, and the two sides price very differently below the surface.

New Jersey property taxes: the bill that comes with it

New Jersey has the highest average property tax bill of any state in the country. ATTOM measured it at $10,499 for 2025, against a national average effective rate of 0.9% and a New Jersey rate of 1.58%.

Then look at where these zip codes sit.

Bergen and Essex are third and fourth in the entire country, which is not a leaderboard anyone campaigns for. Those are county averages, so a house in Alpine pays well over $14,443. The only number that means anything is the bill on the actual house.

New Jersey does hand buyers one break. Since 2025, its 1% fee on million-dollar homes is no longer the buyer’s. The state now charges a Graduated Percent Fee on transfers over $1 million and says plainly who owes it: “The seller is statutorily responsible.”

And it climbs steeply.

At Alpine’s median of $4,350,000, that’s 3.5%, or roughly $152,000, and it comes out of the seller’s side. New York does the opposite: a flat 1% mansion tax at $1 million and up, paid by the buyer. Our closing cost calculators run the New York side properly.

Alpine NJ real estate and the wealthiest towns in New Jersey

Alpine NJ real estate is the clearest case on the list, so it’s worth pulling out. The 2025 median was $4,350,000, up 31% on 2024 and 13th in the United States. It has been New Jersey’s priciest zip nine times in ten years and in the national top ranking for ten straight. Bergen County’s average property-tax bill was $14,443, third-highest in America.

Nothing there is a fluke, and none of it is new. The wealthiest towns in New Jersey are a short, stable set. Bergen County along the Palisades, Essex around Millburn and Short Hills, and a run of Monmouth shore towns.

The names barely move from year to year.

What moves is the price. A 31% jump in one year in a market this small is a handful of houses trading, not a wave.

The towns, counties and tax ranking stay. The medians, yearly percentages and whichever zip sits at number one move.

That’s why a list written two years ago reads as though it describes somewhere else.

What the older lists get wrong

Most of the “richest zip codes in New Jersey” pages you’ll find, including the version of this one we replaced, share two problems.

They quote a median that was true when it was written. Short Hills is the clean example. Older lists put 07078 at about $1.93 million; PropertyShark’s 2025 figure is $2.42 million, a record for that zip. Neither number is wrong. One of them is old, and nothing on the page says which.

They mix two different measurements. Median sale price and median household income are not the same ranking. A list that switches between them halfway down is two lists wearing one hat. The same thing happens across the river, and we’ve separated them in the richest towns in New York.

This page ranks by sale price only, and says so.

Buying here as a New Yorker

Four things change when you cross the Hudson, and none of them is the house:

• The railway: NJ Transit and PATH, usually into Penn Station.
• The million-dollar fee: Graduated from 1% to 3.5%, owed by the seller.
• The annual bill: The highest state average in the country.
• Who represents you: Not us. We are licensed in New York and Connecticut.

The commute stops being Metro-North. New Jersey Transit and the PATH are a different network, and the Manhattan endpoint is usually Penn Station rather than Grand Central. If your office is on the east side, that matters more than the price per square foot.

The tax bill does the arguing. On a $2 million house both bills are large enough that the year-one number belongs in your offer maths rather than in a footnote. The full comparison, commute included, is in our guide to the suburbs of NYC.

The transfer taxes point in opposite directions. New York’s 1% mansion tax is the buyer’s, statewide, with more inside the city. New Jersey’s graduated fee is steeper but the seller owes it. That single difference can move a high-end deal by six figures, and it’s the point where you want a New Jersey attorney rather than a New York blog.

What we see in the field

Clients almost never compare like with like. They put a New Jersey asking price next to a Westchester one and stop. The bill, the commute and the transfer costs move that comparison a long way, and they surface after the offer if nobody raises them first.

A listing price is a confident little number; it has omitted most of the meeting.

A record year in a small zip code is a small number of sales. Alpine’s 31% rise is real, and it’s a median drawn from a handful of transactions in a village-sized market. Treat it as direction, not as a valuation of the house you’re looking at.

Where we can actually help is the New York side. We represent buyers across Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut, and hand back an average of $22,000 at closing on an average purchase of about $1.1 million. We’ve returned over $11 million since 2017. How the rebate works.

Common questions

What is the richest zip code in New Jersey? 07620, Alpine, in Bergen County. PropertyShark put its 2025 median sale price at $4,350,000, up 31% year on year and 13th in the United States. It has been the state’s most expensive zip nine times in the last ten years.

Across the river, the comparable New York numbers are Sagaponack at a $5,925,000 median and a $7,732 state-average tax bill. Its fee above $1 million is a 1% buyer-paid mansion tax, and Metro-North lands at Grand Central rather than Penn.

Which is more expensive, Alpine or Short Hills? Alpine, by a wide margin. Alpine’s 2025 median was $4,350,000 against $2,420,000 in Short Hills, and Short Hills’ figure was itself a record for that zip code.

Are New Jersey property taxes really the highest in the country? By state average, yes. ATTOM put New Jersey’s average single-family bill at $10,499 for 2025, the highest of any state, at an effective rate of 1.58% against a national 0.9%. Bergen and Essex rank third and fourth of all 1,502 counties measured.

Who pays the mansion tax in New Jersey? The seller. New Jersey’s Graduated Percent Fee on transfers over $1 million runs from 1% to 3.5% by price band, and the Division of Taxation states that the seller is statutorily responsible. New York’s 1% mansion tax works the other way and is the buyer’s.

Are the richest New Jersey zip codes near New York City? Almost all of them. PropertyShark reports that only two of New Jersey’s leading zip codes sit outside the New York metropolitan area, and both are Cape May shore towns.

Does NestApple work in New Jersey? No. We are licensed in New York and Connecticut and represent buyers in Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut. New Jersey is research for us, not a service area.

Before you cross the river

The river is the cheap part. Everything beyond it is priced by the same city, taxed by a different state, and reached by a different railway. The sale price is the only one of those that appears on a listing.

So if you’re weighing New Jersey against Westchester, get all three numbers for both before you fall for a house. That comparison takes an afternoon and it changes what people offer.

On the New York side we represent buyers and hand back up to 2% of the purchase price at closing. See how the buyer rebate works.

Written by Nicole Fishman Benoliel

Co-founder of NestApple and a lawyer admitted to the New York bar, not currently practising.