What you now need to earn to buy a home in NJ is obscene

Something hardly anyone will pay attention to should be an eye-opener for us all. Bankrate’s 2025 Housing Affordability Study reads more like a horror script than a financial report.

First, for the national average (and stand by because Jersey is worse), what you now need for an income to purchase an average home is $116,986. That’s because the country’s median-priced home is now $418,489. This is a 50% increase in the income you needed just five years ago.

Before we move on to how bad it is in New Jersey, let that national number sink in.

Think about the student loans, the effort, and the investment of time to get a college degree so one could earn, say, $98,000 a year. That still means you can’t even have what’s simply the average home. You’ll have to buy in less desirable towns. Possibly a less safe area. Maybe cramped rooms. And you thought you were doing well.

Don’t ever smugly mock anyone in their 20s or 30s who is still living in a parent’s home. You won’t care for my reaction.

It is obscene what is happening in this country. And then, there’s Jersey.

To afford a typical home in New Jersey, which now has a median price of $539,100, you will now need to earn $160,001.

Anything less than earning $160,001, you will be in a less than average home. You will work that hard, to earn that much, and in this state, you will be less than.

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That not only hurts to an unthinkable level, but it is also an increase in needed salary of 54.15% from just five years ago. Even then, you needed a six-figure income. But did you get a 54.15% raise in the last 60 months? Me either.

According to the report, New Jersey has the eighth-highest income needed to buy a state’s typical, median-priced home. That there are seven states worse is hardly any solace. This is only one on a long list of reasons New Jersey is the most moved away from state.

It’s a state we used to love, but for more and more New Jerseyans, we’re finding we are better off as friends.

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

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