New Milford's Home Values Are Dropping Like A Rock, Census Data Shows

NEW MILFORD, N.J. — A few areas of New Jersey have thriving housing markets. But many more — including New Milford— do not, and they're dropping dramatically (see interactive map below).

There's no better evidence of that than the below map provided by NJ Spotlight, which uses U.S. Census data to show the pain most homeowners are feeling as they watched their home values drop as much as 20 percent since their pre-2010 levels, when the Great Recession hit.

New Milford's median home value decreased more than 13 percent to $384,500.

On the map, green is good, tan is mediocre and brown is bad. The vast majority of towns are bad — or very bad. Run your cursor over Stafford Township — Manahawkin — in Ocean County, for instance, and you'll see that home values have dropped 19 percent in the past seven years.

Nineteen percent! This is a Jersey Shore town that, not so long ago, had among the fastest growing housing markets in the country. But, besides the Great Recession, that area also was severely impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, where many homes were left battered and many had to be torn down, rebuilt or improved.

The median decline in residential values in New Jersey was close to 11 percent, according to the 2015 American Community Survey data released last week and published on NJ Spotlight.

The reports said the typical home in the state was valued at almost $316,000 when averaged over the 2011-2015 period — 11.5 percent less than the 2006-2010 community survey estimate.

NJ Spotlight noted that 13 communities had a median home value of more than $1 million, with two of those — Alpine and Mantoloking — valued at more than $2 million. The lowest home value was in Camden, whose $84,600 estimate was below the $90,000 valuation in Winfield, the municipality with the second-lowest median value.

Here is the map. As noted, run your cursor over it to find out the number of total housing units, the percentage of homes owned or rented, the median housing values, housing coasts and the 7-year changes. Also, click on the map and hold the cursor down to move the map so you can see everything.

Patch file photo