In an age when nothing seems affordable, Save Jerseyans, the least affordable place in the United States to call home is now Jersey City.
The average Jersey City monthly rent has reached an astronomical $5,500 according to Rent.com. That’s higher than $5,000 for Manhattan (as of June 2022).
“Rental prices have surged across the United States during the pandemic, spurred by a spike in inflation and a wave of tenants moving farther from their urban offices as they settle into remote work,” Rent.com researcher Jon Leckie told The New York Times.
What’s truly remarkable (and obnoxious): notwithstanding the tremendous amount of wealth parked in Jersey City these days, the North Jersey outpost is set to receive $184.7 million in state aid for the 2022-2023 school year among other goodies redistributed by Trenton to the state’s second most populous municipality. The Jersey City real estate boom of the 2010s was fueled, in large part, by a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) scam that kept Jersey City property taxes low by passing the expense to taxpayers in the burbs.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
