As mortgage rates continue to soar, the real estate market in North Jersey continued to see a decrease in new home listings and an increase in median listing prices in September.
Nationally, the average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has surpassed 8%, and New Jersey accounted for just 8,100 of the total 357,956 new home listings last month across the country.
How much has North Jersey's inventory declined from last year?
According to housing data from Realtor.com for September, all of New Jersey's 21 counties experienced a decline in new home listings compared with September 2022.
North Jersey's five counties, Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex and Sussex, as well as Hudson County, all experienced a more than 10% decrease in new home listings.
Bergen and Passaic counties had the greatest decline in new listings, down 25.82% and 24.18%, respectively.
Essex and Sussex counties experienced a similar drop, at 18.88% and 18.08%. Hudson county had a 14.51% decrease in new inventory, while Morris County had the smallest decline in North Jersey at 11.46%.
How long are homes staying on the market?
Active home listings have also stayed on the market for a shorter period for all of these counties, compared with the same time last year.
In Bergen and Sussex counties, properties stay on the market for a median of 40 days — the longest in North Jersey. In comparison, listings stay on the market for the shortest time in Morris County, at a median of 33 days.
Listings are typically active for 39 days in Hudson County, 37 days in Passaic County and 36 days in Essex County.
What about median listing prices?
Median listings prices have also continued to rise across North Jersey.
Bergen County and Morris County both had the highest listing increases — 16.8% and 13.8% — and the highest median listing prices — $788,389 and $697,000.
Listing prices increased by just over 9% in Passaic ($479,000), Essex ($513,000) and Hudson ($618,450) counties. In Sussex, prices increased the least, at 4%, for a median listing price of $385,000.
Here's how all 21 New Jersey counties stacked up in September:
Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay, on X @maddiemcgayy, and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ real estate: New home listings declining in North Jersey