In the Garden State, signing a deed to buy a home is being outnumbered in certain areas by inking a lease to rent one.
As housing affordability continues to decline nationwide, a growing number of New Jersey suburbs especially are now dominated by renters — recasting the classic vision of suburban life.
A new analysis of US Census data by Point2Homes reveals that 39 New Jersey suburbs with populations more than 10,000 are now renter-majority — a figure that leads the nation.
Once a haven for aspiring homeowners who wanted to maintain close ties to New York City, the state’s inner-ring suburbs are seeing significant demographic and economic transformation as more residents lease rather than buy.
Places like Harrison, Union City, West New York, Passaic and Elizabeth are among the top 20 suburbs in the country with the highest shares of renter households.
In Harrison, located near Newark, over 81% of households are occupied by renters; in Union City, it’s nearly 80%. The trend isn’t just about where people are living — it’s about how.
The shift reflects both an affordability crisis and changing attitudes about homeownership, according to the National Association of Home Builders, which noted that nearly 75% of US households cannot afford a median-priced new home in 2025 — now hovering around $460,000 with a 30-year mortgage rate at 6.5%.
In New Jersey, the shift is particularly stark.
Of the 15 suburbs nationwide that flipped from homeowner-majority to renter-majority between 2018 and 2023, four are in New Jersey — more than any other state.
Bound Brook, for example, saw its renter population jump from just under 50% to more than 58%.
North Arlington, East Franklin and Secaucus also made the list, each undergoing a similar transformation.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Paterson added more than 3,500 renter households each over the past five years, ranking among the top 10 suburbs nationwide for absolute growth in renter households.
The movement isn’t just driven by rising home prices — it’s also a response to skyrocketing urban rents, especially considering nearby New York.
Younger generations, especially millennials and Gen Z, are turning to suburban rentals as a middle ground: close enough to transit, but far enough from the eye-watering rents on or on the other side of the Hudson.
Developers have responded in kind.
In places like Union Township and Elizabeth, mid-rise apartment buildings have cropped up near train stations, catering to commuters and remote workers alike.