5 Maps to Find The Best Place To Live In New Jersey

Noble Datum
3 min readMay 25, 2018

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New Jersey is a crazy place. It’s a small state, but the most densely populated in the Union. Sandwiched between two massive cities, the state is split between north and south jersey (separated by a mythological ether called “central jersey”). Many people are tied to certain regions for a whole host of reasons including jobs, family and friends. But because of the earning opportunities, taxes and real estate prices varying so much in the state, it is often difficult for residents to figure out the best place to live. We at lonedatum.com have made a few visualizations to try and make the process easier for you.

1) Effective Property Tax Rate

Probably the most important issue in New Jersey, and it’s not getting any better. Property taxes in New Jersey vary widely across the state.

Data Source: US Census Bureau and Zillow Data. Author: LoneDatum.com

2) Property Tax Bill (Dollar Value)

It’s one thing to show the effective tax rate, but real estate prices vary across the state, and so the total tax bill changes. Morris County’s effective tax rate is significantly lower than Union County, but the total tax bill is higher than average.

Data Source: US Census Bureau and Zillow Data. Author: LoneDatum.com

3) Disposable Income After You Pay Your Mortgage

The amount of money the median household has, pre-tax, after subtracting they pay their mortgage and property taxes.

Data Source: US Census Bureau and Zillow Data. Author: LoneDatum.com

4) Share of Income Going Toward Your Mortgage

Data Source: US Census Bureau and Zillow Data. Author: LoneDatum.com

5) What County Is Best For Your Income

This map is a little useless and redundant on it’s own. It takes in your household income, and then tells you the places where you can live, how much of your pre-tax income will go to your mortgage and how much will go to taxes. Medium won’t let me embed the full version, so you’ll have to go to LoneDatum.com to get the full version.

Data Source: US Census Bureau and Zillow Data. Author: LoneDatum.com

If you would like more information, or would just like to interact with these maps, visit LoneDatum.com. If there is some information you would like to see that isn’t available here or on the site, comment below, or let us know here.

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