New Jersey’s Secret Is Out: Why the Garden State Is Becoming One of America’s Most Desirable Places to Live
For years, New Jersey was treated like the state you drove through on the way tp somewhere else. New York was the destination. Philadelphia was the destination. New Jersey was the turnpike in between. That old perception is becoming harder to defend.
In fact, the Garden State may finally be getting the recognition its residents have known for years: New Jersey is not simply a place between two major cities. It is a destination in its own right.
WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the Best States to Live in America puts New Jersey at No. 2 in the nation, behind only Idaho. The ranking examined 51 measures of livability, including housing, income, education, health, quality of life and safety. New Jersey ranked especially well in several of those categories, even while landing near the bottom nationally for affordability.
That combination tells us something important about the New Jersey real estate market. People aren’t paying New Jersey prices simply because houses are expensive… They are paying them because the demand to live here remains remarkably strong.
The New Jersey Advantage
There is something unusual about New Jersey. You can live close enough to Manhattan to commute into the city, yet be minutes from a beach. You can raise a family in a suburban community with highly regarded schools and still have access to restaurants, entertainment, culture and employment centers that rival much larger metropolitan areas. And you can do it without necessarily giving up the lifestyle that people increasingly want.
That lifestyle equation has become even more important since the pandemic changed the relationship between where people live and where they work.
The old model was relatively simple: Live in the suburbs. Commute to the city. Work in the city. The new model is much more fluid. People want access to employment centers without necessarily living downtown. They want restaurants, culture and entertainment without necessarily dealing with the cost and congestion of a major urban core. And increasingly, they want their home community to provide more of what they used to travel into the city to find.
That is one reason the idea of the “metroburb” has gained traction in New Jersey. Ralph Zucker, president and CEO of Inspired by Somerset Development, described this concept to Fox Business as creating a metropolitan experience in a suburban setting.
Bell Works in Holmdel is perhaps the best-known example. Once a sprawling Bell Labs research facility, it has been transformed into a mixed-use destination combining offices, restaurants, retail, events and community spaces. The idea is bigger than a particular development. It represents a change in what people expect from the places where they live and work.
As Zucker told Fox News Digital, New Jersey is no longer simply the place connecting New York and Philadelphia. It has “come into its own.” And perhaps that’s the most important development of all.