A buyer scrolling market data this summer sees one number for Bergen County and assumes it tells the whole story. Home prices are up, inventory is thin, and everything on the market gets snapped up in weeks. That story is true for exactly half the county's housing stock. For the other half, the story is close to the opposite.
Bergen County's home sales are effectively split into two markets that happen to share a zip code. Single-family homes are still moving through a tight, competitive market where sellers hold the leverage. Townhouses and condos are in the middle of a real correction, with rising inventory and softening prices. A countywide median blends both segments into one number, which means it tells you almost nothing useful about either one.
The Number Everyone Quotes
Over the three months ending in May 2026, Bergen County's median sale price sat at $788,000, up 4.7% from the same period the year before, with a median price per square foot of $458. That figure gets repeated everywhere, from portal search results to casual conversation about the market. It is accurate. It is also an average of two markets moving in different directions, which makes it a poor guide for anyone actually trying to buy or sell a specific type of home.
Two Markets, One County
New Jersey Realtors data for May 2026 shows Bergen County's single-family segment logging 775 new listings and 384 closed sales, a median price of $930,000, a median of just 28 days on market, and sellers receiving 105.3% of list price. With only 1,000 homes available, that segment was sitting at 2.4 months of supply. A market is considered balanced at around six months of supply, so single-family listings that month were moving at roughly a quarter of that pace.
The townhouse and condo segment, covering that same May 2026 window, told a different story: 333 new listings, 156 closed sales, a median price of $561,000, and a longer 40-day median time on market.
Put those two medians side by side and the disconnect explains why the countywide $788,000 figure feels off no matter which type of home you're shopping for. That blended number folds a $930,000 single-family median together with a $561,000 townhouse and condo median, and the result lands nowhere close to what a buyer actually pays for either property type.
The most recent full county picture, from early August 2026, confirms both trends are still running. Active listings across Bergen County have climbed to somewhere between 1,550 and 1,720, up 7% to 17% year over year, though that is still roughly 22% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Months of supply for the county overall sits at 1.4 to 1.7, meaning Bergen County remains solidly seller's territory even with more homes to choose from. Condo and townhome prices are still down 4.8% to 7.9% year to date, a correction that shows no sign of reversing.
| Metric (May 2026, NJ Realtors) | Single-Family Homes | Townhouses & Condos |
|---|---|---|
| New listings | 775 | 333 |
| Closed sales | 384 | 156 |
| Median sale price | $930,000 | $561,000 |
| Days on market | 28 | 40 |
Why the Split Exists
The mechanism behind this split is simpler than it looks. Single-family demand in Bergen County's established towns is largely driven by families anchored to a specific school district, and that kind of demand does not evaporate when mortgage rates move. A family committed to Ridgewood, Wyckoff, or Franklin Lakes schools is not going to substitute a different county because rates ticked up. Combine that with land and zoning constraints that keep new single-family construction scarce, and you get a segment where demand barely flexes and supply cannot expand quickly, which is exactly the recipe for the tight months-of-supply numbers showing up in the data.
Condo and townhouse demand behaves differently. Much of it comes from commuters weighing Bergen County against Hudson County or against simply renting another year, which makes that buyer pool sensitive to mortgage rates and to how much new supply is landing in commuter-heavy towns. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate at 6.58% as of July 23, 2026, and at that rate, a marginal condo buyer has more room to wait or negotiate than a family that has already decided a specific school district is non-negotiable. In towns like Fort Lee and Edgewater, condo pricing and Hudson River commuter demand keep that segment active, but it is a market that responds to inventory and rates in a way the single-family side does not.
What This Means If You're Buying
If a single-family home in a town like Ridgewood, Wyckoff, or Franklin Lakes is the goal, the current data says to move with intention. Homes in desirable towns are still closing in under six weeks, and sellers are routinely receiving above list price. Waiting for the single-family segment to soften on the theory that countywide inventory is up 7% to 17% year over year misreads where that increase is actually landing.
For buyers who have been priced out of single-family homes, the condo and townhouse segment is worth a second look specifically because it is behaving differently right now. Well-located condos in commuter towns are seeing real price softening and longer time on market, which shifts some negotiating room toward the buyer. The tradeoff to run the numbers on is the HOA fee, which adds a fixed monthly cost on top of the lower purchase price and can change how a condo actually compares to a single-family home once total monthly payment is the measure instead of sticker price.
What This Means If You're Selling
Single-family sellers still have real leverage, but a tight market is not an excuse to skip strategy. With buyers able to compare condition, taxes, and total monthly payment across more listings than a year ago, presentation is doing more of the work than it did when almost anything sold within days. A home that is staged, priced correctly, and marketed well is what captures a 105.3% sale-to-list outcome like the one single-family sellers saw in May 2026. A home that is priced optimistically and left to sit erodes that advantage fast.
Condo and townhouse sellers are working in a genuinely different environment. With prices down as much as 7.9% year to date and more competing listings on the market than a year ago, a listing priced off last year's comps is likely to sit. This segment rewards sellers who price to the current data rather than to where the market was twelve months ago, and who lean harder on presentation to stand out against a larger pool of competing listings.
Reading the Report Yourself
Three numbers matter more than the median when you're trying to read a market segment correctly:
- Months of supply. Six months is balanced. Anything meaningfully under that favors sellers; anything meaningfully over it favors buyers.
- Sale-to-list ratio. Above 100% means buyers are routinely paying over asking. Below 100% means there is room to negotiate.
- Days on market, tracked by segment. A countywide DOM average blends fast-moving single-family homes with slower-moving condos, which flattens the signal you actually need.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bergen County a buyer's market or a seller's market right now? Both, depending on what you're buying. Single-family homes remain a seller's market, with the countywide months of supply sitting at 1.4 to 1.7 as of early August 2026 and the single-family segment specifically logging 2.4 months of supply in May. Townhouses and condos have shifted toward more buyer leverage, with prices down as much as 7.9% year to date.
Why are condo and townhouse prices falling while single-family prices hold? The two segments draw on different buyer pools. Single-family demand in school-district towns is largely rate-insensitive and supply-constrained. Condo demand from commuters is more sensitive to mortgage rates and to how much new inventory is available in a given month, which makes that segment correct faster when conditions shift.
Should I wait for single-family prices to drop before buying in Bergen County? The current data does not support that strategy. Months of supply for single-family homes has stayed well under the six-month balanced threshold in every 2026 reading available, and sellers received 105.3% of list price in May 2026 alone. A buyer waiting for a broad single-family correction is waiting on a trend that has not shown up in the numbers.
If you're trying to figure out which side of this split your target town and property type actually falls on, that's the exact conversation worth having before you write an offer or set a list price. Krissy Leckie works both sides of Bergen County's market daily, from single-family homes in towns like Ridgewood, Wyckoff, and Franklin Lakes to condo and townhouse inventory nearer the commuter corridor. Get a current read on your specific segment with a home valuation, or start a conversation about buying or selling with a strategy built around where your market actually stands, not the countywide average.
