Tool
Is a New Jersey house really cheaper than your apartment?
Put your apartment's monthly costs next to a New Jersey house's mortgage, property tax, upkeep and commute, line by line.
How this is worked out
- Your apartment: the five numbers you enter, added up per month. Nothing is assumed.
- The New Jersey house: the mortgage payment from the standard amortization formula, plus property tax (price × the town's 2025 effective rate ÷ 12), a yearly upkeep reserve, insurance, and the commute and car costs you enter.
- Equity: part of each mortgage payment repays principal. The tool shows the first-year principal separately, so you can see the cost with and without it.
Property tax uses the NJ Division of Taxation 2025 effective rates. Everything else is your input. The upkeep default is a rule of thumb and the illustration button fills made-up numbers to show how the tool works; neither is market data. Not tax, legal or mortgage advice.
Questions
Questions about this tool
How do I compare a Manhattan apartment to a New Jersey house?
Compare the whole monthly cost, not the price. For the apartment add the mortgage or rent, maintenance or common charges, taxes and insurance. For the house add the mortgage, property tax, upkeep, insurance and the commute and car costs that are new.
Does a New Jersey house cost more per month than a Manhattan apartment?
It depends on the numbers. Use the calculator with your own figures; the illustration on the page uses made-up numbers only to show how it works.
Is the money I pay toward principal a cost?
Not in the same way as interest or tax, because it builds equity you can get back when you sell. The calculator shows the total both ways.
Next step
Tell me what you're trying to do.
Whether you're two years out or listing next month, a conversation costs nothing and usually clarifies more than a search ever will.