Leaving New Jersey is like a breakup.
You walk away remembering all the good things — the Shore, the food, the friends, the feeling that nowhere else quite compares. There is a real melancholy to it. A genuine sense of loss. And then reality sets in. It did not work out for a reason.
Over the past few weeks I have been writing about the things New Jersey gets absolutely right and the things that push people out the door. So this morning I woke up with a challenge. I asked Claude AI — my AI of choice — to do an extremely deep dive using hundreds of sources: surveys, studies, rankings, news stories, resident commentary, WalletHub, U.S. News, the Tax Foundation, United Van Lines, Census data and more. The assignment was simple. Give me the definitive top five things to love about New Jersey and the top five things to hate. No opinion. Just what the data actually says.
Here is what came back.
Holgate beach | photo by EJ
Holgate beach | photo by EJ
The 5 best things about New Jersey
1. The education system is elite New Jersey ranks third in the country for public school quality. Students post the second-highest reading scores and third-highest math scores in the nation. Princeton is the number one university in America and eleven NJ high schools rank in the national top 100. If you have kids in school here, you are getting one of the best public educations available anywhere in the country.
2. The location is unmatched Two world-class cities within easy reach — New York and Philadelphia. Two international airports. One hundred and thirty miles of Atlantic coastline. The Pine Barrens, the Delaware Bay and the mountains of Pennsylvania all within an hour. The geographic position of New Jersey is genuinely exceptional and it is the single biggest reason people pay what they pay to be here.
3. The Jersey Shore is one of America’s great treasures Dozens of distinct communities each with their own character — Cape May, Wildwood, Ocean City, Asbury Park, the quiet Delaware Bay shore. No other state in the Northeast has a Shore culture this deep or this emotionally embedded in its residents’ identity. People who leave spend years trying to explain it to their new neighbors. They never quite manage it.
4. The food culture is world class More than 500 diners statewide. Deep Italian-American roots. Extraordinary ethnic diversity in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Edison producing some of the best Indian, Portuguese, Korean and Brazilian food in the country. And then there are the foods that exist only here — pork roll, tomato pie, the boardwalk slice, disco fries, the sub vs hoagie debate that has been going on longer than most marriages. New Jersey has a food identity that produces passionate loyalty in everyone who grew up eating it.
5. The health outcomes are among the best in the nation Second-lowest premature death rate in the country. Sixth-lowest obesity rate. Seventh-best life expectancy. New Jersey residents live longer and healthier than most of the country. This fact gets almost no attention. It absolutely should.
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The average property tax bill topped $10,500 for the first time in New Jersey in 2025. (Canva)
The average property tax bill topped $10,500 for the first time in New Jersey in 2025. (Canva)
The 5 worst things about New Jersey
1. The property taxes are a genuine crisis Highest effective rate in the country at 2.23%. The average annual bill hit a record $10,560 in 2025 — nearly four times the national median. It is the single biggest reason people leave and the single biggest deterrent to anyone thinking about moving here. With no money left over for the things you love, what exactly is the point?
2. The overall cost of living squeezes everyone Median home price around $564,000 against a national median of $435,000. State income tax running as high as 10.75%. Workers need 16 extra days of work per year just to afford the basics compared to 2007. Not vacations. Not savings. Just the basics.
3. The traffic is relentless Most densely populated state in the country with 9.5 million people in 7,354 square miles. Residents spend an average of 86 hours per year sitting in traffic. The roads were not built for this many people and every single commute proves it.
4. The outmigration is telling a story 192,000 net residents gone since 2020. Number one in the country for outbound moves according to United Van Lines. The people running the math and leaving are not wrong. For a growing number of families the numbers simply stopped working.
5. The density and pace wear you down Crowded, loud, competitive and relentless in a way that accumulates over time. Everything is more expensive, more congested and more intense than almost anywhere else. It is genuinely exciting when you are young. It gets heavier as the years go by.
The verdict
The things we love about New Jersey are genuinely exceptional. The things we hate are genuinely serious. The state earns both its fiercest defenders and its most exhausted escapees.
Like any relationship that did not work out — you understand completely why someone stayed as long as they did. And you understand completely why they finally left.
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Gallery Credit: Chris Coleman
Average New Jersey property taxes in 2025
Check to see whether your municipality’s average tax bill last year went up or down. Data is from the state Department of Community Affairs. Municipalities are listed by county and alphabetically.
Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5
