Northern New Jersey, NJ Multifamily Market Report Q3 2026

Cap Rates Expand for 19 Quarters; Vacancy Edges Up to 3.5%

Demand

Northern New Jersey absorbed 960 units in Q3 2026, against 1,796 in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 3.5%, 29 bps looser than Q3 2025. Jersey City is the tightest submarket at 3.0% vacancy; Newark leads rent growth at +2.9%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 5,434 units is down from 8,440 a year earlier.

Supply

Northern New Jersey recorded 1,209 units of completions in Q3 and 6,201 over the trailing twelve months (-5% versus the prior TTM period). Units under construction equal 10.0% of inventory, concentrated in Jersey City at 15.2% of its stock. Annual completions peaked at 14,790 units in 2006. The 19,935-unit pipeline equals about 14 and a half quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.

Investment Market

Northern New Jersey recorded $9.4B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +258% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $3.75B. The high-water mark in this series is $8.0B in 2026. Q3 volume is 2.4 times the prior four-quarter average and likely reflects entity-level activity from the AvalonBay and Equity Residential merger, which also sets the 2026 high. Read volume as directional. CoStar records $189M for Q3; on that count trailing volume would be $5.8B.

Northern New Jersey cap rates average 6.11%, up for 19 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $237k per unit, higher for 2 consecutive years.