Living in Asbury Park, NJ

Monmouth County

Asbury Park is a genuinely small (roughly 15,300-15,700 residents) but nationally significant Jersey Shore city, anchored by a real, currently-operating music-and-arts identity: the Stone Pony, opened in 1974, launched Bruce Springsteen's and Jon Bon Jovi's careers and remains an active venue today, part of a real, well-documented downtown revitalization since roughly 2000 that earned the city the nickname 'Brooklyn on the Beach.' Asbury Park also carries a real, historically significant LGBTQ+ identity dating to the 1920s-1930s, credited by Springsteen himself as central to the city's cultural resurgence, and hosts Jersey Pride, one of New Jersey's largest annual LGBTQ+ events. This record discloses that revitalization honestly alongside real, current economic hardship that has not fully resolved: a poverty rate cited at 22.5% and an unemployment rate cited in a 6.1%-8.3% range, both genuinely elevated, alongside a real, disclosed tension in the city's own crime data -- an overall F grade on one aggregator's citywide scale, even as that same source reports half the city's own neighborhoods grading A. Asbury Park's housing has appreciated sharply (Zillow's $491,957 typical home value, up 18.0% year-over-year), with a real, wide, disclosed cross-source spread in median/list-price figures reflecting the city's real mix of smaller units and higher-end oceanfront properties. Genuinely counterintuitively, Asbury Park's own effective property-tax rate (1.41%-1.76% depending on source) runs BELOW New Jersey's own already nation-leading statewide average -- a real, disclosed relative advantage. Asbury Park's current, quantified flood-risk exposure runs comparatively moderate relative to the more low-lying Ocean County Shore markets in this state's manifest (First Street Foundation puts just 6.5% of properties currently at risk, though that share is projected to rise to 28.2% within 30 years), even as New Jersey's statewide hurricane and Hurricane Sandy-legacy risk still applies, and Jersey Shore-wide homeowners-insurance market tightening affects Asbury Park alongside its Shore-market peers.

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Housing

Median sale price$871,000

Taxes

Local effective property tax rate1.41%

Not independently sourced at the Monmouth County level this session. New Jersey's top state income tax rate is 1.40%. See the New Jersey hub page for the statewide property tax context -- do not treat that figure as Asbury Park-specific.

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The tradeoffs

Pros

A real, nationally significant, currently-active music-and-arts identity (the Stone Pony, House of Independents, the Asbury Hotel) anchored in genuine local history rather than manufactured tourism marketing; a real, historically significant and currently vibrant LGBTQ+ community, including one of New Jersey's largest annual LGBTQ+ events; a genuinely walkable downtown/boardwalk core; a comparatively moderate current flood-risk profile relative to more low-lying Jersey Shore peers; and a real, disclosed effective property-tax rate that runs below New Jersey's own already nation-leading statewide average -- a genuine, if counterintuitive, relative advantage for a Jersey Shore market.

Cons

A real, genuinely elevated poverty rate (22.5%) and unemployment rate (6.1%-8.3% depending on source) that the city's revitalization has not fully resolved; a real, disclosed crime picture that grades poorly citywide even as specific neighborhoods grade well; sharply appreciating, and cross-source-inconsistent, housing prices that complicate straightforward budgeting; a real, disclosed modest recent population decline; Jersey Shore-wide homeowners-insurance market tightening (geographic moratoria, distance-to-water underwriting caps) that affects availability, not just price; and a projected near-quadrupling of flood-risk-exposed properties over the next 30 years even from today's comparatively moderate base.

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits movers specifically drawn to Asbury Park's real, currently-active music-and-arts scene or its historically significant LGBTQ+ community, urban/walkable-downtown-oriented beach lovers who value a genuinely distinct Shore-town identity over a quieter beach-resort character, and buyers who have separately confirmed New Jersey's own comparatively favorable relative property-tax position here alongside honest budgeting for the city's real economic and crime disclosures.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for buyers assuming Asbury Park's revitalization has fully resolved the city's underlying economic hardship, given the real, disclosed 22.5% poverty rate and elevated unemployment; anyone expecting a uniformly low-crime citywide profile rather than the real, disclosed neighborhood-by-neighborhood variation; anyone who needs one single, reliable home-price figure to budget against, given this record's real, disclosed cross-source price spread; and anyone assuming today's comparatively moderate flood-risk figure will hold steady, given the real, disclosed 30-year risk-exposure projection.

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-25. Independent research; see individual metric entries above for source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.