Living in Point Pleasant, NJ

Ocean County (Point Pleasant Borough -- the bayside/canal community this record's core figures describe -- borders the separately incorporated Point Pleasant Beach borough, home to the area's real oceanfront boardwalk and Jenkinson's; see this file's header)

"Point Pleasant" genuinely refers to two real, separate, adjacent New Jersey municipalities that residents, visitors, and much regional coverage routinely lump together informally -- and this record discloses both rather than flattening them into one place. Point Pleasant BOROUGH (18,177 residents, 2020 Census), this record's primary numbered entity, is a genuine year-round boating town built around the Beaver Dam Creek/Wreck Pond canal-and-lagoon network and the Point Pleasant Canal connecting Barnegat Bay to the Manasquan River -- a distinct, more residential, more affordable ($333,500 median home value) character than a typical Jersey Shore resort town, with a genuinely below-statewide-average 1.56% effective property tax rate. Point Pleasant BEACH (4,766 residents, 2020 Census), separately incorporated immediately to the Borough's east, is genuinely home to the area's real boardwalk/beach-town identity: a roughly one-mile boardwalk anchored by Jenkinson's Boardwalk, a real, long-running amusement and entertainment complex, plus its own NJ Transit North Jersey Coast Line station and a meaningfully higher median home value ($493,300) and household income ($141,716 versus the Borough's $115,625). Both municipalities share real, substantial coastal-storm exposure -- Point Pleasant Beach's own official flood disclosure states the entire borough is subject to flooding given its position between the Atlantic Ocean, the Manasquan Inlet/River, and a canal, with genuine Hurricane Sandy-era boardwalk-rebuilding history (a real $4 million restoration estimate at the time). The two towns also carry genuinely different, honestly disclosed safety profiles: Point Pleasant Borough is genuinely one of the safer communities in America for its size, while Point Pleasant Beach carries a genuinely higher crime rate, a pattern this record attributes substantially to the Beach's large seasonal tourist volume relative to its small year-round population -- the same pattern already documented for this dataset's other Jersey Shore boardwalk towns. Point Pleasant Borough's population runs genuinely close to New Jersey's statewide senior-population-share average, consistent with a real, ongoing Jersey Shore second-home/retiree draw.

Explore Point Pleasant in depth

• Moving to Point Pleasant: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Point Pleasant
• Housing in Point Pleasant
• Taxes & Insurance in Point Pleasant
• Climate in Point Pleasant
• Schools & Families in Point Pleasant
• Healthcare & Safety in Point Pleasant
• Pros and Cons of Living in Point Pleasant
• Retiring in Point Pleasant

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits buyers who specifically want Jersey Shore boating/canal-lifestyle access at a genuinely more affordable price point (Point Pleasant Borough); families and beach-lovers specifically drawn to a real, well-known boardwalk-and-amusement identity (Point Pleasant Beach's Jenkinson's Boardwalk); retirees and second-homeowners weighing a genuine, ongoing Jersey Shore retiree draw; and buyers who have separately budgeted for real, disclosed coastal or tidal flood-insurance costs across either municipality.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for anyone who hasn't confirmed which of the two real, separate municipalities ('Point Pleasant' borough or 'Point Pleasant Beach') a specific property, school, or amenity actually belongs to, given how routinely the two names are used interchangeably; anyone prioritizing New Jersey's lowest available Jersey Shore crime statistics without weighing this record's honest disclosure that Point Pleasant Beach specifically runs a genuinely higher crime rate than the Borough; anyone assuming standard homeowners insurance covers flood damage, given both municipalities' real, disclosed coastal/tidal flood exposure; and anyone counting on a stable Point Pleasant Beach tax bill through 2026 given that borough's ongoing first property revaluation in over a decade.