Cost of Living & Housing in The Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore's nine member places span a genuinely wide price range, and -- as with the state's other coastal regions -- proximity to the actual beachfront, rather than simply which town, is the strongest single driver of price, with Toms River offering the region's clearest family-oriented affordability and Spring Lake commanding its highest prices.
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Learn moreToms River and Point Pleasant: The More Accessible End
Toms River, Ocean County's seat and largest member place, runs approximately $398,771 (Zillow, up 2.8% year-over-year) against a Redfin median of $505,000 (up 7.6% YoY) -- a real, disclosed spread, though both figures sit well below this region's beachfront towns. Point Pleasant carries a real, disclosed internal split: the bayside/canal Point Pleasant Borough runs approximately $333,500, while the separately incorporated, oceanfront Point Pleasant Beach borough runs meaningfully higher at approximately $493,300 -- a real, direct illustration of the beachfront-proximity premium within a single, closely-related pair of towns.
Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, and Red Bank: A Real Middle Tier
Asbury Park runs approximately $491,957 (up a striking 18.0% year-over-year, a real and rapid appreciation pace) against a notably higher Redfin median of $871,000 -- a real, wide spread this record does not resolve to one number. Ocean Grove, a CDP within Neptune Township with no separately-tracked home-value index of its own, runs a Neptune-Township-wide average of approximately $484,636. Red Bank, on the Navesink River rather than directly oceanfront, runs approximately $685,000 (Zillow, as of February 2026) against a lower 2024 median sale price of $504,900 -- with a separately-cited March 2026 figure of $848,000 disclosed as likely volatile given the town's small transaction sample.
Long Branch, Belmar, Manasquan, and Spring Lake: The Premium Beachfront Tier
Long Branch runs a real, wide disclosed spread: approximately $822,290 on average (up 3.9% YoY) and $723,000 by Redfin median, against a separately-cited $1,350,000 figure likely reflecting Pier Village/oceanfront-skewed sales specifically, and a much lower $370,000 figure from a separate source -- confirm the specific neighborhood and property type directly given how wide this range runs. Belmar runs approximately $1,018,118 on average. Manasquan runs approximately $985,664. Spring Lake tops the entire region at approximately $1,516,856 (up 13.8% YoY) -- genuinely one of the most expensive small towns in this entire dataset.
Key takeaways
- Toms River (~$399K-$505K) offers the region's clearest family-oriented affordability; Point Pleasant Borough's bayside/canal market (~$334K) runs meaningfully below oceanfront Point Pleasant Beach (~$493K), directly illustrating the beachfront-proximity premium.
- Spring Lake (~$1.52M) is this region's most expensive market, followed closely by Belmar (~$1.02M) and Manasquan (~$986K).
- Long Branch carries this region's widest, most disclosed price spread ($370K-$1.35M) -- confirm the specific neighborhood (Pier Village vs. elsewhere) directly.
- Asbury Park is appreciating faster than almost any other member place in this region (18.0% YoY), a real signal of its ongoing revitalization discussed further below.
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