Jersey City’s rapid growth has brought new wealth, rising towers, soaring rents, and growing concerns about who gets to stay. A new report from Rutgers Law School highlights a growing contradiction in Jersey City: the same forces fueling its population boom and economic vibrancy are also pushing out longtime residents and straining housing affordability.
Dubbed the “Bedroom City” in the report, Jersey City has become a prime destination for professionals who work across the Hudson in New York. According to researchers at the Center on Law, Inequality & Metropolitan Equity (CLiME), 40% of working residents now commute to NYC, and many newcomers bring salaries that far outpace the city’s historic income levels. New arrivals have a median income of $88,000, and market rents exceeding $3,000 per month are becoming more common, placing the city among the most expensive rental markets in the nation.
The report, titled “The Other Cities: Migration and Gentrification in Jersey City, Newark and Paterson,” was co-authored by Mussab Ali, former president of the Jersey City Board of Education and current mayoral candidate; Katharine Nelson, assistant director at CLiME; and David Dante Troutt, founding director of the center and a Rutgers Law professor…