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Zillow Home Value Index, Zillow Home Value Index, bottom tier and Zillow Observed Rent Index, and every figure derived from them, reports included.

Visual story

When the town was built

Each ridge is a county’s houses still standing, piled up by the decade they were built: a ridge that peaks early is a county the 1920s finished, one that peaks late was farmland until the Parkway came. Hudson is the oldest, half its houses built by the 1920s; Cape May the newest, half built only by the 1980s. Statewide, the 1950s built more of today’s houses than any other decade.

Hudson: half its 108,167 houses built by the 1920sHudsonEssex: half its 147,450 houses built by the 1930sEssexBergen: half its 250,913 houses built by the 1950sBergenUnion: half its 125,152 houses built by the 1950sUnionPassaic: half its 91,556 houses built by the 1950sPassaicSalem: half its 19,857 houses built by the 1950sSalemMiddlesex: half its 197,558 houses built by the 1960sMiddlesexCamden: half its 154,836 houses built by the 1960sCamdenMorris: half its 149,764 houses built by the 1960sMorrisMercer: half its 106,108 houses built by the 1960sMercerCumberland: half its 40,860 houses built by the 1960sCumberlandMonmouth: half its 210,574 houses built by the 1970sMonmouthBurlington: half its 144,284 houses built by the 1970sBurlingtonAtlantic: half its 96,371 houses built by the 1970sAtlanticGloucester: half its 91,110 houses built by the 1970sGloucesterSussex: half its 52,538 houses built by the 1970sSussexHunterdon: half its 40,716 houses built by the 1970sHunterdonWarren: half its 34,411 houses built by the 1970sWarrenOcean: half its 248,838 houses built by the 1980sOceanSomerset: half its 102,280 houses built by the 1980sSomersetCape May: half its 77,609 houses built by the 1980sCape May

The dot on each ridge marks the decade by which half the county’s standing houses had been built.

MOD-IV, the state’s property tax list: one-to-four-family houses (class 2) with a year of construction, counted by decade. Each ridge is scaled to its own peak, so it shows when, not how many. Only houses still standing are counted, so older decades are what survived, and an assessor’s year for an old house is often an estimate. Houses built before 1800 are gathered at the left edge. More visual stories →