Visual story

Where you can see the stars

New Jersey is one of the brightest states at night: from orbit, its northeast is a single glow. A satellite measures that glow every night; averaged over a year and laid over the homes, it says where the Milky Way is still overhead, and the chart asks whether a dark sky costs more.

dark, under 22–88–2525–6060+, city glow

The darkest skies over homes

Walpack township0.0Sussex
Hardwick township0.3Warren
Stillwater township0.6Sussex
Frelinghuysen township0.6Warren
Sandyston township0.6Sussex
Washington township0.6Burlington
Greenwich township0.7Cumberland
Kingwood township0.8Hunterdon
Delaware township0.8Hunterdon
Estell Manor city0.9Atlantic
Liberty township1.0Warren
Hope township1.0Warren

Each halving of the glow: +6% on price

Night lights: Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, VIIRS annual night lights, CC BY 4.0: average radiance for the year with background, fires and boats masked, about 460 metres a pixel, weighted by each census block’s homes. Brightness seen from above, not a measured sky darkness, but the two move together. Prices: Zillow’s typical home value, each town against its own county. More visual stories →