Al’s April 2025 Market Watch

April, 2025

A Quick First Quarter 2025 Review

During the first quarter of 2025, Bridgewater saw 117 new listings. This compares to the first quarter of 2024 with
106 new listings. A minor increase but one that hopefully shows an opening up of the Bridgewater market. Interesting, even though more homes were available, sales decreased from the prior year. In the first quarter of this year, 75 homes were sold, in comparison to 82 in 2024. This could be a reaction to the ever increasing prices of homes and the non-decreasing mortgage rates, making affordability a high hurdle for home buyers.

On the positive side, for sellers, home prices have increased significantly from 2024 to 2025. The average home in Bridgewater jumped from $618,101 to $683,707, a 10.6 percent increase. Of course, some of that increase has to do with the amount of homes sold in different bedroom sizes, but it still indicates that homes are still appreciating.

All bedroom sizes showed price increases. Two bedroom homes jumped from $424,810 to $442,150, a 4.1 percent increase. Three bedroom homes in 2025 sold at $617,565 versus $476,600 a year prior, a huge 29.5 percent increase. Prices for four bedroom homes increased from $800,596 in 2024 to $824,892, only a 3.0 percent rise. However, the median price was $835,999, indicating a number of homes were sold below the average price. Five
plus bedroom homes showed a 19.5 percent increase, going from $920,222 in 2024 to $1,099,409 this year.

The average selling price to listing price remained somewhat constant moving slightly down from 103 percent in 2024 to 102 percent in 2025. Days on market remained the same at 31 days.

States Transfer Tax

Recent discussions with potential sellers uncovered that many are not aware of the New Jersey Transfer Tax on real estate transactions. This is a tax on all homes sold, and is based on the sale price of the home, and the age of the seller. Senior citizen tax rates are lower. It is a straight forward tax rate and not based on income or original home basis. The rate is calculated based on each $500 of market value, on an increasing sliding scale.

For example, on a sale of $400,000, the seller would pay $3,455, if a senior citizen, $1,495. At $800,000, the tax would be $7,835, for a senior citizen $3,465. The tax is paid by the seller and collected at closing.

New Tax Proposal For Homes Sold At $1,000,000 +

Today, there is a 1 percent fee on residential home sales exceeding $1 million in New Jersey. This is known as the “Mansion Tax”. This tax is paid by the buyer, not the seller. Governor Murphy has proposed increasing this tax to 2 percent for sales between $1 and $2 million and a 3 percent rate for sales over $2 million.

Although this tax does not affect the majority of homes in the Township, residences in many Bridgewater areas
are approaching this mark and will surpass it over the next few years. This will place an extra financial burden on
buyers, and could slow sales in the higher priced home segments.