Closter NJ Housing Market 2026: Prices, Rates, Taxes & Outlook

Closter's headline number looks dramatic. Redfin's all-residential median sale price for ZIP 07624 was $1.66 million in the three months ending May 2026, up 25% from $1.325 million in the window ending September 2024. But the single-family median, which covers nearly every sale in town, was $1,304,500 in the same May 2026 window, slightly below September 2024's $1,326,500. The difference is five townhouse sales at a median of $1.66 million that closed in one quarter.

Price per square foot is the better gauge, and it did rise. Weighted across full years, the single-family median went from about $404 per square foot (June 2023 to May 2024) to about $517 (June 2025 to May 2026), a 28% gain, against about 18% for single-family homes across Bergen County.

Competition cooled in 2025 and then jumped in spring 2026: pending single-family sales in the March to May 2026 window were 37, against 15 a year earlier. Those contracts were written with mortgage rates near 6% to 6.5%. On September 24, 2026, the 30-year rate reached 7.03%, after the latest data.

How to read Closter's numbers

Market figures come from the Redfin Data Center for ZIP 07624. Redfin's ZIP series are rolling three-month windows: "May 2026" covers closings from March through May, and "homes sold" is a three-month total. The latest published month is May 2026.

Closter is a small market. In the twelve months to May 2026 the ZIP recorded 84 residential sales, 78 of them single-family, and a single quarter can hold as few as 9 or 10 closings. To reduce noise, this article often combines four non-overlapping quarters into a year, weighting each quarter's median by its sales. That approximates a yearly figure, not an exact annual median.

The $1.66 million median is a mix effect

For most of the past two years, the all-residential median in the chart above has matched the single-family median because almost nothing else sells here. The pack has no condo or co-op series for the ZIP, and two-to-four-unit buildings appear as isolated single sales.

Townhouses changed that in spring 2026. Redfin counts five townhouse sales in the window ending May 2026, at a median of $1.66 million, a median of 285 days on market and an average of 96.9% of list price. Redfin's single-month city series shows four townhouse closings in May 2026 alone, at a median of $1.68 million.

The data does not identify these homes or their project, and this article does not guess. The practical point:

• Single-family median, window ending May 2026: $1,304,500, down 15.6% from $1,545,000 a year earlier.
• All-residential median, same window: $1,660,000, up 7.4%.
• The gap is the townhouse sales. It is not evidence that the typical Closter house is now worth $1.66 million.

Two years of prices against mortgage rates

The yearly view

Price per square foot rose 18.5% in the first year and 8.0% in the second. The median sale price rose about 43% and then fell about 11%. The two disagree because the size of homes selling changed. Median price divided by median price per square foot, a rough size indicator, was about 2,530 square feet in the first year, 3,050 in the second and 2,500 in the latest. More big houses closed in 2024 to 2025; more mid-size ones closed in the latest year. Value per square foot kept climbing through both.

Redfin's Bergen County single-family series, summed and weighted the same way, shows about $380, $422 and $448 per square foot over the same three years: gains of 11.3% and 5.9%. Closter beat the county both years.

What the rate swings did

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey 30-year rate: 6.08% on September 26, 2024 (a two-year low); 7.04% on January 16, 2025 (the peak); 6.26% on September 18, 2025; 5.98% on February 26, 2026 (the first sub-6% reading in about three and a half years); 6.46% on April 2 and 6.49% on June 25, 2026; 7.03% on September 24, 2026.

Closter's quarterly data tracked that path mostly through volume and competition, not prices.

The low-rate fall of 2024 fed the strongest price run in the series. Single-family three-month medians went from $999,000 (window ending July 2024) to $1,508,000 (November) and $1,750,000 (March 2025), while price per square foot rose from $479 to $530.

After the January 2025 peak, volume dropped. The window ending May 2025 had only 9 single-family closings, the fewest in the series, with a median of 115 days on market. Prices held: $543 per square foot in the April 2025 window, $496 in May.

Volume returned in summer 2025 as rates eased, with 27 single-family sales in each of the windows ending August and September. The September to November 2025 window then showed a median of $1,043,500, which looks like a 30% drop from a year earlier. But price per square foot in that window was $515, above the prior year's $455. That was a quarter of smaller homes selling, not a collapse. Competition was softer, though: only 22% sold above list, the lowest share in the series.

Spring 2026 was the busiest stretch. Rates dipped under 6% in late February. In the window ending May 2026, pending sales reached 37, 54% of homes went under contract within two weeks (up from 40%), and median days on market fell to 78.5 from 115. Price per square foot was $561, a series high, although the March 2026 window had printed just $437, a reminder of how noisy single quarters are.

Supply and competition

Supply barely moved. Demand did the changing: contracts more than doubled on about the same number of listings.

Redfin does not publish months of supply for this ZIP. A rough version divides inventory by the trailing year's monthly sales pace. In May 2026, 30 homes against 78 sales a year (6.5 a month) is about 4.6 months; a year earlier, 32 homes against 65 sales (5.4 a month) was about 5.9 months. Both are in a middle range, and the direction was toward tighter. Inventory peaked at 38 in the April 2026 window, the highest in the three-year series, before spring contracts pulled it to 30.

Faster, but closer to asking

Closter homes went under contract faster in spring 2026 but did not sell as far above asking as they used to. Average sale-to-list fell from 102.9% to 101.1% over two years, and the share sold above list from 55% to 42%. Bergen County single-family homes sold at an average of 105.5% of list in May 2026, with 66% above list.

A plausible reading is that Closter list prices have caught up with what buyers will pay, so gains came through higher asking prices rather than overbids. That matters for how sellers set a price.

The housing stock and what a budget buys

Closter is a single-family town. Of 84 ZIP sales in the latest year, 78 were detached houses, 5 were townhouses and 1 was a two-to-four-unit building. Buyers who want a condo or a small multifamily property will find more choice in nearby towns with more attached housing.

At the latest-year average of about $517 per square foot:

• A 2,000 square foot house works out to roughly $1.03 million.
• A 2,500 square foot house, roughly $1.29 million.
• A 3,500 square foot house, roughly $1.81 million.

This is arithmetic, not appraisal; condition, lot, age and new construction move specific houses well off that line. The Redfin data does not break out neighborhoods, home age or lot size.

Property taxes and other ownership costs

According to the New Jersey Division of Taxation's 2025 General Tax Rates, Closter's 2025 general tax rate was 2.072 per $100 of assessed value and its effective tax rate was 2.017%. The effective rate adjusts for how assessments compare with market values, so it is the better number for estimating tax on a purchase price.

At 2.017%, the $1,304,500 single-family median implies about $26,310 a year, or $2,193 a month. The state's 2024 average residential tax report put Closter's average residential bill at $18,536, which at the 2025 effective rate corresponds to a home worth about $0.92 million. Recent sales skew toward larger houses than the town's average property, and a buyer's actual bill depends on the assessed value of that house, not the purchase price.

The spread is small; the price of the house matters far more than the rate.

Other costs to plan for:

• New Jersey restructured its "mansion tax" in 2025. For deeds under contracts fully executed on or after July 10, 2025, sales over $1 million carry a seller-paid Graduated Percent Fee of 1% to 3.5% of the full price. Most Closter house sales are above that mark, so sellers should have their attorney confirm the fee for their price.
• Qualifying homeowners can apply for the state's ANCHOR property-tax benefit; eligibility and amounts are set each year.
• Homeowners insurance is excluded from the payments below and should be quoted before budgeting. Townhouse buyers should also ask for association fees, which the Redfin data does not include.

Monthly payments and the income needed

Principal and interest on a 30-year fixed loan with 20% down, plus tax at 2.017%, excluding insurance. P&I = L × i / (1 − (1 + i)^−360), where i is the annual rate divided by 12.

What follows:

1. Going from 5.98% to 7.03% adds about $721 a month in principal and interest on the median house. To keep the principal-and-interest payment that $1,304,500 cost at 5.98%, a buyer at 7.03% would need a price of about $1,169,500, roughly 10% lower (about $1,201,800, 8% lower, if property tax is included in the payment).
2. Using a 28% front-end guideline (principal, interest and tax divided by gross income), the median house needs about $392,400 a year in income at 7.03%, versus about $361,500 at 5.98%. The $1 million house needs about $300,800 at 7.03%.
3. Judy Zhou's Closter area guide lists a Census median household income of $190,469. The median sale at current rates needs roughly twice that, so most buyers are higher earners than the town median, bring larger down payments (often equity from a prior home), or both.

The last time rates were near 7%, in early 2025, Closter's single-family closings fell to 9 in a quarter while price per square foot held.

Schools

Closter Public Schools cover kindergarten through grade 8 at Hillside Elementary School and Tenakill Middle School. High school students attend Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, part of the Northern Valley Regional High School District.

Third-party ratings change yearly and use different methods. The state's New Jersey School Performance Reports publish test results, graduation rates and enrollment for each school and district. Buyers choosing Closter mainly for schools should read the latest reports for both the K-8 district and the high school, and confirm a specific address's assignment with the district.

Commuting

Closter has no rail station. Manhattan commuters take buses to the Port Authority Bus Terminal or drive to the George Washington Bridge, and trip times vary widely with traffic. Buyers who commute should test the trip at their real hours and check current bus schedules; this article could not independently verify current running times.

Development and zoning

Closter Plaza is finished, not pending

Closter Plaza is sometimes described as a redevelopment in progress. It is not. EDENS acquired the 1960s-era center in 2012 and announced renovations; Chain Store Age reported anchors including Whole Foods Market, Target, HomeGoods and Cinemex at the roughly 208,000 square foot center, with most coverage dating from 2016 and 2017. Current tenants are on EDENS' property page. For housing, the effect is already priced in.

Affordable housing and the Fourth Round

New Jersey's Fourth Round of affordable-housing obligations runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2035 under P.L. 2024, c.2, with each town's number set using the Department of Community Affairs methodology. This article could not verify Closter's Fourth Round number or the final status of its 2025 housing plan, so it does not state one.

On the record:

• Closter's code includes an Affordable Housing Overlay for commercial and industrial areas, allowing apartments at 12 units per acre with a 20% affordable set-aside (15% for rentals).
• Village School Commons, an adaptive reuse of the former Closter Village School, is planned as 35 income-restricted rental homes in a townhouse-style layout; the developer, Mastermind, lists completion as anticipated in 2027.

Thirty-five rentals will not change single-family supply in a town that sells 65 to 80 houses a year. The overlay matters more over time: if inclusionary apartments are built on commercial sites, Closter's stock would slowly become less uniformly single-family.

How Closter compares with its neighbors

Redfin ZIP single-family data, June 2025 to May 2026, same weighted method:

• Closter and Cresskill are priced close together; Closter's two-year gain was larger.
• Demarest shares Closter's high school and has a slightly lower effective tax rate, but costs about 14% more per square foot.
• Tenafly is the most competitive: highest price per square foot and sale-to-list, and the shortest days on market. In the May 2026 window, its single-family homes sold at an average of 107.8% of list.
• Closter's spring demand jump was the largest. Pending sales in the three months ending May 2026 rose 147% year over year (15 to 37), against 24% in Tenafly (33 to 41), 17% in Cresskill (23 to 27) and a 26% decline in Demarest (23 to 17).

One reasonable interpretation is that buyers stretched by Tenafly and Demarest prices looked to Closter, where the same budget buys more space. The data is consistent with that but cannot prove why buyers chose Closter.

Strategy for buyers

• Price by the square foot, not the headline median. About $517 per square foot over the latest year, adjusted for condition and lot, is a better anchor than any single quarter; quarterly figures ranged from $437 to $561 within one year.
• Expect to pay near asking. Average sale-to-list has been about 101% for two years, and fewer than half of homes sold above list in the latest year.
• Budget at 7%, not 6%. At 7.03% the median house costs about $721 more a month than at 5.98%.
• Get the actual tax bill and assessed value for any house rather than relying on a rate estimate.
• Treat townhouses as a separate market. The spring 2026 townhouse sales took a median of 285 days and closed at 96.9% of list, which suggests more room to negotiate, though five sales is a thin record.

Strategy for sellers

• List at the market. With sale-to-list near 101% and above-list sales down to 42%, an overpriced house is less likely to be rescued by competing offers. In spring 2026, 54% of contracts came within two weeks, which rewarded accurate pricing.
• Plan for a possibly slower fall. Rates rose from 6.49% in late June to 7.03% by September 24. If the move above 7% cuts activity the way the January 2025 peak did, sales could slow even without price declines.
• Compare against houses of similar size. Because the median swings with the size mix, a seller of a large house should use recent large-house sales and price per square foot, not the town median.

Outlook for the next 6 to 12 months

Closter entered summer 2026 with its strongest demand signal in three years. Most spring contracts would normally close in the June to August 2026 window, which Redfin has not yet published, so summer sales counts are likely to look solid; that data will confirm it or not.

Rates then climbed from 6.49% in late June to 7.03% by September 24. After the comparable climb to 7.04% in January 2025, Closter had its lowest sales quarter in the series, while price per square foot stayed well above its year-earlier level. If rates stay near 7%, a similar pattern seems the most likely path: fewer sales, longer days on market, more sales at or under list, and price per square foot roughly flat. The 28% two-year gain, well ahead of the county's 18%, leaves less room for another large increase if affordability tightens.

What would change this view:

• A sustained move back toward 6% would likely bring back spring 2026 conditions and further gains.
• New listings well above spring 2026's 24 to 34 per three-month window would shift leverage to buyers faster than rates alone.
• Median days on market above 100 and sale-to-list below 100% over a full year would signal that prices, not just volume, are adjusting.
• More townhouse closings could keep lifting the all-residential median even if house prices are flat, so read the headline figure with care.

Frequently asked questions

What is the median home price in Closter, NJ in 2026?

For single-family homes, Redfin's ZIP 07624 median was $1,304,500 in the three months ending May 2026. The $1,660,000 all-residential median was lifted by five townhouse sales.

Are Closter home prices rising or falling?

Price per square foot rose from about $404 to about $517 over two years (+28%). The median sale price rose and then fell because the mix of house sizes changed.

How much are property taxes in Closter?

The 2025 effective rate of 2.017% implies about $20,170 a year per $1 million of value. The state reported a 2024 average residential bill of $18,536.

What income is needed to buy a median-priced house?

At 7.03% with 20% down, principal, interest and tax on $1,304,500 come to about $9,157 a month before insurance, which requires about $392,000 in income under a 28% guideline.

Sources

• Redfin Data Center: ZIP 07624, 07627, 07670 and 07626, Closter city and Bergen County data through May 2026
• Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey
• NJ Division of Taxation, 2025 General Tax Rates
• NJ Division of Taxation, 2024 Average Residential Tax
• New Jersey School Performance Reports
• PR Newswire: EDENS to Begin Renovations on Closter Plaza
• Chain Store Age: New retailers fill redeveloped New Jersey center
• EDENS: Closter Plaza
• New Jersey Legislature: P.L. 2024, c.2
• NJ DCA: Fourth Round obligation methodology
• Borough of Closter Code: Affordable Housing Overlay
• Borough of Closter: Village School Commons update
• Mastermind: Closter Village School Commons
• Judy Zhou's Closter area guide