By Mike Lentz | The Mike Lentz Team – Keller Williams Realty
There’s more to choose from than in years, so you can afford to be patient and selective. But unlike much of the country, the South Jersey housing market isn’t seeing asking prices fall. Inventory is up across every county while prices hold steady, so buyers get options and negotiating room without waiting on a big price correction.
If you’ve tried to buy a home in the past few years, you probably hit two walls. Prices kept climbing, and there were never enough homes to choose from. This summer, one of those walls is finally coming down: inventory is up. The other one, price, is a different story in the South Jersey housing market.
Nationally, asking prices have started to ease. Across Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, Salem, and Cumberland counties, the picture is more nuanced. You have more homes to look at, but sellers here are still pricing with confidence. Here’s what the numbers actually show and what it means for your search.
The National Picture: Prices Easing, Inventory Rising
According to Realtor.com, the national median asking price was $430,000 in June. That’s nearly $11,000 under what it was the year before:
That’s the eighth month in a row that the typical national asking price has come in below where it was the previous year, according to the same Realtor.com report.
Falling prices can sound worrying, but this isn’t a sign of an impending crash. We’re talking about asking prices, not sold prices. Nationally, it’s a sign that today’s sellers are meeting the market where it is and pricing to draw buyers. As Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com, puts it:
“Sellers are reading market conditions and are pricing accordingly from the start rather than listing high and cutting later, and buyers are taking note and making bids. This is a welcome sign that we are in a functioning market.“
On the supply side, the number of homes listed for sale in June was the highest June figure we’ve seen in three years:
More options, and less competition for each one. Supply still isn’t back to pre-2020 levels, but in many markets it’s the loosest it’s been in a while. That national inventory shift is real, and it’s showing up here too. The price shift is where South Jersey parts ways.
The South Jersey Housing Market Isn’t Following the National Script on Price
Here’s where our market breaks from the headlines. The inventory part is true locally. The price part mostly isn’t.
Every county we cover has more homes on the market than a year ago. Active listings are up 13.7 percent in Gloucester, 22.7 percent in Camden, 20.5 percent in Burlington, 13.3 percent in Salem, and 32.6 percent in Cumberland. That’s real breathing room compared with the bidding-war years, when a new listing might get ten offers in a weekend.
But prices haven’t dropped to match. Here’s how the five counties look on the latest closed-sales data from our market reports:
| County | Median Sale Price | Price YoY | Active Inventory YoY | Median Days on Market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloucester | $385,000 | +2.7% | +13.7% | 13 |
| Camden | $375,000 | +1.4% | +22.7% | 14 |
| Burlington | $430,000 | +2.4% | +20.5% | 16 |
| Salem | $305,000 | +5.2% | +13.3% | 25 |
| Cumberland | $272,000 | -1.1% | +32.6% | 30 |
Four of the five counties saw prices hold steady or rise over the past year. Only Cumberland slipped, and only by about 1 percent. Meanwhile, homes in Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington are still going under contract in roughly two weeks, and more than half of Gloucester and Camden sales are still closing over the asking price.
So the national story of falling prices isn’t playing out here. South Jersey has always held its value, helped by steady demand from buyers priced out of the Philadelphia area and limited new construction across the region. More inventory is giving buyers options, but it hasn’t forced sellers to cut.
Where Buyers Have the Most Room
The averages hide an important split. In Gloucester and Camden counties, the pace is still quick. Homes sell in about two weeks and the majority close over list, so more inventory mostly means more choices, not deep discounts. If you’re shopping the busier towns like Cherry Hill or Washington Township, treat the extra listings as a wider menu, not a signal to lowball.
The southern end of the region tells a softer story. In Salem and Cumberland counties, homes are averaging 25 to 30 days on the market, and Cumberland sits closest to a true buyer’s market with inventory up nearly 33 percent. Buyers who can look toward Woodstown, Vineland, or Millville will find the most negotiating leverage in South Jersey right now, along with the lowest entry prices in the five-county area.
What This Means for South Jersey Buyers
The takeaway is a good one, just not the one the national headlines suggest.
You can afford to be more patient and selective than buyers could a year or two ago. With more listings on the market, you don’t have to jump on the first house that’s close enough. You have room to wait for one that genuinely fits, and a little more leverage to negotiate on homes that have been sitting past that two-week mark.
What you probably shouldn’t do is wait for a big price drop. In most of South Jersey, that correction isn’t coming the way it might in other parts of the country. Well-priced homes are still moving fast, so when the right one shows up, being ready to act still matters. That means getting your financing lined up before you start touring, not after you’ve found the house.
Part of why prices stay firm is the same reason people keep moving here. The commute to Philadelphia stays manageable by way of the bridges and the PATCO line, so South Jersey towns draw a steady stream of buyers who want more house and lower taxes than they’d find across the river. Strong school districts in places like Washington Township, Moorestown, and Haddonfield keep family demand high year after year, and summer adds its own pull as families try to settle before the school calendar and shore-season traffic pick up. That underlying demand is exactly why more listings haven’t turned into falling prices.
Bottom line: the South Jersey housing market has more homes to choose from, but asking prices are holding firm. That’s more opportunity to choose carefully, less pressure to overpay, and no reason to sit on the sidelines waiting for a crash the local data doesn’t support.
If you want to talk through what this means for your budget and your target towns, schedule a quick call and we’ll walk through it together.
For the full picture in your county, see our county market reports for Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland counties.
