New Jersey Apartment Market

Multigenerational households are on rise in NJ

Jessica Fernandez was doing pretty well. A single parent to her 7-year-old daughter, Isabella, she worked as a project coordinator for a pharmaceutical market research company and lived in an apartment in Montgomery. Then last year, Fernandez was laid off, a casualty of company downsizing. She had no choice but to move back home.

"It was a very challenging time," says Fernandez, 29.

Today, she and Isabella, now 8, live in a Bridgewater house that is not only home to Isabella’s grandparents, but also her aunt and uncle.

The family’s living situation illustrates the quiet resurgence of the multigenerational household, one piece in the changing picture of the family in New Jersey.

Data from the 2010 Census released today show Fernandez’s family lives in one of the state’s 159,323 multigenerational households, in which three or more generations of a family share a home. That number, which accounts for 5 percent of all households in New Jersey, rose about 10.5 percent from the 2000 Census.

A Census survey from 2009 reported New Jersey’s number of multigenerational households ranked 10th in the nation.

In today’s data, the Census for the first time released a detailed count of multigenerational households on the county and local levels. Passaic County is home to the largest percentage of multigenerational households, at 7.7 percent of its total. Essex and Middlesex counties have the largest numbers of multigenerational households — 16,984 and 16,379, respectively.

Some say it’s financial pressure that draws non-nuclear family members into close quarters. Others say cultural values can play a role in shaping such living situations.

Sara McLanahan, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, said the decision to return "home" and live with parents or extended family members may often have to do with budget strain.

"You’ll see it if it’s a single mother having a child, living with the grandmother," McLanahan says.

For a while, Fernandez’s parents lived alone, having said goodbye to their son, who left to live with friends, and another daughter, who departed for student life at Montclair State University.

Phoenix, Orbach Snap Up Three AIG Apartment Properties for $46.5M ...

Phoenix Realty Group and The Orbach Group have just increased their presence in Central New Jersey’s apartment market by 472 units with the acquisition of three properties from AIG for $46.3 million, including the assumption of existing debt on two of the assets. Newmark Knight Frank Capital Group procured the equity for the deal.

Phoenix and Orbach’s new purchase includes the 308-unit Jumping Brook Apartments in Neptune, the 140-unit Leonardine Gardens in South River and, on the beach in Long Branch, the 24-unit Marine Gardens. The partners plan to shell out approximately $2.5 million on upgrades. Marine Gardens is the only one of the three that is 100 percent occupied, but with a makeover in their future and premium market conditions, full lease up at the other properties is certainly well within reach.

Already loud, the call for rental accommodations in Central New Jersey is only growing louder. According to a report by commercial real estate market analysis provider Reis Inc., the steadily declining apartment vacancy rate in the area dropped 20 basis points down to 3.5 percent in the second quarter. Also, rents are slowly, but surely, ticking upward.

“The region continues to show a strong demand for middle-market apartments that offer an attractive lifestyle at a time when home prices remain out of reach for the majority of local working families, especially those who commute to jobs in Manhattan and North Jersey,” Udi Kore, vice president with Phoenix, said.

Phoenix and Orbach’s purchase was part of a larger AIG deal that involved the sale of three other Central New Jersey assets to Vantage Properties and Angelo, Gordon & Co. Those apartment communities, Pheasant Hollow and Quail Ridge in Plainsboro and Long Brook in Matawan, encompass over 1,700 units.

Professional builder, apartment business

New York Magazine

Engineering news-record

PAIS bulletin

New York Magazine