Good luck finding a house in these 25 N.J. places. They have the lowest inventory in the state.

There aren’t very many houses for sale in New Jersey. And it’s not even because of the pandemic.

The low inventory, coupled with low interest rates, is driving the frenzied real estate market, pushing prices higher and landing buyers in bidding wars.

New listings were down nearly 11% from July 2020 to July 2021, according to the most recently available data from New Jersey Realtors.

And the number of unsold homes on the market has fallen almost 30% in the past decade.

There were 71,194 unsold homes on the market in New Jersey in July 2011, according to data from the Otteau Group. By July 2016 there were 51,010 and by July 2021 there were 20,729 unsold homes on the market.

But if you’re shopping for a home in one of the 25 places that have the lowest inventory, you’re probably even more frustrated.

NJ Advance Media took data from Redfin on housing inventory for every month of 2021. Then we averaged the total inventory and compared it to the population in that census-designated area to get the number of houses available per 1,000 people each month.

Statewide, that average is 2.6 houses per 1,000 people. But there were also 22 towns that had more than 10 houses available per 1,000 residents.

More than half of the places with the lowest inventory are in South Jersey. There are six each in Monmouth and Camden counties; four each in Middlesex and Somerset counties and one each in Warren, Gloucester, Burlington, Passaic and Mercer counties.

Here are the 25 places in New Jersey with the lowest housing inventory and their average monthly inventory this year per 1,000 people:

25. Yardville (Hamilton Township) - 1.3

24. Lindenwold - 1.3

23. Ramtown (Howell Township) - 1.3

22. Avenel (Woodbridge Township) - 1.3

21. Bradley Gardens (Bridgewater) - 1.3

20. Robertsville (Marlboro Township) - 1.3

19. Perth Amboy - 1.3

18. West Freehold (Freehold Township) - 1.2

17. Greentree (Cherry Hill) - 1.2

16. East Franklin (Franklin Township) - 1.2

15. Bellmawr - 1.2

14. East Freehold (Freehold Township)- 1.1

13. Passaic - 1.1

12. Barrington - 1.1

11. Yorketown (Manalapan Township) - 1.1

10. Finderne (Bridgewater Township) - 1.1

9. Raritan - 1.1

8. Camden - 1.0

7. Fair Haven - 1.0

6. Stratford - 0.9

5. Ramblewood (Mount Laurel) - 0.9

4. Princeton Meadows (Plainsboro Township)- 0.9

3. Beckett (Logan Township) - 0.8

2. Madison Park (Old Bridge) - 0.5

1. Beattystown (Mansfield Township) - 0.4

READ MORE:

The places in each N.J. county where the most houses are for sale

The places in each N.J. county where housing prices have grown the most in the last year

Houses are selling the slowest in these 25 N.J. places

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Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Nick Devlin may be reached at ndevlin@njadvancemedia.com.