One County, Two Very Different Housing Markets
Passaic County is long and narrow on the map. Its southern end holds three of the larger cities in North Jersey, packed tight with frame houses built for working families and their tenants. Its northern end is mostly forest, reservoirs and lake communities, and West Milford alone covers 78.3 square miles. Between them sit Wayne, Totowa, Little Falls, Woodland Park and the Haledons, where the typical house is a postwar single-family on its own lot.
So the reason an owner calls us tends to change with the zip code. In Paterson and Passaic, it is usually a building with tenants, an estate, or a list of code issues. Up north, it is more often a house that is hard to sell the usual way: a seasonal place, a property on a private road, or one that needs too much work for a buyer with a mortgage. Our process is the same for all of them. Send the address, we walk through once, and a price arrives in writing.
- 524,118residents at the 2020 census; 531,624 estimated for July 2025
- 53.1%owner-occupancy rate across the county (ACS 2020–2024)
- $459,500median value of an owner-occupied home (ACS 2020–2024)
- $1,621median gross monthly rent (ACS 2020–2024)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Passaic County, New Jersey.
The 16 Municipalities, Their Size and Their 2025 Tax Rates
Each town below has its own tax collector, its own construction office and its own rules for what must be inspected before a house changes hands. The population figures come from the county's own municipal directory; the tax rates are the state's 2025 numbers per $100 of value. The general rate is what applies to your assessment. The effective rate corrects for how close that town's assessments are to market value, so it is the fair way to compare one town with the next.
| Municipality | Type | 2020 population | General rate | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomingdale | Borough | 7,777 | 4.718 | 2.790 |
| Clifton | City | 90,296 | 6.129 | 2.193 |
| Haledon | Borough | 9,052 | 5.428 | 2.771 |
| Hawthorne | Borough | 19,637 | 3.144 | 2.316 |
| Little Falls | Township | 13,360 | 3.496 | 2.170 |
| North Haledon | Borough | 8,927 | 3.187 | 2.045 |
| Passaic | City | 70,537 | 4.258 | 2.113 |
| Paterson | City | 159,732 | 5.335 | 2.421 |
| Pompton Lakes | Borough | 11,127 | 4.131 | 2.533 |
| Prospect Park | Borough | 6,372 | 6.231 | 2.913 |
| Ringwood | Borough | 11,735 | 4.259 | 2.627 |
| Totowa | Borough | 11,065 | 2.934 | 1.511 |
| Wanaque | Borough | 11,317 | 4.541 | 2.642 |
| Wayne | Township | 54,838 | 5.998 | 2.253 |
| West Milford | Township | 24,862 | 4.214 | 2.489 |
| Woodland Park | Borough | 13,484 | 3.435 | 2.271 |
Sources: Passaic County municipal directory (2020 census populations); New Jersey Division of Taxation, 2025 General Tax Rates.
Prospect Park, Bloomingdale and Haledon carry the heaviest effective rates in the county, and Totowa the lightest by a wide margin. A general rate above 5, as in Clifton, Wayne or Paterson, does not by itself mean a bigger bill; it usually means the assessments there are well below today's prices. For a seller, the table matters most when taxes have gone unpaid, because a few missed quarters in a high-rate town can eat into equity quickly.
Who Does What When a Passaic County House Is Sold
Most of the county's offices are clustered around Hamilton and Grand Streets in downtown Paterson. The exception that surprises people is the sheriff, whose office, and foreclosure unit, are out on Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne.
| Task | Office | Why a seller cares |
|---|---|---|
| Deeds and mortgages | Passaic County Clerk; recording at 401 Grand Street, Room 113; Land Records Vault at 77 Hamilton Street (973-881-4785) | Your deed is recorded here after closing, and every mortgage, judgment or lien recorded against the house shows up in this office's records. The clerk does not run title searches; the title company does. |
| Wills and estates | Passaic County Surrogate, 71 Hamilton Street, Room 101, Paterson (973-881-4760) | An executor or administrator gets the certificates that give them power to sell the house. |
| Sheriff sales | Passaic County Sheriff, 435 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne; Foreclosure Unit 973-881-4200 | The auction date is the hard stop, and our closing has to land ahead of it. |
| Assessment appeals | Passaic County Board of Taxation | The regular appeal deadline for 2026 was April 1; an assessment that is too high costs you every quarter you own the house. |
| Tax bills and payoffs | Your town's tax collector | Issues the payoff letter, including any water or sewer charges the town bills, for settlement. |
| Resale certificates | Your town's fire official or code office | Signs off on smoke and carbon monoxide alarms; some towns, such as Clifton, run their own dwelling inspection for every sale. |
Sheriff Sales in Passaic County, and a Right Many Owners Miss
Every New Jersey foreclosure is a lawsuit in the Superior Court, and it ends with an auction run by the county sheriff. The Passaic County list is published on the CivilView site; when we looked on October 7, 2026, it showed 124 properties with sale dates running into February 2027, most of them on Tuesdays. Dates move, so the sheriff's office asks anyone with a stake in a sale to confirm it by phone with the foreclosure unit.
The steps before that auction are the same in every county:
- 30 to 180 days before filing
The lender's notice of intention
Sent by certified or registered mail, it spells out what you would need to pay, and by when, to bring the loan current.
- After service
35 days to respond
No answer means the case goes forward as uncontested and is processed by the state's Office of Foreclosure.
- Within 60 days
Free court mediation
Available if you live in the one- to four-family home that is being foreclosed, with a housing counselor to help you prepare.
- Final judgment and writ
The sheriff schedules the auction
Bidders in Passaic County have to pre-register with the sheriff before they can take part.
- After the gavel
Ten days to redeem
The court's own guidance gives the owner ten days after the sale to redeem, and any surplus over the debt belongs to the owner.
Then there is the Community Wealth Preservation Program, which the Passaic County sheriff posts with every sale list. When the foreclosed owner is a person rather than a company, that owner, a next of kin, or a tenant living in the property may buy it ahead of the public bidding at the upset price, the minimum the lender set, by paying a 3.5% deposit before bidding opens and the balance within 90 business days. It is a real option if a relative can raise the money. If nobody can, a sale before the auction is usually the way to keep whatever equity is left.
When an owner in foreclosure sells their home, New Jersey's Foreclosure Rescue Fraud Prevention Act lets them back out of the deal any time up to midnight on the tenth business day following the signature, or up to the sheriff sale if that is sooner. We put that notice in writing and schedule settlement after it runs out.
More on the full process is in our guide to selling during foreclosure in New Jersey.
Probate at the Passaic County Surrogate
If the owner of a Passaic County house has died, the executor named in the will goes to the Surrogate in the county where the person lived. In Passaic that office works by appointment only, in Paterson or at one of its evening "night court" locations. Bring a death certificate with a raised seal, the original will, the names and addresses of the next of kin and your own photo ID. One witness who signed the will has to appear as well, unless the will has a self-proving affidavit.
The Surrogate charges at least $100 to probate a two-page will with one certificate, and $5 for each extra certificate. Order several; the title company, the bank and the tax waiver all want one. The certificates cannot be issued until at least 11 days after the death, though the paperwork can start sooner.
Once you hold them, you can sell. New Jersey's inheritance tax does not apply to Class A heirs (a spouse or partner, children, grandchildren, stepchildren and parents), and for them the waiver needed to clear the house is usually the simple Form L-9. Siblings, nieces, nephews and friends are taxed, and the title company will hold back or require the proper waiver. Our inherited house guide explains the rest, and we buy estate houses with the contents still inside.
Landlords: Leases, Lead Certificates and Water Lines
In Paterson, owners occupy barely one home in four, and close to half of the county's occupied homes are rented, so a good share of the people who sell here are landlords. Three things come up again and again.
Leases survive the sale. The Anti-Eviction Act names a closed set of grounds for removing a residential tenant, and selling is not among them. A narrow owner-occupancy exception exists for buildings with three units or fewer, but only when the buyer will live there, which we will not. We take over the tenants, their leases and their security deposits with the interest due on them.
Lead-safe certificates. Since 2022, rental units built before 1978 have to be checked for lead-based paint hazards every three years or when a tenant moves out, whichever comes first, and a lead-safe certificate is good for two years. When you sell a rental, the law expects you to hand the buyer copies of your certifications. If you never got one, tell us; it affects the price, not whether we buy.
Old water service lines. The Passaic Valley Water Commission, which supplies Paterson, Passaic, Clifton and Prospect Park among other towns, has records showing lead or galvanized service lines in Clifton, Passaic, Paterson and Prospect Park. Its free replacement program has now finished, but the commission still schedules inspections on request. Knowing what your line is made of helps everyone at the closing table.
For the full picture, read selling a rental property in New Jersey.
Taxes, Payoffs and the Town Tax Sale
Each Passaic County town splits the year's property tax into quarterly bills: one due February 1, then one each in May, August and November, again on the 1st. Towns may give a grace period of up to ten days. After that, interest can run at up to 8% a year on the first $1,500 of what is owed and 18% on the rest, and once an overdue balance passes $10,000 the town may tack on one more charge at year's end, capped at 6%. Unpaid amounts can then be sold at the town's annual tax sale.
None of that stops a sale. The title company asks the collector for a payoff figure, it is paid from the price at closing, and any tax sale certificate is redeemed at the same time. See our guide to back taxes and tax liens for the details.
Certificates Before Closing
State law requires a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm certificate before any one- or two-family home is sold, issued by the local fire official, or covered by a town's own resale inspection where one exists. Requirements differ by municipality. Clifton, for one, runs its dwelling inspections on Wednesday mornings and charges $125 per unit for a sale. We find out what your town needs once you accept our price, book it, and deal with anything it finds.
The Cost Side
In New Jersey the seller owes the state's realty transfer fee at recording, figured on the price in steps. From July 10, 2025, homes selling for $1 million or more also carry a graduated percent fee, and that fee now falls on the seller as well; the county clerk flags it on its land records page. Every New Jersey seller also fills in the state's flood risk disclosure, which asks about past flooding and whether the house is in a mapped flood zone. Along the Passaic and Pompton rivers, that question matters. Our written offer lists every cost and who pays it, so the comparison with a listing is apples to apples.
Our Process in Passaic County
- Call or type your address above and tell us about the house: who lives there, what condition it is in, how soon you need to move.
- We visit once, see every unit we can, and put a price in writing, usually within a day.
- A New Jersey title company searches the records, orders payoffs for the mortgage, liens and taxes, and pays them from the price.
- We line up the alarm certificate and any town inspection, and handle the repairs they call for.
- You sign on the date you chose, at the closing table or, if you have moved away, by mail in front of a notary.