Wayne homebuyers finally have more to choose from this fall, with 66 single-family homes on the market in September, up 22.2% from a year earlier. But more choices hasn't meant more leverage: homes in town sold for a median of 108% of asking price in September, and the typical listing was gone in just 23 days.
The numbers come from Garden State MLS data cited in a TAPinto column by Joseph D. Charles, Jr., a real estate agent with Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty. New listings in Wayne also climbed, with 53 new listings in September, a 23.3% jump over September 2025, while the average time a single-family home spent on the market fell 23.3% year over year to 23 days. Charles noted that many of the buyers driving that pace are relocating from New York City and Hudson County.
Despite the added inventory, Wayne's months of supply only ticked up to 2.3 in September, from 1.8 a year earlier, a nearly 28% increase. That's still well short of the four-to-six-month range generally considered a balanced market, and far from the six-plus months that tend to favor buyers; anything under four months is generally associated with a seller's market, and Wayne remained in that territory. The town's median sale price rose 1.2% year over year to $825,000.
A Seller's Market, Still
Charles put it plainly in the column: inventory is recovering from historically low levels, but Wayne remains far from a balanced market. He added that more inventory gives buyers more options and potentially less competition on some properties, even as sellers who stay realistic about the competition can still land a strong price.
For context on how tight Wayne's supply has been, the same report cites a steep long-term decline: the town had 404 single-family homes for sale in October 2016, dropping to 248 by October 2021; October 2022 was the last time Wayne had more than 66 homes available — a fraction of the inventory the market carried a decade ago.
Wayne's Numbers Echo a Statewide Pattern
Wayne's inventory bump mirrors a broader trend across New Jersey, though the statewide figures themselves don't fully agree. According to nj.com, the state had 20,996 homes for sale in September 2026, up from 17,519 a year earlier, a 20% increase, while New Jersey Realtors separately reported inventory rising 12.1% year over year to 22,746 homes for sale in a release carried by insidernj.com. A third count, from northjersey.com, put active listings at 21,036 in September, up 17.5% from a year earlier and 3.24% from August.
Whichever figure is closest, the direction is the same: more homes are sitting on New Jersey's market. Yet closed sales statewide fell 5.8% and pending sales dropped 11.3% year over year in September, per New Jersey Realtors' data reported by insidernj.com, even as inventory grew. Rising mortgage rates appear to be part of the story — nj.com reported that New Jersey's 30-year fixed rate climbed from 6% in February 2026 to 7.3% by October, a swing that has cooled the frantic bidding wars of earlier in the year. As nj.com put it, the same home that had 10 offers in July might have one or two now and in some cases zero.
Price Cuts and Regional Comparisons
Price reductions are also becoming more common statewide. New Jersey Realtors, in the same insidernj.com release, described the combination of rising inventory and slower sales as giving buyers more choices overall, while cautioning that affordability remains a significant challenge.
Active listings increased. In Hudson County, nj.com reported Hoboken had 154 residential properties for sale as of October 19, up nearly 64% from 94 a year earlier, while downtown Jersey City listings rose 35%, from 206 to 278.
Passaic County as a whole, where Wayne sits, had a single-family median price of $650,000 in August with a 33-day median time on market and 2.4 months of supply, according to a report from thereitz.com. That same report tallied three approved apartment projects along Valley Road in Wayne totaling 861 homes, adding new housing stock to the township even as the for-sale single-family market stays tight. Elsewhere in Wayne's week-to-week sales activity, nj.com reported 36 residential property transactions during the week of September 21 to 27.
