Livingston, NJ Real Estate and Community Guide
If you are weighing up Livingston against Short Hills, Millburn or West Orange, this guide covers what the listing photos don't: what you'll actually pay in taxes, how the schools are structured, what the commute really looks like without a train station in town, and how the ten neighborhoods differ.
Livingston is a 14-square-mile township in Essex County, New Jersey, about 25 miles west of Manhattan, with a population of roughly 32,000. It is known for a nine-school public district that ranks among the strongest in the state, large-lot single-family neighborhoods, and a seven-figure housing market that has stayed competitive through several shifts in the wider economy.
Livingston Township covers 14.12 square miles of Essex County, New Jersey, with a population of around 32,160 and a single ZIP code, 07039. The average homeowner paid $18,465 in property taxes in 2025 on a home assessed at $729,727. Manhattan is roughly 25 miles east, and Livingston Public Schools serves about 6,500 students across nine schools.
Colonials, split-levels, ranches, capes, townhomes, custom new construction
HOME STYLES:
Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, 597 beds
HOSPITAL:
Livingston Public Schools, 9 schools, approx. 6,500 students
school district:
1.380M
AVERAGE sale price:
$18,465 on a home assessed at $729,727 (2025, NJ Dept. of Community Affairs)
AVERAGE PROPERTY TAX BILL:
45 to 70 minutes, depending on method
TYPICAL COMMUTE TO NYC:
Approximately 25 miles
Distance to Manhattan:
February 5, 1813
INCORPORATED:
07039
ZIP CODE:
14.12 square mile
TOWNSHIP SIZE:
32,160 (2024 Census estimate)
POPULATION:
Essex County, New Jersey
COUNTY:
Livingston at a Glance
The school district. Livingston Public Schools moved from #12 to #9 in New Jersey in Niche's 2026 rankings, and Livingston High School holds a 98% graduation rate. For families with young children, that single factor often decides the town before they've seen a house.
The lots. Livingston is overwhelmingly single-family detached housing on generous plots, which is increasingly rare this close to the city. In neighborhoods like Coventry, three-quarters of an acre of flat land is normal rather than exceptional.
The position. You are 25 miles from Manhattan, 15 miles from Newark, minutes from Routes 10 and 280, and a short drive from three NJ Transit stations. Livingston sits in the middle of everything without being on top of any of it.
What people don't always anticipate is the tax bill, and I would rather you hear that from me now than at closing. More on that below.
Three reasons come up in almost every conversation I have with buyers looking here.
Why do people move to Livingston?
If you are buying, get pre-approved before you tour. A conditional offer is weak here. If you are selling, price against recent comparable sales in your immediate area rather than a township-wide average, because the spread between neighborhoods is significant.
What you should take from this
Inventory is the constraint. Active listings in Livingston are typically measured in the tens rather than the hundreds, and well-priced homes in the mid-market move quickly. That combination has kept conditions tilted toward sellers, though it varies by price tier: the luxury end behaves differently from the $900,000 to $1.3 million band where competition is heaviest.
New construction continues to reshape the town. Older homes on desirable lots are regularly bought, demolished and replaced with custom builds featuring open floor plans, finished basements, home offices and covered patios. This has lifted values in established neighborhoods and it is worth understanding before you buy, because it affects what your own home will be worth in ten years.
What's driving the market
Livingston is a seven-figure market. That is the honest headline, and it has been true for several years now. The figure you see quoted depends entirely on who is measuring and over what window. Zillow's typical home value for the township sits around $861,000, while Redfin's median sale price for ZIP 07039 has run above $1.1 million. The gap is a methodology difference, not a contradiction: one measures all housing stock, the other measures what actually sold. Individual homes range from the high $200,000s for a townhome to well over $2 million for new construction on a large lot.
The Livingston housing market
A note on catchments. Several Livingston neighborhoods share a name with an elementary school, which leads people to assume the boundaries match. They don't always. If a specific school matters to you, check the address against the district's current attendance zones before you make an offer. I do this for every client as standard.
Niche ranked Livingston Public Schools #9 in New Jersey for 2026, up from #12 the previous year. Livingston High School holds a 98% graduation rate and a 9 out of 10 GreatSchools rating. Heritage Middle School reports 82% reading proficiency and 68% math proficiency.
The district provides transportation for K-8 students living more than two miles from their school, and for high school students living more than 2.5 miles from Livingston High School.
How the district performs
That grade-6 split is the thing to plan around. Your child will attend three buildings between kindergarten and high school, not two.
Livingston High School, 30 Robert Harp Drive, approximately 2,080 students in grades 9-12.
One high school:
03.
Mount Pleasant Middle School takes grade 6 only. Heritage Middle School takes grades 7 and 8, with around 1,000 students.
Two middle schools:
02.
Burnet Hill, Collins, Harrison, Hillside, Mount Pleasant, Riker Hill
Six elementary schools (K-5), each with 400 to 500 students:
01.
Livingston Public Schools serves roughly 6,500 students across nine schools. The structure is slightly unusual and catches new families out, so it's worth spelling out.
LIVINGSTON SCHOOLS
most Livingston commuters drive 10 to 15 minutes to a station and take the train, giving a total door-to-door of 60 to 75 minutes. Hybrid schedules have made this far more workable than it was a decade ago, and it is a large part of why demand here has held up.
THE PRACTICAL VERSION
Newark Liberty International is about 20 minutes away, which is one of the quieter advantages of living here.
BY AIR:
Route 10, Route 24, I-280 and I-78 all serve Livingston, with Garden State Parkway access nearby. Manhattan is around 45 minutes off-peak via I-78 and the Holland Tunnel, closer to an hour or more in rush hour.
BY CAR:
Lakeland Bus Lines runs commuter service into Midtown. NJ Transit's 70 bus connects Livingston to Newark, and routes 73 and 873 serve the township. For some Wall Street and Midtown commuters the bus is genuinely faster door to door than driving to a station first.
BY BUS:
The nearest NJ Transit stations are Millburn (35 Essex Street) and Short Hills (25 Chatham Road), both on the Morristown Line, plus South Orange, Summit and Chatham. Midtown Direct service runs to New York Penn Station in roughly 43 minutes from Short Hills, with trains every 20 minutes during peak hours. Allow 10 to 15 minutes to drive to the station and factor in parking, which is resident-permit-led at Short Hills and more flexible at Millburn.
By train:
What you have instead is a set of workable options, and which one suits you depends on where in Manhattan you're heading and where in Livingston you live.
Livingston does not have its own train station. This is the single most important commuting fact about the town and most guides bury it.
Commuting from Livingston to New York City
Square footage is the easy part. The harder question is which street, which school, which commute and which price trajectory. I've been selling in Livingston for three decades and I can tell you which of these areas actually fits how you live, not just which one fits your budget.
Which neighborhood is right for you?
Mature trees, maintained homes, and a relaxed pace, with parks, schools and shopping a few minutes away. Home styles run from traditional to newly built luxury.
Best for:
Buyers who want generous space in an established Livingston setting.
Chestnut Hill feels more established and private, with larger homes, more generous lots and a higher-end housing mix. Hillside offers more traditional Livingston housing and greater accessibility to schools, shopping and everyday conveniences.
Best for:
Buyers who want classic suburban character, and privacy and a more elevated housing mix.
CHESTNUT HILL
Near the intersection of South Livingston Avenue and Northfield Road, which puts groceries, restaurants, fitness studios and everyday services within a few minutes. Housing ranges from classic Livingston homes to new construction.
Best for:
Anyone who runs errands on the way home and wants that to be a five-minute job. [Lisa: typical price range]
NORTHFIELD
A central location with an unusually wide architectural range, from original Livingston housing stock to recent custom builds. Easy reach of schools, shopping, dining and the main roads. Shares its name with Collins Elementary School.
Best for:
Buyers who want a newer home without moving to the edge of town.
Price range: $900K–$1.6M+
COLLINS
Picturesque streets, mature trees and a walkable feel by Livingston standards. Housing runs from well-maintained traditional homes to fully updated properties. Shares its name with Hillside Elementary School on Belmont Drive.
Best for:
Families who want a neighborhood where you know the neighbors.
HILLSIDE
Spacious homes on larger lots, with a mix of classic architecture, renovated properties and custom new construction. Mount Pleasant Elementary and Mount Pleasant Middle School both sit on Broadlawn Drive.
Best for:
Growing families who need square footage and want school proximity.
Set around the Riker Hill Complex, 204 acres of parkland that includes artist studios, walking trails and the Walter Kidde Dinosaur Park. Generous lots, quiet streets, and the most distinctive setting in the township. Shares its name with Riker Hill Elementary School.
Best for:
Buyers who want space and green surroundings over walkability.
RIKER HILL
One of the longest-established neighborhoods in Livingston, and one of the most consistently in demand. A mix of colonials, split-levels, ranches and heavily renovated older homes. Shares its name with Burnet Hill Elementary School.
Best for:
Families and commuters who want an established street rather than a new build.
BURNET HILL
Custom-built homes on expansive, landscaped lots, with a streetscape that reads as more deliberate than most of the township. Convenient for schools, shopping and commuter routes without sitting on top of any of them.
Best for:
Luxury buyers who want privacy without isolation.
BEL AIR
Livingston's luxury tier. Coventry sits on the Short Hills border and is defined by large, flat lots, with most properties sitting on three-quarters of an acre or more. The combination of flat land, size and location makes it consistently one of the highest-priced areas in town.
Best for:
Buyers at the top of the market who want land as well as house.
Coventry
Livingston has ten distinct residential areas. They differ more than the township-wide averages suggest, both in price and in character.
Livingston neighborhoods
Livingston Skate Park, Okner Sports Complex, Prospect Park, the Patrick J. Ippolito and Meadowbrook complexes, the Livingston Senior/Community Center, and playgrounds at Grand Terrace, Monmouth Court and Northland. South Mountain Reservation and Eagle Rock Reservation are both a short drive for larger trails.
ALSO:
in East Hills Park on Shrewsbury Drive, opened in 2003 and has two fenced areas, one for dogs under 25 pounds and a larger one for everyone else.
The Mervyn V.T. Haines Community Pool is located at 10 Wahler Road, adjacent to Livingston High School.
Amenities include accessible men’s and women’s locker rooms with private showers and dressing rooms, chair lift for the disabled, wading pool, water slide, lap pool, table games, and snack bar.
The Riker Hill Complex is the unusual one. The 204-acre site off Beaufort Avenue was a US Army Nike missile radar station from 1954 to 1974, chosen because Riker Hill is one of the highest points in Essex County. The township bought it from the federal government in 1974 for one dollar. The old army buildings are now artist studios for painting, ceramics, sculpture, glassblowing and woodworking. The complex also contains the Walter Kidde Dinosaur Park, where genuine dinosaur tracks are preserved, and Becker Park. It is a working art colony, a Cold War site and a hiking spot at the same time, which is not a sentence you write about many suburban parks.
THE RIKER HILL COMPLEX
Memorial Oval and Park, on Robert H. Harp Drive in front of Livingston High School and across from Town Hall, is the center of it. A walking track, multiple sports fields, tennis courts and a practice wall, basketball, bocce and shuffleboard courts, a gazebo and the 9/11 Memorial Garden. Littell People's Park and Littell's Pond sit within it, and the pond opens for ice skating in winter.
Memorial Oval and Park
Livingston takes its recreation seriously and the facilities are better than the town's size suggests.
Parks, recreation and things to do in Livingston
Livingston's food scene reflects who lives here. There is a substantial Asian dining cluster along Northfield Avenue and Eisenhower Parkway, a long-standing Jewish deli tradition, and a Mediterranean and Greek presence that has grown considerably.
Eppes Essen, 105 East Mount Pleasant Avenue, is the institution. A New York-style Jewish deli founded in Newark in 1956, in Orange from 1960, and in Livingston since. Pastrami, corned beef, knishes, blintzes and portions that defeat most people.
Sweet Basil's Cafe, 498 South Livingston Avenue, is the neighborhood breakfast and brunch standby and consistently one of the highest-rated places in town.
ILPOOM by Kim's Sushi, 106 East Mount Pleasant Avenue, for Japanese and sushi.
Lithos, Greek, and Panevino Ristorante, Italian, cover the sit-down dinner end.
Mezza, at The Shoppes at Livingston Circle on Eisenhower Parkway, and THAVMA Mediterranean
Grill at Livingston Town Center, for Mediterranean.
Assado Portuguese Steakhouse, 222 North Livingston Avenue, and Nero's Grille round out the steakhouse options.
For the morning run: Livingston Bagel, Bagel Nosh on West Mount Pleasant Avenue, Paris Baguette and Seymour's Cafe.
Dining in Livingston
Livingston Town Center, at the intersection of North Livingston Avenue and Mount Pleasant Avenue, is the main day-to-day hub. It's an open-air center with more than 20 restaurants, shops and services.
Livingston Shopping Center, 530 West Mount Pleasant Avenue, has been growing in importance and gained a Barnes & Noble in August 2026.
The Livingston Mall closed in February 2026, after 54 years. Macy's left in April 2026 and Barnes & Noble, the last anchor, relocated in July. In March 2025 the Township Council adopted a redevelopment plan for the 968,000 square foot site as high-density housing.
This matters if you're buying nearby. The Eisenhower Parkway and South Orange Avenue corridor is going to change over the next several years, and what replaces the mall will affect traffic patterns, local amenities and property values in that part of town. If you're looking at homes in that area, ask me about the current status of the redevelopment before you commit.
Nearby: The Mall at Short Hills is roughly ten minutes away for higher-end retail, and downtown Millburn, Summit and Montclair are all within a short drive.
Shopping and everyday convenience
Riker Hill Art Park holds open studio events where you can meet the resident artists. The Livingston Public Library sits beside Memorial Oval. Seasonal ice skating on Littell's Pond is a genuine local ritual rather than a listed amenity.
Farmers markets, summer concerts, holiday events, youth sports leagues and township recreation programs run through the year.
Things to do in Livingston
Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, 94 Old Short Hills Road, is one of the reasons Livingston punches above its size. Formerly Saint Barnabas, it is a 597-bed nonprofit teaching hospital affiliated with RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Health, and the oldest and largest nonprofit nonsectarian hospital in New Jersey. US News ranks it #6 in the state.
It treats nearly 33,000 inpatients and more than 95,000 emergency department patients a year, with specialist certifications in acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, stroke, joint replacement and palliative care. The Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center sits alongside it, and the surrounding medical district means specialists, imaging and urgent care are all within the township.
For families with elderly parents, or anyone with an ongoing health consideration, having a hospital of this standard four minutes from your front door is worth more than most people factor in until they need it.
Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
HEALTHCARE
I work across all of these towns, and I'll tell you honestly if one of them is a better fit than Livingston for what you're after.
Livingston borders or sits close to Short Hills, Millburn, West Orange, Roseland, Florham Park, East Hanover and South Orange. Each brings something Livingston doesn't have: Millburn and Short Hills for train access and downtown retail, South Orange and Montclair for walkable downtowns and nightlife, West Orange for the reservation.
Towns near Livingston
I've spent 31 years helping people work through exactly that trade-off in Northern New Jersey, across more than 450 transactions. What that means practically is that I can tell you which streets get the afternoon sun, which school boundary is about to matter, and which asking prices are realistic before you waste a Saturday.
Buying here is a bigger decision than a house. You're choosing a school path, a commute, a tax bill and a neighborhood, and the four don't always point the same direction.
moving to livingston
Frequently Asked Questions
Livingston is a seven-figure market. Zillow's typical home value for the township is around $861,000, while median sale prices for ZIP 07039 have run above $1.1 million, with the difference coming down to what each source measures. The full range runs from the high $200,000s for townhomes to over $2 million for new construction on large lots.
How much do homes cost in Livingston?
In 2025 the average Livingston homeowner paid $18,465 in property taxes on a home assessed at $729,727, according to New Jersey Department of Community Affairs data. That is well above the New Jersey state average of $10,570 and reflects what the town funds: the school district, municipal services and Essex County. Your actual bill depends on your home's assessed value. Budget for it properly, because it's a meaningful monthly number on top of your mortgage.
What are property taxes like in Livingston?
Livingston is approximately 25 miles west of Manhattan. There is no train station in Livingston itself, so most commuters drive 10 to 15 minutes to Millburn, Short Hills, South Orange, Summit or Chatham and take NJ Transit's Morristown Line. Short Hills to New York Penn Station is around 43 minutes. Door to door, allow 60 to 75 minutes. By car it's around 45 minutes off-peak and an hour or more in rush hour.
How far is Livingston from NYC?
Mostly no, and you should plan for that. Livingston is a car-dependent suburb spread over 14 square miles. Individual neighborhoods have sidewalks, walking paths and parks, and some areas are within walking distance of houses of worship or a local shopping center, but you will drive for groceries and school runs. If walkability is your priority, Millburn, South Orange or Montclair are better fits and I'll say so.
Is Livingston walkable?
Yes. Livingston is dominated by single-family homes but has several established townhome and condominium communities, including Livingston Square, Regency Club, Cedar Gate, Livingston Town Center and The Fairways. They appeal to first-time buyers, downsizers and anyone who wants the school district without the yard work.
Are there townhomes and condos in Livingston?
Conditions have favored sellers in recent years, driven by inventory that is measured in the tens rather than the hundreds. That said, it varies by price tier and by season, and the top of the market behaves differently from the mid-market.
Is Livingston a buyer's or seller's market?
The mall closed in February 2026 after 54 years. Macy's departed in April 2026 and Barnes & Noble, the final anchor, relocated to Livingston Shopping Center in July. The Township Council adopted a plan in March 2025 to redevelop the 968,000 square foot site as high-density housing. The timeline and final scheme are still developing, and it will change the Eisenhower Parkway corridor. If you're buying nearby, ask me for the latest position.
What is happening with the Livingston Mall?
Not a traditional one. Instead there are several shopping centers spread through the township, with Livingston Town Center as the closest thing to a central hub. Millburn, Short Hills, South Orange and Montclair all have proper walkable downtowns within a short drive.
Does Livingston have a downtown?
I've spent 31 years in Northern New Jersey real estate, across 450+ transactions and over $250 million in closed volume. My listings average 19 days on market and a 107% sale-to-list ratio. For buyers, that experience shows up in offer strategy and knowing what a house is actually worth. For sellers, it shows up in pricing and negotiation. Either way, you get straight answers. If I wouldn't let my own family buy a house, I won't let you buy it either.
