Surf City, NJ

Overview

Surf City is a very small coastal borough (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 1,288 people and just one neighborhood, Surf City is the 463rd largest community in New Jersey.

Surf City home prices are not only among the most expensive in New Jersey, but Surf City real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Surf City is a decidedly white-collar borough, with fully 93.11% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Surf City is a borough of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Surf City who work in management occupations (20.00%), sales jobs (15.78%), and healthcare (12.44%).

Of important note, Surf City is also a borough of artists. Surf City has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Surf City’s character.

Also of interest is that Surf City has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 34.85% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Surf City is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the borough experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller borough.

In addition, Surf City is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Because of many things, Surf City is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Surf City really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Surf City perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

Surf City is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

In Surf City, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.28 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Surf City. 64.60% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in Surf City in 2022 was $106,130, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $424,520 for a family of four.

The people who call Surf City home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Surf City residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Surf City include Irish, Italian, German, English, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in Surf City is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Surf City, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.

In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 75.5%, which is higher than 99.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Furthermore, one way that the neighborhood really stands out, is that it has more large 4, 5, or additional bedroom homes and real estate than 95.5% of the neighborhoods in America. When you walk or drive around this neighborhood, you'll instantly notice the size of the homes here which definitely makes a strong visual statement.

People

Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.

In addition, a majority of the adults in the neighborhood are wealthy and educated executives. They own stately homes that tend to maintain high real estate appreciation rates. Their upper-level careers keep them busy, but allow them to live comfortably. If you're an executive and want to keep similar company, consider settling in this neighborhood, rated as an executive lifestyle "best choice" neighborhood for New Jersey by NeighborhoodScout's analysis, which rated it as better for executive lifestyles than 97.7% of the neighborhoods in New Jersey. In addition to being an excellent choice for highly educated executives, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees and urban sophisticates.

Also, astoundingly, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this single neighborhood has a higher concentration of married couples living here than 96.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Whether they have school-aged children or not, married couples are the rule in the neighborhood. If you are a married couple, you may find many people here with a similar lifestyle, and perhaps common interests. But if you are single, you might not find many other singles here.

Length of Commute

Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 12.1% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.3% of all neighborhoods in America.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Czechoslovakian and Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Czechoslovakian ancestry and 26.9% have Irish ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 8.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.1% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Surf City are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 82.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.

In the neighborhood, 62.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 22.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (7.7%), and 7.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.0% of households. Some people also speak Polish (8.1%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in Surf City, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (26.9%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (22.6%), and residents who report German roots (17.7%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (14.2%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (7.5%), among others.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.6% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America. However, there is also a significant group of residents (12.1%) who commute over an hour in each direction.

Here most residents (64.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.

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This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.

Overview

Occupations and Workforce

Setting & Lifestyle

Demographics

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Real Estate

People

Length of Commute

Diversity

The Neighbors

Languages

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Getting to Work

Popular real estate nearby

comparable neighborhoods nearby

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Surf City, NJ

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.

Overview

Occupations and Workforce

Setting & Lifestyle

Demographics

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Real Estate

People

Length of Commute

Diversity

The Neighbors

Languages

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Getting to Work

Popular real estate nearby

comparable neighborhoods nearby