Wayne Among NJ’s Most Expensive Towns, Study Says
This article originally appeared on Patch Wayne, NJ
By Michelle Rotuno-Johnson
WAYNE, NJ — Have you ever wondered how affordable it is to have a home in Wayne Township?
According to a new report released this week, the average American household spends $24,557 per year on the most important household bills. And, the average Wayne resident spends significantly more when it comes to paying for housing, insurance, utilities, and car bills.
The township is the 20th most expensive town in New Jersey for household expenses and the most expensive in Passaic County, according to Doxo’s 2023 State by State Bill Pay Market Report.
The report, which reflects actual bill payment activity in more than 97 percent of U.S. zip codes, identifies the most and least expensive states for Americans to live in based on average monthly spending on actual household bill payments.
As the cost of living in the United States continues to rise, residents of Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland may be feeling more pressure, as these states top the list of the most expensive.
New Jersey residents pay an average of $8,165 per year more to cover their household bills than the US average, according to the Doxo report, which examines the $3.87 trillion U.S. consumer bill pay market. But Wayne residents have even higher bills — $15,290 more than the national average (or 62.3 percent), the study said.
The average household in Wayne pays $3,321 per month, or $39,847 per year on bills, the study found. Most of this money goes to housing costs, with mortgages and rent eating up a majority of the cost. Per the study, the average monthly mortgage bill in Wayne is $3,073, compared to $1,321 nationally; and the average monthly rent bill is $1,902 in Wayne and $1,191 nationally.
Wayne residents pay higher than the national average for their monthly auto loan, utilities, auto insurance, mobile phone, and cable and internet bills, according to Doxo.
“As consumers navigate their household bills in today’s volatile marketplace, bill payers may feel left in the dark, not fully understanding how much they are truly paying each month,” said Liz Powell, Senior Director of Insights at Doxo.
Earlier this year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual report on rental costs, showing that many Americans make less than their area’s housing wage—the hourly, full-time wage needed to afford fair-market rent without spending more than 30 percent of their income.
According to the NLIHC, New Jersey has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, at $14.13 per hour. But 26 percent of tenant households in New Jersey earn less than what is required to afford two-bedroom rent, the NLHIC report found.
According to the report, even affording a “modest” one-bedroom apartment at market rate necessitates 79 minimum-wage hours per week.
View the NLIHC’s full report: Out of Reach 2023: The High Cost of Housing.