From Brooklyn rent to New Jersey suburbs
In 2022, as bidding wars and record-low inventory drove a nationwide housing frenzy, Aaron Solomon and his wife briefly explored buying their first home. The prices they encountered quickly stopped them in their tracks.
Even modest properties, they felt, were listed at levels that made little sense. Rather than stretch their finances in a heated market, the couple decided to wait it out, assuming values would cool. They relocated from a fourth-floor walkup apartment in Brooklyn to a larger rental in Madison, New Jersey, about 45 minutes outside New York City.
“We were like, this is crazy. It’s going to come down at some point,” Solomon, 37, recalls. “And it didn’t.”
Higher rates, stubborn prices
By the summer of 2024, they returned to the market. Mortgage rates had climbed significantly, sidelining many buyers nationwide. But in northern New Jersey, limited housing supply kept prices resilient.
The dynamic forced a difficult reassessment. With fewer competitors bidding, the couple had hoped for meaningful price relief. Instead, they confronted a new reality: affordability pressures had shifted from low rates and high competition to high rates and persistent pricing.
“I guess we really need to rethink our budget,” Solomon says.
A spreadsheet and a long search
Determined not to overextend, the couple created a detailed spreadsheet outlining the maximum price they were willing to pay and the monthly payments they could sustain. They monitored listings for more than a year, weighing trade-offs between location, size and long-term value.
Eventually, they found a four-bedroom home in Morristown, New Jersey. The property featured a backyard that opened onto wooded surroundings, offering both space and privacy. For the Solomons, it represented a balance between aspiration and financial discipline in a market that never delivered the correction they had expected.
