Anthony Licciardello | August 25, 2026
Chadwick Beach, NJ
Chadwick Beach has five names depending on who is filing it — and none of them is the name of the town it is actually in. Meanwhile three houses sold there within thirty-three thousand dollars of one another, and took twenty-eight, eighty and ninety-six days to do it. Both of those facts matter more than any median.
Chadwick Beach is an unincorporated community in Toms River Township — but it is filed federally as Chadwick Beach Island, listed by one national platform under Lavallette, by another under Dover Beaches North, and it carries ZIP 08735, which is Lavallette's. Five names, one place, and the municipality is none of them. The sold record is just as instructive: three recent sales at $1,530,000, $1,550,000 and $1,563,250 — a $33,000 spread — that took 96, 80 and 28 days, with the fastest one selling under asking. Pricing here is narrow and timing is everything.
Chadwick Beach sits between Normandy Beach and Ortley Beach on the same barrier island, and it is the third community on this stretch where the place name and the municipality do not agree. Verify the taxing municipality, school assignment and zoning for any specific parcel from the tax record — never from an address or a listing.
Here is the verified municipal fact, and everything else is a label. Chadwick Beach Island is an unincorporated community located in Toms River Township, Ocean County — recorded in the federal Geographic Names Information System under feature ID 0873814, at an elevation of 20 feet, on the barrier island beside Barnegat Bay. Toms River Township is the municipality. That determines the tax rate, the schools, the zoning ordinance and the building department.
Now the labels, which is where buyers get lost. Federally it is Chadwick Beach Island. Locally and in most listings it is Chadwick Beach. One national platform files it as "Chadwick Beach Lavallette". Another files it under "Dover Beaches North", the census-designated place name for this stretch. And every address in it carries ZIP code 08735 — which is Lavallette's. Five naming systems, none of which says Toms River, describing a place that is in Toms River.
Unlike Normandy Beach just north — which genuinely spans the Brick–Toms River line, so different houses sit in different townships — Chadwick Beach appears to lie wholly within Toms River Township. The confusion here is one of naming rather than jurisdiction.
That is genuinely good news for a buyer: one tax rate, one district, one ordinance. But it does not remove the need to verify — barrier-island boundaries on this stretch are not intuitive, and a Lavallette ZIP on the envelope makes it very easy to assume Lavallette Borough. Confirm from the tax bill.
The setting is distinctive even by barrier-island standards. Chadwick Beach sits between the two one-way lanes of Route 35, which split north and south through this part of the peninsula — so the community is bracketed by the highway rather than fronting it. Its defining physical feature is a lagoon system connected to Barnegat Bay, which gives a large share of the housing direct water frontage and dockage on protected water rather than open bay. New York City is roughly 70 miles away, Philadelphia about 60.
These three transactions are the most instructive set of comparables we have found anywhere in this county, because they isolate a variable that medians hide completely:
Listed at $1,599,000 and sold 2% under asking — the highest price of the three, the smallest house, and by far the fastest sale. At roughly $1,150 per square foot, it also achieved the best rate.
Listed at $1,529,000 and sold 1% over asking — but it took more than three months to get there, on the largest house of the three.
Listed at $1,499,000 and sold 2% over asking in 80 days, at roughly $917 per square foot.
Read what those three tell you together. The prices sit within $33,250 of one another — the tightest cluster we have documented on this coast. But the days on market run 28 to 96, a spread of better than three to one, and the fastest sale was the only one that went below list. In a market this narrow, the price is largely set by the block. What varies is how long it takes you to get there — and that is decided by where you start.
And note the per-square-foot inversion, because it is the whole thesis of this island. The 1,359-square-foot house achieved roughly $1,150 per foot. The 1,668-square-foot house achieved roughly $917. The smaller house earned the higher rate — which happens only when buyers are paying for something other than the building. On Chadwick Beach that something is the lot, the lagoon frontage and the block.
The practical rule that falls out of it: do not price a Chadwick Beach house off square footage, and do not assume a larger house commands a premium here. Price off the water relationship and the block, then check the size. A well-positioned small house on this strip will beat a larger one a street back, on both price and timeline.
Three recent sales landed within $33,000 of each other. One took 28 days. One took 96. That difference was decided at listing.
When the market sets a narrow price band, the only variable you control is how fast you reach it — and the fastest of those three sales was the one that started closest to where the market was. We price on lagoon frontage, block and lot rather than square footage, and we bring the New York metro buyer pool that transacts at this level.
Chadwick Beach currently produces one of the most misleading statistics we have encountered in Ocean County, and it is worth walking through because the same trap appears in every small market on this coast.
A national platform reports the median sale price in Chadwick Beach at $1.53 million last month, up 61.1% year over year, with median price per square foot at $917, up 40.4%. Those figures are accurately calculated. They are also close to meaningless — because the same source states that two homes sold in the community in that month.
It does not mean Chadwick Beach appreciated 61% in a year. It means that whatever sold this month was more expensive than whatever sold in the same month last year — and with two transactions in the numerator, the composition of those two sales is the statistic. Two lagoon-front houses this year against two interior cottages last year produces exactly that number, with no underlying market movement at all.
Under the sample-sufficiency standard we apply across this county, ten sales is the threshold at which a median stops being an anecdote. Two is not close. Quote that 61% figure in a listing presentation and the first sophisticated buyer who checks the sale count will discount everything else you have said.
The more usable figures from the same source are a recently-sold listing median near $2.06 million across six properties and a typical time on market of about 39 days — both drawn from wider windows. A separate platform shows roughly 75 homes listed under the Chadwick Beach name, which is a considerably deeper pool than the two-sale month implies and a reminder that listing counts and closing counts measure different things.
What to do instead is the same answer we reach everywhere on this island: ignore the monthly median, widen the window to twelve or twenty-four months, and comp on matched position — lagoon-front, water-view, or interior block — before anything else. The three sales in the previous chapter are worth more to you than any percentage on this page.
The lagoon system is Chadwick Beach's product, and it deserves the diligence a boat slip deserves rather than the diligence a backyard gets. Lagoon frontage connected to Barnegat Bay means protected water, private dockage and a berth that does not face open bay — genuinely different from bayfront, and priced differently. The questions are the ones our waterfront guide sets out in full: bulkhead condition and permits, water depth at the slip at low tide, dock and lift capacity, New Jersey tidelands claims, and how directly the berth reaches open bay.
On elevation, Chadwick Beach is comparatively favourably placed — recorded at 20 feet, against seven feet at Ocean Gate and low-lying ground across much of this peninsula. That is a relative advantage, not an exemption: flood zone status varies parcel by parcel, this whole island took direct damage in 2012, and the elevation certificate and a live insurance quote in your own name belong in every offer. Our flood guide covers the framework, including the premium gap between elevated post-storm construction and older stock.
On the municipality, do the ten-minute check anyway. Chadwick Beach appears to lie wholly within Toms River Township, which means Toms River Regional Schools, the township's 1.681 general tax rate, and Toms River's zoning ordinance and building department. That is a favourable set of facts — the township carries the lowest rate in this corridor. But a Lavallette ZIP code on the envelope makes the wrong assumption easy, and the tax bill settles it. Township context sits in our complete guide.
And one practical note about the road. Chadwick Beach sits between the northbound and southbound lanes of Route 35, which split through this part of the peninsula. That means highway on two sides rather than one — excellent for getting on and off the island in either direction, and worth experiencing on a July weekend before you decide how you feel about it. Current inventory is on our listings page.
When you search Chadwick Beach, run it under all five names — Chadwick Beach, Chadwick Beach Island, Dover Beaches North, the Lavallette 08735 ZIP, and Toms River. Different platforms index this community differently, and a search under one name will miss properties that are indexed under another. We found one platform showing three listings and another showing seventy-five for the same area. That is not a discrepancy in the market; it is a discrepancy in how the market is filed. In a place where three recent sales landed within thirty-three thousand dollars of one another, missing half the inventory because of a naming convention is an expensive way to shop.
"Chadwick Beach has five names and none of them is Toms River, which is the town it's actually in. But the thing that really got my attention was three sales — fifteen-thirty, fifteen-fifty, fifteen-sixty-three. Thirty-three thousand dollars apart. And they took twenty-eight days, eighty days and ninety-six days. The fastest one sold under asking and got the most per square foot, on the smallest house. That's a market telling you exactly what it wants: the block and the water, priced honestly. The one that took three months got its number, but it paid for it in time. On a strip like this, where you start is where you finish — you just decide how long it takes."
— Anthony Licciardello, Broker, The Prodigy Team
Lagoon-front property, where the berth and the bulkhead matter as much as the house, is exactly the work I do: I'm Anthony Licciardello, Broker of The Prodigy Team — dual-licensed in New York and New Jersey, a former Director of Community Affairs in the Bloomberg Administration, and a leading broker for cross-border New York–New Jersey transactions.
Anthony Licciardello · Broker, The Prodigy Team · 718-873-7345
We search all five names, price off matched position, and never quote a monthly median from a two-sale month.
What town is Chadwick Beach, NJ in?
Toms River Township. Chadwick Beach Island is an unincorporated community within Toms River, recorded in the federal Geographic Names Information System. It is filed by different platforms under Chadwick Beach, Chadwick Beach Island, Lavallette and Dover Beaches North, and it carries ZIP code 08735, which is Lavallette's — none of which changes the municipality. Unlike neighbouring Normandy Beach, which spans two townships, Chadwick Beach appears to lie wholly within Toms River. Confirm from the tax bill for any specific parcel.
How much do homes cost in Chadwick Beach?
Three recent sales landed at $1,530,000, $1,550,000 and $1,563,250 — a $33,250 spread — taking 80, 96 and 28 days respectively. A recently-sold listing median across six properties sits near $2.06 million, with typical time on market around 39 days. Treat monthly medians here with caution: one platform reports $1.53 million up 61.1% year over year, but the same source shows only two homes sold that month, which makes the percentage a function of which two houses traded rather than any market movement.
What is the lagoon at Chadwick Beach?
Chadwick Beach's defining physical feature is a lagoon system connected to Barnegat Bay, giving a large share of its housing direct frontage and private dockage on protected water rather than open bay. That is a different product from bayfront and is priced differently. Diligence should cover bulkhead condition and permits, water depth at the slip at low tide, dock and lift capacity, New Jersey tidelands status, and how directly the berth reaches open bay.
Why do listing sites show different inventory for Chadwick Beach?
Because platforms index the community under different names. We found one showing three listings under "Chadwick Island" and another showing about 75 under "Chadwick Beach Lavallette," with a third filing the area as "Dover Beaches North." Search under all of them — plus the Lavallette 08735 ZIP and Toms River — or you will miss inventory. That is a filing discrepancy, not a market one.
Normandy Beach — The Place Name That Spans a Municipal Line
Mantoloking — Four Published Prices for One Small Borough
Bay Head — The Town That Built Its Seawall in 1882
Ortley Beach vs. Lavallette — The Border Premium
Toms River Waterfront — The Bayfront & Lagoon Guide
Toms River Homes for Sale — Browse Current Listings
Details as of publication, from the sources noted. Chadwick Beach Island described as an unincorporated community along the Jersey Shore located in Toms River Township, Ocean County, New Jersey, next to Barnegat Bay on a barrier island, at an elevation of 20 feet, with ZIP code 08735 and Geographic Names Information System feature ID 0873814, approximately 70 miles south of New York City, 60 miles north-northeast of Philadelphia and 150 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. Area descriptions note homes situated between the northbound and southbound lanes of Route 35 and scenic views of a lagoon connected to Barnegat Bay. Naming: the community is indexed variously as Chadwick Beach, Chadwick Beach Island, "Chadwick Beach Lavallette" and "Chadwick Island" by one national platform, and under the census-designated place name "Dover Beaches North" by another, while carrying a Lavallette ZIP code — none of which alters the municipality. Unlike neighbouring Normandy Beach, which spans the Brick–Toms River line, Chadwick Beach appears to lie wholly within Toms River Township; no representation is made as to any particular parcel, which must be established from the tax record. Market figures per Redfin: a median sale price of $1.53 million reported for the most recent month, up 61.1% year over year, and a median sale price per square foot of $917, up 40.4% year over year, with the same source reporting two homes sold in the community in that month — a sample far below the threshold at which we treat a median as a reliable level, and these percentage changes should not be relied upon as market movement; six recently sold homes at a median listing price of $2.06 million; and a typical time on market of approximately 39 days. Individual recent sales per Redfin: $1,550,000 (5 bed, 3.5 bath; list price $1,529,000; 1% over list; 96 days on market); $1,530,000 (4 bed, 3 bath, 1,668 square feet; list price $1,499,000; 2% over list; 80 days on market); and $1,563,250 (3 bed, 2 bath, 1,359 square feet; list price $1,599,000; 2% under list; 28 days on market) — all carrying Lavallette 08735 addresses. Approximately 75 homes listed under "Chadwick Beach Lavallette" and 3 under "Chadwick Island" per Zillow, illustrating the indexing discrepancy described above. Toms River Township general tax rate of 1.681 per $100 of assessed value per a published New Jersey municipal rate table, with an effective rate of approximately 1.55%–1.7% per a regional brokerage guide; general rates are struck against assessed value rather than market value and are not directly comparable across municipalities with differing equalization ratios. Toms River Regional Schools serves Toms River Township; at least one national platform reports no elementary schools located within this specific area, which reflects the community's small unincorporated footprint rather than any absence of district service — confirm attendance assignment for a specific address directly with the district. All figures are point-in-time and subject to change; individual sale prices are not medians and three transactions are not a market; medians and per-square-foot figures are not appraisals. Municipality, school assignment, zoning, flood zone status, elevation, insurance cost, bulkhead condition, dock rights and tidelands status must be verified for any specific property. This is general information and market commentary, not legal, insurance, tax, or investment advice — verify all current details with Toms River Township, FEMA, your insurer and your own professionals before buying or selling.
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