Anthony Licciardello | September 19, 2026
Staten Island
Most guides to moving from Staten Island to New Jersey tell you which towns to look at. Almost none tell you how the transaction actually works — that New Jersey gives you a three-day window in which either attorney can cancel the contract outright, or that as of July 2025 the fee formerly called the mansion tax moved onto the seller and became tiered, reaching three and a half percent. Those two facts change more money than any town comparison.
First, establish which move this is. Commuting to Manhattan, returning to Staten Island regularly, or working in New Jersey — those are three different location decisions, and everything else follows. Then understand two process facts. New Jersey contracts carry an attorney review period of three business days in which either attorney may modify or cancel — there is no Staten Island equivalent, and it is your strongest protection. And since July 10, 2025, the fee once called the mansion tax is paid by the seller, not the buyer, on a tiered schedule from 1% to 3.5%, in addition to the ordinary Realty Transfer Fee. If you are selling on this side of the bridge too, that is now your cost.
I am a broker, not an attorney or a tax adviser, and nothing below is legal or tax advice. Statutes, rates, thresholds and procedures change, and the treatment of any particular transaction depends on its facts and its contract. Every point in this article should be confirmed with your own New Jersey real estate attorney before you rely on it.
The conversation I have in the car on the way to a first showing goes like this, and it is deliberately not about the house.
"Let's judge this house by how you'll actually live here. We'll look at the full monthly cost — mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and commuting — and spend some time in the neighbourhood before deciding whether it's a good value."
Then I ask the question that determines everything downstream: are you commuting to Manhattan, returning to Staten Island regularly, or working in New Jersey? Those are three different location decisions, and a buyer who has not separated them will tour towns that cannot all be right.
"Near the station" is not a specification. It has to include the drive or the walk to the platform, whether you can actually park when you arrive, and the real timetable at your hour — not the line's best-case frequency. A station you cannot park at is not a station you can use, and several towns in this corridor run permit systems with waiting lists.
A different calculation entirely. Bridge access, tolls and traffic are the variables, and they favour a different set of towns than rail does. If family, work or obligations pull you back across the water weekly, that frequency belongs in the monthly cost before you compare two houses.
Then the rail premium many of these towns charge is a premium you may not need. Buyers routinely pay for walkability to a platform they will never use, when the same money elsewhere in the corridor buys more house or more land.
A weekend showing only tells you so much. Before committing, make the trip during your normal commuting hours — the drive to the station at the time you would actually drive it, the attempt to park, the train you would actually catch, or the bridge at the hour you would actually cross it. One weekday morning will tell you more about whether a house works than four Saturdays of touring.
Where those three answers lead is a separate question, and we have written it up by county. Our county-by-county breakdown of where New York buyers are moving maps the destinations. This article is about what happens once you have picked one.
The single biggest procedural difference is attorney review, and Staten Island buyers consistently underestimate it. Under New Jersey practice, a signed residential contract prepared by a real estate licensee is generally subject to a three-business-day attorney review period during which either party's attorney may approve, disapprove or propose changes — and disapproval ends the contract.
In New York you are generally not bound until contracts are signed and exchanged, which can take weeks. In New Jersey you sign first and then have a short, defined window in which your attorney can get you out. The protection is real but it is brief — and it runs in business days, so a Friday signature does not give you the weekend.
Practical consequence: have your New Jersey attorney engaged before you make an offer, not after it is accepted. A buyer scrambling to find counsel on day one of a three-day window is a buyer who will not use the window properly. Confirm the current rules and how they apply to your contract with that attorney.
The property tax step. New Jersey effective rates commonly run in the region of 1.8% to 2.5% against roughly 0.7% to 0.9% on Staten Island. That is not a surcharge, it is a different funding model — New Jersey towns carry schools and services through property tax where New York City spreads them across city income and other taxes. Compare total housing cost, not the line item.
Municipal resale requirements. Most New Jersey towns require an inspection or certificate before a sale can close, and the rules differ town to town — some have no certificate of occupancy but a fire-prevention inspection instead. Our statewide certificate guide sets out what changed in 2025.
Licences and registration. New residents face a defined window — commonly cited as 60 days — to convert a driver's licence and register a vehicle. Confirm current requirements and timing with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.
None of this makes New Jersey harder to buy in. It makes it different — and the differences are all knowable in advance. The buyers who struggle are the ones who assumed the process would mirror the one they already knew.
This is one transaction with two closings, and the weaker side dictates the terms of the stronger one.
A contingent offer in a competitive New Jersey market is a weak offer — which means what your Staten Island home is genuinely worth, and how quickly it will actually move, sets the ceiling on what you can bid across the bridge. We work both sides with both licences, value from matched closed sales rather than an automated estimate, and sequence the two closings so the sale funds the purchase rather than competing with it.
This is the change most people crossing the bridge have not caught up with, and the version circulating is usually only half of it. On June 30, 2025, Assembly Bill A5804 was signed into law, effective for transfers on or after July 10, 2025. The fee introduced in 2004 and known colloquially as the mansion tax — formally the supplemental Realty Transfer Fee, and now called by the Treasury the Graduated Percent Fee — changed in two ways.
One — the obligation moved from the buyer to the seller. Before July 10, 2025 the purchaser paid it. Now the seller does.
Two — the flat 1% became a tiered schedule, reported as:
$1 million to $2 million — 1%
$2 million to $2.5 million — 2%
$2.5 million to $3 million — 2.5%
$3 million to $3.5 million — 3%
Above $3.5 million — 3.5%
And it is payable in addition to the ordinary Realty Transfer Fee, which remains seller-paid. The fee applies to residential property, cooperative units, certain farm property including residential use, and Class 4A commercial property. The controlling interest transfer tax shifted to the seller on the same basis.
"Mansion tax" suggests an exceptional cost on an exceptional house. In parts of this corridor it is now an ordinary cost on an ordinary transaction. Our county reporting puts Westfield's median near $1.4 million — which means the median Westfield sale crosses the threshold. Summit sits above Westfield. Colonia in Woodbridge carries a custom tier crossing $1 million. This is not a luxury footnote; for a seller in several of these towns it is a line in the net.
And note the direction that matters for a Staten Island move. If you buy in New Jersey above the threshold, this is a cost you no longer pay as a buyer. But when you eventually sell that New Jersey house, it becomes yours — and a Staten Island owner who buys at $1.2 million today has acquired a future seller-side obligation that did not exist under the old rule. Model it at both ends.
There was a transition mechanism, and it is largely historical now but worth knowing if you are looking at an older contract. For contracts fully executed before July 10, 2025 where the deed was recorded on or before November 15, 2025, a seller could apply to the Division of Taxation for a refund of amounts paid above the original 1%, with the claim to be filed within one year of the deed recording. Do not attempt to apply any of this to your own transaction without counsel — the thresholds, the effective dates and the refund mechanics all turn on specifics, and this article is not advice.
Most people making this move are selling and buying at once, which makes it one transaction with two closings under two different sets of practice. The usual objective is to have the Staten Island sale close first and fund the New Jersey purchase — but how far apart to schedule them, and how to bridge the gap if they slip, is a question for your attorney and your lender, not for an article.
A real valuation on what you already own — not an automated estimate, and not a hope. It sets your ceiling.
A New Jersey attorney engaged, so the three-day review window is usable rather than a scramble.
Full pre-approval, not pre-qualification. In a competitive market a conditional offer loses to a clean one at the same price.
An honest read on your own timeline — how long your Staten Island home will realistically take, not how long you would like it to take.
A contingency plan if the sale slips, discussed with your lender before you need it rather than after.
And the general principle, which is worth more than any checklist. The weaker side of a two-sided move dictates the terms of the stronger side. If your Staten Island sale is uncertain, your New Jersey offers are conditional, and conditional offers lose. Getting the sale side genuinely ready — priced properly, prepared, with a realistic timeline — is what buys you the ability to bid with confidence on the other shore.
For where to look once the mechanics are settled, our county-by-county breakdown maps the destinations, and our Union County price ladder shows what each town actually costs.
Engage your New Jersey attorney before you write your first offer — not after one is accepted. Almost every Staten Island buyer does this the other way round, because in New York there is time to. Here there is not: attorney review runs three business days, it starts when the contract is signed, and a Friday signature does not give you the weekend. A buyer who spends day one finding counsel and day two getting them up to speed has one day of a three-day protection. A buyer whose attorney already has the file, already knows the town, and already knows what you are trying to achieve uses all three. It costs nothing to engage early and it is the cheapest leverage available in this entire process.
"On the way to a first showing I tell people the same thing: let's judge this house by how you'll actually live here — full monthly cost, mortgage, taxes, insurance, commuting — and let's spend some time in the neighborhood before we decide whether it's good value. Then I ask the question that decides everything. Are you commuting to Manhattan, coming back to Staten Island regularly, or working in Jersey? Those are three different location decisions and people mix them up constantly. If it's the train, 'near the station' has to include the drive, the parking and the actual schedule. If you're coming back over the bridge every week, that's tolls and traffic and a different set of towns. And a weekend showing only tells you so much — go make the trip at your real commuting hour before you commit. One weekday morning beats four Saturdays."
— Anthony Licciardello, Broker, The Prodigy Team
A move across this bridge is two transactions under two different systems, and most agents can only work one of them: 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 work both sides with both licences — and sequence the two closings so one funds the other.
What is attorney review, and why does it matter?
Under New Jersey practice, a signed residential contract prepared by a real estate licensee is generally subject to a three-business-day attorney review period, during which either party's attorney may approve, disapprove or propose changes — and disapproval ends the contract. There is no direct Staten Island equivalent. In New York you are generally not bound until contracts are signed and exchanged; in New Jersey you sign first and have a short window to get out. Engage your New Jersey attorney before you make an offer — a Friday signature does not give you the weekend. Confirm how it applies to your contract with that attorney.
Who pays New Jersey's mansion tax now?
The seller. Assembly Bill A5804, signed June 30, 2025 and effective for transfers on or after July 10, 2025, shifted the supplemental Realty Transfer Fee — now called the Graduated Percent Fee — from buyer to seller, and replaced the flat 1% with a tiered schedule reported as 1% from $1M, 2% from $2M, 2.5% from $2.5M, 3% from $3M and 3.5% above $3.5M. It is payable in addition to the ordinary Realty Transfer Fee, which remains seller-paid. It applies to residential property, co-op units, certain farm property with residential use and Class 4A commercial. Confirm current rates and application with your attorney.
Why are New Jersey property taxes so much higher than Staten Island's?
New Jersey effective rates commonly run around 1.8% to 2.5% against roughly 0.7% to 0.9% on Staten Island — but that is a different funding model rather than a surcharge. New Jersey municipalities carry schools and local services largely through property tax, where New York City spreads those costs across city income and other taxes. Compare total housing cost — mortgage, taxes, insurance and commuting — rather than the property tax line on its own, and pull the actual bill on the specific parcel rather than applying a published rate to your offer.
Should I sell on Staten Island first or buy in New Jersey first?
The general principle is that the weaker side dictates the terms of the stronger one. If your Staten Island sale is uncertain, your New Jersey offers are conditional — and in a competitive market a conditional offer loses to a clean one at the same price. Getting the sale side genuinely ready is what buys you the ability to bid with confidence. How far apart to schedule the two closings, and how to bridge a gap if one slips, is a question for your attorney and your lender on your specific facts, not something an article can answer.
Where NYC Buyers Are Moving in New Jersey — County by County
Union County by Price — What Every Town Actually Costs
New Jersey's Seller Certificate — What Changed in 2025
Buying in Woodbridge — Twenty Minutes From the Outerbridge
Colonia — Built for the Buyer Coming Over the Bridge
Moving to Rahway From New York
Details as of publication and subject to change. The author is a licensed real estate broker, not an attorney or a tax adviser. Nothing in this article is legal, tax or financial advice, and no statement here should be applied to any transaction without review by qualified counsel on the specific facts and contract involved. Graduated Percent Fee: on June 30, 2025 Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill A5804 (S4666), effective for transfers on or after July 10, 2025, which shifts the obligation to pay the supplemental Realty Transfer Fee — adopted in 2004, known colloquially as the "mansion tax," and referred to by the New Jersey Department of the Treasury as the Graduated Percent Fee — from the purchaser to the seller, and replaces the flat 1% with a tiered schedule reported by multiple law firms and by NJ REALTORS® as 1% for properties sold between $1 million and $2 million, 2% between $2 million and $2.5 million, 2.5% between $2.5 million and $3 million, 3% between $3 million and $3.5 million, and 3.5% above $3.5 million; the fee is payable in addition to the existing Realty Transfer Fee, which remains seller-paid, and applies to residential property, cooperative units, certain farm property that includes residential use, and Class 4A commercial property. The controlling interest transfer tax was amended on the same basis, shifting from purchaser to seller. Transition: for contracts fully executed before July 10, 2025 where the deed was recorded on or before November 15, 2025, sellers could apply to the New Jersey Division of Taxation for a refund of amounts paid in excess of 1%, with the refund claim to be filed within one year of the date of deed recording. Rates, thresholds, exemptions, effective dates and refund mechanics are summarised here from secondary legal commentary and must be confirmed with your own attorney; do not rely on this summary for any transaction. Attorney review is described here as a general feature of New Jersey residential practice; its application, duration and effect depend on the specific contract and must be confirmed with counsel. Property tax comparisons are indicative ranges only — New Jersey effective rates vary considerably by municipality and Staten Island rates vary by class and assessment; always obtain the actual tax bill for the specific parcel rather than applying a published rate. Driver's licence and vehicle registration timeframes for new residents are commonly cited as 60 days; confirm current requirements with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. Westfield median value context is drawn from our own Union County reporting and its cited sources. No representation is made about the outcome, timing, cost or feasibility of any transaction. This is general information and market commentary.
Prodigy Real Estate is an innovative real estate company offering high-end video production, home valuation services, purchasing, and home sales. Serving New York and New Jersey.