Homes for sale in Mantoloking, NJ — current 08738 listings, median property value $2M (oceanfront trophy estates $6M-$20M+), the substantial 0.39 mi² extreme-wealth barrier island Jersey Shore borough listed by Forbes 2012 as one of "America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes" with substantial 1999 highest income per person in NJ, incorporated April 10 1911 from Brick Township with substantial Unami/Lenni-Lenape name origin, K-12 sending to Point Pleasant Beach School District (Garnet Gulls HS #1 Public HS in Ocean County), substantial exclusively residential zoning (no commercial establishments allowed), 99.5% homeownership rate, median household income $250,001, and substantial Mantoloking Bridge (CR 528) primary barrier-island-to-mainland Brick Township connection.
Homes for sale in Mantoloking, NJ — four-tenths of a square mile of land at the northern end of the Barnegat Peninsula, divided by ordinance into twelve separate single-family residential zones, with three and a half miles of steel seawall buried beneath the dunes. Roughly one property changes hands a month. Browse current listings below.
If you're searching for homes for sale in Mantoloking, NJ, you're looking at one of the most tightly governed addresses on the Jersey Shore. The borough occupies roughly 0.64 square miles in total, of which only about 0.39 is land — better than a third of it is water — running roughly two miles along the northern Barnegat Peninsula with the Atlantic on one side and Barnegat Bay on the other. It borders Bay Head, Point Pleasant and Brick Township, and was incorporated as a borough on April 10, 1911 from portions of Brick. The name derives from the Unami dialect of the Lenni-Lenape.
The zoning is the borough's defining feature, and it is widely reported wrong. Mantoloking's land use ordinance divides this small footprint into fifteen districts: twelve separate single-family residential zones (R1 through R6B), plus Open Space, Public Use, and one small Business Zone. That business zone permits a deliberately narrow list serving local needs — groceries, a bakery, a pharmacy, flowers, confectioneries, stationery, a barber, shoe repair and professional offices. Everything not expressly listed is prohibited, and the Planning Board is barred from granting a variance for any prohibited use. So it is not accurate to say the borough bans commerce; it is accurate to say it permits a village-store list and has removed the usual escape hatch. Twelve residential zones inside four-tenths of a square mile is extraordinary granularity — bulk standards are tuned block by block, and the zone your parcel sits in is not something to infer from a neighbour's.
The other defining fact is buried under the beach. On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy's surge washed entirely across the peninsula in three locations, breached three sections of Route 35, opened a new inlet at the foot of the Mantoloking Bridge, and damaged or destroyed all 521 homes in the borough. The oceanfront retreated about 40 feet across 11,000 feet of beach. Beginning in July 2014 the state drove a steel sheet pile seawall running 3.5 miles through Mantoloking and neighbouring Brick — sheets 45 feet long, driven 30 feet below sea level, at approximately $23.8 million, 80% federally funded. It sits beneath the reconstructed dunes and you will not see it on a showing. It was tested in October 2015 when Hurricane Joaquin drove 10-to-12-foot waves against it, and officials reported it performed as designed.
Students have a K-12 sending relationship with the Point Pleasant Beach School District; verify the current arrangement for any address directly with the districts. The Mantoloking Bridge (County Route 528) is the primary connection to the mainland at Brick, and there is no rail station in the borough. The Mantoloking Yacht Club, founded in 1900, has produced Olympic sailors, and some of the borough's older summer houses were designed by Stanford White.
Mantoloking's scarcity is not a market condition — it is codified. Four-tenths of a square mile of land between an ocean and a bay, twelve residential zones, a business list of about a dozen permitted uses, and a Planning Board with no authority to vary a prohibited use. There is no ordinary mechanism by which this borough becomes something else.
Oceanfront parcels here have been offered at 105 to 150 feet of width with depths running to 365 feet. Recent construction has included seven- and eight-bedroom shingle-style houses built to order with completions scheduled into 2027.
Much of what stands today was built or rebuilt after 2012 to markedly higher coastal standards. Oceanfront offerings have advertised dunes constructed to elevation 22 feet with protective steel revetment installed per borough requirements — engineering that materially changes exposure, and worth asking about in writing.
Shingle style and seashore colonial — a Nantucket vocabulary rather than a typical Jersey Shore one — with some original summer houses designed by Stanford White, and the Mantoloking Yacht Club on the water since 1900.
Four sources publish four prices for Mantoloking, spanning a factor of nearly five. None is wrong — each answers a different question.
A 2024 census-derived estimate across all housing — bayside and interior parcels, older stock, and homes that have not traded in decades. The lowest and broadest measure.
A range from regional brokerage commentary, sitting roughly where a transactional median would be expected to fall — but it is a range, and no underlying sale count was verified.
A filtered figure: waterfront listings only, currently on the market, at 52 median days with one home sold in the prior month. Top-of-market asking, not clearing — and the filter is doing enormous work.
True, and useless. Oceanfront new construction has been offered in the $6M to $20M+ band while bayside and interior product sits far below it.
The sample size is the reason, and it is worth sitting with. One home sold in Mantoloking in the prior month. At that volume, a single oceanfront trade can move a published median by millions — and a quiet quarter moves it back. Under the sample-sufficiency standard we apply across this county, ten sales is the threshold at which a median stops being an anecdote; Mantoloking rarely reaches it in a quarter.
So what actually prices a Mantoloking house? Position on the island first — direct oceanfront, ocean block, the Route 35 corridor, bayside, or direct bayfront — then lot width, then dune and elevation status, then age and condition. Not a borough median. Two houses three hundred feet apart here can differ by eight figures, and no published statistic will tell you which one you are looking at.
Two miles long and a few blocks wide, with an ocean on one side and a bay on the other. Position is the entire pricing structure.
Direct Atlantic frontage on lots of 105 to 150 feet — the top of the market and the smallest inventory, and the tier that sets the borough's $9.5 million waterfront listing median. The dune, the revetment and the seawall beneath it all run along this frontage. Elevation certificate, dune specification and a live insurance quote belong in every offer here. Note also that consolidating oceanfront lots south of Lyman Street triggers a distinct set of bulk standards — a 16% coverage cap among them — set out in our zoning guide.
The streets between Route 35 and the oceanfront, priced on walking distance to the sand and on beach access. Mantoloking requires a beach badge, purchasable at several sheds around the borough and checked in season — and where private association access applies elsewhere in the borough, that is a separate matter from borough badges. Confirm exactly what conveys with any specific property.
The spine of the barrier island and the road that Sandy breached in three places. It carries the borough's through traffic, and summer volumes bear no resemblance to the off-season. Properties on or immediately adjacent to it trade at a discount to comparable homes a block off — visit on a July weekend before deciding.
The Barnegat Bay side, where the pricing variable shifts from surf to water orientation — bay views, sunsets, and boat access — and where entry into the borough is most achievable. The ordinance treats this side distinctly: for lots abutting the bay or the north and south lagoons, the front yard is measured as the area between the building and the bulkhead, and Open Space Zone area within that front yard may be included in the lot area calculation. On a bayfront parcel that provision can materially change what is buildable.
Direct bay frontage with docks, and views toward Herring Island. A boater's market priced on bulkhead footage, dock and lift capacity, water depth at the slip, and how directly the berth reaches open bay. The diligence file differs here: bulkhead condition and permits, New Jersey tidelands claims, and waterfront development approvals all belong in attorney review.
"Mantoloking is the trophy address of the northern Barnegat Peninsula — roughly 0.64 square miles of which only 0.39 is land, incorporated April 10, 1911 from Brick Township, and divided by ordinance into fifteen districts including twelve separate single-family residential zones. Everything not expressly permitted is prohibited, and the Planning Board may not vary a prohibited use. With shingle-style and seashore-colonial architecture on oceanfront lots of 105 to 150 feet, some original houses designed by Stanford White, the Mantoloking Yacht Club on the water since 1900, and three and a half miles of steel seawall buried beneath the dunes since 2014, Mantoloking is scarcity written into an ordinance."
0.39 mi² of land · 15 zoning districts · predominantly post-Sandy construction · 3.5 miles of steel seawall since 2014 · no rail · no boardwalk
One town north · 550+ historic structures · a stone seawall from 1882 · direct rail to Manhattan. Browse it on our Bay Head listings page.
A section of Toms River Township further south · post-Sandy elevated stock · a different price tier and product entirely
★ Subject town. Municipal and geographic: a borough of approximately 0.64 square miles total of which approximately 0.39 is land, running roughly two miles along the northern Barnegat Peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay and bordering Bay Head, Point Pleasant and Brick Township; incorporated April 10, 1911 from portions of Brick Township; a name derived from the Unami dialect of the Lenni-Lenape; the Mantoloking Bridge (County Route 528) serving as the primary barrier-island-to-mainland connection; a K-12 sending relationship with the Point Pleasant Beach School District; the Mantoloking Yacht Club founded 1900; and some older summer houses designed by Stanford White. Published population figures for Mantoloking vary considerably across sources — 340, 468 and 1,371 were each encountered, the highest of which appears to describe a ZIP-code area rather than the borough — and the spread is reproduced rather than resolved. Zoning per Borough Code Chapter 30, Land Use Regulations, reflecting legislation through June 16, 2026: fifteen districts comprising R1, R2A, R2B, R3A, R3B, R3C, R4A, R4B, R5A, R5B, R6A and R6B Single-Family Residential plus Open Space, Business and Public Use, on a Zoning Map at Appendix A; residential zones permitting a single-family detached dwelling of not less than 1,500 square feet with separate dwelling units not permitted above detached or attached garages and all other uses prohibited; a Business Zone permitting single-family and two-family dwellings and a limited local-needs retail and service list; Open Space Zone lots preserved from development, with lots abutting Barnegat Bay or the north and south lagoons measuring the front yard between building and bulkhead and permitting Open Space front-yard area to count toward lot area; § 30-9 consolidation standards for conforming oceanfront lots south of Lyman Street including 16% maximum lot coverage; § 30-8 barring enlargement of nonconforming structures except conformingly and deeming destruction beyond partial to be complete destruction requiring conforming rebuild; and § 30-11 barring the Planning Board from granting any variance permitting a prohibited use. Market figures, each measuring a different quantity: a median property value of approximately $2,000,000 (Data USA, 2024); a reported median home price range of approximately $4,800,000 to $6,200,000 per regional brokerage commentary, for which no underlying sale count was verified; a median listing price of $9,500,000 across 26 waterfront homes currently for sale with a 52-day median time on market and one home sold in the prior month (waterfront-filtered); and oceanfront offerings described in the approximately $6,000,000 to $20,000,000+ band. These figures span roughly 4.75× and are not interchangeable; at approximately one sale per month borough-wide, a single oceanfront transaction can move a published median by millions, and no figure here meets the ten-sale threshold at which we treat a median as a reliable level. Property and coastal detail from current and recent listing material: oceanfront lots at widths of approximately 105 to 150 feet with depths to approximately 365 feet; a dune constructed to elevation 22 feet with protective steel revetment per borough requirements on at least one oceanfront offering; seven- and eight-bedroom shingle-style new construction with completions scheduled into 2027; and borough beach badges required and checked. Superstorm Sandy detail: surge washing entirely across the peninsula in three locations and breaching three sections of Route 35 per New Jersey Department of Transportation, a new inlet opened at the foot of the Mantoloking Bridge, all 521 homes in the borough damaged or destroyed, and approximately 11,000 feet of oceanfront retreating approximately 40 feet with the loss of approximately 500,000 cubic yards of sand. Seawall detail: a steel sheet pile seawall begun July 2014 running 3.5 miles through Mantoloking and Brick, with sheets 45 feet long driven 30 feet below sea level, at approximately $23.8 million funded 80% federally with the state paying the remainder and the boroughs responsible for keeping it covered with sand, buried beneath the reconstructed dunes and tested by Hurricane Joaquin on October 2, 2015 against 10-to-12-foot waves with officials reporting it performed as designed. Note that the wall defends against storm surge and does not address wind exposure; roof specification and envelope condition remain separate questions. Addresses carrying the South Mantoloking name may lie within Brick Township rather than Mantoloking Borough — trade sources indicate construction permits for those addresses file with Brick — which would change the taxing municipality, services and school assignment; confirm the municipality on any specific parcel. An effective property tax rate of approximately 0.55% per regional brokerage commentary, with reported annual bills commonly in the tens of thousands and varying dramatically by position relative to the water. Household income, per-capita income, age and crime data available for this borough have been deliberately excluded, as we exclude such data for every municipality we cover. All figures are point-in-time and subject to change; medians, value estimates and listing prices are not appraisals; zoning district, conformity status, flood zone status, elevation, dune and revetment specification, insurance cost, beach access rights, bulkhead condition, dock rights, tidelands status, assessments, tax bills and school assignments must be verified for any specific property. Nothing here is a zoning determination or legal advice — verify current requirements with the Borough of Mantoloking Zoning Officer, and confirm section-specific pricing with The Prodigy Team before contract.
A Borough That Wrote Its Own Permanence. Twelve residential zones in four-tenths of a square mile of land. A business list of about a dozen permitted uses. A prohibition on separate dwelling units above garages. A ban on habitation of a boat, camper or trailer anywhere in the borough — even inside a garage. No helipads. No wind generators audible beyond the lot line. And a Planning Board with no authority to grant a variance for a prohibited use. Whatever one thinks of the prices, the scarcity underneath them is structural rather than sentimental.
The Clause Every Coastal Owner Should Read Twice. Under the borough's nonconforming-structure provisions, a nonconforming structure destroyed by windstorm, fire, explosion, act of God or intentional destruction to an extent of more than partial destruction is deemed completely destroyed — and may not be rebuilt except in conformity with current regulations. On an island where one storm damaged or destroyed all 521 homes, that is not theoretical. Establish a property's conformity status before purchase, and ask your attorney how the clause interacts with your insurance. A separate provision does acknowledge as conforming those structures whose finished floor elevation fell outside the schedule at the time of Ordinance 617 (April 8, 2013) — but that applies to elevation only, not to any other nonconformity.
The Wall, and What It Doesn't Do. The buried seawall is a genuine, tested asset against storm surge from below. It does nothing about wind. A nor'easter throwing 60 to 70 mph gusts across this beach is a roof-and-envelope problem, and a large share of the borough's roofs went on during the 2013–2016 rebuild wave — putting them a decade-plus into hard salt exposure. Give the roof specification the same scrutiny as the dune.
Two Practical Notes. The reconstructed dunes are high enough that in places they block ground-floor ocean views that existed before 2012 — if a listing photograph shows an ocean view, confirm from which floor. And after Sandy, traditional copper telephone service was not rebuilt in the borough, with a wireless alternative offered instead; confirm what communications infrastructure serves a specific address, particularly for off-season occupancy.
Published figures span roughly $2 million to $9.5 million because each measures something different. A 2024 census-derived estimate puts median property value near $2 million across all housing. Regional brokerage commentary has reported a median home price range of $4.8M–$6.2M. A filtered listing median across 26 waterfront homes currently on the market sits at $9.5 million with 52 median days. Oceanfront new construction has been offered from roughly $6M to $20M+. With about one sale a month borough-wide, no single median describes this market — price on position, lot width and dune status instead.
Very few, and only by narrow permission. The borough's zoning code establishes fifteen zones — twelve separate single-family residential districts, Open Space, Public Use, and one small Business Zone permitting a limited local-needs list: groceries, meat and poultry, baked goods, pharmacy, flowers, confectioneries, stationery and like businesses, plus barber and beauty shops, shoe repair and professional offices. Everything not expressly listed is prohibited, and the Planning Board may not grant a variance for a prohibited use. There is no retail strip or restaurant row; most errands happen off-island across the Mantoloking Bridge into Brick Township.
Yes — and you cannot see it. Beginning in July 2014 the state drove a steel sheet pile seawall running 3.5 miles through Mantoloking and neighbouring Brick, with sheets 45 feet long driven 30 feet below sea level, at approximately $23.8 million funded 80% federally. It sits buried beneath the reconstructed dunes and was tested by Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, when 10-to-12-foot waves hit it and officials reported it performed as designed. Important limit: the wall defends against storm surge from below — it does nothing about wind, so roof specification remains a separate and equally important question.
The zone and the conformity status first — both are free phone calls to the Zoning Officer and together they determine your bulk standards and your rights after a storm. Then the dune and revetment specification: oceanfront offerings here have advertised dunes constructed to elevation 22 feet with protective steel revetment installed per borough requirements. Then the flood zone determination and elevation certificate on the specific structure, and a live insurance quote in your own name rather than the seller's existing premium. On bayfront or lagoon parcels, add bulkhead condition, dock rights and New Jersey tidelands status.
At roughly one sale a month borough-wide, an automated estimate here is not approximate — it is arbitrary. The Prodigy Team works the oceanfront, the ocean block, the Route 35 corridor, the bayside and the lagoons, pricing on position, lot width and dune status, and establishing the zoning district and conformity status before an architect is engaged. Cinematic 4K aerial drone marketing is built for exactly this — a borough where the relationship between a house, a dune and an ocean is the entire proposition. New York and New Jersey broker representation, with 20+ years of Monmouth and Ocean County transactional experience.
Anthony Licciardello · Broker, The Prodigy Team · [email protected]
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.
