Fairfield, New Jersey.
Typical home $818,374 (+5.9% in a year). New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,327 (+118%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $45,625 +6%
- $772,749$818,374 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $176,232 +27%
- $642,142$818,374 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Fairfield$4,295
- New Jersey$3,019
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Fairfield, NJ rose 5.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fairfield, Essex County, New Jersey
Fairfield is a township of 7,872 people in Essex County. Half its households earn more than $115,980 a year and half less, against $80,789 across Essex County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Essex County was 5.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then finance and property.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Fairfield is a township in Essex County, and it is a settled, mostly owner-occupied place: far more homes are lived in by their owners than is typical across the county. Residents are older than the typical American community, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Household incomes run well above the county's, poverty is uncommon, and homes tend to be valued at a high level. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest. Rain and melted snow fall steadily through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with banks, insurance and property, professional and business services, and shops also employing a lot of people. In Fairfield itself, some of the largest workplaces are the Essex Regional Educational Services Commission Schools, Weiss-Aug Surgical Products and Target. Commutes are of moderate length, and a modest number of people work from home. Unemployment across Essex County has eased compared with a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs.
Things to do. Most of the better-known outings are a longer drive away. The Statue of Liberty is one of the best known tourist attractions in the country, and Central Park is a large garden in the heart of the city. For museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a major draw. MetLife Stadium is the nearest big venue for a game or concert, also a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 3,039households
- 51%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Essex County had 353,038 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 38° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 66°. About 45 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Caldwell Essex County Airport weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fairfield
- Kdds IIIPrivate schools, elementary or secondary374
- Essex Regional Educational Services Commission SchoolsSchool district311FTE
- Weiss-Aug Surgical ProductsForceps, surgical, manufacturing276
- TargetDiscount department stores262
- InfuCare Rx-HQHome health agencies246
- Legrand AV- FairfieldHome theater audio and video equipment manufacturing229
- Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning and General ContractingGutter cleaning services220
- Wonder210
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 43 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,198 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Essex County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Essex County and the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
Fairfield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fairfield$818,374
- New Jersey$575,123
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fairfield16
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fairfield6
Zip codes with a Fairfield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fairfield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.