Forked River, New Jersey.
Typical home $513,121 (+5.5% in a year), asking rent $2,800 . New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,684 (+167%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $26,605 +5%
- $486,516$513,121 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $146,310 +40%
- $366,811$513,121 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.
- Forked River$2,693
- New Jersey$3,019
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Forked River, NJ rose 5.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Forked River, Ocean County, New Jersey
Forked River, in Ocean County, had 5,274 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $91,493 a year and half less, against $89,863 across Ocean County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Ocean County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Forked River is a small community in Ocean County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in. The population is older than in much of the country, and household incomes sit a little above the county's. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and plenty of freezing days, while summers turn properly warm by July. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, the building trades and a range of other services. A four-year degree is held by a smaller share of adults than in many places, and the commute to work is fairly long. A good number of people work from home. Across Ocean County, the biggest employers include the Toms River Regional School District and Community Medical Center, and the county has added a few more jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Oyster Creek runs in or beside town, and a few state parks are a short drive away: Double Trouble State Park, Barnegat Lighthouse State Park and Island Beach State Park. Casino Pier, an amusement park, is also a short drive away. For a longer outing, Long Beach Island offers beaches a longer drive from town.
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- 2,172households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 31 mintypical commute
- 18%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ocean County had 192,715 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 64°. About 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Toms River weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ocean County
- Toms River Regional School DistrictSchool district2,145FTE
- Community Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,986FTE
- HMH -ocean University Medical CenterGeneral hospital1,810FTE
- Brick Township Public School DistrictSchool district1,434FTE
- Jackson Township School DistrictSchool district1,357FTE
- Lakewood Township School DistrictSchool district1,285FTE
- Above and Beyond ABA CorporateOffices of mental health practitioners except physicians1,250
- Southern Ocean Medical CenterGeneral hospital888FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 235 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 31,195 people in all across the county; Forked River has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Forked River’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Ocean County and the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro.
Forked River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forked River$513,121
- New Jersey$575,123
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Forked River listings, and the typical home goes pending in 22 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Forked River23.54%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Forked River22
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forked River108
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Forked River35
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Forked River100.95%
Zip codes with a Forked River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forked River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.