Over the past year, the Township of Nutley has seen a record-breaking uptick in home values. According to online realty services, the valuation of homes in the Township has risen anywhere from 10 to 18 percent since last November.

“Based on our calculations, the average residential home value has gone up by just over 11%,” Thomas J. Evans, Commissioner of the Department of Revenue and Finance, states. “As Commissioners, that’s a rewarding statistic because our primary job is to improve the value of the community.”

Mayor Mauro G. Tucci isn’t surprised by those statistics. “Who wouldn’t want to live in Nutley?” Tucci says. “We have seen a tremendous rise in the demand for homes this past year. I think with more people working remotely, they are looking for a long term place to call home that gives them access to Manhattan but also the comfort and idyllic setting like we have here. Nutley is a very unique place.”

Evans stresses that the Board of Commissioners are constantly working together to make sure the Township maintains its strengths while moving forward to ensure continued growth. “We always ask ourselves, ‘Is Nutley a more attractive place to live than the year before?’ I think the increase in home values shows that the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’”

Longtime Nutley realtor Mike Moscara of Moscara Realty echoes the Commissioner’s comments. “Honestly, in our 40 years of selling homes in Nutley, I have never seen such a lack of inventory due to demand,” he notes. ”In the last year, we’ve seen homes selling for 10, 15, sometimes even 20 percent over asking price. People leave places like Jersey City and Hoboken and come to Nutley and see a small town community with an old time feel. It is a very desirable place to live.”

Mary and Michael Ryder of the Rubino Ryder Team at KW NJ Metro Group share similar sentiments. "Over the past year, we've experienced an increase of 13.7%,” says Mary. “The strong demand of homebuyers, coupled with lower inventory, has brought on these large gains by creating an unprecedented  bidding war, for nearly every property over these past two years.”

Although some have attempted to use the recent raise in taxes as a weapon against the town, both Evans and Moscara disagree.

“No one likes to raise taxes,” Evans explains. “But we try very hard to keep our residents aware of what goes into that equation.”  Nutley’s taxes are broken up into four different categories: Board of Education (49%), Municipality (35%), Essex County (15%) and County Open Space (1%). The Township’s budget covers everything from police and fire to public works and the town’s acclaimed parks.

“You have to look at the tax issue in totality,” Evans says. “Is the attractiveness of the town growing faster than the property taxes? According to the numbers, it absolutely is.”

“When we bring potential home buyers to other towns like Montclair and Glen Ridge, who have similar tax structures as Nutley’s, a lot of times the services Nutley provides close the deal,” Moscara says. “People look at the parks, the school system, all those great services...they love how generations stay here. Those other towns can’t offer that. And it’s only getting better.”