DIG DEEP IF YOU’RE BUYING IN MONMOUTH

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The median price of all new single-family homes built in Monmouth County last year was $810,000, more than 3.5 times the national median of $230,000, according to a new report from the county Planning Board.

Typical size: 3,875 square feet, on three-quarters of an acre of land.

Cheapest available from a developer: $400,000, at Laurel Estates in Hazlet.

And if that’s your price point, you’d better move fast. The county divides all new homes into five price clusters, from low to high, and prices in the lowest range jumped a whopping 25 percent from 2005, while all of the other categories posted single-digit increases.

Since 2000, prices for the cheapest homes have soared by 212 percent, twice as fast as in the top price tier. We’re not talking shoeboxes, though. Even in the lowest price category, homes sizes ranged from 2,401 to 4,400 square feet.

The study looked at 139 developments comprising 6,756 housing units. Privately built homes were not included.

The report finds a continuing shift in the county to housing that’s restricted to residents 55 and older, with nearly half of all units falling into that category. Four towns — Manalapan, Ocean Township, Marlboro and Freehold Township — accounted for 80 percent of the age-restricted units built.

Excluding age-restricted, one of every five single-family homes built last year was priced at or above $1 million.

At the two Red Bank developments included in the survey, the prices ranged from $1.3 million to $2.3 million at Corninthian Cove on West Front Street (pictured above) and from $1.5 million to $2 million at Union Street Village.

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