Where Short Hills Fits
Short Hills is not its own municipality. It is the primary unincorporated section of Millburn Township, Essex County, and shares Millburn’s schools, tax rate, and municipal government. The Short Hills train station puts Penn Station New York about 35 minutes away on NJ Transit’s Midtown Direct Morris & Essex Line. Route 24, I-78, and the Garden State Parkway sit within a few minutes of most addresses.
What a Home Actually Costs Here
The trailing three-month median of $2.3 million, per Redfin’s New Jersey MLS data, is the number worth planning around. Price per square foot over that window was $766, up 13.1% year over year, which points to smaller, updated homes commanding a premium over larger, dated stock. Inventory stays thin: 36 homes sold in May 2026, and the typical listing found a buyer in 11 days, down from 16 a year earlier. A six-bedroom colonial at 26 Keats Road closed for $3,370,000 on April 27, 2026, an example of the newer-construction premium in the upper tier.
Neighborhoods and School Zones, Reconciled
Millburn Township maintains no officially platted neighborhoods, and MLS listings do not publish zone-level median prices. What agents and residents call Short Hills’ neighborhoods are, in practice, the five Millburn elementary school attendance zones, which is why online guides list anywhere from three to five names with different boundaries: they are describing school zones under different labels.
| Attendance Zone | General Character | Sourced Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hartshorn | Established colonials on curving, tree-lined streets | 82% of students test proficient in both math and reading, per U.S. News |
| Glenwood | Most walkable to the train station; frequent new-construction and teardown activity | 92 Hobart Ave was listed in 2026 as a 0.41-acre teardown “minutes from the Short Hills Train Station,” per its Redfin listing |
| Deerfield | Mix of split-levels and colonials | One of Millburn’s five elementary feeder schools, per SchoolDigger’s district data |
| South Mountain / Wyoming | Border South Mountain Reservation and the Union County line, respectively | The remaining two of Millburn’s five attendance zones, per SchoolDigger |
Buyers cross-shopping listings that use a name not in this list should ask the agent directly which elementary school the address feeds.
Does Short Hills actually have named neighborhoods?Only informally. What locals and agents call neighborhoods are the five Millburn Township elementary school attendance zones, which is why lists vary between three and five names depending on the source.
What Changed for Buyers and Sellers Since 2024
New Jersey’s Real Estate Consumer Protection Enhancement Act took effect August 1, 2024, under bill S3192/A4454. It requires a signed Buyer Representation Agreement before an agent can show a buyer a listing privately, mandates a completed Seller’s Property Condition Disclosure Statement before a buyer is contractually bound, introduces designated agency so one brokerage can represent both sides through two separate agents, and requires listing agents to disclose who they represent at open houses through signage or a sign-in sheet.
Do I need to sign an agreement before an agent shows me a house in NJ now?Yes, for any private showing. A Buyer Representation Agreement must be signed first; open houses remain accessible to unrepresented visitors without one.
Competing for a Home in a Low-Inventory Market
Escalation clauses
An escalation clause automatically raises a buyer’s offer above a competing bid up to a stated ceiling, keeping a buyer competitive without disclosing their true maximum in the first round.
Appraisal gap coverage
With homes trading above list in this market, buyers increasingly commit in writing to cover a set dollar amount if the appraisal comes in below contract, protecting the seller from a financing contingency that could reopen negotiation.
Cash vs. financed offers
A financed offer with an appraisal-gap commitment and a pre-underwritten loan can compete credibly with cash here; sellers should ask for the lender’s underwriting letter, not just a pre-approval.
Property Taxes and How to Appeal Them
Millburn Township’s certified 2025 general tax rate is $2.019 per $100 of assessed value, and its 2025 effective tax rate is 1.571% of true market value, per the New Jersey Division of Taxation. On a $2.3 million home that works out to roughly $36,100 a year. Essex County’s assessment-to-market-value ratio for Millburn averaged 77.97% for 2025, with a Chapter 123 “common level range” of 66.27% to 89.67%; an assessment outside that range is the standard basis for a successful appeal.
| Assessed Market-Value Band | Approx. Annual Tax at 1.571% | Appeal Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| $1,500,000 | ≈ $23,565 | April 1 |
| $2,300,000 | ≈ $36,133 | April 1 |
| $3,500,000 | ≈ $54,985 | April 1 (May 1 after a township-wide revaluation year) |
Appeals filed after the annual deadline fall outside the review window for that tax year.
How much can property taxes go up after a sale?Essex County reassesses based on the recorded sale price relative to the township’s equalization ratio, about 78% for 2025, not the full purchase price applied directly to the prior assessment. Ask for the seller’s current bill and run the math against the new likely assessment before closing.
Schools, by the Numbers
Hartshorn Elementary, one of Millburn’s five feeder schools, posts 82% of students proficient in both math and reading, well above the statewide averages of roughly 42% (math) and 49% (reading) reported in the same U.S. News dataset. At the high school level, Millburn High School ranked #12 among New Jersey high schools in U.S. News’ 2025 rankings, first in Essex County.
Short Hills vs. Summit, Chatham, and Livingston
| Town | Median Sale Price | Effective Tax Rate (2025) | Commute Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Hills (Millburn Twp) | $2,308,618, May 2026 | 1.571% | Direct Midtown train, about 35 minutes |
| Summit | $1,451,631, May 2026 | 1.475% | Same Midtown Direct line |
| Chatham | $1,344,196, May 2026 | 1.518%–1.527% (Twp/Boro) | Midtown Direct line, own station |
| Livingston Township | $1,700,000, April 2026 (sold) | 1.882% | No own NJ Transit station; nearest is Millburn Station, about 5 minutes by car |
Short Hills carries the highest price and the lowest effective tax rate of the four; Livingston sits at the opposite end on both figures. For a buyer indifferent to the exact town, that trade-off between purchase price and annual carrying cost is often the deciding variable once school quality is judged comparable across all four.
Buying an Older or Luxury Home: What to Check
- Underground oil tanks. Common in homes built before 1980. Removal typically runs $2,000 to $4,500, with remediation of $3,000 to $15,000 or more if soil contamination is found; New Jersey requires disclosure of any known tank regardless of an “as-is” sale clause.
- Flood exposure. 23% of properties in the 07078 zip code carry a severe flood risk over the next 30 years, per Redfin’s First Street-sourced data; ask for a flood zone determination before waiving the inspection contingency.
- Unpermitted additions. A finished basement, added bathroom, or expanded footprint without a closed municipal permit can trigger an omitted-assessment tax bill after closing.
Short Hills as an Investment Property
Short Hills suits: buyers prioritizing top-tier public schools over commute-minute savings, and sellers of recently updated homes in a market currently paying a clear premium for renovation.
Short Hills suits less: short-hold flippers, since the easy value-add inventory is competed away quickly at an 11-day median days-on-market, and buyers who need a sub-$1.5 million entry point, which the comparison table shows clearing in Livingston or Chatham instead.
Reliable single-family rental data for Short Hills specifically is not available from public sources. Apartment and rental-aggregator averages range from about $2,600 to $4,000 a month, but that spread blends apartment and condo rentals together, and single-family homes, which dominate the town’s housing stock, rarely appear in the sample. Treat any townwide rental average as unusable for underwriting a single-family purchase.
Is Short Hills a good rental investment?The published rent data cannot answer that reliably. Pull actual comparable rental listings for the specific street and school zone from a local property manager before underwriting, rather than a townwide average built mostly from apartments and condos.
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