A real estate website brands Gloucester City as N.J.’s ‘cheapest place to live’ — and locals say that’s OK

Gloucester City — a Delaware River town proud of its blue-collar history, its Irish heritage, and its rough edges — has been named “the cheapest place to live” in New Jersey.

The 2.3-square-mile city of 11,229 just south of the Walt Whitman Bridge in Camden County occupies the top spot on a list of 10 relatively inexpensive Garden State communities. PropertyClub, a real estate website in New York, devised the ranking based on rental costs, housing values, and sale prices.

Camden County’s Oaklyn (No. 3), as well as Pitman (No. 6) and Clayton (No. 7), both in Gloucester County, also made the list.

“I’d like to say economical rather than cheap,” said Gloucester City Mayor Dayl Baile, a lifelong resident who sees the publicity as a plus for his hometown.

“We’re kind of a hidden gem,” he said. “We have very good, solid residential areas where people take a lot of pride in their homes.

“Like other towns, we have some problems. Our business district has struggled. But we have a lot of developers reaching out to us.”

Among them: Meridia Capodagli Property, a Linden, N.J., company proposing to build a 350-unit apartment complex on the city’s waterfront. Final approval of the project is expected in January, said Baile.

“These will be higher-end apartments,” he said. “There also will be a restaurant right on the river.”

Jamie Blanchard opened his Royal Mile Coffee Roasters shop in a former tavern on Paul Street just east of Broadway — Gloucester City’s main drag — two months ago.

With a Royal Mile Coffee Roasters cafe in Haddon Township and a roasting facility in Cherry Hill, Blanchard said, he was looking to expand in an up-and-coming community nearby. He and his family moved from Fishtown to Collingswood a decade ago.

“It struck me that there is so much here, but why is there no coffee shop?” he said Thursday from behind the counter.

“Gloucester City is kind of the last affordable place in South Jersey. You can buy a freestanding house for $200,000,” he said. “You can get into Philly in 10 minutes.”

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Blanchard also said “at least five to 10 people from Philadelphia” have come into his shop and said they were looking at residential real estate in Gloucester.

“We have a bunch of new people in town, people moving here from Philly,” said Michelle Sieg, the fifth generation of candymakers at Duffy’s, on the west side of Broadway. Her family founded the business in Gloucester in 1922.

Newcomers can be easy to spot when the store is busy “because nine out of 10 people who come in will see other people they know here, people they grew up with,” Sieg said.

“The more people in and out of our door, the better.”

Originally part of the hunting and fishing grounds of the Indigenous Lenni Lenape people, the site of what is now Gloucester was settled by Europeans in 1623 and was incorporated as a city in 1868. Shipping and manufacturing were an economic mainstay for much of Gloucester’s history; the city’s population peaked at just over 14,000 in 1950.

Much of the central waterfront along King Street south of the Freedom Pier development site is now Proprietors Park, a popular spot for concerts and special events, as well as for anglers, walkers, and sunset-watchers. Several ambitious restaurants and other businesses have opened in Gloucester as well. And the city, often described as having one of the largest per capita populations of residents of Irish descent in New Jersey, established its own St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2016.

Lifelong resident Cheryl Sheets, the administrator of the 4,500 friends strong “Gloucester City Families for Positive Growth and Development” page on Facebook, said the ranking of affordability “might open the eyes” of young professionals looking to buy homes within an easy commute of Philly or Camden.

“We’ve got a prime location here,” said Sheets, noting that the city would be a stop on the proposed Glassboro-Camden rail line.

But other residents say they’re skeptical about talk that the town is about to boom.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this,” said Debra Sachs, an artist who moved to Gloucester in 1983.

“I do feel the city could be a real diamond in the rough because of the waterfront,” said Sachs, who also welcomes the fact that the once overwhelmingly white city has become more diverse.

“I really love that this is a town where kids still go outside and meet up with other kids and play,” she said.

Sachs, Sheets, and other longtime residents said, however, that too many houses in the city have been bought and then rented by out-of-town landlords.

Bill Cleary, who is Gloucester born and raised and edits the Cleary’s Notebook website, shares those concerns. But he also said the city’s top position in the New York website’s rankings could inspire more home buying by people who want to live in the city.

“I’ve been here 78 years and would never leave,” he said. “I heard the other day about someone saying they couldn’t wait to get out. That’s a shame.

“If the people had stayed, Gloucester would continue to be the great place it was,” he said. “And it’s still a great place.”

Margie Sullivan, a customer at Royal Mile, said she returned to the city after living in Vermont.

“I’ve had wonderful experiences since I’ve been back,” she said. “Vermont was lovely. But I missed home.”

Another Royal Mile customer, technical writer Samantha Burke, said she is encouraged by the ranking as well as what she sees as an interest in purchasing homes in Gloucester among her fellow millennials.

A lifelong resident, Burke said she is saving to buy a home herself.

“I’d like to move to Pennsylvania,” she said. “But I could be swayed into staying here.”