Jersey City Real Estate
About the City
Though Jersey City was “discovered in 1606 by Dutch explorer Henry Hudson, the city was not incorporated until 1820. This home was once the home to the Lenni Lenape Native Americans.
Hudson, like all other explorers of his time, had been seeking a route to East Asia, and like all the others failed, and so dropped anchor in Sandy Hook. The Dutch organized the United New Netherlands Company to manage this new territory and named it New Netherlands.
The first settlement was at Communipaw, an area adjacent to present-day Liberty State Park. Scattered communities of farmsteads characterized the Dutch settlements in what would become Jersey City.
Jersey City was incorporated as The City of Jersey on January 20, 1820, and reincorporated under its present name in 1838. By 1870, the city had a population and economy so large that the neighboring towns of Hudson City, New Jersey and Bergen, New Jersey voted to merge into the larger city. The residents of Greenville, independent since 1863, voted to merge into Jersey City in 1873, resulting in the current boundaries.
Jersey City was a dock and manufacturing town for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Much like New York City, Jersey City has always been a landing pad for new immigrants to the United States. The largest employers during the World War II era were the railroads, whose national networks dead-ended on the Hudson River in Jersey City.
The most significant railroad for Jersey City was the Pennsylvania Railroad Company whose terminal was in downtown area until 1911, when the company built the first tunnel under the river to Penn Station, New York. Before that time, rail passengers transferred in Jersey City to ferries headed to Manhattan or to trolleys that fanned out through Hudson County.
The city developed a reputation for political corruption based on the city’s government during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. By the 1970s, Jersey City saw urban decline and many of its wealthy residents left for the suburbs, and the city became filled with poor, working class citizens.
From 1950 to 1980, Jersey City lost 75,000 residents, and from 1975 to 1982, it lost 5,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce.
Jersey City is experiencing a renaissance now as many formerly abandoned buildings are being renovated and the light rail line, the only one of its kind in the city, extends through the city. As the waterfront continues to grow, Jersey City's downtown neighborhoods are experiencing rapid growth as professionals working in Manhattan are beginning to move in.
The downtown area has a significant number of Victorian brownstones, and at prices that are far lower than one would find, for a similar home, in New York City.
Also, many financial corporations including Goldman Sachs, Chase Manhattan Bank, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and investment firm Charles Schwab have relocated from New York City to Jersey City or expanded their offices in Jersey City since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 240,055 people living here.
The median income of its households is $37,862, and the median income of its families is $41,639. Men had a median income of $35,119 versus $30,494 for women.