Investment Properties in Mercer County, NJ
Most pages about investing here will show you photos. This one shows you what each town costs against what it rents for, using the state REALTOR® association’s sale figures and Census rent data — so you can decide where to look before you look.
What each town costs against what it rents for
The price-to-rent multiple is the median sale price divided by twelve months of median rent. Lower is better for an investor: it means less capital buys the same rent. It is the first filter, not the decision — read the tax warning below before you act on it.
| Municipality | Median sale price | Median gross rent | Price-to-rent multiple | Implied gross yield | Renter-occupied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willingboro Township | $370,000 | $2,112 | 14.6 | 6.8% | 15.7% |
| Trenton | $241,000 | $1,294 | 15.5 | 6.4% | 62.1% |
| Burlington City | $306,755 | $1,631 | 15.7 | 6.4% | 38.1% |
| Riverside Township | $303,000 | $1,538 | 16.4 | 6.1% | 43.2% |
| Ewing Township | $405,000 | $1,679 | 20.1 | 5.0% | 33.1% |
| Pemberton Township | $350,000 | $1,345 | 21.7 | 4.6% | 26.7% |
| Hamilton Township | $450,000 | $1,634 | 22.9 | 4.4% | 28.4% |
| Lawrence Township | $647,500 | $2,020 | 26.7 | 3.7% | 32.5% |
How this is built, and where it is rough. Median sale price is single family detached, year to date through July 2026, from the New Jersey REALTORS® Local Market Update. Median gross rent and the renting share are U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2020–2024 American Community Survey; gross rent covers all rental units including apartments and includes tenant-paid utilities. They are different property types measured in different periods, so treat the multiple as a way to rank towns against each other, not as a return you can bank. Implied gross yield is simply one divided by the multiple — it is revenue, not profit.
On Census data, the same dollar buys 72% more rent in Trenton than in Lawrence
That is the whole table in one sentence. A multiple of 15.5 against 26.7 means that for every dollar of purchase price, a Trenton property generates about 72% more gross rent than a Lawrence Township property. That is the conservative reading — the next section shows what happens when you use the rents we actually see. Three tiers come out of it.
Trenton, Burlington City, Riverside, Willingboro
Multiples of 14.6 to 16.4. This is where the arithmetic works. It is also where condition, tenant screening and management effort are highest — the yield is not free, it is compensation for work.
Ewing, Pemberton
Multiples around 20 to 22. Middle ground: easier properties, thinner margins. Often the right answer for a first rental where you want to sleep at night.
Hamilton, Lawrence
Multiples of 22.9 and 26.7. These are appreciation and quality-of-tenant plays, not cash-flow plays. If someone is selling you a Lawrence rental on cash flow, ask to see the arithmetic.
What the Census misses in Trenton
The table above uses U.S. Census rent data, and we use it because anyone can check it. But it is a five-year average covering 2020 through 2024, and it counts every rental unit in the city — studio apartments, subsidized housing, rooms. In Trenton specifically, that number is well behind the current market.
A single-family house in Trenton — the property an investor at this price point is actually buying — is leasing today in the range of $1,800 to $2,500 a month. That is our own observation of the market as of August 2026, and it runs 39% to 93% above the Census figure of $1,294.
Why we show both numbers instead of replacing one with the other. The Census figure is published, auditable, and measured the same way in every town, which is what makes the comparison table meaningful. Our range is first-hand and current, but it is one brokerage’s observation of one city — not a dataset you can go verify. Both are useful and neither is the whole truth. If you want the conservative case, underwrite at the Census multiple of 15.5. If you want what we see on actual leases, the band is 8.0 to 11.2. Any specific house lands somewhere in between depending on its condition, its layout and its block, and none of it is net of taxes, vacancy or maintenance.
New Jersey property taxes can invert this entire table
Everything above is gross. It counts rent coming in and purchase price going out, and nothing else. In New Jersey — which has among the highest effective property tax rates in the country — that omission is not a rounding error. It is frequently the difference between a deal and a mistake.
Two properties at the same price in two different municipalities can carry annual tax bills thousands of dollars apart. A town that looks strong on the multiple can fall behind one that looks weaker once the tax line is in. We have seen it flip the order more than once.
So use the table to decide which three towns to look in. Then, before you write an offer on any specific property, we run the real numbers on that specific address: the actual assessment and tax bill, insurance, a realistic vacancy allowance, maintenance reserve, and management cost if you are not doing it yourself. That is a one-property conversation, and it is the one that matters.
- Taxes are per property, not per town. Assessment history matters as much as the rate.
- Vacancy is not zero. Budget for it even in a market with a deep tenant base.
- Older stock, higher reserve. Trenton’s median home age and Riverside’s 74-year median are real capital expenditure risk.
- Management runs money. If you will not be taking the 9pm call, someone gets paid to.
- Financing on an investment property is different — larger down payment, different rate. Talk to a lender before you fall in love with a multiple.
Where you can actually buy something
A good multiple is useless if nothing is for sale, or if you have to beat three other offers to get it. These are the July 2026 acquisition conditions in the four Mercer municipalities above — and they do not favor the same towns.
Source: New Jersey REALTORS®, Local Market Update for July 2026, single family detached, drawn from the multiple listing services in the state of New Jersey and current as of 9 August 2026. This is the official state REALTOR® association report, not a valuation model. Median sale price does not account for concessions or down payment assistance. Read this against the table above. Trenton has both the strongest rent multiple in Mercer County and the easiest acquisition conditions — five months of supply, 64 days on market, and sellers accepting slightly under asking. Hamilton has the weakest multiple of the two and the hardest acquisition: buyers there paid 102.0% of list in July. For an investor those two facts point the same direction.
In Trenton, the rental market is not a segment. It is the market.
62.1% of occupied homes in Trenton are rented. That is not a niche you are entering — it is the default condition of the city’s housing. Nearly two thirds of households here are already your potential tenants.
The supporting numbers explain why. Median household income is $52,537 and median gross rent is $1,294, which puts typical rent at roughly 30% of a typical household’s gross income — the conventional affordability line. That is a tenant base paying what it can sustain, not one stretched past breaking.
And 46.4% of Trenton residents are Hispanic or Latino. If you own rental property in this city and cannot do business in Spanish, you are working through an interpreter on every lease signing, every maintenance call and every renewal conversation. Our whole team works in both languages. For a landlord that is not a nicety — it is tenant retention, and tenant retention is the line item that actually determines whether a rental performs.
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Trenton city. Population is a July 1, 2025 estimate; the rest are 2020–2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. The $1,294 rent figure is the five-year Census average across all rental units. Single-family houses in Trenton are currently leasing in the $1,800 to $2,500 range — see the section above for what that does to the arithmetic.
The best number on the board is not in Mercer County
Willingboro Township, in Burlington County, carries a price-to-rent multiple of 14.6 — better than anything in Mercer. It gets there from the opposite direction to Trenton: not a low price, but an unusually high rent of $2,112 a month against a $370,000 median sale.
It is a different kind of asset, too. Willingboro is 84.3% owner-occupied, so you are buying into a neighborhood of owners rather than a rental district. That usually means a more stable street and a smaller pool of ready tenants. Burlington City at 15.7 and Riverside at 16.4 sit closer to the Trenton profile: lower entry price, deeper tenant base, older housing stock.
We work both counties, which is why they are on the same table. If you are searching only in Mercer because that is where you started, you are leaving the strongest multiple we can find off your list.
What you get from us that a listing portal will not give you
Finca Realty is a licensed New Jersey brokerage in Lawrenceville. Our broker of record spent two years at a Philadelphia housing nonprofit — first as a HUD-certified housing counselor, then as its Housing Services Manager — while running this brokerage, and we handle corporate and REO assignments — which means we spend a lot of time on properties where the numbers, not the finishes, decide the outcome.
For an investor that background shows up in one specific way: we will tell you when a deal does not work. A brokerage paid on transactions has an obvious incentive not to say that. We would rather do three deals with you over ten years than one you regret.
- We run the property, not the town. Actual tax bill, insurance quote, vacancy and reserve assumptions, on the specific address.
- We tell you what it will really rent for in that specific neighborhood, not the town median.
- Bilingual through the whole file — and through the tenancy afterwards, if that helps you.
- REO and corporate experience for distressed and bank-owned inventory. See our corporate services.
- We work Mercer and Burlington, so the comparison above is not theoretical.
Questions we get about investment property in Mercer County
Which Mercer County town has the best rental numbers?
On the price-to-rent multiple, Trenton at 15.5 — the same purchase dollar buys about 72% more gross rent there than in Lawrence Township at 26.7. And that is the conservative reading: it uses Census rent data. Single-family houses in Trenton are leasing today in the $1,800 to $2,500 range, which pulls the multiple down to somewhere between 8.0 and 11.2. All of it is before taxes, vacancy, maintenance and management, which is why we treat it as a screening tool rather than an answer. It is also the town where you can most easily buy right now: 5.3 months of supply and sellers accepting 99.0% of list in July 2026.
What is a price-to-rent multiple and why use it instead of cap rate?
It is the median sale price divided by twelve months of median rent. We use it because both inputs are public and verifiable, so you can check our arithmetic. A cap rate needs net operating income, which depends on the specific property’s taxes, insurance, vacancy and management — numbers that do not exist at the town level. We build the cap rate with you once we have an actual address.
Are property taxes really that big a factor in New Jersey?
Yes, and it is the single most common way an investor gets hurt here. New Jersey has among the highest effective property tax rates in the country, and two identical-priced properties in different municipalities can carry annual bills thousands of dollars apart. Taxes can reverse the ranking on this page. Never buy off a town-level multiple without pulling the actual assessment.
Do you work with first-time investors?
Yes, and a good share of them start as first-time homebuyers who realize a two-to-four unit property lets them live in one unit and rent the others. That is a different loan product and a different analysis, and it is one of the more sensible ways to start in this market. Every buyer begins with a consultation with our broker of record.
Can I invest using an ITIN instead of a Social Security number?
We work regularly with buyers who file with an ITIN. Loan options are narrower than with a Social Security number, terms vary by lender, and investment property financing is stricter than owner-occupied financing to begin with. We will tell you plainly at the consultation what is realistic for your situation rather than after you have found a property.
Do you handle bank-owned and distressed property?
Yes. Finca Realty takes corporate and REO assignments, and our broker of record spent two years at a Philadelphia housing nonprofit — first as a HUD-certified housing counselor, then as its Housing Services Manager — while running this brokerage. Distressed inventory is a normal part of what we see.
Why does the page include Burlington County towns?
Because the strongest number we found is there. Willingboro Township carries a 14.6 multiple, better than any Mercer municipality. We are licensed statewide and work both counties, so leaving it off the table to keep the page tidy would have meant hiding the best answer from you.
Bring us an address and we will run the real numbers
The table on this page tells you which towns to look in. It cannot tell you whether a specific house works — only its tax bill, its condition and its realistic rent can do that. Send us one you are considering and we will build the arithmetic with you, in English or in Spanish.
Finca Realty LLC is a licensed New Jersey real estate brokerage. Nothing on this page is investment, tax or legal advice, and we are not licensed to give it. Sale figures are from the New Jersey REALTORS® Local Market Update for July 2026; rent and household figures are U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2020–2024 American Community Survey. Past market conditions do not predict future returns, and any specific property should be evaluated with your own accountant and attorney.