Briarwood Research

Market intelligence, published.

Briarwood Research builds the methodology behind everything the company produces — and publishes what it finds. Eight Monmouth County towns, updated through July 27, 2026. Free to read, sourced throughout.

/ market index

Every score says what it means.

Each town gets a supply score from 0 to 100 — higher means fewer homes available relative to the town's housing base. Every score says what it means and how confident we are in it.

Asbury Park

94/100
What this means

Very few homes are available for sale in Asbury Park right now — the tightest supply of the 8 towns we cover.

Why it matters

When almost nothing is listed, the few homes that do come up carry more pricing power, and a buyer who waits for more choice may be waiting a long time. It also means a single unusual sale moves the averages more than it should.

Data through
July 27, 2026
Direction
Tightening — supply fell 8.6 points since July 20
Confidence
Early — 3 weeksOnly 3 weeks of history so far. The level is measured from the current record; the trend needs more releases before it can be leaned on.

Scores describe observed supply. They are not forecasts, and they say nothing about whether any individual home is priced well.

/ flagship reports

Thesis first. Appendices behind it.

A long report should lead with what it found, not with how it was made. Method and limitations stay published in full — they move below the finding rather than in front of it.

Briarwood Research · Midyear 2026 · Belmar

The mix shifted before the prices did.

Belmar's trailing-year median sits close to the prior window, which on its own reads like a market going nowhere. Per-square-foot pricing tells a different story: it rose, while the median home that traded got materially smaller. What changed is what sold, not what it costs.

  1. 1Median sale price is $1,132,500 over the trailing twelve months, up about 3% from $1,100,000 in the prior-year window.
  2. 2Median price per square foot rose to $668 from $623 — up about 7%. Per-foot pricing did not follow the headline.
  3. 3The median traded home shrank to 1,563 square feet from 1,792 — down about 13%. Smaller homes made up more of what sold.
Read the full review →
Median $/sqft
$623
$668
Prior yearTrailing year
Median size traded
1,792
1,563
Prior yearTrailing year
Briarwood SOLD comp record, Belmar single-family. Trailing 12 months to June 24, 2026 — n = 134 sales (116 with recorded size for $/sqft).
Appendix AData sources and coverage
  • Briarwood SOLD comp record for Belmar: 337 sales through June 24, 2026, drawn from NJ SR1A public records and ATTOM.
  • Trailing-12-month window June 24, 2025 → June 24, 2026: 134 sales (85 in the prior-year window).
  • Active-market read from the approved curated aggregate, as of July 14, 2026.
Appendix BMethod and adjustments
  • Price per square foot is computed over 116 eligibility-screened comparables; nominal-deed transfers and outlier rows are excluded.
  • Medians are taken over trailing twelve months rather than a calendar period, so the comparison window is the same length on both sides.
  • Every figure is traceable to the recorded sale behind it.
Appendix CLimitations and what this cannot tell you
  • This is a town-and-segment aggregate, not a property-level valuation. It cannot tell you what any individual house is worth.
  • The trailing-year median reflects a change in what traded (1,563 versus 1,792 square feet median size) more than a change in price per foot. Read the median and $/sqft together.
  • The active-listing history is a short run of recent snapshots — enough to show the current level, not enough to describe a recurring within-year pattern or a prior-year inventory comparison.
  • Index reads are point-in-time. This review does not assert an index trend.
Appendix DFull comparable tables

The comparable set behind these figures is published with the full review, including the per-sale rows the medians are computed over. Open the full report →

/ town views

One standing page per town.

Each view carries the same figures on the same dates, so towns can be compared without re-reading a report. Published once the recorded sales support it.

Asbury Park
Index coverage · standing view not yet published
Belmar
Standing view · updated July 27, 2026
Manasquan
Standing view · updated July 27, 2026
Bradley Beach
Index coverage · standing view not yet published
Wall
Index coverage · standing view not yet published
Avon-by-the-Sea
Standing view · updated July 27, 2026
Sea Girt
Standing view · updated July 27, 2026
Spring Lake
Standing view · updated July 27, 2026

5 of 8 towns carry a published standing view. The rest are under index coverage; their views publish once the recorded sales support the same figures.

/ research notes

Recently published.

/ methodology

Three signals.

Liquidity

How readily homes are actually trading — how many close, how fast, and against how much standing inventory.

How it is calculated +

Scores market liquidity from closed-sales velocity, active inventory, and median days on market. Higher scores indicate cleaner transaction depth, not a recommendation to buy or sell.

Supply

How much is available to buy relative to the size of the town's housing stock. Higher means less choice.

How it is calculated +

Scores structural scarcity from active inventory relative to the housing base. Higher scores indicate tighter observable supply, limited by data coverage.

Affordability strain

How much of a typical local income the mortgage on a typical local home would consume. Higher means more strain.

How it is calculated +

Scores household affordability stress as the share of median household income consumed by the median home's mortgage P&I (80% LTV, 30-yr, on a mortgage-rate assumption), scaled so 20% of income reads 0 and 100% reads 100. Higher means more stress, not a forecast of price movement.

All three are reviewed by a person before release, and each carries a confidence status based on how much history exists.