Journal Square, Jersey City: A Neighborhood Guide for Buyers Who Want the PATH Without the Waterfront Price

By Anthony Vetrano, Associate Broker, Hudson Agents team at Weichert, Realtors · Reviewed August 2026

Journal Square is the neighborhood that Jersey City’s next decade is being built around: the PATH hub where both lines stop, a restored 1929 movie palace, a cluster of new towers that has added several thousand apartments since 2017, and, on the streets around it, the two and three family houses, pre war co-ops, and loft conversions that are still the least expensive way to own a home ten minutes from the World Trade Center. It is not the waterfront, and it does not price like it. Buyers who come here have done the math on the commute and the square footage, and this page is the neighborhood as I explain it to them.

Where Journal Square is

The neighborhood centers on the Journal Square Transportation Center at Kennedy Boulevard and Pavonia Avenue and spreads across the top of the Palisades ridge: north along Kennedy Boulevard and Summit Avenue toward the Heights, west along Newark Avenue past India Square toward Lincoln Park, south toward McGinley Square and Bergen Avenue, and east down the Hilltop and Marion blocks toward the Turnpike and Downtown. The square itself, with the Loew’s, the county administration buildings, and the new towers, is the center; the residential streets are the blocks behind it in every direction.

The buildings and the housing

Canco Lofts at 50 Dey Street in the Marion section, the American Can Company factory converted into 202 lofts with ceilings up to 14 feet, has its own guide on this site and is the neighborhood’s landmark condo conversion. The new towers around the square, Journal Squared and the One Journal Square pair among them, are rentals, which matters for buyers: they set the tenant market and the retail, but they are not the condo supply. The condo supply is the pre war elevator buildings and co-ops along Kennedy Boulevard, Bergen Avenue, and the streets near the square, the small condo conversions on the Hilltop and Marion blocks, the Beacon, the Art Deco former medical center converted into condos and rentals on the ridge south of the square, and the two, three, and four family houses on the residential streets, which are the neighborhood’s real product for owner occupants and small investors alike.

What homes cost

As of August 2026, from my own closings and the current market: one bedrooms in the pre war buildings and co-ops around the square run from about $250,000 to $450,000, which is where my $330,000 sale at 2600 Kennedy Boulevard and my $320,000 sale at 340 Fairmount Avenue sit; condos in the newer small buildings and the loft conversions from about $450,000 to $800,000; Canco lofts from the high $400,000s to about $1 million; and two to four family houses from about $650,000 for a house needing work, where my $650,000 sale at 54 Magnolia Avenue sits, to about $1.3 million for a renovated house near the square. Condos in the neighborhood’s best new construction reach above $1 million, where my $1,100,000 sale at 20 Corbin Avenue sits.

The commute

The Journal Square PATH reaches the World Trade Center in about ten to twelve minutes and 33rd Street in about 20, and it is the only station in Jersey City where both lines stop without a transfer. The transportation center is also the hub for NJ Transit buses across the county and into Manhattan by the Lincoln Tunnel. Drivers reach the Turnpike and Routes 1 and 9 in minutes from the neighborhood’s western edge, and the Holland Tunnel by Newark Avenue or Columbus Drive. Canco Lofts runs its own shuttle to the PATH.

Parks, schools, and daily life

Lincoln Park, the county’s largest at more than 270 acres, is at the neighborhood’s western edge with fields, a track, a lake, and the golf course beyond. Pershing Field is a short trip north into the Heights. India Square on Newark Avenue is one of the best restaurant streets in the state, and Mana Contemporary on Newark Avenue is the neighborhood’s art center. The Loew’s Jersey Theatre on the square reopened as a concert venue after its restoration. St. Peter’s University is on Kennedy Boulevard south of the square. Schools are confirmed address by address; the neighborhood is served by several Jersey City public schools and charters, and I check current zoning for any buyer who needs it.

Parking

Parking is easier here than anywhere Downtown: most two and three family houses have a driveway or a garage, the new buildings have garages, and street parking on the residential blocks, while permit zoned in places, is workable. For buyers moving from the waterfront it is one of the first things they notice.

Documented trades in and around Journal Square

My own closings, all public record and listed on my Track Record page:

Quick answers about Journal Square

Nearby neighborhoods

The Heights · Hamilton Park and Historic Downtown · Bergen-Lafayette

Reviewed August 2026 by Anthony Vetrano, Associate Broker. Neighborhood details and price bands change; confirm specifics for any home with your agent and attorney.