Monmouth County, New Jersey Eviction Risk: High

Monmouth County carries a county-average eviction-risk score of 7.2/10 (High) across 61 cities, placing it in the lower-risk third of New Jersey's 21 counties, with 13 counties scoring higher. That ranking offers modest comfort: a 7.2 average still signals that most jurisdictions here lean toward tenant protection, and landlords operating across the county face a legal environment that consistently demands careful compliance. Average rent of $2,035 per month and a rent-burden rate of 33.1% indicate that a large share of the renter base is financially stretched, which elevates delinquency exposure even in softer submarkets.

The intra-county spread tells the more important story for site selection. Scores range from 3.7 to 8.2, a 4.5-point gap that separates genuinely manageable conditions from some of the more challenging addresses in the state. Investors underwriting Monmouth County as a monolithic market are likely mispricing risk in either direction. Submarket selection is the primary lever available to landlords here, and it matters more than in most New Jersey counties with a tighter score band.

The cities inside Monmouth County

The highest-risk addresses in the county are Asbury Park (8.2/10, population 15,295) and Matawan (8.2/10), tied for the top risk reading. Keansburg (8.1/10), Englishtown (8.1/10), and Farmingdale (8.1/10) follow closely. These markets combine high rent burden, tenant-protective local conditions, and the full weight of New Jersey state law, which gives courts wide discretion over the pace and outcome of proceedings. Long Branch scores 8/10 against a population of 32,530, making it the largest high-risk city by a significant margin and a place where portfolio concentration warrants particular scrutiny.

At the lower end of the county risk curve, West Freehold comes in at 6.9/10 and Fairview at 7.3/10. Even these cities remain in elevated territory by national standards, but the difference from Asbury Park or Matawan is operationally meaningful when a contested eviction adds months to a vacancy. Risk is hyper-local throughout Monmouth County, and a few miles of distance can shift the underlying exposure by more than a full point on a 10-point scale.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Monmouth County operates under New Jersey's Anti-Eviction Act, codified at N.J.S.A. § 2A:18-61.1, which requires just cause for any eviction. Nonpayment of rent requires no prior written notice before filing, while a lease violation carries a 30-day cure notice and an owner move-in or substantial renovation requires a 60-day notice. The New Jersey eviction process, even in uncontested cases, runs 30 to 60 days from filing to lockout. A contested matter extends to 90 to 180 days, during which a landlord carries the full cost of the unit. Court filing fees run $50 to $100, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $150, and attorney fees in this state typically range from $750 to $3,500, so total out-of-pocket costs on a litigated eviction can reach well into four figures before accounting for lost rent. Separately, state law does not preempt local rent control, meaning individual Monmouth County municipalities may impose their own caps in addition to statewide protections. Landlords researching New Jersey eviction costs or New Jersey tenant protections will find that local ordinances can add meaningful obligations on top of the baseline statute.

With a county poverty rate of 7.8% and renters making up 31.1% of occupied households, the economic pressure on the tenant base here is real but not extreme; the city-level grid above breaks each of the 61 markets down individually so you can identify which specific addresses fall into the manageable lower tier and which approach the county's 8.2/10 ceiling.