Lakewood Eviction Risk: High

What pushes it up most is economic stress at 10/10. The poverty rate is 44%. Judgments in high-poverty tracts are collectible far less often than filing counts suggest.

97% of occupied units are rented, so comparables are plentiful and vacancy risk is low, but a mispriced renewal loses the tenant to a building nearby. On the high side, tenant-organizing strength reads 9.7/10.

Set annual rent against average income of $39,864 and the ratio lands at 42%, above the conventional 30% ceiling. Severe burden reaches 27%. Those are renters paying half their income or more, and that is where non-payment filings originate. Sitting well above the midpoint, rent-regulation exposure reads 9.4/10.

Against Ocean County at 50.5%, 58% of renters here are cost-burdened. Average gross rent is $1,411, 18% below the Lakewood average.

Adults with no health insurance runs 20.3% against 11.3% nationally. Inability to pay a utility bill runs 17.7% against 9.2% nationally. Utility arrears usually lead rent arrears by a month or two.

On the national scale it lands near the 96th percentile of the 84,120 tracts scored. On the CDC Social Vulnerability Index the tract reads 8.7/10, which tracks how hard a shock lands on the households already here. Statewide the NJ average is 6.0, so this tract runs 3.2 points hotter.

All figures here are ACS 5-year estimates for this tract, refreshed as the underlying releases land.