BASEMENT WATERPROOFING IN Allenhurst

With beachfront views and large, luxurious homes, Deal's average residential property value of $3,042,186 was the highest in the state last year, at least according to New Jersey property tax records.

And the property taxes on that average Deal home — $19,757 for 2021 — might also seem pretty hefty.

Then again, Deal's average property tax bill might sound like, well, a deal for taxpayers in South Orange, where the tax bill is $19,759 for a home with the average residential assessment, which is about 20% of the price for the average Deal home.

More:NJ's biggest, smallest 2021 property tax hikes by town: One lucky place saw bill drop 12%

In fact, a home with a $3 million tax assessment in South Orange would have paid $101,528 in property taxes, with nearly 60% of that bill going towards schools alone.

The same is true across New Jersey. Say you could buy a $3 million home in any town in the Garden State. The tax bill could range as low as $13,600 to $211,500.

And often, the places that offer the lowest property taxes on your $3 million purchase are tony, beachside communities, some of which only pay a fraction of their bills toward funding schools.

More:Our view: Your tax dollars shouldn't pay for rats and mold. Clean, safe rental housing is a right.

Here's a look at the towns that would have the lowest property tax bill on a $3 million home. The full list is in a searchable database at the bottom of the page.

If you bought a $3 million home, taxes would be

25. West Cape May, Cape May County

24. Beach Haven, Ocean County

23. Rockleigh, Bergen County

22. Ship Bottom, Ocean County

21. Avon, Monmouth County

20. Longport, Atlantic County

19. Harvey Cedars, Ocean County

18. Alpine, Bergen County

17. Cape May, Cape May County

16. Barnegat Light, Ocean County

15. Surf City, Ocean County

14. Ocean City, Cape May County

13. Bay Head, Ocean County

12. Long Beach Township, Ocean County

11. Loch Arbour, Monmouth County

10. Lavallette, Ocean County

9. Mantoloking, Ocean County

8. Allenhurst, Monmouth County

7. Sea Girt, Monmouth County

6. Deal, Monmouth County

5. Sea Isle, Cape May County

4. Stone Harbor, Cape May County

3. Spring Lake, Monmouth County

2. Cape May Point, Cape May County

1. Avalon, Cape May County

How we did this

We looked at what the taxes would be for a home purchased at $3 million, which is roughly the average home price in Deal, which had the state's highest average residential home values in 2021.

But some towns haven't had a revaluation — which sets the tax value for each property in a town — in years or decades. We used a state formula to adjust the values to make an apples-to-apples comparison across towns. We then applied the tax rates for each town.

We also eliminated former federal Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division communities of Winfield and Audubon Park, where, because of their unique nature, it's not possible to buy a house.

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Susanne Cervenka covers Monmouth County government and property tax issues, winning several state and regional awards for her work. She's covered local government for 15 years, with stops in Ohio and Florida before arriving in New Jersey in 2013. Contact her at @scervenka; 732-643-4229; [email protected].

If you think homes in New Jersey are expensive, you’re right. There are now nearly three dozen places in the Garden State where the average home price exceeds $1 million.

Those prices are based on 15% growth statewide in 2021, according to data from The Otteau Group.

The average price of a single family home in New Jersey in January 2022 was $551,028, according to New Jersey Realtors.

But home sales in the $1 million to $2.5 million price range increased by 27% in 2021 — the largest increase of any price category, according to data from The Otteau Group.

That was due to trade-up buyers who finally entered the frenzied pandemic real estate market — existing homeowners in New Jersey who wanted to move into larger homes.

“There was lots of uncertainty about job security during the pandemic,” said Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate economist and president of the Otteau Group. Trade-up buyers were also “reluctant to bring strangers into their homes due to the risk they might bring the virus with them.”

“Existing homeowners sheltered in place,” he said. “That’s changed.”

Nationally, the number of cities where home values exceeded $1 million almost tripled last year to 481 cities, according to Zillow. The New York metropolitan area now has 76 cities with homes valued over $1 million. And 34 of them are in New Jersey.

Of those, Monmouth and Ocean counties each had eight towns; Bergen and Cape May counties each had five; Somerset, Essex and Morris had two; and Union and Atlantic each had one.

In this data set, put together by Zillow, the state’s priciest zip code, according to Property Shark, did not rank number one.

Here are the 34 cities in New Jersey where the average home price exceeded $1 million, the average 2021 price and the percent it changed from 2020.

34. Spring Lake - $1,025,590, 18.2%

33. Fair Haven - $1,050,879, 19.7%

32. Summit - $1,058,551, 11.1%

31. Far Hills - $1,068,461, 11.8%

30. Ship Bottom - $1,092,674, 32.8%

29. Essex Fells - $1,118,343, 12.2%

28. Franklin Lakes - $1,130,303, 11.4%

27. Strathmere - $1,136,631, 31.3%

26. Chatham Township - $1,157,351, 16.1%

25. Sea Isle City - $1,189,462, 29.5%

24. Surf City - $1,192,288, 30.4%

23. Barnegat Light - $1,205,398, 34.2%

22. Longport - $1,215,718, 13%

21. Cape May Point - $1,266,419, 28.8%

20. Englewood Cliffs - $1,300,306, 9%

19. Bedminster Township - $1,333,749, 6.2%

18. Beach Haven - $1,363,059, 32.2%

17. Allenhurst - $1,419,994, 24.7%

16. Long Beach Township - $1,485,820, 33.5%

15. Harding Township - $1,500,986, 12.5%

14. Avon by the Sea - $1,596,194, 22.8%

13. Rumson - $1,654,426, 17.1%

12. Mantoloking - $1,668,216, 26.8%

11. Harvey Cedars - $1,695,412, 33.6%

10. Short Hills - $1,737,527, 9.7%

9. Sea Girt - $1,762,313, 20.3%

8. Bay Head - $1,876,807, 24.8%

7. Saddle River - $1,899,131, 8.3%

6. Rockleigh - $1,906,156, 19.3%

5. Loch Arbour - $2,335,045, 26.9%

4. Avalon - $2,372,632, 29.3%

3. Stone Harbor - $2,437,427 - 28.4%

2. Alpine - $2,570,406 - 7.1%

1. Deal - $2,774,545 - 26.3%

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Allison Pries may be reached at [email protected]. Nick Devlin may be reached at [email protected].

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If you are ever looking for Chris Mumford, check the garden behind his Allenhurst home.

Chances are good you will find him among the rows of lettuces, destined for the kitchens of local restaurants, and heirloom tomato plants, asparagus, peppers, Brussels sprouts and herbs of all kinds. He moves from one plant to the next, pointing out that the parsley needs nitrogen to mend its yellow leaves, and the tomatoes could use some warm weather.

Two beehives buzz nearby; honey will be ready in the fall.

Mumford, who gardened long before his 30-year career owning farm-to-table restaurants in Monmouth County, has turned his passion for growing food into a business. Hay Mumford launched last year, three years after closing Cafe Mumford's in Tinton Falls.

The 61-year-old grows more than 200 plants, including 74 varieties of tomatoes.

"It's a lot of work, but I'm ok with it," he said. "It's a joy. I'm just reinventing myself."

More:Farmers markets at the Jersey Shore are back. Here's where to find them

Potted fig trees pepper the garden; Mumford uses cutting from one plant to grow another. Any plants leftover after the season become compost.

"I come from the school where I don't throw anything out," he said, pointing to a bucket filled with rhubarb in need of a little TLC.

On Saturdays in May and early June, Mumford opens his home garden to the public. They buy leek, eggplant, onion, squash and beet plants for their own gardens, and maybe a bag of compost. He also sells his plants, which are grown from seed, at Asbury Fresh farmers markets in Asbury Park and Holmdel.

"Lots of commercial growers don't have this stuff," he said, flipping through a book he made to teach people about the tomato varieties they purchase: Indigo Kumquat, Lucky Tiger, Citron and Hillbilly, among them.

"... I'm trying to educate at the same time," said Mumford, whose shed is lined with buckets of worm castings and fish meal he'll give to customers whose gardens need help. "If I can get them to grow more, if I can get them to compost, if I could influence people to grow a little bit..."

Orders can be placed at facebook.com/HayMumfordFarm or instagram.com/haymumfordfarm. For more information, visit haymumford.com.

Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], and for more Jersey Shore food news, subscribe to our weekly Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.

LONG BRANCH - Seashore Day Camp, a fixture in the city for nearly a century before it was sold last year, is nearly gone.

Not much was left of the property on Wednesday as construction crews have been tearing into the buildings all this week. A few walls and the entrance door to the main camp building were still partially up, leaving the former indoor gymnasium and its basketball hoops exposed to passersby.

Seashore owner John Villapiano sold the camp to Philip Saada last year in March for a little more than $1 million, according to Monmouth County property records. The summer camp had operated for 96 years and was very much part of the heart of the city. Last summer was its final season.

Saada, who splits his time between homes in Allenhurst and Miami, is in the planning stages of 15 townhouses. The property is 1.1 acres at the corner of Second and North Bath avenues, about two blocks from the ocean.

Story continues after gallery

City planner Nicholas A. Graviano said Saada is working on revisions to the plan and will go before the Planning Board, perhaps by the end of the summer, for final site plan approval.

Villapiono also owned and operated Seashore Day School on Broadway, a private school for elementary-age students. He closed the school permanently in June 2020, citing struggles to keep enrollment up.

He opened the school in 1974 and found a niche with all-day kindergarten, something that was not offered at the time in the public school system. However, the public schools have since caught up to him on that and his specialized curriculum. The COVID-19 pandemic was the final straw.

That property is under contract to be purchased and the city has created a redevelopment plan for the four-acre site, which calls for re-use of its historic structures, including the 1926-era Masonic Temple building, on the lot at 410 Broadway for apartments.

A large swath of the ball fields on the vacant lot bordering Morris Avenue will be donated to the city for a park.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; [email protected].

Ocean Avenue from the West End of Long Branch through Elberon and into Deal to Allenhurst can be considered the mansion mile. There are large, magnificent, often modern, homes. But none is as exquisite as St. Stepanos Armenian Church, which has housed a diaspora of Orthodox Armenians for 35 years.

A famous New Jersey Armenian developer, Kevork Hovnanian, built it, covered the costs and established a property endowment fund in memory of his mother, Yester. A bas relief of her graces the narthex of the building along with a bust of Kevork. And he deserves it. The structure is self-contained with not only the beautiful church but offices, meeting rooms, a Sunday school, a large dining room and a commercial kitchen.

Its architecture is worth noting and is detailed on the church’s website. The architect, Ramon H. Hovsepian of Worcester, Massachusetts, used a brown, manmade stone that resembles tufa, a volcanic rock indigenous to Armenia. The trim on the exterior is copper with a slate roof. The pyramid-shaped dome rests on a 12-sided, drum-shaped structure of the nave symbolizing the 12 apostles. Made of gold anodized aluminum, it reaches 65 feet into the air.

There is a dark hue over the narthex and halls, which contrasts with the colorful nave and sanctuary dotted with icons and the rest of the spaces where people gather to learn, socialize and do good works.

What happens inside is what makes the pastor, the Rev. Daniel Karadjian, 64, glow.

“Our traditions are based upon vibrant worship services,” he said, “outreach ministries that have uplifted those who have found themselves among the least, the last and the lost.”

The church has six permanent deacons assisting the pastor. The Sunday divine liturgy runs 90 minutes to two hours in Armenian with Scripture readings also read in English.

Pre-COVID, about 55 people attended services on a regular basis, excluding the special feasts. Now about 30 do so, but the church continues to livestream the service and senior citizens tune in, adding some 50 more people. Religion classes run the same time as the service and the church offers Armenian language classes for children.

Karadjian has noticed that more young families with three and even four children are attending.

In all, 350 families are registered at the church with worshipers traveling from as far as Toms River and Bridgewater. The Long Branch church is the only Armenian church in the Shore area with others in Livingston, Fair Lawn and Tenafly. Hudson County’s Holy Cross is in Union City.

Deacon Chris Kesici, 43, of St. Stepanos said that most Armenians “live in diaspora” outside of Armenia after the Turkish genocide during World War I. Some 3 million remain in Armenia while most moved to the Middle East, Syria, Egypt and South America, among other places. He noted that many came to the United States for a better chance at jobs and some travel more than an hour to go to St. Stepanos.

In the pastor, they find a personable family man – he’s married with two sons – who bridges the spiritual with the social. Before entering the seminary in Jerusalem in 1991 at the age of 33, he was a drummer in a jazz band in Bulgaria, where he grew up. His church now hosts picnics, parties and socials, but he is most proud of their bake sales of Armenian delicacies at the holidays. Choreg is an Armenian bread and shekerbura and gata are Armenian versions of baklava.

Karadjian spent years as a priest in the Holy Land in historic churches such as the Holy Sepulchre and found it fascinating. Once he came to the States, he served in North Carolina and the Binghamton and Syracuse areas in upstate New York before coming to Long Branch in 2013 as St. Stepanos’ eighth pastor.

The first church on the spot was a converted mansion called St. Mary, built in 1957 and razed for the new one.

St. Stepanos is named for St. Stephen, the first declared Christian martyr and also the first deacon. They mark his feast day, Dec. 25, while their Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 6, also the feast of the Epiphany. A beautiful stained-glass window of St. Stephen is located above the sanctuary doors of the church reminding the parishioners that their painful past as Armenians has given them new life all around the world.

The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @padrehoboken.

Details ...

St. Stepanos Armenian Church is located at 1184 Ocean Ave. in Elberon. For information, call 732-229-3661, email [email protected] or go to the parish website, ststepanos.org.

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