By Reshmee Jugmohun, REALTOR®, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson in New Jersey, Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty. Published October 10, 2026.
Northwest Bergen County is the corner of the county that runs up to the New York State line, and it is built differently from the rest of Bergen. Lots are larger, six of the ten towns covered here have no train station, and several of them still provide in their own codes for private wells and septic systems, which is unusual in a county this close to Manhattan. The ten towns are Mahwah, Ramsey, Allendale, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Ho-Ho-Kus, Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, Midland Park and Oakland, and this guide compares them on the things a buyer can verify: housing stock, lot size, rail, utilities, school structure and the 2025 property tax figures.
It describes places, buildings, rules and costs. It does not rank the towns, it does not describe who lives in any of them, and it makes no prediction about prices. Every figure below carries its source and year, and was checked in October 2026. Where I could not verify something at a primary source, I have left it out.
Which towns make up northwest Bergen County?
There is no official boundary for "northwest Bergen", so I use it here for the ten municipalities that sit in the county's northwestern corner, between the New York State line and Ridgewood.
The area includes the largest municipality in the county. Mahwah covers 25.392 square miles of land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2025 Gazetteer, which makes it the largest of Bergen County's 70 municipalities by land area and more than twice the size of the next largest, Paramus. Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff rank third, fourth and fifth. At the other end of the scale, Midland Park covers 1.571 square miles and Ho-Ho-Kus 1.739. So this is not one kind of place: it runs from some of the most spread-out municipalities in the county to some of the most compact.
Only two of the ten border New York State. Census boundary data shows that Mahwah and Upper Saddle River both share a border with the Town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. The other eight are bordered only by New Jersey municipalities. That matters more than it sounds, because a property near the line can have neighbors, roads and services that answer to a different state.
Most of these towns were formed in the same few decades. According to the New Jersey Geological Survey's history of the state's municipal boundaries, Allendale, Midland Park, Saddle River and Upper Saddle River were all formed as boroughs in 1894, carved out of older townships. Oakland followed in 1902, Ramsey in 1908 and Franklin Lakes in 1922. Wyckoff replaced Franklin Township in 1926, and Mahwah replaced Hohokus Township in 1944. The patchwork of small boroughs that results is the reason two houses a mile apart can sit under different zoning, different utilities and different school districts.
How does the housing differ from town to town?
The housing in northwest Bergen is mostly detached single-family homes, but the age of the stock and the share of other housing types vary widely between the ten towns.
In most of these towns, detached houses dominate. The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2020 to 2024 (table B25024) put the share of housing units that are single-family detached at about 91% in Oakland, 88% in Ho-Ho-Kus and Franklin Lakes, 87% in Wyckoff and Saddle River, and 85% in Upper Saddle River. Allendale, Midland Park and Ramsey sit lower, at about 65% to 71%. Mahwah is the outlier at about 47%, because it contains a large share of attached and multi-unit housing alongside its detached homes.
The age of the housing splits the area roughly in two. The same survey (tables B25034 and B25035) estimates the median year built as 1953 in Midland Park, 1957 in Ho-Ho-Kus, 1960 in Oakland, 1965 in Allendale and Wyckoff, 1968 in Ramsey and 1971 in Upper Saddle River. Three towns are markedly newer: Franklin Lakes at 1982, Saddle River at 1983 and Mahwah at 1984. In Mahwah, about 52% of all housing units were built between 1980 and 1999, and in Franklin Lakes about 27% were built in 2000 or later. Midland Park is at the other extreme, with about 28% of its homes built before 1940. These are survey estimates with margins of error, and in the smaller towns those margins are wide, but the pattern is clear: a buyer here is choosing between pre-war and mid-century houses in some towns and late-20th-century houses in others.
Minimum lot sizes, set by each town's zoning, are where the differences become concrete. Each figure below is the minimum lot area for single-family homes in that town's zoning code, as published on the municipal code host ecode360 in October 2026:
- Saddle River: its R-1 district requires a lot of 2 acres or more; its R-2 district requires 11,250 square feet.
- Franklin Lakes: its A-130 district requires 130,000 square feet where a lot has neither public sewer nor public water, 80,000 square feet with one of them, and 40,000 square feet with both. Other districts run down to 22,500 square feet.
- Mahwah: residential districts run from R80, at 80,000 square feet, down to R5, at 5,000 square feet, with a C200 conservation district at 200,000 square feet.
- Ho-Ho-Kus: R-1 requires one acre; R-2 requires 10,000 square feet and R-2A 7,500.
- Oakland: RA-1 requires 43,560 square feet, or one acre; RA-3 requires 15,000.
- Ramsey: from 40,250 square feet in R-1 down to 7,500 in R-4.
- Allendale: from 40,000 square feet in AAA down to 10,000 in B.
- Upper Saddle River: 37,500 square feet in R-1 and 10,000 in R-2.
- Wyckoff: 25,000 square feet in RA-25 and 15,000 in R-15.
- Midland Park: 12,500 square feet in R-1.
The zoning district matters more than the town name. Almost every town here has both large-lot and smaller-lot districts, so the same town can offer very different properties. Before you rely on a lot size, the zoning map and the survey for the specific property are the documents to check.
What do property taxes cost in each town?
The average residential property tax bill across these ten towns ranged from $10,260 in Mahwah to $20,710 in Franklin Lakes in 2025, according to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' 2025 Property Tax Information.
| Municipality | 2025 average residential bill | 2024 average residential bill | 2025 effective tax rate (per $100 of value) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Lakes | $20,710 | $19,374 | 1.402 |
| Saddle River | $20,454 | $19,758 | 1.030 |
| Upper Saddle River | $20,426 | $19,739 | 1.753 |
| Ho-Ho-Kus | $19,829 | $18,930 | 1.708 |
| Allendale | $17,911 | $17,310 | 1.973 |
| Wyckoff | $16,428 | $15,798 | 1.710 |
| Ramsey | $15,125 | $15,093 | 2.075 |
| Midland Park | $14,907 | $14,026 | 2.389 |
| Oakland | $13,749 | $13,339 | 2.173 |
| Mahwah | $10,260 | $9,945 | 1.569 |
Sources: New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, 2025 and 2024 Property Tax Information; Bergen County Board of Taxation, 2025 Abstract of Ratables.
Read the two kinds of figure differently. The average bill is the tax on a residential property carrying the town's average assessed value, before any credits or deductions. It depends on what the typical house in that town is, so a town whose stock includes many attached units and condominiums, as Mahwah's does, will show a lower average bill partly for that reason. The effective tax rate is the Board of Taxation's rate adjusted to market value, and it is the better figure for comparing how heavily two towns tax the same value of house. Neither one is the bill on a particular property.
School tax is the largest part of the average bill in most of these towns. In Franklin Lakes, for example, the Department of Community Affairs attributes $13,640 of the $20,710 average to schools, and in Upper Saddle River $13,538 of $20,426. Saddle River is the exception among the ten: its average bill of $20,454 includes $7,508 for schools and $8,316 for the municipality.
Several towns are due to reassess. The Bergen County Board of Taxation's revaluation and reassessment history lists Ho-Ho-Kus as scheduled for 2026 and Franklin Lakes, Mahwah, Midland Park and Wyckoff for 2027. Allendale, Oakland and Ramsey were revalued or reassessed for 2025, so their year-over-year changes partly reflect that process rather than any change in what houses are worth. I am not going to predict what any reassessment will do to an individual bill. What you can do is read the current assessment and the actual tax on any house you consider, which every listing should state and the municipal tax assessor can confirm.
Which towns have a train station, and which are car-first?
Four of the ten towns have NJ Transit rail stations, and all of them are on the same line; the other six have none.
The stations are all on the Main-Bergen County Line. According to NJ Transit, Mahwah has one station, Ramsey has two, Ramsey Main Street and Ramsey Route 17, and Allendale and Ho-Ho-Kus have one each. Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, Midland Park and Oakland have no rail station, so getting to a train from any of them means driving to a neighboring town's station. How the Main Line and Bergen County Line actually run, and how journey times compare across the county, is set out in my guide to which Bergen County towns actually work for a Manhattan commute, so I will not repeat it here. The practical point for this part of the county is simple: ride or drive the actual commute at the actual hour before you choose a town on the strength of it.
What should you check that is unusual for Bergen County?
Three things come up in northwest Bergen that a buyer from elsewhere in the county may not expect: private wells, septic systems, and town-by-town resale inspection rules.
Several towns' own codes provide for private wells. Saddle River's water code states that properties operate private potable wells and that connecting to public water is optional when a main is built alongside. Upper Saddle River's code regulates individual and semipublic wells. Franklin Lakes' zoning, as described above, sets its largest minimum lot for land that has neither public water nor public sewer. I could not find a primary source that says how many properties in any of these towns are on a well, so the right approach is to ask about the specific house. If it has a well, water testing is a conversation to have with your home inspector and your attorney before the contract is final.
Septic systems exist in parts of several towns, and some codes force a change at sale. The clearest example is Wyckoff: since 2019, section 157-6C of its code has required that on a change of ownership, including a real property transfer, the owner abandon the septic system and connect to the sewer if a public sewer runs in the abutting street, and finish the connection before the continued certificate of occupancy is issued. Mahwah and Ho-Ho-Kus require connection when a public sewer becomes available to a property served by a private system. Saddle River provides sewer service through the regional authority only for specified properties. If a house you are considering is on septic, find out whether a sewer runs in the street, because in Wyckoff that answer can create a cost at closing.
Every town has its own resale inspection. Most of these municipalities require a certificate before a sale can close, and they differ on what is inspected, what it costs and how long it lasts:
- Mahwah: a certificate of continued occupancy, with a general inspection of the visible parts of the building, a fee of $175 and validity of one year.
- Ramsey: a certificate of inspection covering electrical, plumbing, heating, sanitary and structural systems against the construction code, with a conditional certificate available if the buyer commits to correcting violations within six months.
- Allendale: a certificate of compliance, with the inspection made within 60 days before the change of ownership.
- Saddle River ($200) and Upper Saddle River ($100): certificates of continued occupancy or inspection on a transfer.
- Wyckoff: a certificate of approval for resale, with fees of $160, $240 or $300 depending on how much notice is given, plus a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm and fire extinguisher certificate.
- Midland Park: a resale certificate that is valid for 90 days.
- Ho-Ho-Kus: a smoke and carbon monoxide certificate, and, under section 81-44 of its code, proof that the property's lead water service line has been replaced.
- Franklin Lakes and Oakland: a smoke detector compliance certificate on sale. Franklin Lakes repealed its former requirement to test private wells at sale in March 2023.
Whoever obtains them, they can move a closing date and expose an old open permit late in the process, so a buyer should ask about them early. Your real estate attorney is the right professional for how they are handled in your contract.
How are the schools structured?
Only three of the ten towns run their own kindergarten-through-12th-grade districts; the other seven send their high school students to one of two regional districts.
Mahwah, Ramsey and Midland Park each operate a district that runs through grade 12, according to the New Jersey Department of Education's School Performance Reports for 2023 to 2024.
Northern Highlands Regional High School, in Allendale, serves Allendale, Upper Saddle River, Ho-Ho-Kus and Saddle River. Allendale, Upper Saddle River and Ho-Ho-Kus each run their own district through grade 8. Saddle River's own school runs through grade 5; its students attend Eric S. Smith Middle School in Ramsey for grades 6 to 8, and choose between Ramsey High School and Northern Highlands for high school under the borough's send-receive arrangements.
The Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District serves Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff. Each of those towns runs its own district through grade 8. The regional district has two high school campuses, and according to its Department of Education report, students from the three towns may choose which of the two they attend.
I describe structure only. I make no claim about the quality of any school. The New Jersey Department of Education publishes a performance report for every district and school at rc.doe.state.nj.us, and reading it yourself is the reliable way to answer the question for your own situation.
What do you trade moving here from the Hudson waterfront?
Moving from the Hudson waterfront to northwest Bergen is a trade between two very different kinds of place, and the housing data shows how different they are.
The waterfront is built almost entirely of multi-unit buildings. The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 survey estimates that about 96% of Hoboken's housing units are in buildings with two or more units, and only about 1% are single-family detached houses. In Weehawken about 9% are detached, and in Jersey City about 7%. In the ten northwest Bergen towns, as above, detached houses make up between about 47% and 91% of the stock.
What changes is the property, the commute and the responsibilities that come with a house. On the waterfront, the typical home is a unit in a building, closer to Manhattan. In northwest Bergen, the typical home is a detached house on its own lot, often a large one, with a commute that runs by car or on the Main-Bergen County Line, and in some towns with a well, a septic system or a borough inspection to plan for. Neither arrangement is better. They suit different priorities, and the useful exercise is to price both honestly: the commute at the hour you would travel, the property tax on the actual house, and the time and cost of maintaining a lot rather than a unit.
If you are weighing that move, the most useful single step is to do the commute from two or three of these towns before you look at houses, because it is the part of the trade that is hardest to change after you buy.
Northwest Bergen County, town by town
Mahwah is the largest municipality in Bergen County by land area and the most varied in housing type of the ten, with a train station, its own K-12 district, its own township water department and the area's largest county parks. It borders New York State. Mahwah homes for sale · Mahwah rentals.
Ramsey is the only town of the ten with two train stations, and it runs its own K-12 district and its own water service through the borough's Board of Public Works. Its downtown is covered in my piece on Bergen County's walkable centers. Ramsey homes for sale · Ramsey rentals.
Allendale has a train station, a K-8 district feeding Northern Highlands, which is located in the borough, and the Celery Farm, a 107-acre freshwater wetland preserve owned by the borough. Allendale homes for sale · Allendale rentals.
Saddle River has the area's largest residential minimum lot in its R-1 district, at 2 acres, no train station, and a water code built around private wells. Among these ten towns it also had the lowest 2025 effective tax rate. Saddle River homes for sale · Saddle River rentals.
Upper Saddle River borders New York State, has no train station, and regulates private wells in its code. It runs a K-8 district and sends to Northern Highlands. Upper Saddle River homes for sale · Upper Saddle River rentals.
Ho-Ho-Kus is one of the smallest towns here by land area, with a train station, a borough water department and a K-8 district that sends to Northern Highlands. Its code requires proof of lead service line replacement at sale. Ho-Ho-Kus homes for sale · Ho-Ho-Kus rentals.
Wyckoff has no train station, is served by Ridgewood Water, and runs a K-8 district within the Ramapo Indian Hills region. It is also home to the James A. McFaul Environmental Center, an 81-acre county wildlife preserve. Its septic-to-sewer rule at sale is the one to know. Wyckoff homes for sale.
Franklin Lakes is the third-largest municipality in the county by land area and has the newest housing of the ten by share built since 2000, about 27%. It has no train station and runs a K-8 district within the Ramapo Indian Hills region. Franklin Lakes homes for sale.
Midland Park is the most compact town of the ten, with the oldest housing by median year built, its own K-12 district and Ridgewood Water. It has no train station. Midland Park homes for sale.
Oakland has the highest share of detached houses of the ten, at about 91%, no train station, and a borough water department, and it houses the Ramapo Indian Hills district office. I cover it in depth in my guide to Oakland, NJ. Oakland homes for sale.
If you are comparing towns in northwest Bergen and want the checks above run on a specific address, I am reachable through rjc.realestate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ramapo Valley County Reservation?
Ramapo Valley County Reservation is a Bergen County park at 608 Ramapo Valley Road in Mahwah, covering over 3,200 acres, which makes it the county's largest park, according to the Bergen County Parks Guide 2024. Its address is on Ramapo Valley Road, Route 202.
What is Campgaw Mountain Reservation?
Campgaw Mountain Reservation is a 1,194-acre Bergen County park at 200 Campgaw Road in Mahwah, according to the Bergen County Parks Guide 2024. Program and facility details change by season, so check the county's parks department before planning a visit.
What is Darlington County Park?
Darlington County Park is a 127-acre Bergen County park at 600 Darlington Avenue in Mahwah. The county also operates Darlington Golf Course nearby, at 277 Campgaw Road, according to the Bergen County Parks Guide 2024.
What is the Celery Farm in Allendale?
The Celery Farm is a 107-acre freshwater wetland preserve in Allendale, owned and operated by the borough as a recreational facility, with its footpaths maintained by Fyke volunteers. Part of the preserve is held as a conservation easement rather than owned outright, according to the Allendale borough code.
What is the James A. McFaul Environmental Center?
The James A. McFaul Environmental Center is an 81-acre wildlife preserve in Wyckoff operated by Bergen County, according to the Bergen County Parks Guide 2024.
Is there a county horseback riding center in northwest Bergen?
Yes. The Saddle Ridge Riding Center at 900 Shadow Ridge Road in Franklin Lakes is a county-owned facility of more than 28 acres that is operated privately, according to the Bergen County Parks Guide 2024.
Why was Mahwah once called Hohokus Township?
Mahwah Township replaced the former Hohokus Township by referendum on November 7, 1944, according to the New Jersey Geological Survey's history of the state's municipal boundaries. The same source records that the change was made partly to end confusion between places with the same name, since the separate Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus lies next door.
When did Ho-Ho-Kus get its current name?
The borough was formed as Orvil borough on March 8, 1905, and its name was changed to Ho-Ho-Kus by resolution of the borough council on October 12, 1908, according to the New Jersey Geological Survey's history of municipal boundaries.
Are there rentals in northwest Bergen County?
Yes, though detached owner-occupied housing dominates most of these towns, so rental inventory is limited and varies by town. Current rentals are on my pages for Mahwah, Ramsey, Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River and Upper Saddle River, each with the local rent rules that apply.
Where can I see homes for sale across Bergen County?
Every town page linked above updates from the multiple listing service, and the full county is on the Bergen County homes for sale page, including open houses as they are scheduled.