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StreetEasy crosses the Hudson River with listings in NJ
Will it compete with Zillow for eyeballs?
StreetEasy is going after the bridge-and-tunnel crowd.
The portal, which was so entrenched in New York City real estate that Zillow paid $50 million to buy the site in 2013, is now displaying listings in the Garden State.
Last month, StreetEasy added for-sale and rental listings in select Hudson and Bergen County neighborhoods, including Edgewater, North Bergen, Weehawken and Hoboken, a spokesperson confirmed.
The spokesperson said StreetEasy always had New Jersey listings hosted on a subsite. But integrating them to its core search portal made sense because there’s so much overlap between people searching for homes in New York City and on the Gold Coast of New Jersey. “It’s almost like a sixth borough,” she said.
In fact, more than 600,000 commuters travel from New Jersey to New York City daily, according to U.S. Census figures.
In recent years, towns along the Hudson River have exploded with new residential developments. Among the biggest is China Overseas America’s 99 Hudson, which at 900 feet will be the tallest building in Jersey City. The 1.4 million-square-foot building will have 781 condo units.
Toll Brothers’ Hudson Tea community, including 1425 Hudson Street, a 99-unit condominium.
As of Tuesday afternoon, StreetEasy had 1,276 New Jersey sales listings and 1,014 active rentals.
Although there’s no question of consumer demand, StreetEasy’s move is still notable in that its New Jersey listings are duplicated on Zillow. By contrast, in the Hamptons, StreetEasy launched a new brand called Out East after acquiring the Hamptons Real Estate Online (HREO) system in 2017.
A StreetEasy spokesperson said StreetEasy and Zillow won’t necessarily compete for consumer eyeballs since some users don’t know to search on StreetEasy, and others wouldn’t think to check on Zillow.
For now, StreetEasy is not charging agents to post New Jersey rental listings. In New York City, it costs agents $4.50 per day per listing.
Agents in the city can also pay to exclude their sales listings from the Premier Agent program.
Although StreetEasy is focused now on Hudson and Bergen counties, it will add additional neighborhoods as they make sense. “We don’t know yet, but every New Jersey neighborhood is on our radar and we’ll evaluate them,” the spokesperson said.