18. Demographics, Ownership and Equity

The key points

• Paramus is a town of owners. 82.6 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 65.3 percent in Bergen County.²⁴⁹
• Owners stay a long time. Two-thirds have been in the house since before 2010, and about a quarter since 1989 or earlier.²⁵⁰
• Two of every five owners have no mortgage. The share is 41.1 percent, against 38.4 percent countywide.²⁵¹
• A paid-off house costs less to keep here than in the county. A mortgaged one costs more. Median monthly cost is $1,353 without a mortgage and $3,794 with one.²⁵²
• The population is stable. It was 26,342 in 2010, 26,698 in 2020 and an estimated 26,723 in July 2025.^{253, 254, 255}

Paramus and Bergen County side by side

Table 18.1. Paramus and Bergen County, main measures.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Most of these figures come from a sample survey, so treat small differences between the two columns as ties.

Population and households

Paramus grew 2.4 percent in the 2000s, from 25,737 residents to 26,342, and 1.4 percent in the 2010s, and it has been essentially flat since.^{264, 253, 254} The Borough has 8,813 housing units, and six of every seven are detached single-family houses.²⁶⁰ Half of the housing (50.1 percent) was built in the 1950s and 1960s, which is why Section 15 spends time on what to check in a house of that age.²⁶⁵

More than one resident in four (26.2 percent) is 65 or older.²⁶⁶ Median household income is $144,349, against $124,884 in the county.²⁶²

What this means for you
Paramus is not shrinking. The number of housing units is close to fixed, the population is stable, and demand for houses is not being driven by a growing or a falling head count.

Ownership and how long owners stay

Paramus's owner-occupancy rate is 17 points above the county's.²⁴⁹ Owners also stay longer than owners elsewhere in the county.

Table 18.2. When current owners moved in, share of owner households.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.²⁵⁰

Two-thirds of Paramus's owners have been in their house for more than fifteen years, ten points above the county. The largest single group, 24.7 percent, arrived in 1989 or earlier. These owners bought at a small fraction of today's prices. Even owners who bought from 2010 to 2014 did so when the single-family median was between $509,000 and $550,000 (Section 5).

The survey figures understate recent arrivals. The Borough tax list, which records every deed, gives a second reading. Among the 6,630 single-family parcels with a recorded sale date, the median time since the last sale is 11.4 years, and close to one house in four (23.7 percent) has had a deed recorded since the start of 2021.²⁶⁷ The tax list counts every recorded deed, including transfers within a family, transfers into a trust, and a builder's purchase of a house it will tear down, none of which is a new household moving in. Reading the two sources together, somewhere between 45 and 67 percent of single-family houses have had the same owner since before 2010.

What I tell my buyers: the seller across the table from you has, more often than not, owned the house for twenty or thirty years, owes little or nothing on it, and may already have a builder's number in hand. That seller is not under pressure to accept anything. So I do not write offers that assume the seller needs us. I find out what the lot is worth to a builder first, because that is the price we actually have to beat.

Equity: who owes nothing

The Census does not measure equity. The closest public measure is whether an owner has any mortgage at all. In Paramus, 2,875 of 6,992 owner households (41.1 percent) own free and clear, a higher share than the county (38.4 percent) or the state (36.1 percent).²⁵¹ That fits the table above: a quarter of owners have been in the house since before 1990, long enough to have paid off a 30-year loan. Many of the other three in five also hold large equity, because they bought years ago at lower prices.

Owners often underestimate what they hold. The median value owners reported to the Census is $813,900.²⁶³ The 2026 year-to-date median single-family sale price in Section 3 is $1,150,000. Owners who have not sold recently anchor on older prices.

What this means for you
As a buyer, many of the sellers you meet owe nothing on the house and are choosing when to sell, not being forced to. As a long-time owner, the equity is real but it is only reachable by selling or borrowing. Do not rely on your own sense of what the house is worth. Ask for closed sales of houses like yours from the last six months.

What it costs to carry a house

The cost of owning without a mortgage is mostly property tax, insurance and utilities, and Paramus's median is $145 a month below the county's.²⁵² That is the Borough's low tax rate at work, and Section 9 gives the actual median tax bill.

The Census also counts how many owners spend a large share of income on housing.

Table 18.3. Owners whose monthly housing costs take a large share of household income.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.²⁶⁸

The two halves of the table point in opposite directions. Among owners without a mortgage, only 3.1 percent pay half or more of their income in housing costs, against 11.2 percent countywide. Low property taxes are why a paid-off house in Paramus is affordable to keep on a retirement income. Owners with a mortgage are stretched further than the county's: 43.1 percent pay 30 percent or more of income, against 34.7 percent, and one in five pays half or more. Those are the recent buyers, at recent prices. The Borough's median income is only 16 percent above the county's, while its home values are 31 percent above.

What this means for you
If you are buying with a mortgage, plan the budget on the full carrying cost in Section 9 and Section 19, not on the low tax bill alone. The low taxes help most once the loan is gone.

Renters and investor ownership

Paramus has 1,472 renter households, 17.4 percent of occupied homes.²⁴⁹ Most of them live in building types other than single-family houses.

For single-family houses, the tax list shows where the tax bill is mailed. For 885 of the 7,636 single-family parcels (11.6 percent), the bill goes to an address other than the property, and for 503 of those the other address is also in Paramus.²⁶⁷

What this means for you
Investor ownership of single-family houses in Paramus is small by either measure. The buyer you compete with for an older house is far more likely to be a builder than a landlord.

Getting to work

Of Paramus workers, 62.6 percent drive alone, 21.7 percent work from home (up from 6.9 percent in the 2015 to 2019 survey), 7.9 percent use public transportation and 6.0 percent carpool, and the average trip for those who travel is 30.8 minutes.^{269, 270, 271} Paramus has no train station, so if you commute to Manhattan every day, read Section 16 before you choose a house here.