18. How Ridgewood Compares
Most Ridgewood buyers are also looking at Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus, Wyckoff or Midland Park, and a few at Paramus. This table puts the six towns side by side on the things that can be measured the same way for all of them. Every row uses one source for all six towns, so the comparison is fair even where the number is unflattering.
The comparison
| Ridgewood | Glen Rock | Ho-Ho-Kus | Wyckoff | Midland Park | Paramus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average sale price, 2025 | $1,345,963 | $1,030,425 | $1,285,829 | $1,121,234 | $760,030 | $1,222,160 |
| Average residential tax bill, 2025 | $20,596 | $20,141 | $19,834 | $16,425 | $14,908 | $13,061 |
| Effective tax rate (on market value) | 1.94% | 2.44% | 1.71% | 1.71% | 2.37% | 1.43% |
| Next revaluation | 2027 | 2027 | done 2026 | 2027 | 2027 | done 2026 |
| School district | K-12 | K-12 | K-8, high school at Ridgewood HS | K-8, high school at Ramapo Indian Hills | K-12 | K-12 |
| Per-pupil spending, 2024-25 | $19,713 | $20,084 | $20,354 | $20,428 | $25,732 | $23,990 |
| Train station | Yes, Main and Bergen lines, zone 9 | Yes, two stations, zone 8 | Yes, zone 10 | No | No | No |
| Direct bus to Port Authority | Yes (163, 164) | Yes (163) | † | † | Yes (164) | Yes (168) |
| Water utility | Ridgewood Water | Ridgewood Water | † | Ridgewood Water | Ridgewood Water | † |
| Property offenses per 1,000 residents, 2025 | 4.8 | 6.2 | 1.4 | 3.8 | 6.9 | † |
| Violent offenses per 1,000 residents, 2025 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | † |
| Median sale price and days on market, 2026 | $1,460,000 · 11 days | † | † | † | † | † |
Sale prices and tax figures: New Jersey Division of Taxation, 2025 General Tax Rates and 2025 Average Residential Statistics. Revaluation schedule: Bergen County Board of Taxation, January 7, 2026. Per-pupil spending: each district’s 2026-27 User Friendly Budget as filed with the NJ Department of Education (comparable operating cost per pupil, 2024-25 actual). Rail and bus: NJ Transit. Offense rates: FBI Crime Data Explorer, calendar 2025, on the FBI’s population figure for each agency; Ho-Ho-Kus reported all twelve months for the first time in 2025. Paramus is not in the offense comparison because it was outside the report’s police-data pull. The peer-town median price and days-on-market row is a pending NJMLS export.
How to read it
On price, Ridgewood is the most expensive of the six by average sale, and by a margin. Ho-Ho-Kus is closest, then Paramus and Wyckoff. Glen Rock, the town most often cross-shopped with Ridgewood, trades about 23 percent lower on average.
On taxes, the headline and the rate tell different stories. Ridgewood has the highest average bill because it has the most expensive houses. Measured as a share of what a buyer pays, its effective rate sits in the middle: lower than Glen Rock and Midland Park, higher than Ho-Ho-Kus, Wyckoff and Paramus. Paramus’s low rate comes from the Route 17 and Route 4 commercial base, which Ridgewood does not have. A buyer choosing between a $1.2 million house in Ridgewood and one in Glen Rock should expect the Ridgewood tax bill to be lower, not higher, on the same price.
Ho-Ho-Kus and Wyckoff do not run their own high schools. Ho-Ho-Kus students attend Ridgewood High School on a tuition basis; Wyckoff students attend the Ramapo Indian Hills regional district. For a family choosing on schools, that makes Ho-Ho-Kus a Ridgewood-high-school town with a lower tax bill and no train parking problem, at the cost of a smaller K-8 system. Section 7 has the Ridgewood figures.
Ridgewood spends the least per pupil of the six, and Midland Park the most. Per-pupil spending is a cost figure, not a quality figure, and small districts run higher per-pupil costs by arithmetic; it belongs in a tax conversation more than a schools conversation.
On the commute, only three of the six have a station, and Ridgewood’s is the one with the most trains, the ADA-accessible platforms and the most expensive parking. Glen Rock’s two stations are one fare zone cheaper. Wyckoff, Midland Park and Paramus are bus or drive-to-station towns.
Four of the six share a water utility, so the PFAS program and its surcharge described in Section 16 are not a Ridgewood-only cost; a Glen Rock, Wyckoff or Midland Park buyer carries the same line.
What the next quarterly edition adds
The peer-town sale price and days-on-market row, from the same NJMLS closed-sales method used for Ridgewood in Section 3, so that the six towns can be compared on how competitive they are and not only on what they cost.
† Figures marked with a dagger are best-effort research, so verify them with the issuing office (the Village of Ridgewood, the school district, the county, the state or the utility) before making judgment calls or decisions on them.
I’ll walk you through what any of this means for a specific house, your budget, or your tax bill. No obligation, and nothing to sign up for.