Buying a Townhouse or Condo in Greater Princeton, NJ
A townhouse or condo is how many buyers get into a sought-after school district, or into Princeton itself, at a price a detached house will not reach. It is also a different kind of purchase. Part of what you buy is a share in an association, with its own budget, rules and monthly fee. This guide covers what attached homes cost school district by school district, how resale compares with new construction, and what to check before you sign.
The figures come from BrightMLS closed sales for the 12 months from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, in seven school districts (West Windsor-Plainsboro shown together, then split into West Windsor and Plainsboro): Princeton, Montgomery, West Windsor-Plainsboro, Hopewell, Lawrence, Robbinsville and South Brunswick. Hopewell here is the Hopewell district: Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough and Pennington. "Attached" means resale townhouses, condos and twins built before 2024. New construction is reported separately below, and 55+ age-restricted communities are excluded from every number on this page; they are covered in our 55+ community guide. Every row is a school district, not a mailing city, and the two "of which" rows are part of the West Windsor-Plainsboro row above them, not additional sales.
What townhouses and condos cost, district by district
The first table below puts each school district's resale attached median next to its detached median so the price gap is visible at a glance. The second shows price per square foot, which uses above-grade living area so finished basements are not counted, and the monthly fee, the median HOA or condo fee reported on the listing among sales that reported one. The third shows pace: days on market is the MLS count from listing to accepted contract, and sale-to-list is the sale price as a percentage of the original list price, with the share of sales that closed above original list underneath.
Price: attached and detached medians, with the number of attached sales under each district
| School district | Attached median | Detached median |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton 71 sales | $965,000 | $1,710,000 |
| Montgomery 43 sales | $625,000 | $1,043,813 |
| South Brunswick 47 sales | $575,000 | $850,000 |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) 94 sales | $540,000 | $1,100,000 |
| of which West Windsor 41 sales | $535,000 | $1,139,000 |
| of which Plainsboro 53 sales | $545,000 | $1,027,000 |
| Hopewell 50 sales | $523,000 | $835,000 |
| Robbinsville 74 sales | $418,500 | $930,000 |
| Lawrence 78 sales | $355,000 | $650,000 |
Attached homes: price per square foot and monthly fee
| School district | $/sq ft | Fee / mo |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton | $527 | $432 55 of 71 sales |
| Montgomery | $370 | $350 43 sales |
| South Brunswick | $354 | $364 47 sales |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) | $355 | $352 94 sales |
| of which West Windsor | $360 | $388 41 sales |
| of which Plainsboro | $350 | $310 53 sales |
| Hopewell | $298 | $375 47 of 50 sales |
| Robbinsville | $323 | $162 68 of 74 sales |
| Lawrence | $268 | $260 74 of 78 sales |
Attached homes: days on market and sale-to-list
| School district | Days on market | Sale-to-list |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton | 16 | 100.0% 51% closed above list |
| Montgomery | 22 | 100.0% 44% closed above list |
| South Brunswick | 22 | 100.0% 43% closed above list |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) | 29 | 97.9% 17% closed above list |
| of which West Windsor | 22 | 98.8% 24% closed above list |
| of which Plainsboro | 49 | 97.0% 11% closed above list |
| Hopewell | 19 | 99.8% 32% closed above list |
| Robbinsville | 20 | 99.7% 39% closed above list |
| Lawrence | 19 | 98.4% 32% closed above list |
Three patterns are worth knowing before you start touring.
The price gap is mostly about size. A resale attached home sold for roughly 45 to 68 percent of the detached median in the same district, but per square foot the gap is far smaller: attached homes sold for about 85 to 96 percent of the detached rate. In South Brunswick attached homes sold for $354 per above-grade square foot against $370 for detached; in Montgomery it was $370 against $390. You pay a similar rate for the location and buy fewer square feet, with less land and less exterior to maintain yourself.
The district medians reflect different mixes. The median attached sale was a three-bedroom home in Princeton, Montgomery, Hopewell and South Brunswick, and a two-bedroom home in West Windsor-Plainsboro (in both West Windsor and Plainsboro), Lawrence and Robbinsville. That is why West Windsor-Plainsboro's attached median ($540,000) sits below South Brunswick's ($575,000) even though its detached homes cost more ($1,100,000 against $850,000). The bedroom tables below compare like with like.
Pace and pricing vary by district. In Princeton, Montgomery and South Brunswick the typical attached home spent 16 to 22 days on the market and sold at 100.0 percent of its original list price, and 43 to 51 percent of attached sales in those districts closed above original list. In West Windsor-Plainsboro the median attached sale closed at 97.9 percent of original list and 17 percent closed above it; within the district, Plainsboro was the slowest, at a median of 49 days and 97.0 percent. Lawrence closed at 98.4 percent. Those figures mean more room to negotiate than in Princeton, Montgomery or South Brunswick. Neither figure tells you about a particular home: condition, floor plan and the monthly fee move individual results far more than the district median does.
A note on what these numbers can and cannot see. Every figure on this page comes from homes that closed. Listings that expired, were withdrawn or were canceled are not in it, and across the seven school districts that is about three listings in ten: of the sale listings that ended between October 2025 and September 2026, 71 percent closed and 29 percent ended without a sale. Days on market and the share of homes that sell quickly or above list are therefore figures for homes that sold, and they make the market look faster than it feels to a seller. See the full breakdown by school district.
Two bedrooms or three: what the extra room costs
The first table below shows attached medians by bedroom count for the seven districts, with the number of sales under each price, and the second shows the median monthly fee for each group, with the number of sales that reported a fee. Cells based on fewer than 25 sales are marked as a small sample.
Attached median price by bedroom count, with the number of sales under each price
| School district | 2-bed median | 3-bed median |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton | $850,000 17 sales, small sample | $1,040,000 27 sales |
| Montgomery | $585,000 19 sales, small sample | $672,500 22 sales, small sample |
| South Brunswick | $494,000 20 sales, small sample | $662,500 23 sales, small sample |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) | $442,500 50 sales | $723,500 30 sales |
| of which West Windsor | $440,000 22 sales, small sample | $751,000 17 sales, small sample |
| of which Plainsboro | $507,500 28 sales | $655,000 13 sales, small sample |
| Hopewell | $470,000 19 sales, small sample | $615,000 29 sales |
| Robbinsville | $371,000 43 sales | $585,000 23 sales, small sample |
| Lawrence | $340,000 51 sales | $410,000 19 sales, small sample |
Median monthly fee by bedroom count, with the number of sales that reported a fee
| School district | 2-bed fee | 3-bed fee |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton | $423 15 with a fee, small sample | $318 21 with a fee, small sample |
| Montgomery | $352 19 with a fee, small sample | $347 22 with a fee, small sample |
| South Brunswick | $364 20 with a fee, small sample | $364 23 with a fee, small sample |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) | $377 50 with a fee | $342 30 with a fee |
| of which West Windsor | $392 22 with a fee, small sample | $373 17 with a fee, small sample |
| of which Plainsboro | $348 28 with a fee | $310 13 with a fee, small sample |
| Hopewell | $375 19 with a fee, small sample | $389 27 with a fee |
| Robbinsville | $265 43 with a fee | $155 19 with a fee, small sample |
| Lawrence | $265 50 with a fee | $210 17 with a fee, small sample |
The step from two bedrooms to three ranged from $70,000 in Lawrence and $87,500 in Montgomery to $281,000 across West Windsor-Plainsboro ($311,000 in West Windsor alone). A large step usually means the two-bedroom and three-bedroom sales are different kinds of homes, for example single-level flats against multi-level townhouses, rather than the same floor plan with one more room. When you compare two listings, ask which kind each one is.
The monthly fee does not rise with size. In Princeton, Montgomery, West Windsor-Plainsboro, Robbinsville and Lawrence the three-bedroom group carried a lower median fee than the two-bedroom group, in South Brunswick the two were equal, and only in Hopewell was the three-bedroom fee higher ($389 against $375). Fees follow what the association pays for (exterior maintenance, roofs, building insurance, grounds, amenities), not how many bedrooms you have, so read the budget rather than assuming a bigger home costs more to carry.
For a lower entry point, one-bedroom homes are the cheapest way in, but few sell. Plainsboro recorded 11 one-bedroom resale sales at a median of $270,000 (all of West Windsor-Plainsboro's one-bedroom sales were in Plainsboro), Princeton 8 at $570,750 and Lawrence 6 at $197,500. Robbinsville, South Brunswick and Hopewell recorded four or fewer and Montgomery none. All of these are small samples.
Resale versus new-construction townhomes
New attached homes (built 2024 or later) closed in meaningful numbers in only two districts during the 12 months: Hopewell with 83 sales and West Windsor-Plainsboro with 33, all of them in West Windsor. Every other district had three or fewer, too few to summarize. The median new home was a two-bedroom in Hopewell and a three-bedroom in West Windsor, so the table also isolates new three-bedrooms and sets them next to resale three-bedroom sales. Each cell shows the median price, with the number of sales beneath it and, for all new homes, the median monthly fee; cells based on fewer than 25 sales are marked as a small sample.
| School district | New homes, all | New homes, 3-bed | Resale 3-bed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hopewell | $552,500 83 sales, $352 fee/mo | $709,990 41 sales | $615,000 29 sales |
| West Windsor-Plainsboro (district) | $812,938 33 sales, $343 fee/mo | $796,000 17 sales, small sample | $723,500 30 sales |
In West Windsor-Plainsboro, new three-bedroom townhomes sold for a median of $72,500 more than resale three-bedrooms ($796,000 against $723,500; the new-home sample is small), and across all new homes the median was $413 per above-grade square foot against $348 for resale three-bedrooms. In Hopewell new three-bedrooms sold for a median of $94,990 more than resale three-bedrooms, while the median across all new homes ($552,500) was lower because at least half of them were two-bedrooms or smaller. Medians do not control for size, finishes or community, so the takeaway is not that new is cheaper or more expensive. It is that new and resale have to be compared plan by plan.
New construction also prices differently. A builder publishes a base price, and the final number depends on the options and upgrades you choose and on whatever incentives are running when you sign. A resale price already includes whatever the previous owner put in, and it is negotiated against recent comparable sales. Our new construction vs. resale guide walks through that tradeoff, and the new construction hub lists active communities by town.
Townhouse or condo: what you actually own
In everyday use "townhouse" describes a building style: attached homes, usually on two or three levels, each with its own front door. "Condominium" describes a form of ownership. The two overlap more than buyers expect, and in New Jersey it is common for a community that looks like townhouses to be legally organized as a condominium. The listing's style field will not settle the question. The deed and the association's governing documents will, and your attorney can confirm which one you are buying.
Fee-simple townhouse. You own the structure and the land beneath it, and the homeowners association owns and maintains shared areas such as roads, open space and amenities. Depending on the documents, you may be responsible for your own roof, siding and exterior, or the association may handle part of it.
Condominium. You own your unit plus a percentage interest in the common elements, which typically include the building exterior, roof, grounds and amenities. The condo association maintains those common elements and funds them through the monthly fee. That is one reason a condo fee can run higher than a townhouse HOA fee for a similar home: the association carries more of the building's cost.
Insurance follows the same line. A condo association generally carries a master policy on the building and common elements, and the owner buys an HO-6 policy covering the interior, improvements, personal property and liability. A fee-simple townhouse owner usually needs a policy that covers the structure itself. Check the master policy's deductible as well, because some associations' documents allow part of it to be charged to the owner of the unit where a claim started. Ask your insurance agent to review the master policy summary before you commit.
What to check before you buy
Most of the risk in an attached purchase sits in the association, not in the walls. These are the questions worth asking on any townhouse or condo.
Budget and reserves. Ask for the current operating budget, the reserve fund balance and the most recent reserve study if there is one. Reserves pay for roofs, paving and other large replacements. When they fall short of what the study calls for, the gap tends to show up later as a fee increase or a special assessment.
Special assessments. Ask whether any assessment is in place or under discussion, and how the contract assigns responsibility for one that is approved before closing. Your attorney handles that language.
Delinquencies and litigation. A high share of owners behind on dues, or a pending lawsuit involving the association, affects both the budget and, in some cases, a lender's willingness to finance units in the community.
Rules that change how you live. Rental restrictions (minimum lease terms, caps on the number of rented units), pet limits, parking, and approval requirements for exterior changes all live in the governing documents. If you might rent the home out later, read the leasing rules now.
One-time fees at closing. Many associations charge a buyer a capital contribution, a transfer fee or a fee for the resale document package. The amount is set by each association's own documents and varies widely, so get it in writing early and add it to your closing costs.
Financing fit. Lenders review condominium projects, not just the buyer. FHA and VA loans on a condominium generally depend on the project meeting the agency's approval requirements, and conventional loans carry their own condo review. Ask your lender to confirm the specific community works with your loan before you make an offer.
What the fee covers. Two fees of the same size can buy very different things: water and sewer, trash, snow removal, landscaping, exterior repairs, a pool or clubhouse. Compare the total monthly cost (mortgage, property taxes and the fee together) using our mortgage and affordability calculators.
How the New Jersey process works for an attached home
The sequence is the same as for any New Jersey purchase, with association homework layered in.
1. Contract and attorney review. Once the contract is signed, a three-business-day attorney review period begins, during which either side's attorney can propose changes or cancel. Our attorney review guide explains how it works.
2. Association documents. Your attorney requests and reviews the association's documents: governing documents, budget, rules and fee information. Ask your attorney how the contract handles the timing of that review.
3. Deposit. After attorney review concludes, the deposit is paid.
4. Inspection period. Inspections begin only after attorney review ends and the deposit is paid, never during attorney review. For an attached home the inspector covers the unit and its systems. For parts the association maintains, often the roof and exterior in a condominium, the documents and the association's maintenance records tell you who pays. Order radon testing along with the general inspection, since the canister needs at least 48 hours in place. Our home inspection guide covers what inspectors commonly find locally.
5. Negotiating findings. Inspection findings are negotiated as a repair request, a credit or a price reduction. Items that belong to the common elements are the association's responsibility, so they are raised with the association rather than fixed by the seller.
6. Mortgage and closing. Where it applies, the lender completes its condo review alongside the appraisal. At closing, the association's one-time fees are collected and the seller's dues are brought current.
Where to go from here
If this is your first purchase, our first-time home buyer guide covers financing and the full timeline. To see what the same budget buys in a detached home, read what $500K, $750K, $1M and $1.5M buys around Princeton. Each town page (Princeton, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Montgomery, South Brunswick, Hopewell, Lawrence, Robbinsville) has current market figures and neighborhood detail.
Two cautions about the numbers. They are medians, so individual homes vary widely around them, and they describe the 12 months from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026 rather than a forecast. Use them to decide where to look and what to budget for, then judge each home on its own condition, floor plan and association.
What is the difference between a townhouse and a condo in New Jersey?
A townhouse is a building style; a condominium is a form of ownership. With a fee-simple townhouse you own the structure and the land beneath it, and the homeowners association owns the shared areas. With a condominium you own your unit plus a percentage interest in common elements such as the exterior, roof and grounds, which the association maintains. Many New Jersey communities that look like townhouses are legally condominiums, so the deed and governing documents decide it.
How much does a townhouse or condo cost in Princeton?
Resale townhouses and condos in the Princeton school district closed at a median of $965,000 over the 12 months from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, across 71 sales, at $527 per above-grade square foot with a median monthly association fee of $432. The detached median in the Princeton school district over the same period was $1,710,000.
What are typical HOA fees for townhouses around Princeton?
Median monthly association fees on resale attached homes over the 12 months from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026 ranged from $162 in Robbinsville to $432 in Princeton. Lawrence was $260 and the other four districts (Montgomery, West Windsor-Plainsboro, South Brunswick and Hopewell) were between $350 and $375. What the fee covers varies widely, so compare what is included, not just the amount.
Can I have the home inspected during attorney review?
No. In New Jersey the inspection period begins after attorney review concludes and the deposit is paid. Findings are then negotiated as a repair request, a credit or a price reduction. Order radon testing with the general inspection, because the canister needs at least 48 hours in place.
Can I use an FHA or VA loan to buy a condo?
Often, but it depends on the project. FHA and VA financing on a condominium generally requires the project to meet the agency's approval requirements, and your lender checks this. Ask your lender to confirm the specific community before you make an offer.
Are new-construction townhomes more expensive than resale?
Not always. Over the 12 months from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, new three-bedroom townhomes in West Windsor-Plainsboro (17 sales, a small sample) had a median of $796,000 against $723,500 for resale three-bedroom attached homes (30 sales), and in Hopewell new three-bedrooms (41 sales) had a median of $709,990 against $615,000 for resale three-bedrooms (29 sales), although the median across all 83 new Hopewell homes was $552,500. Compare plan by plan, including upgrades and fees.
Does this guide include 55+ communities?
No. Age-restricted 55+ communities are excluded from every figure in this guide. They are covered in a separate guide to 55+ communities around Princeton.
Looking at a specific townhouse or condo?
Send us the address or the community, and we will pull its recent sales and list the questions to put to the association before you commit.