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 town by town, how resale compares with new construction, and what to check before you sign.

The figures come from BrightMLS closed sales for the twelve months ending August 2026 (September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026) in nine towns: Princeton, Montgomery, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Hopewell, Lawrence, South Brunswick, Robbinsville and Hamilton. Hopewell here combines 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.

What townhouses and condos cost, town by town

The first table below puts each town'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. The third shows pace: days to contract counts from listing to accepted contract, and sale-to-list is the sale price as a percentage of the original list price.

Price: attached and detached medians, with the number of attached sales under each town

Attached homes: price per square foot and monthly fee

Attached homes: days to contract and sale-to-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 67 percent of the detached median in the same town, but per square foot the gap is far smaller: attached homes sold for about 85 to 99 percent of the detached rate. In South Brunswick attached homes sold for $349 per above-grade square foot against $354 for detached; in Montgomery it was $368 against $389. You pay a similar rate for the location and buy fewer square feet, with less land and less exterior to maintain yourself.

The town 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, Lawrence, Robbinsville and Hamilton. That is why West Windsor's attached median sits below South Brunswick's even though its detached homes cost more. The bedroom tables below compare like with like.

Pace and pricing vary by town. In Princeton and Montgomery the typical attached home went under contract in 15 to 19 days at or slightly above its original list price, and about half of attached sales in both towns closed above their original list price. In Plainsboro, Lawrence and Hamilton the median attached sale closed at 97.2 to 98.6 percent of original list, which in practice means more room to negotiate than buyers usually find with detached homes in those towns. Neither figure tells you about a particular home: condition, floor plan and the monthly fee move individual results far more than the town median does.

Two bedrooms or three: what the extra room costs

Where a town recorded at least five resale sales in each group, the first table below shows attached medians by bedroom count and the second shows the median monthly fee for each group.

Attached median price by bedroom count, with the number of sales under each price

Median monthly fee by bedroom count

The step from two bedrooms to three ranged from about $67,000 in Hamilton and $70,000 in Montgomery to $336,000 in West Windsor. 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, Plainsboro, Robbinsville, Lawrence and Hamilton the three-bedroom group carried a lower median fee than the two-bedroom group. 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, Plainsboro recorded 11 one-bedroom resale sales at a median of $270,000. In the other towns one-bedroom sales were too few to report.

Resale versus new-construction townhomes

New attached homes (built 2024 or later) closed in meaningful numbers in only two towns during the period: Hopewell with 71 sales and West Windsor with 33. Every other town had three or fewer, too few to summarize. In both towns the median new home was a three-bedroom, so the fair comparison is with resale three-bedroom sales. Each cell shows the median price, with the number of sales beneath it and, for new homes, the median monthly fee.

In West Windsor new townhomes sold for a median of about $37,000 more than resale three-bedrooms, at $413 per above-grade square foot against $381. In Hopewell the new-construction median was below the resale three-bedroom median. 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 a twelve-month window 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.

• Attorney Review in NJ Real Estate, Explained
• New Construction vs. Resale in NJ: Is It Worth It?
• Greater Princeton Home Inspection and Repair Guide
• What $500K, $750K, $1M and $1.5M Buys Around Princeton