Where is Fort Lee, NJ located?
Fort Lee is a borough in northeastern Bergen County, New Jersey, on the west bank of the Hudson River directly across from Upper Manhattan.
- Fort Lee is the western landing of the George Washington Bridge, which opened to traffic in October 1931.
- The borough was incorporated on March 29, 1904 and covers 2.86 square miles, of which 2.52 is land.
- NJMLS closed sales in Fort Lee, all property types, twelve months ending August 7, 2026: 492 closings, median sold price $440,000, median 36 days on market.
Fort Lee on the map
Fort Lee occupies the top of the Hudson Palisades, the cliff line that runs along the New Jersey side of the river. The borough is bounded by the Hudson River on the east and sits at roughly 40.85 degrees north, 73.97 degrees west. The ZIP code is 07024.
Its neighbors are Englewood Cliffs to the north, Leonia to the west, and Palisades Park and Edgewater to the south and southeast. All four are Bergen County municipalities. Together with Cliffside Park and Edgewater they form the stretch of waterfront and bluff-top communities commonly called the Gold Coast.
By land area Fort Lee ranks 344th of New Jersey's 565 municipalities and 30th of Bergen County's 70. It is a small, dense borough, and that density is the reason so much of its housing stock is mid-rise and high-rise rather than detached single family.
The borough is named for the Revolutionary War fortification that stood on the bluff, itself named for General Charles Lee. The current mayor is Mark Sokolich, whose term runs through December 31, 2027.
How close is Fort Lee to New York City?
Closer than almost anywhere else in New Jersey. The George Washington Bridge lands in Fort Lee, which puts Washington Heights and Upper Manhattan directly on the other side of a single crossing.
The practical routes are the bridge itself by car, NJ Transit bus service into the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, and the private jitney lines that run local pickups along Main Street, Lemoine Avenue, and Palisade Avenue. Buyers who have not lived here often underestimate the jitneys. For someone commuting to Midtown or Upper Manhattan on a regular schedule, they frequently beat driving.
If you are weighing the actual door-to-door numbers, I broke the routes down in the Fort Lee bus guide and in the full commute guide covering bus, ferry, and driving.
What Fort Lee's location does to its housing market
Location is not a soft selling point here. It is the reason the market behaves the way it does.
Three things follow directly from where Fort Lee sits:
- Density drives the housing type. A 2.5 square mile borough at the foot of a major bridge crossing gets built up rather than out. That is why condos, co-ops, and high-rise buildings along Palisade Avenue, Hudson Terrace, and River Road make up so much of the inventory, and why townhomes and single-family colonials in the Bluff and Coytesville sections trade at a premium for their relative scarcity.
- The commuter buyer sets the floor. Demand from people who work in Manhattan does not turn off when the market slows. It moderates. That tends to keep Fort Lee days on market shorter than towns fifteen minutes further west during the same conditions.
- View exposure prices separately. Two identical units in the same building, one facing the skyline and one facing west, are not the same asset. Any pricing conversation that treats them as comparable is going to be wrong in one direction or the other.
I have closed 53 transactions in Fort Lee. The pattern I have seen most often is a seller who prices off a building-wide average and a buyer who is actually shopping line and exposure. Those two are not looking at the same property.
What the last twelve months of closings actually show
492 homes closed in Fort Lee in the twelve months ending August 7, 2026. The median sold price across all property types was $440,000, with the middle half of the market between $290,000 and $900,000. Median days on market was 36.
The first thing to understand about Fort Lee is that it is not a house market. 442 of those 492 closings, 90 percent, were condos, co-ops, or townhouses. Only 50 were detached single-family homes. Any Fort Lee number quoted without that context is describing a tenth of the town.
The four property types behave very differently:
Property type | Closings | Median sold price | Median days on market | Median sold price as a percent of list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Townhouse | 65 | $1,150,000 | 26 | 98.7% |
Single family | 50 | $1,087,500 | 34 | 100.0% |
Condo | 189 | $474,900 | 30 | 98.5% |
Co-op | 188 | $259,500 | 53 | 99.4% |
Source: NJMLS closed sales, Fort Lee, August 8, 2025 through August 7, 2026.
Look at the co-op row against the townhouse row. Fort Lee co-ops sold at a median of $259,500 and took 53 days. Fort Lee townhouses sold at a median of $1,150,000 and took 26 days. The most expensive segment in town is moving twice as fast as the least expensive one.
That is the opposite of what most sellers assume, and it is the single most important thing to know before you list a co-op here. Co-op sales carry board approval, financing restrictions, and buyer cash requirements that condos and houses do not. The timeline is structural. Price is not what is slowing it down, so cutting the price is usually not what fixes it.
The first two weeks decide the number
Here is what Fort Lee sellers actually got against their asking price, sorted by how long the home sat:
Days on market | Homes | Median sold price as a percent of list |
|---|---|---|
0 to 15 | 73 | 100.0% |
16 to 30 | 114 | 100.0% |
31 to 60 | 105 | 97.5% |
61 to 90 | 62 | 97.2% |
Over 90 | 88 | 96.7% |
Homes that sold inside the first month closed at full asking price. Everything after that gave ground, and the concession grew the longer the listing sat. 98 of the 492, one in five, ran past 90 days.
The median sold price across the whole market was 98.8 percent of list, and only 45 percent of Fort Lee sellers got asking price or better. That is a buyer-leaning market at the median. The sellers who beat it were the ones who were priced correctly on day one.
Fort Lee and the towns around it
People searching for Fort Lee are usually comparing it against two or three neighbors. Here is the short version of how they differ.
- Englewood Cliffs sits directly north along the Palisades. Almost entirely single-family on larger lots, with corporate campuses along Route 9W.
- Leonia is west, over the ridge. A small residential borough of about 1.5 square miles, predominantly older single-family housing, quieter street grid.
- Palisades Park is south, dense, with a strong commercial corridor along Broad Avenue.
- Edgewater is down the cliff at river level. Newer waterfront construction, ferry service to Midtown, a very different housing profile from bluff-top Fort Lee.
If you want the town-by-town detail rather than the summary, the guides live at the Northern NJ town guide for Fort Lee.
Frequently asked questions
What county is Fort Lee, NJ in?
Bergen County. Fort Lee is in the northeastern corner of the county, on the Hudson River.
Is Fort Lee part of New York?
No. Fort Lee is in New Jersey. The confusion is understandable, because the borough sits directly across the Hudson from Manhattan and the George Washington Bridge connects the two. The state line runs down the river.
What is Fort Lee, NJ known for?
Three things. It is the western landing of the George Washington Bridge. It was the center of the American film industry before Hollywood, with studios operating on the Palisades in the 1910s. And it is one of the most concentrated high-rise residential markets in Bergen County.
How big is Fort Lee?
2.86 square miles total, 2.52 of it land and 0.34 water, which is about 12 percent of the borough's area.
What is the ZIP code for Fort Lee, NJ?
07024.
Thinking about buying or selling in Fort Lee
If you are deciding whether Fort Lee is the right fit, the fastest way to get oriented is the seven-question assessment. It takes about 90 seconds and gives you a read on where you stand.
If you are further along than that, you can search current Fort Lee listings, or if you already own here and want to know what your unit is actually worth on today's line and exposure, start with a no-obligation home valuation.
When you want a real conversation about timing and pricing, book a call. No obligation.
Scott Selleck
The Selleck Group, KW City Views Realty
2200 Fletcher Avenue, Suite 502, Fort Lee, NJ 07024
Cell: (201) 970-3960 | Office: (201) 592-8900
[email protected] | SelleckSellsNJ.com
Broker / Sales Associate | SRES, e-PRO | AI-Enabled Listing and NJ to FL Transition Specialist
Licensed since 1993. Over 500 transactions closed.
NJ Real Estate Broker / Sales Associate License #9236275
Equal Housing Opportunity. Keller Williams City Views Realty. Each office is independently owned and operated.
Last updated: August 8, 2026
