The Hudson County suburb of Secaucus, N.J., anchors the New Jersey Meadowlands, some 30 square miles of marshland, veined with estuaries and dotted with more than a dozen towns. There was a time when people fishing in those waters told stories of reeling in a broken statue from the old Penn Station or finding a body buried under the beach grass.
But no more: Today, the marshes are interwoven with walkways and nature preserves. And Secaucus’s factory outlets, which drew bargain hunters in the early 1970s, have been joined by numerous retail chains.
population of about 22,200, according to 2020 census data, occupies 6.5 square miles (about 10 percent of which is water) in Hudson County. It is bordered by the Hackensack River to the north, east and south, and Union City and Jersey City to the east.
The housing inventory includes single- and two-family homes in a range of styles, including ranches, Capes, colonials, townhouses and luxury high-rise condominiums. Harmon Cove, a gated community with about 1,400 units that include townhouses and high-rise condos, sits on the Hackensack River, in the western part of town.
Rental options include the Harper at Harmon Meadow Apartments, on the eastern edge of town, and Xchange, a complex with some 2,000 units catering to younger renters who want an easy commute to Manhattan, to the south. (Secaucus Junction, the train station, is opposite the complex.)
2019-20 SAT tests, students scored an average of 531 in reading and writing, compared with 536 statewide; their average score in math was 544, compared with 536 statewide. The graduation rate in 2020 was 96.7 percent, compared with a statewide average of 91 percent.