Highland Park is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, home to about 15,121 people across 1.8 square miles. Its ZIP code is 08904.
Homes sold for a median of $342 per square foot in the three months ending August 2026, a seller’s market.
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Highland Park. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
Highland Park sits on the high north bank of the Raritan River across from New Brunswick, on land the Lenape used for hunting and fishing and crossed with trails. In 1685 John Inian bought land on both shores and started a ferry; a toll bridge replaced it in 1795, and the present seven-span stone arch Albany Street Bridge was built in 1892, became part of the Lincoln Highway in 1914 and was widened in 1923. Rail arrived in the 1830s along with the Delaware and Raritan Canal across the river: the New Jersey Railroad opened a station here called East New Brunswick in 1836, and the twelve-span stone arch railroad bridge that still carries trains over the Raritan dates from 1902.
In 1870 the hamlet traded the name East New Brunswick for Highland Park, taken from a housing development on its south-side streets, and became part of the new Raritan Township (today's Edison). A dispute over schooling led to a separate school district in 1885, and in 1905 Highland Park broke away to become its own borough. Johnson and Johnson, the John Waldron Machine Company and the Janeway and Carpenter wallpaper factory were among its employers, while small shops grew along Raritan and Woodbridge Avenues.
The oldest standing landmark is the Livingston Homestead at 81 Harrison Avenue, a Greek Revival house on land John H. Livingston bought in 1809. Starting in 1906, developer Watson Whittlesey subdivided the surrounding estate as Livingston Manor, which was nearly built out by 1925 and was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2004. By 1930 most of the borough's land had been subdivided.
Highland Park is a small, fully built-out borough of under two square miles, bounded by the Raritan River, New Brunswick, Piscataway and Edison. Raritan Avenue (Route 27) runs through the middle and divides the town into a north side and a south side; it is also the downtown, a business improvement district of mostly small independent storefronts, with more shops along Woodbridge Avenue in the southeast.
Much of the housing grew out of subdivisions laid out between the 1870s and 1930. The earliest suburban blocks went up around South Adelaide Avenue and Cedar, First and Second Avenues and their cross streets. Livingston Manor in the northwest, built mostly between 1906 and 1925 on streets such as Grant, Lincoln, Lawrence and Harrison Avenues, is a National Register historic district of vernacular Queen Anne houses, bungalows, foursquares and Colonial Revival houses. Other named sections include the Viehmann Tract on the north side, Riverview Terrace on the south side, Raritan Park Terrace, Orchard Heights and East New Brunswick Heights.
The south side runs down to Donaldson Park, the 81-acre county park on the river. Highland Park Public Schools serve the borough from pre-kindergarten through high school.
Highland Park has no train station of its own, but it borders New Brunswick, and the New Brunswick station on NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor Line is just across the Albany Street Bridge. Local and express trains from there run to Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station in one direction and Trenton in the other, where SEPTA trains continue to Philadelphia. The Edison station on the same line is also nearby.
Route 27 (Raritan Avenue) is the main road, crossing the Raritan into New Brunswick. Woodbridge Avenue (County Route 514) runs through the southeast, River Road (County Route 622) follows the river on the west side, and Cedar Lane crosses the north side. U.S. Route 1 and Route 18 run just beyond the borough line.
NJ Transit local buses 810 and 814 serve the borough. Route 810 runs between New Brunswick and Woodbridge Center, and Route 814 runs between North Brunswick and Middlesex County College in Edison, both with stops near the New Brunswick train station.
Donaldson Park on South Second Avenue is the borough's big green space: an 81-acre Middlesex County park on the Raritan that opened in 1946 and was fully renovated in 2009. It has a boat ramp, a dog park, a pond, ball fields, tennis, basketball and pickleball courts, a playground and picnic groves, and the borough held its first town outing there in 1953. Along the river, the 1892 Albany Street Bridge and the 1902 stone arch rail bridge are visible reminders of the town's early crossings.
Main Street Highland Park, the volunteer nonprofit that manages the downtown district, runs a weekly Friday farmers market that has operated since 1996, generally from late winter into December. Its 2026 calendar also includes a Spring Fling street fair in May, a restaurant week, Saturday-night outdoor movies in summer, a Window Art Walk and Arts in the Park in September, a townwide garage sale with garage-band concerts in October, Halloween on the Avenue and a holiday tree lighting and markets.
The Highland Park Public Library at 31 North 5th Avenue offers programs for all ages, technology lending, digital collections and STELLA network borrowing, and its Friends group holds an annual fall book sale. The Highland Park Historical Society publishes the borough's history and information on the Livingston Manor Historic District, which makes a good walking route among early 20th-century houses.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
Local agent who knows Highland Park? Agents who advertise here will be able to write and update this guide. Advertise on OfferBacked
Good to know
Thinking about buying in Highland Park? Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll connect you with a local agent. Free, and no obligation.
Get matched| Nearest major airport | Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)19 miles away |
|---|---|
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | Newark, NJ20 miles away |
| Nearest city of 1 million+ | New York, NY28 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Highland Park; driving is longer.
Source: Airports from OurAirports (scheduled passenger service); city centers and populations from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: Members of Congress from the congress-legislators project; districts from the Census Bureau’s relationship files; governor and mayor from Wikidata.
Highland Park had 15,072 residents in the 2020 census, up 8% since 2000.
It’s the 176th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Middlesex County grew from 79,762 residents in 1900 to 863,162 in 2020.
Middlesex County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 87°F in summer, and winter lows average 23°F. About 49.5 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year, with about 29 inches of snow.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, New Brunswick 3 Se, NJ weather station (2 miles away).
434,143 jobs at 22,314 businesses in Middlesex County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
298 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Highland Park.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 14 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 23 |
| Dentists | 20 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 14 |
| Mental health providers | 187 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 27 |
| Optometrists | 4 |
| Chiropractors | 9 |
| Pharmacies | 5 |
Source: Hospitals from CMS Hospital General Information (ratings are CMS overall star ratings); straight-line distances; providers from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), by practice address and primary specialty.
Parks (10 nearby)
Grocery stores (6 nearby)
Pharmacies (2 nearby)
Libraries (3 nearby)
Museums (2 nearby)
Theaters and performance venues (7 nearby)
Counts are within about 1 mile of the center of town.
Source: Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), as mapped by volunteers; it can miss places or include closed ones.
Notable people born here
Source: Wikidata (wikidata.org), the free knowledge base; people are listed by place of birth.
Public schools here are run by Highland Park Boro School District. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Irving Primary SchoolHighland Park | Pre-K–1 | 326 | Public | 0.5 mi |
| Bartle Elementary SchoolHighland Park | 2–5 | 405 | Public | 0.3 mi |
| Highland Park Middle SchoolHighland Park | 6–8 | 349 | Public | 0.2 mi |
| Highland Park High SchoolHighland Park | 9–12 | 493 | Public | 0.2 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childrens House Montessori SchoolHighland Park | Pre-K–1 | 8 | Nonsectarian | 0.2 mi |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES: Common Core of Data (2024-2025) for public schools; Private School Universe Survey (2023-2024) for private schools. Listed by address; we don’t rate schools.
Buying or selling around Highland Park? Tell us what you need and when. No agents advertise here yet, so we’ll keep your request for up to 30 days and send it to local agents who join. No obligation, and you choose who to work with.
Loading map…
Town boundaries don’t always match ZIP codes: a ZIP code can cross into neighboring towns, and a town can share a ZIP code with its neighbors. Facts describe the town itself; market figures describe whole ZIP codes.