Howell is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, home to about 53,926 people across 60 square miles. Its ZIP codes are 07727 and 07731, and parts of 07722 and 07728 are in Howell too.
Homes sold for a median of $359 per square foot across 2 ZIP codes in the three months ending August 2026, and all of them were seller’s markets.
Mostly Howell; also Wall and Tinton Falls
All in Howell
Mostly Colts Neck; part is in Howell
Mostly Freehold Township; part is in Howell
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Howell. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
The Manasquan River watershed was part of Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland, and archaeological finds south of Squankum Yellowbrook Road point to people living here thousands of years before European contact. Old Lenape paths are the ancestors of parts of today's Route 9 and Route 33. Howell was incorporated as a township in 1801 and named for Richard Howell, New Jersey's third governor. It began far larger than it is now: Brick, Lakewood and the coastal boroughs went to the new Ocean County in 1850, Wall Township split off in 1851, Farmingdale became a separate borough in 1903, and a southern strip went to Lakewood in the late 1920s.
Farming drove the early economy, with potatoes a major crop until the 1950s and cranberry bogs along Marsh Bog Brook near Squankum around the turn of the 20th century. Industry came from the ground itself. In 1822 James P. Allaire bought about 5,000 acres around the Monmouth Furnace and built the Howell Works, a company town that turned bog iron into iron for ships and stoves until production ended in the 1840s. Marl, a greensand fertilizer found along the Manasquan River in 1830, brought several rail lines through the area, and brickmaking and powder works operated in the 1800s; the Maxim section takes its name from the Maxim Powder Company.
In 1907 Arthur Brisbane bought a large tract for a children's tuberculosis preventorium, which ran from 1912 into the early 1960s on the site of today's municipal complex. During World War II the federal government bought land in northern Howell and neighboring Colts Neck for what is now Naval Weapons Station Earle. Poultry farming peaked in the 1930s and faded in the 1950s and 1960s as farms gave way to suburban development.
Howell is the largest municipality in Monmouth County by area, at roughly 61 square miles, and it completely surrounds the separate borough of Farmingdale. There is no single downtown. Instead the township is a patchwork of older crossroads villages and the subdivisions that grew up around them after farming wound down in the mid-1900s. Place names still in everyday use include Ramtown, Adelphia, Southard, Squankum, Lower Squankum, Jerseyville, Ardena, Freewood Acres, Maxim, West Farms, Yellow Brook, Fort Plains, Candlewood, Land of Pines, Oak Glen and Larrabees, among others. Ramtown is a census-designated place.
Most of the housing is single-family homes on suburban lots built from the postwar decades onward, laid out along curving streets off county roads rather than on a street grid. Commercial activity concentrates along the Route 9 corridor, with smaller strips on Route 33 and the county roads. Large stretches remain wooded or protected: the Manasquan Reservoir and the county's Manasquan River Greenway hold well over a thousand acres in the middle of the township, and Naval Weapons Station Earle land occupies part of the northern edge.
Neighborhood parks include Alfred C. Sauer Park at Echo Lake and Oak Glen Park, and the hill on the former preventorium grounds near the municipal complex is used for sledding. Howell Township Public Schools serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and high school students attend schools of the Freehold Regional High School District.
Interstate 195 crosses Howell, linking west toward the New Jersey Turnpike and Trenton and east toward the Garden State Parkway and the shore. U.S. Route 9 is the main north-south artery toward Freehold and Lakewood, and state Routes 33 and 34 also pass through the township. County Routes 524, 547 and 549 carry much of the local traffic. The Parkway itself does not enter Howell; the nearest interchanges are in neighboring Wall, Brick and Neptune City.
There is no passenger rail station in the township. Rail commuters typically drive to North Jersey Coast Line stations in shore towns such as Manasquan, Belmar or Asbury Park. Bus is the main transit option: Monmouth County lists two commuter lots on Route 9 North, the Aldrich Park and Ride at Aldrich Road and the Howell Park and Ride at Strickland Road, each served by several NJ Transit routes as of 2026, including the 139 line toward the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan and routes toward Jersey City and Newark. NJ Transit lists about 690 spaces at the Aldrich lot with daily and annual permits.
Newark Liberty International Airport is the nearest major airport, reachable by the Parkway or the Turnpike. The Manasquan Reservoir's five-mile perimeter trail and the Edgar Felix Bikeway near Allaire give cyclists some off-road mileage.
The Manasquan Reservoir is the most visited site in the Monmouth County Park System, drawing more than a million visits a year. The park covers about 1,381 acres around a reservoir of roughly 770 acres. A 5.1-mile gravel perimeter trail loops the water for walkers, runners, cyclists and riders, and the shorter Cove Trail is for pedestrians only. The visitor center on Windeler Road handles seasonal rowboat and kayak rentals, fishing is allowed year-round with a state license, and ice skating is permitted in winter when conditions allow. The environmental center on Georgia Tavern Road was closed for renovation as of 2026.
The county's Manasquan River Greenway protects more than 540 acres along the river, with paddling and fishing access points on Southard Avenue, West Farms Road, Ketcham Road and Haven Bridge Road and the Winter Run Activity Center in a converted horse stable. Howell Park Golf Course, a county-run par-72 course, has its entrance on Preventorium Road.
Allaire State Park straddles the Howell and Wall township line, and within it the Historic Village at Allaire preserves the old Howell Works company town as a living history museum set in 1836. Its blacksmith and carpentry shops, bakery, general store, boarding house and blast furnace are open year-round, and the village holds dozens of events a year, including fall craft shows and Halloween programs. The Monmouth County Library's Howell branch is on Old Tavern Road.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
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Get matched| Nearest major airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)39 miles away |
|---|---|
| Closer regional airport | Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN)32 miles away |
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | New York, NY36 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Howell; 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.
Howell had 53,537 residents in the 2020 census, up 9% since 2000.
It’s the 34th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Monmouth County grew from 82,057 residents in 1900 to 643,615 in 2020.
Monmouth 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 48.5 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Freehold-Marlboro, NJ weather station (9 miles away).
257,734 jobs at 19,883 businesses in Monmouth County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
329 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Howell’s ZIP codes.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 40 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 19 |
| Dentists | 29 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 41 |
| Mental health providers | 97 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 68 |
| Optometrists | 17 |
| Chiropractors | 18 |
| Pharmacies | 27 |
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 (20 nearby)
Grocery stores (6 nearby)
Pharmacies (4 nearby)
Libraries (1 nearby)
Museums (2 nearby)
Theaters and performance venues
Counts are within about 5 miles 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.
Established in 1801.
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 Farmingdale Public School District, Howell Township Public School District, Freehold Regional High School District. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farmingdale ElementaryFarmingdale | Pre-K–8 | 160 | Public | 2.3 mi |
| Newbury Early Learning CenterHowell | Pre-K | 365 | Public | 2.2 mi |
| Aldrich Elementary SchoolHowell | K–5 | 470 | Public | 3.1 mi |
| Ardena Elementary SchoolFarmingdale | K–5 | 374 | Public | 1.2 mi |
| Edith M. Griebling Elementary SchoolFarmingdale | K–5 | 457 | Public | 2.2 mi |
| Greenville Elementary SchoolHowell | K–5 | 345 | Public | 5.6 mi |
| Land O'Pines Elementary SchoolHowell | K–5 | 530 | Public | 1.4 mi |
| Ramtown Elementary SchoolHowell | K–5 | 483 | Public | 5.9 mi |
| Taunton Elementary SchoolHowell | K–5 | 389 | Public | 2.6 mi |
| Howell Township Middle School NorthFarmingdale | 6–8 | 970 | Public | 1.6 mi |
| Howell Township Middle School SouthHowell | 6–8 | 893 | Public | 5.7 mi |
| Howell High SchoolFarmingdale | 9–12 | 1,775 | Public | 1.8 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montessori Enrichment CenterHowell | Pre-K–K | 17 | Nonsectarian | 4.1 mi |
| Coastal Learning Center - MonmouthHowell | 4–12 | 66 | Nonsectarian | 5.5 mi |
| Bais Leah High SchoolHowell | 9–12 | 300 | Jewish | 4.0 mi |
| Yeshiva Emek HatorahHowell | 9–12 | 112 | Jewish | 5.3 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.
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Shares ZIP codes with Freehold Township, Freehold Borough, Colts Neck, Wall, Tinton Falls and Farmingdale.
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.