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Kearny, N.J.: Affordable and Ethnically Diverse

Peter and Tricia McKeegan had already sampled two of the more common residential options for many North Jersey residents: living in a large suburban house in Bergen County (where they spent 18 years and raised three children) and renting a waterfront apartment in Jersey City (where they subsequently lived for two years as empty nesters). The question was, What next?

The answer turned out to be a less predictable choice: the quasi-urban, ethnically diverse former mill town of Kearny, outside Newark.

“We wanted something close to the city that was still reasonable,” said Mr. McKeegan, 56, an insurance underwriter who works in Jersey City. “I liked the idea of having a little house with some property; at this point in life, I don’t want to be cutting a lot of grass. Kearny seemed to have it all.”

In March, after looking at more than 20 houses, they ended up buying a not-so-little 1927 brick Colonial with five bedrooms for $465,000, and have since added a swimming pool. “It seems like a lot of people are moving in,” Mr. McKeegan said of the Hudson County town.

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47 PLEASANT PLACE A three-bedroom, three-bath house built in 1978, with a kitchen renovated in 2010, listed for $539,900. 201-988-8954Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Tucked between the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers at the edge of the Meadowlands, Kearny (pronounced CAR-nee) feels at first like a bit of a throwback, with its still-evident working-class identity. The town’s roots date to the 19th century, when immigrants from Scotland and Ireland came to work in the area’s textile mills; they were later replaced by other waves of immigrants flocking to the industrial and manufacturing jobs in Kearny and neighboring Newark. But the town’s profile is changing as demand for affordable housing with an easy commute in North Jersey spreads beyond cost-prohibitive places like Hoboken and Jersey City.

“Kearny’s often referred to as a blue-collar town, and it still has its blue-collar roots,” said Tim Bixler, who runs the Bixler Group, a fifth-generation realty company in Kearny, with his twin brother, Scott. “But there’s a wide mix of demographics here. We have plumbers and teachers and lawyers and doctors.”

Developers are recognizing Kearny’s potential, too, and several new shopping centers and apartment complexes are being built along the town’s outer ring, which was once strictly industrial. In September, Russo Development broke ground on Vermella West, a 280-unit apartment complex on a former plastics manufacturing site near the Passaic River, adding to the 150 apartments the company has already built across town in a development called Vermella Crossing on Bergen Avenue, which will eventually have 230 units.

“When we started building apartments in Kearny in 2013, people thought we were crazy — there had been no new product built there in decades,” said Ed Russo, president and chief executive of Russo Development. “But we saw it as a great opportunity. Kearny’s conveniently located and in an underserved market.”

Norberto Figueroa agrees. In July, he and his girlfriend, Maggie Mercado, moved to Russo’s Vermella Crossing, where they pay $2,250 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. They didn’t get the pool they were hoping for, but they did get a lot more space and a much quieter neighborhood than they had in the bustling section of the Bronx where they used to live.

“There’s a good sense of community here, but it’s very peaceful,” said Mr. Figueroa, 34, a construction manager for an architecture firm in New York City, who was born in the Dominican Republic. “I can go out for a run at 6 or 7 in the morning, and no one is on the street. I love it.”

“It’s kind of a hybrid between the city and the suburbs,” said Scott Bixler, of the Bixler Group, describing the 8.7-square-mile town, which has a thriving commercial district surrounded by mostly older houses and apartments that vary widely in style and value. Near the town center are three- and four-story apartment buildings, two-family houses and modest single-family homes. Larger homes and properties can be found at the northern end of town, referred to as the manor section or the Arlington section, in reference to North Arlington, the Bergen County town that borders Kearny.

The newer development is at the end of Bergen Avenue, where an Investors Bank and CVS have recently opened, along with the Vermella Crossing complex, and on Passaic Avenue, where a new BJ’s Wholesale store and LA Fitness club share a stretch of Passaic River front with a dog park and a community garden. And in South Kearny, the former shipbuilding and port distribution warehouses are being transformed into commercial office space.

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27 LIVINGSTON AVENUE A three-bedroom, one-bathroom colonial built in 1925, with an updated kitchen, listed for $369,900. 201-991-0032Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

During the first 10 months of this year, housing prices in Kearny increased by more than 10 percent over the same period last year, according to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service. The median price of the 207 houses sold from January through the end of October 2017 was $320,000, compared to a median price of $290,000 for 173 houses sold through October of 2016.

In mid-November, there were 49 single-family and 18 multifamily homes on the market. The highest priced was a renovated 1930s carriage house with four bedrooms, listed at $749,900; at the low end was a three-bedroom bungalow built in 1925, with an asking price of $224,900.

Rental prices range from around $1,100 a month for a one-bedroom in one of the older apartment complexes to $2,800 for a renovated four-bedroom duplex.

In the shops along vibrant Kearny Avenue, you can buy Peruvian chicken, ropa vieja or shepherd’s pie — a reflection of this melting pot of 40,684 residents. “The cafes are starting to put tables out on the sidewalk,” said Jarlynn Hyde, the broker and owner of Mid Realty, who sees it as a sign that downtown businesses are responding to the recent influx of younger residents.

The town’s multiple ethnicities are celebrated in various annual events, including the Irish Parade on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the Peruvian Independence festival in July and weekly dinners held by the Portuguese Cultural Association. This year, celebrations are in high gear as Kearny marks its 150th anniversary with block parties, musical performances and fireworks displays.

Elementary school students attend one of five public schools from prekindergarten through sixth grade; the largest is Franklin Elementary School, with more than 1,100 students. About 880 students in seventh and eighth grades attend Lincoln Middle School, while Kearny High School serves about 1,745 students.

Average SAT scores at the high school in 2015-16 were 503 in both reading and math, versus a state average of 537 in reading and 538 in math. High school students can get technical training and college credits through partnerships the school has with DeVry University, Rutgers, Hudson County Community College and the Culinary Institute of America.

Private school options include Kearny Christian Academy, with about 200 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and Mount Carmel Guild High School in Kearny, which has 58 students in grades nine through 12.

Keary is about 10 miles west of New York City, and though it has no train station, there are several options for getting to Manhattan. Commuters can take the PATH train from Harrison to the World Trade Center, which takes 25 minutes and costs $2.75 one way. Or they can take the PATH train from Harrison to Newark, a two-minute ride that costs $2.75, and then switch to a New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station, which takes about 22 minutes and costs $5.25 (which amounts to an $8 trip).

Alternatively, the No. 99 De Camp Bus travels along Kearny Avenue to the Port Authority; it takes 37 minutes and costs $6.40 one way or $212 for 40 trips.

Known as Soccer Town USA, Kearny traces its soccer roots to 1870, when soccer-playing immigrants from Scotland and Ireland came to work for two Scottish-owned companies, the Clark Thread Company and Nairn Linoleum. Since then, Kearny has been the birthplace of a number of World Cup players and members of the Soccer Hall of Fame.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section RE, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: A Bright New Chapter for a Former Mill Town. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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