Where are N.J.’s most affordable places to live?

For a third consecutive year, financial technology company SmartAsset has release a statewide ranking of the most affordable places to live in New Jersey. And the southern half of the state looks like the place to be.Of the 10 most affordable places in the Garden State, only two were north of Mercer County, according to SmartAsset.

The study was part of a bigger project, the Most Affordable Places in America.

The nationwide study focused on locations with over 5,000 residents and ranked locations to live on an affordability index that weighed factors such as property taxes, homeowners’ insurance fees, and mortgage payments against local median income.

“People who own, or are interested in owning, a home in New Jersey can look at the results of this study and examine the concentration of most affordable locations, look at averages for their counties and use that to help inform the decisions they make,” said A.J. Smith, personal finance expert and vice president of content for SmartAsset.

The 10 most affordable places to live in New Jersey are:

1. Crestwood Village, Ocean County (affordability index of 31.77);
2. Twin Rivers, Mercer County (27.75);
3. Browns Mills, Burlington County (26.82);
4. Hamilton Square, Mercer County (26.71);
5. Gloucester City, Camden County (26.54);
6. Ramtown, Monmouth County (26.15);
7. Greentree, Camden County (25.77);
8. Franklin Park, Somerset County (25.35);
9. Palmyra, Burlington County (25.34);
10. Dayton, Middlesex County (25.23).

For comparison, Crestwood Village ranks No. 1,406 nationally, while Dayton ranks No. 3,161.

For more information on the study, click here.