Powerhouse Arts District
Waldo Lofts
159 Second Street
Still being recorded. Jersey City records this as complete, but its assessment record has not caught up, so the usual as-built figures are not here yet. What is below comes from the development record.
Also known as 159 Second Street.
Where it is
Map
159 Second Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302
Open in Google Maps·Street View·OpenStreetMap
The pin is the point every figure on this page is measured from, the walk to the station, the flood reading and the distance to what is going up nearby, and it comes from the Center of the project's own site outline in Jersey City's development record. The street outside is in residential parking zone 4.
9 of 13 kinds of record. On this page: address and lot, flood maps, schools, walk and commute, parking, tax and assessment, sale prices, amenities and press and documents. Not here: homes, year built, stories and what residents say.
At a glance
Positives and negatives
Negatives
- Zoned to Rafael Cordero y Molina, which New Jersey rates 28.6 out of 100lower than four in five of the schools buildings here are zoned to. Worth reading the breakdown, because the rating is mostly test scores and not everything a school does
- In a high risk flood zone on FEMA’s flood mapa mortgage lender will normally require flood insurance, which is a bill every month on top of the mortgage, and FEMA expects this ground to flood about once a century
- A building is going up within 800 feetnoise, dust and trucks for as long as it takes, and a view that may not survive it
- A tax abatement, and nobody publishes when it endswhile it runs the tax bill is far lower than the assessed value implies. The term starts at completion or first occupancy and the city publishes neither date, so ask the seller for the agreement and budget for the rise
Every line is a fact from further down this page, plus where it sits among the 245 buildings on this site. Nothing is scored and nothing is weighed against anything else, because only you know which of these matters most to you. Price is in neither column, because cheap is good news for a buyer and bad news for a seller, and this page does not know which you are.
Buying and renting
What the record says about buying a home here
What homes here have sold for
23 homes here have a sale recorded between 2020 and 2024. The middle price is $920,000, and they run from $525,000 to $1,700,000.
These are recorded deeds, from the state's own assessment file, pooled for the building and never shown home by home. The file keeps only the most recent sale of each home, so this is the latest price for each of those 23, not every sale in those years. Going further back, 74 homes here carry a recorded sale, the oldest from 2006. We publish nothing for a building with fewer than 5 recorded sales, because below that a median and a range can be read back as one household's price. There is no price per square foot: no record carries the floor area of a home. And a sale between relatives, or out of a foreclosure, is not marked as one in this file, so a few of the prices above will not be what the home was worth.
How that compares nearby
The middle recorded price in Waldo Lofts and in the 8 buildings nearest to it that have enough recorded sales to publish one. Across all 44 buildings downtown that do, the middle is $785,500, and Waldo Lofts is 31 of 44 counting from the lowest.
Each bar is that building's own median, already published on its own page, so setting them side by side adds nothing about any household. Within 4,000 feet. We do not say whether a price is high or low for what you get: that is advice, and the record does not carry it. There is no year by year series because most of these buildings sell three or four homes a year, and a median of three is a way of publishing all three.
What it costs to rent around here
$4,140
a month for a 2 bedrooms, rent plus utilities, in ZIP 07302 for 2026. This is HUD's figure, set for this ZIP rather than for the whole of Hudson County and for the coming year rather than averaged over the last five.
| Size | Rent | Allowed band |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | $3,610 | $3,249 to $3,971 |
| 1 bedroom | $3,680 | $3,312 to $4,048 |
| 2 bedrooms | $4,140 | $3,726 to $4,554 |
| 3 bedrooms | $5,050 | $4,545 to $5,555 |
| 4 bedrooms | $5,930 | $5,337 to $6,523 |
That is the ZIP, not this building. No public record says what Waldo Lofts charges, and nothing here has been scaled, modelled or guessed down to one address. HUD publishes these to cap what a housing voucher pays, which is why they exist at all; the figure itself is their estimate of rents in 07302. Small Area Fair Market Rents, read 20 October 2026.
The Census Bureau puts the middle rent in Census Tract 76.01 at $3,347 a month (American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2019-2023), less than half the figure above. It is not a contradiction and it is not a better number: it counts what sitting tenants are paying, rent controlled and subsidised homes and decade-old leases included, rather than what is being asked now.
This building has a tax abatement
Jersey City's assessment record taxes the land under 83 homes here and exempts the building on top of it. That is what an abatement looks like in the record. Instead of ordinary property tax on the building, the owner pays the city an agreed service charge, and no public record we can query says how much it is.
The two groups above are the same building taxed two ways. 1 home is assessed in full and 83 are not. If you are looking at a home in the second group, the first group is the nearest thing on record to what the tax becomes when the exemption ends.
Assessed values and the abatement shape from Jersey City's assessment record, checked against the state's MOD-IV file for Hudson County, which is also where the sale prices come from. The tax rate from the state's general tax rates, 2025. Owner names are in both records and we never request them. Read 20 October 2026.
The approved plan
What Jersey City has approved here
From Jersey City's development record, read live from the city's map service. This is what the city has approved, not a measurement of a building. Plans are redrawn, home counts move and some approvals are never built at all. Checked 16 October 2026.
Schools
The schools this address is zoned to
Where each zoned school is, so you can see what the walk crosses.
- Waldo Lofts
- Zoned school
Jersey City assigns a school by street and house number. These are the rows that cover 159 Second Street.
Pre-K to grade 8
Jersey City median 11.9New Jersey median 11.3
Fewer pupils per teacher means more adults per child. This school is 17 of 52 in Jersey City, fewest first.
Jersey City median 71%New Jersey median 36.7%
How much hardship the school serves. Not a measure of how it teaches. This school is 6 of 53 in Jersey City, lowest first.
Jersey City median 607New Jersey median 435
How big it is. This school is 43 of 53 in Jersey City, smallest first.
The bar is this school. The two marks are the middle school in Jersey City and the middle school in New Jersey on the same measure, taken from the same federal file, so all three are counted the same way. These say how big a school is and how it is staffed. How well it teaches is in the state's own report, linked on its name.
How the state scores it
28.6/100
New Jersey's summative rating for Rafael Cordero y Molina, 2023-24. The state works it out from the parts set out below and assigns the total to the school. It puts Rafael Cordero y Molina ahead of about 16 of every 100 schools in the state.
| What is measured | Scores | Weight | Carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| English language arts proficiencyThe school: 52.6% | 17.5% | 9.63 | |
| Mathematics proficiencyThe school: 30.2% | 17.5% | 5.94 | |
| English language arts growthThe school: 47 | 25% | 8.68 | |
| Mathematics growthThe school: 39 | 25% | 3.50 | |
| Chronic absenteeismThe school: 27.1% | 15% | 0.89 | |
| Added up | 28.65 | ||
What its results have done
Why every line has a hole in it. 2019-20 and 2020-21 are shaded on each chart below because New Jersey cancelled statewide testing in the spring of 2020 and published nothing comparable the year after. The lines break there rather than running straight through years nobody was tested in.
This schoolJersey City medianHigher is better
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 43.1% | 47.2% |
| 2017-18 | 48.3% | 51.1% |
| 2018-19 | 60.6% | 55.7% |
| 2021-22 | 56.3% | 44.3% |
| 2022-23 | 60.7% | 46.4% |
| 2023-24 | 52.6% | 47% |
This schoolJersey City medianHigher is better
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 23.4% | 32.7% |
| 2017-18 | 32.4% | 41.8% |
| 2018-19 | 29.8% | 42.6% |
| 2021-22 | 30.4% | 30.7% |
| 2022-23 | 32.8% | 32.8% |
| 2023-24 | 30.2% | 32.4% |
This schoolJersey City medianLower is better
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 13.6% | 12.3% |
| 2017-18 | 16.3% | 12.6% |
| 2018-19 | 16.5% | 11.8% |
| 2020-21 | 13.1% | 16.4% |
| 2021-22 | 31.7% | 26.1% |
| 2022-23 | 32.1% | 22.4% |
| 2023-24 | 27.1% | 20.1% |
Grades 9 to 12
Jersey City median 11.9New Jersey median 11.3
Fewer pupils per teacher means more adults per child. This school is 40 of 52 in Jersey City, fewest first.
Jersey City median 71%New Jersey median 36.7%
How much hardship the school serves. Not a measure of how it teaches. This school is 28 of 53 in Jersey City, lowest first.
Jersey City median 607New Jersey median 435
How big it is. This school is 51 of 53 in Jersey City, smallest first.
The bar is this school. The two marks are the middle school in Jersey City and the middle school in New Jersey on the same measure, taken from the same federal file, so all three are counted the same way. These say how big a school is and how it is staffed. How well it teaches is in the state's own report, linked on its name.
How the state scores it
33.8/100
New Jersey's summative rating for James J Ferris High School, 2023-24. The state works it out from the parts set out below and assigns the total to the school. It puts James J Ferris High School ahead of about 25 of every 100 schools in the state.
| What is measured | Scores | Weight | Carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| English language arts proficiencyThe school: 56.8% | 15% | 7.71 | |
| Mathematics proficiencyThe school: 17.9% | 15% | 4.56 | |
| Four year graduation rateThe school: 84.3% | 20% | 2.69 | |
| Five year graduation rateThe school: 82.9% | 20% | 5.83 | |
| Progress toward English language proficiencyThe school: 16.8% | 20% | 8.73 | |
| Chronic absenteeismThe school: 16.4% | 10% | 4.25 | |
| Added up | 33.77 | ||
What its results have done
Why every line has a hole in it. 2019-20 and 2020-21 are shaded on each chart below because New Jersey cancelled statewide testing in the spring of 2020 and published nothing comparable the year after. The lines break there rather than running straight through years nobody was tested in.
This schoolJersey City medianHigher is better
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 26.3% | 47.2% |
| 2017-18 | 23.0% | 51.1% |
| 2018-19 | 23.2% | 55.7% |
| 2021-22 | 26.0% | 44.3% |
| 2022-23 | 37.6% | 46.4% |
| 2023-24 | 56.8% | 47% |
This schoolJersey City medianHigher is better
This measure is also missing 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2021-22.
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 10.1% | 32.7% |
| 2017-18 | * | 41.8% |
| 2018-19 | * | 42.6% |
| 2021-22 | <10% | 30.7% |
| 2022-23 | 13.9% | 32.8% |
| 2023-24 | 17.9% | 32.4% |
This schoolJersey City medianLower is better
The numbers behind this line
| Year | This school | Jersey City median |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 17.5% | 12.3% |
| 2017-18 | 21.8% | 12.6% |
| 2018-19 | 22.3% | 11.8% |
| 2020-21 | 15.9% | 16.4% |
| 2021-22 | 23.0% | 26.1% |
| 2022-23 | 19.6% | 22.4% |
| 2023-24 | 16.4% | 20.1% |
The score and the lines come from New Jersey's School Performance Reports, one PDF per school per year, read straight out of the files the state publishes. The score is the state's, not ours, and every weight in it is shown above. How it is put together, and what it leaves out.
From Jersey City's own attendance zone table, revised March 2025, read straight out of the file the district publishes and matched on street and house number. The district's page. Zones move and a school can be full, so telephone the school with the address before you count on it. How assignment works. Checked 16 October 2026.
Charter schools nearby
No address is zoned to a charter. They are public and free, you apply, and if more children apply than there are places the school draws a lottery, usually in the winter for the following September.
How school assignment works in Jersey City, including the selective schools that no address is zoned to.
Parking
This building has parking on site
Jersey City's records count 40 parking spaces here.
That probably rules out a residential street parking permit. The city issues one only to someone whose building has no parking of its own available to residents, whether it is free or costs extra, and whether or not there is a space going. If the parking here is open to residents, nobody living in this building qualifies.
Your landlord or seller is required to tell you this at least ten days before you sign. How the permit rule works.
The street outside is in residential permit zone 4. Without a permit, parking there is capped at the hours in the city's rule below. What a permit costs and how to apply.
Neither record says who may use a space, so confirm with the building before you rely on it either way. The zone is matched because this building's lot runs along a stretch the city maps in this zone. Checked 17 October 2026.
Commuting
Commuting
Door to platform
The walk to the station plus the time on the train. Each one uses whichever station gets you there soonest, which is not always the nearest.
This is the walk plus the ride, and nothing else. It does not include waiting on the platform, the walk at the other end, or a train running late. The frequency above is there so you can add the wait yourself.
Walk routed along real streets from this building's parcel. Ride times are the scheduled run times in PATH's published timetable, from the feed published on 22 May 2025, whose own calendar ran out on 1 June 2026. We can find no newer machine-readable PATH timetable. Check PATH for what is running today, and how we worked this out.
How long it takes to walk
Every stop in the table above, drawn. A number of minutes has a direction once you can see it.
- Waldo Lofts
- PATH
- Light rail
- Ferry
Routed along real streets from this building's parcel, not straight lines. The only ferry inside this area is Paulus Hook. Hoboken Terminal is shown because it is the nearest alternative. There is no Newport ferry and no Harborside ferry.
Citi Bike
The three nearest docks. These distances are straight lines, not walks, unlike every other distance on this page.
- Waldo Lofts
- Citi Bike dock
Dock positions and sizes from Citi Bike's published system data, the feed built for other people to read. Read 20 October 2026.
Nearby
Construction in the area
This building's lot, and every lot within 800 feet that Jersey City has approved. A count cannot tell you whether the work is across the street or behind you.
- This building's lot
- Approved, not started
One site within 800 feet, about two blocks, is being built on now, with 802 homes going into it.
Under construction
Construction approved, not started
Approval is a permission, not a promise. Some of these will be built, some will be redrawn and some will never be built at all. The city keeps the approval on its record either way, and it updates the status when it updates it, so an old approval tells you less about what is happening on the ground than a recent one. One of these was approved more than ten years ago and nothing has been built.
From Jersey City's own development record, read live from the city's map service. Distance is measured from this building to the nearest edge of the project's own site, not between center points, so a large site that begins next door reads as next door. Completed projects are left out: those are buildings, and this site already describes them. Checked 16 October 2026.
Flood
What the flood maps say
At this building, on the map in force (2006)
Zone AE
High risk. FEMA expects this ground to flood in a big storm, about a 1-in-100 chance in any year. A lender will normally require flood insurance for a home here. Water is expected to reach about 9 feet above sea level.
At this building, on the 2015 draft map
Zone AE
High risk. FEMA expects this ground to flood in a big storm, about a 1-in-100 chance in any year. A lender will normally require flood insurance for a home here. Water is expected to reach about 11 feet above sea level.
- Waldo Lofts. The red dot is the building itself.
- High risk. Zone A or AE, a 1 in 100 chance of flooding in any year. A lender normally requires flood insurance here.
- High risk, with waves. Zone V or VE, the same chance plus breaking waves.
- Lower risk. Shaded Zone X, a 1 in 500 chance. No insurance requirement.
- Not in a mapped zone. Left unshaded, because that is what Zone X means.
This is the ground, not the building: a tenth-floor apartment inside a high risk zone is not at risk of a wet carpet, though the lobby, the lift machinery and the garage might be. Shapes from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, the map in force and the 2015 draft, read on 20 October 2026.
There are two maps, and they disagree. The map in force today was drawn in 2006. FEMA drafted a newer one in 2015 which has not been adopted and carries no legal force, but it is the more recent read of the risk. Across downtown the two differ a lot, so we show both.
FEMA also issues letters that formally remove an individual building from a flood zone, and we have not checked whether this one has had one.
Read at the building's own location, with the rest of its lot checked separately. Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, effective map dated 2006-08-16, draft map dated 2015-01-30. Checked 2026-10-15.
What the building says
Amenities Waldo Lofts publishes
No public record lists amenities, so these are the building's or a reporter's own words, linked to where they wrote them and unchecked by us.
This is a claim, not a record. All of it comes from reporting rather than from the building, so it may describe what was planned rather than what was built. A building saying it has a gym is worth knowing and is something it can be held to, but it is not the same as the city's own records above. What is missing here is not evidence of anything: a building that does not mention a bike room may still have one. Read on 17 October 2026. Moved, closed or charged for separately? Tell us.
Related info
The rest of the record on Waldo Lofts
Written about it
- Impeccable Duplex Complete with Wow-Inducing Master Suite For Sale, Waldo Lofts, DTJC Jersey Digs, 21 August 2020
- Stunning Two-Bed Condo with Two Sunny Terraces For Sale at Waldo Lofts, DTJC Jersey Digs, 19 June 2020
- Waldo Lofts Duplex Penthouse Wows with Floor-to-Ceiling Windows Jersey Digs, 17 December 2018
- Curbed NY Chronicles a Three Year Renovation at Waldo Lofts Jersey Digs, 17 May 2016
Look this building up elsewhere
Searches, not results — each one may come back empty. They open on someone else's site, which is the point: nothing here is quoted or copied, and you can judge it yourself.
- Jersey Digs writes about downtown development more than everyone else combined
- Hudson County View covers the planning board and the council
- Jersey City Times local reporting
- The city's own open data planning and zoning board applications, filed by address
- NJ Parcels the state assessment and sale record, in a form built for reading
- Jersey Digs, by building name some buildings are written about by name rather than address
Links to other people's work, not copies: each article stays on its publisher's own site, the list was put together by hand rather than queried so it is thin on older buildings, and every link was loaded and seen to work on 16 October 2026. Tell us what we have missed.
Live here, or did you?
Tell us what the records cannot
Tell us what you think.
Check it yourself
Sources
- services2.arcgis.com , the parcel and its address
- hazards.fema.gov , flood maps
- services2.arcgis.com , redevelopment plan area
Jersey City parcel 11502/4, matched on this building's own address. That parcel is what the flood reading, the plan area and the walking times are taken from.
Last updated 16 October 2026.
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