In September 1780, George Washington ran the Continental Army from a Dutch sandstone house on the Hackensack River, and that house is still standing in River Edge, a short walk from a train station named after it. Most Bergen County towns have a historical marker or two. River Edge has an actual state historic site, Historic New Bridge Landing, where the bridge crossing helped save Washington’s army in 1776. Kids here grow up with the Revolution as a field trip, not a chapter in a book.
That mix is River Edge in a nutshell: a genuine piece of American history attached to a thoroughly practical family town of about 12,000 people, with shared schools that outperform their size, two train stations on the Pascack Valley Line, and a long commercial spine on Kinderkamack Road where you can get Korean fried chicken, Turkish grills, and a diner breakfast within a few blocks. I sell across all 70 Bergen County towns, and River Edge is one I recommend constantly to buyers who want strong schools and a real commute without the price tag of the towns everyone already knows.
1. Historic New Bridge Landing, the County’s Best Revolutionary Site
Start with the thing no other Bergen County town can claim. Historic New Bridge Landing sits at the narrows of the Hackensack River, where the wooden bridge crossing covered the Continental Army’s retreat in November 1776. The site served as a battleground, encampment, and military headquarters throughout the war. The centerpiece is the Steuben House, built in 1752, a Bergen Dutch sandstone home with a gambrel roof that Washington used as his headquarters from September 4 to 17, 1780, while roughly 14,000 troops camped along the Kinderkamack ridge. After the war, New Jersey gave the house to Baron von Steuben, the Prussian officer who drilled the army into shape at Valley Forge.
The Bergen County Historical Society runs events here year round, and the 1889 iron swing bridge on the site is the oldest surviving swing bridge in New Jersey. For families, this is a park, a museum, and a piece of civic identity all at once. Buyers underestimate what it means to live in a town that takes visible pride in something. River Edge does.
2. The River Dell Schools, Shared With Oradell
River Edge runs its own elementary district for pre-K through sixth grade, with two schools, Cherry Hill and Roosevelt, serving around 1,200 students. Cherry Hill earned a National Blue Ribbon from the U.S. Department of Education. For grades 7 through 12, students move into the River Dell Regional School District, shared with neighboring Oradell. River Dell Middle School sits right in River Edge on Woodland Avenue, and River Dell Regional High School is just over the line in Oradell.
The numbers hold up. Niche gives River Dell Regional High School an overall A and ranks it 11th among Bergen County public high schools, with a 98 percent graduation rate, an average SAT around 1320, and a 12 to 1 student-teacher ratio. The regionalization is a quiet advantage: two small boroughs pooling resources get a high school with 28 sports and real course depth that neither could support alone. When my buyers ask where school quality and home price still line up sensibly, River Edge is on the short list every time.
3. Two Train Stations and a Direct Bus to Midtown
River Edge is one of the few Bergen County boroughs with two NJ Transit rail stations inside its borders. Both River Edge station and New Bridge Landing station sit on the Pascack Valley Line, which runs south to Hoboken Terminal. Most Manhattan commuters ride about 20 to 25 minutes to Secaucus Junction and transfer one stop to Penn Station, or continue to Hoboken and pick up the PATH downtown. Depending on where you buy in town, you can walk to a platform, and that flexibility shows up in resale value.
If you would rather sit once and not transfer, the NJ Transit 165 bus runs straight down Kinderkamack Road to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, with departures roughly every 20 minutes and express patterns via Route 4 at peak times. Drivers reach the George Washington Bridge in about 20 minutes without traffic. Having rail, bus, and highway options in one town is rarer than it sounds, and it is a big part of why River Edge homes move quickly.
4. Housing That Still Makes Sense
The housing stock is classic postwar Bergen County: colonials, capes, and split-levels on tree-lined streets, most on manageable lots that keep taxes and maintenance in check. The market has been strong. Median sale prices over the last 12 months landed around $895,000, up roughly 19 percent year over year, and homes here average about 28 days on market against a national average near 58. That tells you demand is real and inventory is thin.
Here is the context that matters. In Ridgewood or Tenafly, that same budget buys you a compromise. In River Edge, it buys you a well-kept four-bedroom near a train station in a top-tier regional school system. Entry points below the county’s luxury tier with schools that compete above it is the exact formula I look for when I advise young families, and River Edge executes it as well as any town in the county.
5. Kinderkamack Road and Small-Borough Life
River Edge does not have a cute village green downtown, and I will not pretend otherwise. What it has is Kinderkamack Road, a working commercial spine that runs the length of town with the diner, the bagel shops, the pizzerias, and an international food lineup. The River Edge Diner has anchored its corner since 1974. Errands take ten minutes. Paramus and its shopping are next door, and Hackensack’s hospital corridor is minutes south.
The borough itself is compact, about 1.9 square miles, which means everything is close: the schools, the library, the fields, the stations. Neighbors know each other. Town events at New Bridge Landing and the schools give the year a rhythm. It is an unpretentious town that works, and after enough closings here I can tell you the people who buy in River Edge tend to stay.
Where to Eat in River Edge
River Edge eats better than a town of 12,000 has any right to. The Kinderkamack Road corridor covers Italian, Turkish, Korean, Japanese, and Greek without ever feeling like a food hall gimmick, because these are owner-run places that have earned their regulars over years. Here are five spots in town that I send clients to with confidence.
Sanducci’s Trattoria
Sanducci’s is the town’s Italian institution, a family-owned BYOB on Kinderkamack Road that has fed northern New Jersey for more than 25 years. The room has a warm Tuscan feel, and the menu runs from brick-oven pizzas to serious pastas and bisques that regulars order by habit.
It is the default for family birthdays, team dinners, and Friday nights when nobody wants to cook. Reviewers who have been coming for decades still call it a favorite, which is the hardest kind of loyalty for a restaurant to earn.
Why locals love it: A BYOB Italian standby where the staff recognizes you by the second visit and the pizza ends every argument about where to go.
Mado Restaurant
Mado brings authentic Turkish and Mediterranean cooking to Kinderkamack Road, with halal meats on the grill, proper meze, and mixed grill platters built for sharing. It is BYOB, freshly renovated, and comfortable enough for a date night without being precious about it.
The kebabs and lamb chops are the headliners, but the baklava is the reason people linger. Family-style ordering is the move here.
Why locals love it: Generous mixed grills and honest Turkish cooking that turned a storefront into a destination.
Don Chicken
Don Chicken is River Edge’s Korean fried chicken specialist, part of a Korean franchise that takes its frying seriously. Double-fried, shatter-crisp chicken comes in heat levels from mild to genuinely spicy, in shareable boxes that make it the town’s best takeout order.
Bergen County has one of the largest Korean communities in the country, and the standard for Korean fried chicken here is high. Don Chicken clears it.
Why locals love it: Crackly, sauce-glazed Korean fried chicken that shows up hot and disappears fast on game nights.
Fuki Sushi
Fuki Sushi is the neighborhood Japanese and Korean spot at the north end of Kinderkamack, a BYOB sit-down known for generous nigiri, creative special rolls, and dependable cooked dishes like udon, teriyaki, and tempura. Lunch specials keep it busy midday.
It takes reservations, handles party platters, and delivers, which makes it the kind of versatile local sushi bar every town wants and few actually have.
Why locals love it: Fresh, generously cut sushi at neighborhood prices, with service friendly enough that regulars never bother going elsewhere.
A Taste of Greece
A Taste of Greece has been serving River Edge since 2004, a cozy spot at the top of Kinderkamack Road doing gyros, souvlaki, platters, and salads the way a Greek family cooks them, not the way a mall food court does. Over 600 Yelp reviews later, it is one of the most consistently loved restaurants in the borough.
Daily lunch and dinner specials keep the menu moving, and the pickup and delivery operation is quick enough for weeknights.
Why locals love it: Two decades of the same honest Greek cooking, which is why the line of regulars never gets shorter.
What River Edge’s Food Scene Says About the Town
Five owner-run kitchens covering five cuisines on one road tells you exactly what River Edge is: a practical, welcoming, steady town where people put down roots and businesses last. Nobody opened here to chase a trend. They opened here because the town shows up, week after week, for decades. That is the same reason families buy here.
Ready to Make River Edge Home?
River Edge homes are selling in about four weeks, and the well-priced ones near the stations go faster than that. If you want a town where the schools, the commute, and the price still line up, let’s talk before the next listing hits. And if you are comparing along the Pascack Valley Line, my guide to living in Emerson is a good next read.
Your River Edge agent
Thomas Lee
Thomas Lee is a licensed real estate agent with 2Win Realty LLC, specializing in Bergen County residential real estate. With deep local expertise and a client-first approach, Tom helps buyers and sellers across all 70 Bergen County municipalities make confident real estate decisions.
