Patrick Southern on Jersey City’s Next Chapter, New Development, and the Buyer Pipeline Driving Hudson County
by Traded MediaShare
New Jersey
Interviews
For years, Jersey City was treated as a fallback option for buyers priced out of Manhattan. Today, it has become something very different: a mature urban market with its own buyer pipeline, its own development logic, and a growing role in the broader New York metropolitan housing ecosystem.
Few brokers have had a closer view of that transformation than Patrick Southern, the SERHANT. agent behind more than 3,000 transactions across Hudson County. After more than two decades in the market, Southern has built a reputation not just as a top producer, but as a broker deeply embedded in the development process, often advising clients from land acquisition and floor plan optimization through sellout.
In a recent conversation with Traded, Southern discussed Jersey City’s long evolution, why the market’s growth story is often misunderstood, and how his work with developers has positioned him to capitalize on the city’s next wave of larger-scale new construction.
From commuter outpost to full-time city
Southern moved to Jersey City in 1999, when the market looked very different from the one buyers know today. At the time, the city was still largely viewed as a cheaper extension of New York rather than a place people actively wanted to plant roots.
That changed gradually, then all at once.
In Southern’s view, Jersey City’s transformation did not happen because of one sudden catalyst. It was the result of years of incremental change that eventually reached critical mass. Early on, residents still treated Jersey City primarily as a place to sleep while spending most of their time and money across the river. Over time, more development brought more residents, which in turn brought more retail, restaurants, and neighborhood identity.
That feedback loop helped Jersey City become a place where people now stay longer, raise families, and move through multiple housing stages without immediately leaving the city.
Southern describes that progression as one of the defining patterns of the market. A typical buyer may start with a one-bedroom, move to a two-bedroom after marriage, then upgrade again as their family grows. Rather than operating as a one-time stop on the way out of New York, Jersey City increasingly functions as a multi-stage residential market in its own right.
Why the market keeps growing
Southern is careful not to oversimplify Jersey City’s growth. In his view, part of what makes the appreciation look so dramatic is how low the market started from. The city had been underdeveloped and undervalued for so long that once momentum finally took hold, the growth curve appeared especially sharp.
He points to the post-2008 environment as a major turning point. As financing returned and new multifamily development accelerated, Jersey City began moving past its earlier commuter identity. Residents were no longer just coming for relative affordability and proximity to Manhattan. They were also coming for a place that felt more manageable, less chaotic, and better suited to a longer-term lifestyle.
That combination continues to draw a buyer base made up largely of ambitious professionals in their late 20s, 30s, and early 40s, many of whom work in New York but want more space and flexibility without fully disconnecting from the city.
Development starts long before sales
Southern does not view brokerage as simply a transaction business. Much of his work begins years before a project hits the market.
Southern advises developers at the earliest stages of a project, helping them think through buyer profile, unit mix, floor plan efficiency, pricing strategy, and the kinds of finishes and amenities that will maximize both velocity and price per square foot. His role, as he describes it, is to reverse-engineer the product from the buyer backward.
That approach has become a defining differentiator in his business, especially in new development. Rather than stepping in once construction is complete, Southern often works alongside developers through the conception and design phases, with the goal of reducing friction by the time the project launches.
He pointed to 139 Christopher Columbus Drive, a 60-unit project by Norkez in downtown Jersey City, as a recent example. The development's first 50 units sold out in 11 weeks, which Southern attributes not just to market conditions, but to the amount of work done in advance to make sure the product matched buyer demand on layout, scale, style, and pricing. The remaining 10 units are now under construction.
In his view, successful sellouts are rarely won at launch. They are won in the planning process.
A decade-long institutional assignment
Another standout chapter in Southern’s career has been his work for Dixon Advisory, the Australian firm that built a large New Jersey portfolio beginning in 2009.
When the company eventually moved to unwind its holdings, Southern proposed a retail-by-retail disposition strategy rather than a bulk sale at a discount. That meant sequencing hundreds of assets carefully across neighborhoods and absorption cycles in order to maximize value without saturating the market.
The assignment lasted roughly a decade and became one of the most intellectually demanding parts of his career. Southern handled the entire New Jersey sales strategy, balancing retail pricing goals with corporate expectations from an overseas public company.
The experience reinforced something that also comes through in his broader market philosophy: volume alone is not the objective. Execution is.
The next phase of Jersey City
Looking ahead, Southern believes Jersey City is entering a new phase of development, one defined by larger, more sophisticated buildings that begin to resemble the scale and ambition long associated with New York.
That outlook is one reason he joined SERHANT. In his view, the platform gives him the backing to compete for bigger new development assignments and institutional-scale opportunities that require a more expansive marketing and advisory infrastructure.
Southern sees Jersey City as following Brooklyn’s trajectory with a delay of roughly one market cycle. As Brooklyn matured from a supporting market into a destination for permanent living and large-scale development, Jersey City began tracing a similar path. Now, as larger towers and more ambitious residential projects come online, Southern wants to remain at the center of that shift.
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