Yet some kibitzers in online forums have professed to being underwhelmed, because of the garage.

“All that luxury, and room — but ONLY 4 garages? FOUR??,” a West Orange resident calling himself Sandy wrote on Baristanet.com, a Montclair-based blog, when the listing appeared as a news item last month.

“My house would probably fit into just three of his rooms, and I have a five-car garage,” wrote Sandy, who was later contacted but did not want to be identified further for this article because of security concerns about his own garage.

A four-car garage is probably standard for houses priced at $2.5 million and above in New Jersey, said Paul Sionas, an architect in Montclair. Mr. Sionas agreed that it did sound rather modest for the Cedar Grove house, which is above and beyond in so many other ways.

“With garages, though, it’s personal,” he added. “Even in New Jersey, where cars are a very big deal, the issues of size and the type of garage are personal to the builder, and the person who wants to buy.”

The many Victorian houses in Montclair, Maplewood and South Orange do not usually have garages, Mr. Sionas said, because they were built before personal automobiles were common. It is probably fortunate, he added, that such places remain popular with people who are willing to make do with driveway parking.

Many of the “McMansions” built in the 1990s and early 2000s around the state are equipped with three- or four-car “McGarages” — enough to satisfy most families, if not car collectors, he said.

In Short Hills, where a seven-bedroom seven-bath house is under construction on Sinclair Terrace, a four-car garage is part of the plan. Also in Short Hills, a new house at 101 Short Hills Road that has been for sale for more than a year, for $5.49 million, has eight bedrooms, nine baths and a four-car heated garage.

Jeffrey G. Otteau, whose Otteau Valuation Group provides market analysis for brokers and builders, emphasized the socioeconomic component. In more affluent communities, where people have larger homes and also tend to own more expensive cars, multicar garages are more or less embedded in the culture, Mr. Otteau said.

“A four-car garage may be what is required for the family vehicles,” he said. “Adults’ and teenagers’ cars that may be in daily use, and perhaps a ‘fun’ vehicle to drive on the weekend, or a motorcycle or two.”

“In lower-cost suburban markets, where people are buying what they can afford,” he added, “the emphasis is always first and foremost on living space. In these affordable markets, people close off the garage in about a quarter of the houses to make more living space.”

Bill Kohlman Sr., the owner of Skillman Doors in Bloomfield, which installs and services garage doors, bears witness to this trend. He says a significant proportion of his work involves garages that don’t hold cars.

In Bloomfield, it is permissible under a local housing ordinance to use a garage for various purposes, Mr. Kohlman said, but it must still look like a garage. “Sometimes,” he said, “we’ll put up a garage door right over a wall, and that’s O.K. What goes on behind there is your own business.”

In Newark and Irvington, Mr. Kohlman added, he has worked on many garages that function as “man spaces” — places where neighbors and friends congregate, hold parties and play cards.

The well-to-do township of Mendham seems to be a mecca for garage-hungry buyers. Right now there are 15 houses on the market with garages that hold four vehicles or more.

One three-bedroom three-bath home in the Pitney Farms section, listed for $624,000, has a four-car attached garage, and the listing notes that a barn on the property offers the potential for two more. (“A car collector lives there,” said the listing agent, “but he is getting older, and thinks it’s time to give up his collection.”)

A house on Gold Lane, priced at $1.995 million, has a lighted tennis court, a hot tub and a six-car garage set on five acres; one on Roconan Drive, a 10-acre property priced at $1,999,999, has a seven-car garage.

But in urban settings, on tight lots and with multifamily buildings, it’s an entirely different situation. Garage space often has far greater value in proportion to the cost of housing than it does in suburban locales, said Christopher Otteau, who is Jeffrey Otteau’s son and a specialist in urban markets.

In the jampacked square mile of Hoboken, for example, Christopher Otteau said, open-lot parking costs at least $150 per month — and it may be a long walk from one’s apartment. A spot in a garage attached to a building, or under it, goes for $250 to $300, he said.

Premium spots in garages attached to new condominium buildings on the riverfront — usually deeded along with the unit and often only big enough to accommodate compact cars — have sold for $25,000 to $40,000, Mr. Otteau said.