NJAR Q3 Statistics

The New Jersey Association of Realtors (NJAR) 2006 Q3 Statistics are available:

New Jersey Home Sales Report (PDF)

Highlights:

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42 Responses to NJAR Q3 Statistics

  1. Seneca says:

    Almost 80% of Q3 ’06 existing SF home sales were in the $250k and over price range. Why is so much dissection ($30-39.9, 40-49.9, etc.) given to the other 20% of the “affordable” market when clearly there is no such thing as affordable housing anymore?

    Wouldn’t it be more telling to see how many homes fell into the $500-$600, $600-$700, etc. price points? Just wondering what the rationale is for these segments or if its just a holdover from the way the NAR performed their analysis back in 1973 when an avg. income earner could afford a $50k house.

  2. James Bednar says:

    From the Jersey Journal:

    HOBOKEN — A developer wants to turn a Park Avenue block into a large-scale, 14-story residential building that will have space for a K-8 school on the ground floor, according to city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.

    The plan calls for 200 residential units, 378 parking spaces, the school and retail space along 1409-1427 Park Ave.

  3. v says:

    breaking 0-200K range into 15 slots does not make sense.

    How are those affordability numbers calculated? doesn’t less than 100 indicate affordable house prices?

  4. James Bednar says:

    From MarketWatch:

    ‘Where are the customers’ yachts?’

    Some things never change. This script was written long ago, in Fred Schwed’s humorous 1940 classic about Wall Street’s insatiable greed. The message rings as true today as back then, when America was still smarting from Wall Street’s disastrous 1929 crash. Schwed explains the origin of his title, in an “Ancient Story:”

    “Once in the dear dead days beyond recall, an out-of-town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York financial district. When the party arrived at the Battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor. “Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts. ‘Where are all the customers’ yachts?’ asked the naïve visitor.”

    Likewise, “naïve” is an apt term for investors: It was apt in 1929, apt in 1940 and is still apt today. Actually more so: Despite the flood of high-tech data sources now available to America’s 95 million investors, they’re becoming more vulnerable, gullible and naïve by the day.
    Schwed’s story perfectly captures the relentless daily transfer of billions from the pockets of Main Street’s naïve customers into the pockets of Wall Street’s clever insiders: More than $200 billion annually is siphoned off the top of the $10 trillion we have invested in mutual funds.

    And thanks to the protection of their buddies at the SEC, most of that $200 billion in fees, commissions and other payments is secretly hidden in bank accounts, undisclosed to Wall Street’s naïve customers.

  5. Rich In NNJ says:

    Ahhhh, the smell of stale data from the NJAR…

    Rich

  6. James Bednar says:

    From the Asbury Park Press:

    Kara asks OK to sell homes that are ready

    Troubled builder Kara Homes wants to complete the sale of about 15 homes that are “ready to go.”

    They have certificates of occupancy and are ready for homeowners, Kara lawyer David L. Bruck told U.S. District Court Judge Michael B. Kaplan on Monday. The company has not had to spend any money to get them ready.

    Kaplan still must approve the sale, which would be the second set of completed homes sold since Kara filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 5.

    Recently, the company has moved forward with the sale of 10 homes located in Kara developments in Middletown, Little Egg Harbor, Stafford, Lacey, Mount Arlington, Old Bridge and Monroe.

    Friday will be a big day for Kara. Kaplan is set to continue a hearing on the company’s attempt to get a $2.6 million loan from Bear Stearns. While the money won’t pay for the construction of any houses, it would give the company cash it desperately needs to operate and pay its bills, such as employee wages, rent, insurance premiums and security at its projects.

    Nearly two weeks ago, Kaplan allowed Kara to receive $350,000 of the $2.6 million, enough to stay in business for two weeks.

    Lawyers for Kara’s secured lenders — including Amboy National Bank, North Fork Bank and National City Bank — have objected to the financing plan. They argued Bear Stearns would take control of major decisions, possibly to the detriment of other lenders.

  7. James Bednar says:

    NASCAR in South Jersey? From the AP:

    N.J. Senate to consider bill providing for NASCAR track in Millville

    State senators pushed forward legislation today to help bring a NASCAR auto racing track to Cumberland County.

    The legislation twice passed the Assembly, but hadn’t received recent Senate consideration until it was released today by a Senate economic growth committee.

    The measure would help bring a 700-acre race track complex to Millville.

    Under the bill, a sports and entertainment district would be created and the town could charge an additional 2 percent sales tax within the district, including on sales of food and drink, hotel rooms and event tickets.

    Money from the tax would be put into a fund to either back bonds issued to build the $100 million track or cover financial assistance for a developer.

    Officials hope to start building the track early next year.

  8. BC Bob says:

    “Orders for Durable Goods in U.S. Declined 8.3% in October”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiTiTd19hOME&refer=home

  9. James Bednar says:

    Existing home sales due out in an hour. Anyone care to make a projection?

    jb

  10. BC Bob says:

    6.02 mil.

  11. James Bednar says:

    6.15

  12. James Bednar says:

    No, on second thought, I’m going to revise that slighly downward to the 6.13-6.14 range.

    jb

  13. LB says:

    I wonder if that proposed racetrack will get tied up in as much red tape as the one that has been in the works in Staten Island. I’ve been wondering for years what we can do to create a bigger traffic mess in Staten Island, a.k.a. “the gateway to where people need to go” Our prayers may be answered yet!

    Good thing them there races won’t be runnin’ every weekend.

  14. bergenbubbleburst says:

    How relevant is the median price,as far as an indicator.

    I see in my town in Bergen Co, supposedly one of th the better towns, that asking prices are back to in mnay cases 2004 levels, and nothing is selling.

    I also watch inventory in Franklin Lakes,and the Saddle Rivers (not that i am going to live there), to gauge how the high end is doing,and inventory in those towns are through the roof.

    Yet the graph shows that the median price iN Bergen Co dropped only 0.75% from last year. It does not make sense to me, and I also see that in other counties such as Passaic that the median price actually increased.

    How should one interpert this data?, Is it valid? Any thoyghts?

  15. Pat says:

    I saw something funny when I searched my zip on Melissadata last night. It doesn’t mean anything, but is funny. How’d you like to be that lone sale posted in November (from June)?

    Month-Year Number of Sales Average Purchase
    11-2006 1 $60,000
    10-2006 170 $388,000
    08-2006 132 $375,000
    07-2006 50 $405,000

  16. Seneca says:

    6.048

    In other news, I have been getting new listing emails from a real estate agent that was ‘assigned’ to me when I requested to see a property with Prudential. She was a nice older lady, probably late 60’s, not at all who my husband and I wanted to deal with for real estate services, just moved to slow, literally.

    This morning I started getting my Pru listings from a new guy so I guess the realtor who had over 20 years of experience decided now was a good time to retire. Like I said, she was very nice, and spoke three more languages than I did so I hope she enjoys her retirement.

  17. twice shy says:

    6.14 — in line with JB

  18. cliffy says:

    6.09 MIL

  19. Mark in South Jersey says:

    Surely the median prices are getting skewed upward by activity in the upper price ranges. A massive drop in sales does not equate to higher house prices.

  20. BC Bob says:

    bergenbubbleburst,

    I see the same in southern bc. Closed sales prices are off approx 10-12% off their 2005 highs and inventory is growing at 2004 prices.

  21. RentinginNJ says:

    I don’t think anyone seriously believes that prices are still going up in NJ.

    What appears to be happening is that sales are falling off across the borad. Sales of “affordable” homes (i.e. under $400k for the sake of argument) have fallen off more than sales of higher priced homes. “Affordable” homes made up 56.6% of sales in the 3rd qtr. 2005 versus 52.8% of sales in the 3rd qtr 2006. This does not appear to be due to lack of availability as the inventory of unsold homes has generally risen for all prices points.

    Anecdotally, I’m hearing two basic stories with increased frequency:
    1) Many first time buyers that I know have either given up on their home search or have decided to wait to see how far prices fall. A year or two ago, it was more about just getting in the game before prices passed you by.
    2) I have talked to a number of people who have bought a higher priced home under the assumption that their lower priced home would sell quickly.

    So, it looks like first time buyers are sitting on the sidelines. If true, this has the impact of reducing the number of sales in the lower price range, which will push up the median and average sale prices.

  22. AntiTrump says:

    Median price is the mid point of all the homes sold. I will try to explain with an example of how price pressures start from the higher end of the market and and it price declines will have to trickle down before it affects the median price.

    For example let us say that 11 homes sold on the market at these prices in 2005:

    100K
    200K
    300K
    400K
    450K
    500K Median
    600K
    700K
    800K
    900K
    1000K

    Now the price decline starts fromthe top so lets say that that in 2006 the most expensive homes start to take a 10% cut so the numbers will look like this.

    100K
    200K
    300K
    400K
    450K
    500K Median
    540K
    630K
    720K
    810K
    900K

    As you can see from this example that the high end homes were so ridiculously prices that even after a 10% cut, it may not affect the median price. The 20% cuts have to trickle down through out the price range to see significant moves in the median.

  23. Mark in South Jersey says:

    The report shows that the average price is up as well, statewide and in all regions. If movement in high end homes skewed the median up, shouldn’t the average price have gone down?

    Looking at average prices, South Jersey is almost flat, but the North is up about 2% YOY. Can anyone make sense out of this?

  24. bergenbubbleburst says:

    SOrry, but I am still confused, and still do not understand how to interpert these numbers. In my town nothing has sold since July, and we have over 80 SFH’s and condos for sale as we head into December.

  25. Mark in South Jersey says:

    Housing Bubble Blog just reported that Northeast median existing home prices are down 5.2% YOY. New York State is down 6%.

  26. RentinginNJ says:

    Looking at average prices, South Jersey is almost flat, but the North is up about 2% YOY. Can anyone make sense out of this?

    See post 21.
    I would argue that first time buyers are on the sidelines so that fewer lower priced homes are actually being sold. This will push up both the median and average prices.

  27. Mark in South Jersey says:

    RentinginNJ,

    Yes, that makes sense. Adjusting for inflation, it is a drop anyway.

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