Mon 24 Mar 2008
2 Green Hill Road, Chester NJ
Purchase Price: $1,129,000
Purchased: 5/11/2006
Current Asking Price: $950,000 (Short Sale)
16% under 2006 purchase price
History
MLS# 2447201
Listed: 9/4/2007
Original List Price: $1,199,000
Reduced: $950,000
Days on Market: 182
Active
Frist!
I have, literally, hundreds of short sales to post.
Grim
Your comp killer from Cliffside park was on channel 7 { Charles Gibbons} news tonight, under real estate segement, be proud!!! Many people{me included } use the blog for REAL information.
I love comp killers from Western Morris County…my neck of the woods! Great Job
JIM
#2 Grim,
Can you post some for Warren, Green Brook, and the Chathams?
Real curious. I’ve noticed listing prices down over 10% since the summer on some houses. I suspect a lot of houses bought in 04 & 05 are upside down with 03 purchases going under in the next year.
Grim, can you get me out of moderation.
Thanks! JIM
American consumption
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725094,00.html
NYT article by Fox Business ripping Kramer’s call on BSC:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/original/FBNAd.pdf
This site gets more traffic than Fox Business news.
(I’m kidding, but not by much)
I think Cramer’s show is fun, he makes a fool of himself, no one takes him serious. I remember when he said BS was fine, I also remember he hinted you should buy the common stock, damn I’m sure someone did it. Nothing on TV is real, never was, never will be.
From Forbes/Thompson Financial:
Chicago Fed index indicates recession has probably begun
The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s National Activity Index for February sent a signal that a recession has probably begun in the US.
The February reading for the National Activity Index (NAI) fell to -1.04 from -0.68 in January, with all four broad categories in the index negative. It was the three-month moving average (MA3M) of the index which the Chicago Fed says created the recession signal.
It was below the -0.70 ‘threshold’ at -0.87 for February, and ’such an occurrence following a period of economic expansion indicates an increasing likelihood that a recession has begun,’ the statement said.
Worse still, downward revisions to previous data, especially employment, cut the previous two months below the -0.70 threshold as well, to -0.73 in January and -0.78 in December, making three consecutive months of recessionary indicators.
‘Before revision, the index had only flirted with a recession signal but today’s data are more convincing of an outright downturn’ said economist Joeff Hall at Thomson IFR Markets.
Seems like a sales pitch:
Where to Find Million Dollar Foreclosures:
http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/where-to-find-million-dollar-foreclosures.html
I’d like to know what %% of these homes were failed flips. I can’t see people throwing in the towel after 2 years unless they really overextended themselves..
-R
I think GSMLS will have a nice increase in inventory tommorow, couldn’t sign on 7 out 10 times today.
KL
The following is a comment from the RGE monitor. I find it interesting as I feel strongly that Reinvestor is one of those whose IQ is most definitely
Why does my gut tell me that sellers will “stick it out” until salaries are comparable to these ridiculous asking prices? Shut up gut…
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street strategists and industry analysts now expect first-quarter earnings at Standard & Poor’s 500 .SPX companies to decline 5.5 percent from a year earlier, twice the 2.7 percent decline they had forecast just one week ago, according to Reuters Estimates.
A SFH near me sold at a loss recently. The previous owner bought for 375k in 2005, just sold for 366k.
57 Chicago Ave in 08854.
From Reuters:
Wall Street may cut 20,000 jobs over 2 years: report
New York City risks losing more than 20,000 jobs in the high-paying financial sector over the next two years as the crisis in mortgage markets drives down Wall Street’s profits, according to a report issued on Monday.
The city’s Independent Budget Office, in its report, estimated that Wall Street’s profits for 2007 will sink by more than 80 percent to the lowest level since 1994.
Profits for 2007 are expected to total just $3.2 billion, down from $20.9 billion in 2006, the report said.
Banks and brokerages account for almost 35 percent of all salaries and wages in New York City. Fallout from investments in the risky subprime mortgage market has forced Wall Street banks to write-down more than $150 billion — and more red ink is expected.
“The economic situation is particularly precarious. If the problems affecting Wall Street and housing worsen, the recession will be deeper and the fiscal pressures on the city will quickly mount,” said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the Independent Budget Office.
A good read, and stock market keeps going up, are people really that stupid, or is the FED keeping it inflated, you be the judge.
JIM
From Eyewitness News:
Did Casey Properties rip off investors?
More than a dozen of them from New Jersey are now suing a property management company that they say lied to them.
It’s quite a mess.
…
The Totawa, New Jersey-based property management firm is still in business, despite a guilty plea by an associate to federal charges of money laundering. Not only is there a criminal investigation, but also now a civil suit alleges a widespread real estate investment scheme.
They are hard-working people who say they once had oustanding credit, before they met disbarred attorney Martin Gendel and his real estate agent son, Seth. Now, it’s all changed.
“My credit is just totally shot,” investor Barbara Borys said.
“It has just ruined my life,” James Reno said. “I can’t take out a loan. I can’t refinance my house.”
The group, consisting of more than a half dozen investors, now claims in a civil lawsuit that they were enticed to invest in homes in several New Jersey neighborhoods, primarily in Paterson. The appeal: No money down and, the biggest selling point, that a property management firm, Casey Properties, would handle all of the details, including collecting money from tenants to make mortgage payments.
“They were supposed to take care of everything,” Borys said. “They took care of nothing.”
The end result was that the homes ended up in foreclosure, and some of the investors were hit with default judgments.
“Right now, I have a judgment on me for $300,000,” Robert Meyer said.
Many in the group bought multiple homes, compounding their credit crisis.
“It’s a scam,” Reno said. “I bought three houses with them. They were dumps. They need thousands of dollars worth of repairs, and they said they were going to do that, and they never did.”
One more time then I give up!
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/#more-1979
SA: Financials Likely in Dead Cat Bounce, But Fed’s Now a Wildcard
http://tinyurl.com/2qoy9h
“Today’s announcement that sales of existing homes rose unexpectedly is likely the result of a rising tide of foreclosed homes sold at auction, which is horrible news, as this will crash prices — see slide 15 of our presentation on what’s going on in San Diego.”
A good read, and stock market keeps going up, are people really that stupid, or is the FED keeping it inflated, you be the judge.
Most of the best days in stock market history happend during the Great Depression.
Downturns are full of false bottoms and sucker rallies.
For those who believe in Elliot Wave, the charts are predicting a short term rally followed by a prolonged downturn.
NBC news had a report on downtown condos crashing all around the USA, not just Miami or Fort Lauderdale:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#23782892
It makes sense. Baby boomers looking to downsize and move to a city can’t do it unless they sell their house first, so a lot of downtown renovations are stalling nationwide. If a small city in Washington State with views of Puget Sound is having trouble selling their projects, it doesn’t bode well for NJ downtowns with views of … err… umm….
A New Jersey carpenters’ union has accused homebuilding giant D.R. Horton of engaging in an illegal scheme to hire undocumented workers and to pay them as independent contractors.
The accusations were made in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in Middlesex County Superior Court and center on work at D.R. Horton’s Plaza Grande at Garden State Park in Cherry Hill.
The New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters, which has 17,000 members, said D.R. Horton fired a union contractor and replaced it with a nonunion subcontractor who hired undocumented workers.
Those workers, the lawsuit said, were “misclassified” as independent contractors and paid in cash, which allowed Horton to avoid paying benefits and taxes.
That practice would violate the state’s racketeering acts, as well as a 2007 law designed to protect vulnerable workers and punish employers who try to avoid taxes, the union said.
The union said employers who hire and pay undocumented workers in this way cost the state “millions of dollars” in taxes.
The sponsor of the 2007 law, former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo (D., Essex), said the lawsuit marked a “historic day for New Jersey, because workers are standing up and saying ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
“It’s time for Horton to put people above profits,” he said.
A spokeswoman at D.R. Horton’s corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
Horton bills itself as the country’s largest homebuilder, delivering more than 41,000 new homes in the 2007 fiscal year.
Horton is constructing a residential complex of 608 condominiums at Garden State Park.
The carpenters’ union is represented in the case by Albert Kroll, a former New Jersey commissioner of labor. He said in a statement that “we will show that this scheme reaches to the highest levels at D.R. Horton.”
“This is the most blatant abuse of laws I have seen in a long time,” he said.
Horton complained that union workers were doing substandard work and were working too slowly and fired the union contractor after about six months, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit quotes a Horton executive as saying the company was “trying to get rid of all the unions on the job site” and offering to write a check “to make this all go away.”
The company allowed two union carpenters to remain on the job, but hired a new subcontractor who brought in the undocumented labor.
The two union workers served as “watchdog employees,” the suit said. One of those carpenters spoke Spanish and learned from the new workers that many “had recently come into the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande,” the lawsuit said.
Those workers said they were being paid $12 to $15 an hour with no overtime pay. Others said they had to buy their own tools and safety equipment, the lawsuit said.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20080321_Union_accuses_Horton_of_illegal_hiring_ploy.html
grim,
hello and thank you for your site and all the info. almost had myself convinced that i would be “priced out forever” over the past few years. i have been lurking for awhile now and i thought i had better introduce myself to you and all the regular posters.
you said you have a lot of short sales to post. i thought i could help with this one:
4 holly jill lane, delaware twp (western hunterdon county)
purchased 4/12/06 for $434,000
listed 5/23/07 for $450,000
reduced to $410,000 (expired)
re-listed 11/24/07 for $410,000
under contract as of 1/1/08
mls# 2463598
please keep up the good work. and thanks.
First comp killer - kind of nice. not sure i would buy, but like the trees in the front, especially the Japanese Maple(?).
Second comp killer - wow, that’s a lot of house. i guess if i needed room for all my in-laws, but really nice looking house.
What are taxes like in Chester?
JM
4beer (26)-
I know that property. A bona fide money pit. Even worse, it’s on a street full of crummy ’60s houses, in possibly the most scenic spot in NJ. I’ve seen sellers have trouble there, even when the market was hot.
I hope you don’t live on that street…
no clot i am just a renter that has been looking a long time. noticed that place and 1 and 7 holly jill also for sale. 7 was almost the last year on the market at 439k then withdrawn or expired. then relisted this month at 435k. lol…
Big fire in Los Angeles at a Condo building under construction.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6038544
NEW YORK - New York’s new governor, who disclosed last week that he and his wife both committed adultery several years ago, said Monday that he used cocaine in his 20s and smoked marijuana when he was younger.
Another Kettle boils over.
http://wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs/winter/?p=1505
and this one is for bi, Dow Jones Reports Home Builder Cancellation Rate Now 43%
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/03/dow-jones-reports-home-builder.html
grim, 32 is in moderation
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Reason No. 1: “Most Americans have yet to feel any of the costs of the Iraq war,” write Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in an excerpt of their new book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” in Vanity Fair. “The price in blood has been paid by members of the volunteer military. The price in treasure has been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for the war.”
Well, folks, the party’s over. Campaign rhetoric won’t hide America’s excesses, denial, incompetence and arrogance much longer. No matter who’s elected, taxes will increase to cover massive debts. Greed has driven America’s great economic engine into a “debt contagion” ditch with a recession, bear market, price inflation, and weak job and housing markets … you bet your taxes will increase.
Yes, our five-year war was totally financed by borrowing. But unfortunately, “deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed. They cannot. Americans will have to pay for the war at some point — and when they do, they will be paying not the Bush markdown but the full price,” the authors say.
Bedtime reading if you want to have a nightmare.
http://wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs/winter/?p=1505
confused (31)-
Hey, he didn’t kill anybody.
That we know of yet.
Montvale
SLD 8 TERRY CT $595,000 12/1/2005
SLD 8 TERRY CT $550,000 3/14/2008
I track the Levittown development in Franklin as the homes are very similar and easy to benchmark.
They are starting to chase each other down.
Model which would sell for $420-$450 in 2005, were asking $399 not long ago. Foreclosure listed at $369, mint homes, similar model listed around $380, the foreclosure fell off and just reappeared at $345 and a bunch of other houses dropped another $20/$30 thousand.
Definite movement and definitely downward.
Any meaningful comp killer in Wayne?
36.Clot
Just strange that the best they can get for Governor in NY is an Adultorer, who does Crack & Maryjane, and steals from the Campaign Money for various Sundries. And we wonder why we have problems. You wonder, being legally blind, who was the Posse that got him drugs.
#15 joey: If they want to keep theri hosues on t the market for 10 years, than sure!!
Bklyn - I looked at house #1 before it sold last year. The outside looks better than the inside and it seemed like they have some flooding issues in the back yard. It is also on a busier road.
Chester taxes are middle of the road, but the houses in the township are almost all septic/well, so you aren’t getting as much for you money.
Commute to NYC could be an issue though.