From the Record:
Region’s home prices tick up 2.8%
As the housing market continues to recover, single-family home prices in the New York metropolitan area ticked up 2.8 percent in the year that ended in April, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indexes reported Tuesday.
Nationally, prices rose 4.2 percent, according to Case-Shiller.
Home prices in the region are back to the levels of July 2004 and remain about 18.7 percent below their peaks in mid-2006, according to Case-Shiller Nationally, home values are at the levels of autumn 2004, about 14 percent to 16 percent below their peaks.
“Home prices continue to rise across the country, but the pace is not accelerating,” David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement. “Recent housing data is positive. Sales of new and existing homes are rising, and construction of new homes enjoyed strong gains in May.”
Prices in the region didn’t fall as far as national averages during the housing crash, so they have not rebounded as quickly as the market has recovered. In addition, home values in New Jersey are under downward pressure from a large backlog of distressed properties heading into foreclosure. And New Jersey’s job market has been slower to heal after the recession than the national employment market, which has limited the ability of many families to buy homes. New Jersey’s unemployment rate of 6.5 percent is a full percentage point above the national rate.
Case-Shiller does not break out home values by county, but according to New Jersey Realtors, single-family prices in Bergen County were a median $462,500 in April, up 6.9 percent from April 2014. The median in Passaic was $282,250, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier.
S&P Case Shiller NY Metro – April
Low Tier (Under $273311)
YOY – 4.2%
2YOY – 8.7%
3YOY – 14.3%
Middle Tier ($273311 – $438202)
YOY – 3.1%
2YOY – 8.2%
3YOY – 11.1%
High Tier (Over $438202)
YOY – 2.4%
2YOY – 8.5%
3YOY – 11.1%
Aggregate (Overall Market)
YOY – 2.8%
2YOY – 8.4%
3YOY – 11.1%
Home prices in the region are back to the levels of July 2004 and remain about 18.7 percent below their peaks in mid-2006, according to Case-Shiller.
Mortgage rates are negligible and there’s no inventory and this is the best we can do? What does that tell you? What does the phrase “as we continue to recover” really mean when people are sitting in a house 10 years later and are still close to 20% under their purchase price? This is a recovery? Oh, did we forget the slow, steady march of property taxes? When I finally received the nonsense pre-approval the other day, the lender’s voice on the phone was shaking as she asked what the property taxes are for the house I was interested in purchasing.
Here’s a flip that flopped and is still looking for a buyer. It’s 24/7 traffic noise for those that miss the truck route of 1&9. Purchased at 369K eleven years ago and asking 629K today:
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1516400&dayssince=&countysearch=false
1.55 Mil and $27,700 in taxes. That’s chump change for this area, right?
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1511823&dayssince=&countysearch=false
Look! Saddle Brook, kids! Only 13K in taxes on a postage stamp-sized property! How many things can you find wrong with this behemoth?
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1526443&dayssince=&countysearch=false
And here’s the funny thing; if you go FHA you still have to pay mortgage insurance regardless of how much you put down. lol! The banks get a bailout and you get to pay for it. This is the new normal, my little muppets.
Got a nice place in Cedar Grove, top of the mountain, nearly brand new place on a fantastic piece of property. Could probably get you a private party sale. Just a bit north of a million, $18k taxes. Way nicer than those shitholes in Woodcliff Lake. 4/2.5 – 4k square feet. Huge tall basement with stairs out the back, you could easily finish and add another 2k square feet. Very detailed trim work, tall ceilings, nice deck out the back, 3 car garage, pavers, nice landscaping.
Just north of a million dollars? Sure, let me get my checkbook. ;)
Hey, it’s what I got. Decent taxes in Cedar Grove, nice place, would have went for $1.5+ easily during the bubble. Owners actually bought the lot in foreclosure in the early 90s for peanuts. They sat on it and finally built. They put a ton into the house since the lot cost was minimal. Much nicer than the other properties in the area that were a little cut rate in the construction. They didn’t go hog-wild with the size like the others in the neighborhood (mostly 5k+), so the taxes are more reasonable in comparison). Kids gone, downsizing.
The sellers will give you a few thousand towards closing costs if you can pronounce the listing agent’s name:
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1523961&dayssince=&countysearch=false
grim,
It’s a “tad” out of my price range. :)
Oregon launches program to tax drivers by the mile.
So much for saving money driving a hybrid.
Fascinating listing. People bought two homes bull dozed them both and built this place.
Now it is up for sale:
http://tinyurl.com/q5oadns
Not a fan of the tax bill, but man what a place….
sx (13)-
I’ll skip the 33.7K tax bill.
14. It’s excessive. Agreed.
Wish that I knew the backstory here and what they put in this place.
OMG…a dream come true…supreme court don’t let me down.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/30/supreme-court-takes-up-dispute-over-union-fees/
Ben (16)-
This is a practice that is extortionate. My wife, as a skool secretary, has to pay into a union that routinely turns around and throws skool secretaries under the bus in negotiations.
I’ve helped my wife come up with some very creative ways to exact revenge on the union leaders, though…
My wife can disable a copier in under three seconds.
My union negotiates every 3 years. The past 2 negotiations, what I got was a step freeze, no raise, increased healthcare contributions. My paycheck dollarwise didn’t move for six straight years. Meanwhile, they collected 7k in dues from me under the premise that I would still benefit from their negotiations even if I am not a member. What sucks is they put a provision in your contract stating you can’t move higher than an incremental step. That means, no raise is ever possible.
I was basically forced to apply to jobs elsewhere. The big joke is, I pay them 7k to freeze my contract for six years essentially. And in 3 days, of going out on my own, I secured a $23k raise. Tell me again why I needed them at all? IMO, they cost me over $100k in salary over the years with their BS.
@BernieSanders: When you destroy unions, there will be nobody left to negotiate decent jobs for the middle class. #SCOTUS
20. If money is your primary motivator, you chose the wrong profession.
If you are unsure of what a union has brought to the teaching profession, you need to read up on your history.
@BernieSanders: When you destroy unions, there will be nobody left to negotiate decent jobs for the middle class. #SCOTUS
There are no middle class jobs. If you want a middle class-type lifestyle, you got to move to Binghamton NY or someplace similar.
10 – Fast Eddie, She works in my office. NJ Real Estate Commission requires that all advertising contain the agents legal name. This includes signs, business cards and media. She goes by Margaret.
23. You laugh perhaps, but these communities are having the last laugh. I don’t know about Binghamton, but there are many places where the homes are gorgeous, the taxes are low, and everyone is above average.
Essex,
…the homes are gorgeous, the taxes are low, and everyone is above average.
Would they trade their life
For fortune and fame
Even cut their hair
And change their name?
Are there any unicorns? You can’t be above average without unicorns prancing through the fields at night.
The housing stock here is beat. You want something nice? $700k bitchez
If money is your primary motivator, you chose the wrong profession.
If you are unsure of what a union has brought to the teaching profession, you need to read up on your history.
I knew exactly what profession I got into. And, that’s not true for my subject are. I teach Physics. There actually is a big shortage…and by shortage, I mean…positions are going to go unfilled. You can demand what you want if you are in my position.
@BernieSanders: When you destroy unions, there will be nobody left to negotiate decent jobs for the middle class. #SCOTUS
What Bernie doesn’t realize because he is such an asshole is that preventing unions from being able to force you to contribute dues means that unions might actually have to work for their membership. It might actually empower them. The only ones who will destroy the union are the unions themselves.
I’ve seen towns with good unions that actually negotiate for their membership. I’ve also seen unions where the leaders just negotiate a sweet deal for themselves on the side while they screw over the rest of the membership.
28. Sure Ben. Keep telling your self that.
keep telling myself what?
Well guys and gals been lurking lately, glad to see a lot of the old crew still about.
Gary buy a house already!!
If edumacation isn’t all about money, why the fcuk does every decent college out there run 50k/year?
I sell wine to lots of stores & restaurants in college towns. These mf’ers and their admins live like Goldman associates.
Gonna enjoy it when the final bubble- financialized higher ed- finally bursts.
Most people I meet in higher academia are Bernie Sanders buttboys who have zero life experience, zero skills and a heavy inclination to foist their collectivist views on the paying customers. Boy, there’s a real recipe for success…
The most dyed-in-the-wool collectivists are the ones snarfing up my Gevreys, Chambolles, grower Champagnes and classified Bordeaux. They really nut all over the ones that are also organic & biodynamic. Makes ’em feel like they’re saving the planet every time they want to pound back a few.
Can’t wait to see some of these bitchez chugging tetrapak Garnacha in the park once college tuitions deflate back into the 10K range.
[5, 10]:
What’s with these prices? Is Saddle Brook the new Ridgewood?
Employers are demanding college degrees and even postgraduate degrees for a higher proportion of jobs. Mindful of this trend, teens and young people in their 20’s are still reading textbooks when previous generations were punching time clocks.
The recession “basically told everybody that they need an education to get better jobs,” says John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “So how would young people respond? They stayed in school.”
Fewer than 39 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds are employed, down from 56 percent in 2000. For people ages 20 to 24, the proportion has fallen to 64 percent from 72 percent.
— The number of part-timers who would prefer full-time work remains high.
About 6.5 million workers are working part time but want full-time jobs, up from 4.6 million before the recession began. This is partly a reflection of tepid economic growth. But economists also point to long-term factors: Industries such as hotels and restaurants that hire many part-timers are driving an increasing share of job growth, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have found.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/theres-a-new-normal-in-americas-job-market-and-it-isnt-pretty-2015-7#ixzz3es472lkH
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
The Internet is officially too big
http://usat.ly/1LZS4oR
Essex,
If a group of people want to bargain together, great good for them… why should they be granted special privileges?
Ditto for any individual or group or entity
Re: #39 – pumpkin that might as well be a 15 year old story. IPV6 already exists.
Screw the issue with bids, the real story is closing costs
.
Re: #36 – lending bubble will never end. There is no turning back.
A little known side effect of Obamacare was a stealth bailout of unions. Smaller employers are now letting in unions in order to shift healthcare (and pensions but primarily healthcare) over to multi employer plans. Then, in some cases, the unions are sending them to exchanges!
Beautiful.
Fcking pools. My pool is now cloudy. Added the chemicals per the pool store recommendation and now it will take days for stuff to dissapate. TOmmorrow will be a bust anyway if it rains. Kids Will have to deal with a movie. Thankfully this year’s party is smaller compared to last year, NEXT YEAR I AM GOING AWAY.
Thanks for listening.
In response…..the real answer is stay healthy and also inherit a lot of money..
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-05/getting-rich-in-america-depends-on-a-lot-more-than-a-college-degree
Essex says:
July 3, 2015 at 6:42 pm
Employers are demanding college degrees and even postgraduate degrees for a higher proportion of jobs. Mindful of this trend, teens and young people in their 20′s are still reading textbooks when previous generations were punching time clocks.
The recession “basically told everybody that they need an education to get better jobs,” says John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “So how would young people respond? They stayed in school.”
Fewer than 39 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds are employed, down from 56 percent in 2000. For people ages 20 to 24, the proportion has fallen to 64 percent from 72 percent.
— The number of part-timers who would prefer full-time work remains high.
About 6.5 million workers are working part time but want full-time jobs, up from 4.6 million before the recession began. This is partly a reflection of tepid economic growth. But economists also point to long-term factors: Industries such as hotels and restaurants that hire many part-timers are driving an increasing share of job growth, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco have found.
I opened my pool two weeks ago. With weather and schedules, no one has used it yet. Next year, I’m not opening until late June, and if the wife wants to travel again, early July
I fired the pool guy, thought I could do better myself,and save a few grand. Well good news is there are lots of neighbors lighting off fireworks tonight. Tommorow won’t be a bust since my sister who lives in NY is bringing lots, NY changed their laws on fireworks, If the cops show I can only hope liberty is not dead.
Cheers…
40. Why should any group be provided special privileges?
The power of collective bargaining? I suppose.
If they’re gonna keep pushing back the retirement age we may as well burn off a few more years in college. If I’m retiring at 73 you bet I want a PhD and the attendant seven extra years of free love, walking to work and readily available drugs.
Drugs. That got my attention. Who has the drugs, and what can you sell to me?
Whoops. Little sleepy there. Gotta mow in the AM.
Never mind on that druggy thing…thanks!
President Obama is right on the money with his new proposal to expand overtime pay. It will make some 5 million more people eligible, the equivalent of a minimum wage bump for the middle class.
Like Republicans, Obama believes in hard work and the American Dream. That’s why he’s looking to close a loophole in federal regulations that allows employers to shamelessly exploit their hardest workers.
Under current Labor Department rules, if you’re on the job more than 40 hours a week, you’re supposed to get overtime pay. But if you are an “executive” earning more than a measly $23,600 a year, you don’t qualify.
What this means is that some guy flipping burgers in a paper hat gets slapped on the back, promoted to “manager” and put on an annual salary, only to find out he’s now required to work more hours, without any more pay. Overall, he may end up earning less hourly than other workers, for doing the exact same job.
And for what? The prestige?
MORE STAR-LEDGER EDITORIALS
Yet people dare not complain, for fear of being fired. Obama is now stepping in to make sure what happens in the workplace is more fair. He’s planning to raise the salary threshold to qualify for overtime from $23,600 a year to $51,000. It has been bumped only once in the last 40 years, and it’s high time we did it again.
“Overtime is a pretty simple idea,” Obama says. “If you have to work more, you should get paid more.”
Amen. Yet the very same Republicans who talk big about hard work are already hating on this actual policy to benefit hard workers. They think the fake title nonsense is just fine.
“Government shouldn’t be in the business of mandating how much employers pay, or the level of benefits they provide,” former Gov. Rick Perry said.
So forget the minimum wage, too, right? Bring on the sweatshops.
Good thing Obama can do this on his own. Even if businesses continue to avoid paying overtime by instead increasing the hours of their part-time workers, that’s still a much fairer scenario. And economists say it will result in part timers getting jobs closer to full-time, and more workers being added to the payroll. That lowers the unemployment rate and drives up wages.
Back in 1975, more than 60 percent of employees qualified for overtime. Now, it’s just 10 percent — yet another factor fueling economic injustice in this country.
As the rich get even richer, capturing a much bigger share of economic growth, middle class people have seen their wages stagnate and can’t afford to send their kids to college.
Instead, they are awarded meaningless titles that make a joke out of their hard work. Think about that the next time a politician talks about the American Dream.
[48] juice
A few grand? Are you running an Olympics sized pool over there?
Crap, I’ll come help you open and close it for half. I pay approx $600 a year for two guys to open and close.
Essex,
Bargaining collectively is their leverage, it is already present… the government doesn’t need to be involved.