People still want to live here?

From the Record:

Sales of starter homes spark rise in North Jersey real estate activity

When Makeda and Kai Mallea started shopping for a house in Maywood, they had to compete with other eager buyers.

“Houses would come on the market and disappear instantly. There would be five or six offers on the table,” says Kai Mallea, a 32-year-old software engineer.

So when he and his wife, a social worker, saw a three-bedroom colonial they liked, they realized they had to act quickly.

“We looked at the home, we liked it, we drove around the neighborhood to check it out, and we put in an offer that night,” Mallea recalls.

The Malleas’ experience reflects a jump in demand for North Jersey homes — especially starter homes — during the spring, traditionally the liveliest home-buying season.

According to the New Jersey Realtors, the volume of sales from January through May rose almost 20 percent in Bergen County and 28 percent in Passaic County over the same period last year. And buyers’ hunger for homes left the supply of properties on the market down about 17 percent in both counties in May, the most recent figures available.

Even with the increased demand, prices have barely budged. According to the New Jersey Realtors, single-family homes sold for a median $439,000 in Bergen and $288,250 in Passaic in the first five months of the year — both little changed from a year earlier. That could be because after watching home prices crater in the housing bust, buyers (and their mortgage lenders) are wary about overpaying.

Realtors say that while the luxury market has been cool this spring, the under-$400,000 price range has been busy, with bidding wars often breaking out over houses in good condition.

This spring’s activity in the starter-house market cuts against the grain of recent nationwide trends.

First-timers have been conspicuously absent from the home market in recent years, making up only about 30 percent of buyers, down from long-term averages around 40 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Millennials have held back because of student debt, a preference for urban lifestyles and a concern that homes may not be a wise investment, after watching property values plummet in the housing crash about 10 years ago.

But many of those millennials seem to be moving toward homeownership, as they marry and have children or just grow tired of paying ever-rising rents.

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27 Responses to People still want to live here?

  1. Mike says:

    Good Morning New Jersey

  2. GOP's broken (the good one) says:

    you can’t go wrong at that price. in that range you mostly paying for land, the house is a freebie

    “the under-$400,000 price range has been busy”

  3. Mike says:

    Having a discussion here at work, can anybody give a rough estimate on what it would cost to build one of those 60’s style splits at todays prices? 3BR 1 1/2 BA 1 Car Gar

  4. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    ever since yesterday, I’ve noticed that the new narrative is to paint Johnson as psychotic. Listening to CNN on the way to work they have a full court press on to do just that.

    I guess Tsarnaev, Omar, the San Bernadino shooters, the guy who killed cops in New York City, and the rest are all not guilty by reason of insanity

  5. walking bye says:

    Mike I would say low end where you have contractor friends would cost you $250k. Nicer finishes, retail price, you would be looking at $400k. You could also just do a pre fab home. See Westchester modular. they are around $150sf or around $300k, plus site work and final finishes.

  6. 3b says:

    Guess that may wood couple will be sending their children to private high school.

  7. Juice Box digging his own grave says:

    go long nintendo.

  8. grim says:

    Around $300k to build it.

    But you’d be crazy to, you could go much larger for a marginal increase in price.

    Which is why the only homes build are huge McMansions.

  9. grim says:

    Until some 9 year old gets killed playing Go.

  10. Juice Box digging his own grave says:

    Age of 13 and older to register otherwise a parent has to do it. The TOS is pretty long too, I am sure it will cover stupidity just as well as google or any other app.

  11. grim says:

    Price per square foot drops dramatically with every additional square foot.

    The first 1000 are incredibly expensive, the next 1000 isn’t bad, the third thousand is almost free.

    Financially, you would be crazy not to build to the maximum the lot size permits in many cases.

  12. Mike says:

    Thank You

  13. grim says:

    Not to beat a dead horse, but building a small home might be an absolute financial disaster from a resale perspective.

    By the time you consider the lot, approvals, and construction of a small house, it will be significantly overpriced to comps.

    For example, $350k lot+approvals – which is not out of line, $300k construction costs, you are talking about a 3 bedroom home with a $650k price tag, and this isn’t with very high end finishes, etc.

    When the size comp is selling for $400-450k, or maybe $500-550k fully renovated, it would be impossible to resell the property.

    Renovating a used house is the way to go if you are looking for smaller sizes. Especially when you are considering you are essentially getting the “bones” for free – once you consider a comparable buildable lot, approvals, architects, etc. If the style, size, and layout work for you, its going to be more than $150k cheaper.

  14. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Dead on. My brother built his own house.

    grim says:
    July 11, 2016 at 11:58 am
    Not to beat a dead horse, but building a small home might be an absolute financial disaster from a resale perspective.

    By the time you consider the lot, approvals, and construction of a small house, it will be significantly overpriced to comps.

    For example, $350k lot+approvals – which is not out of line, $300k construction costs, you are talking about a 3 bedroom home with a $650k price tag, and this isn’t with very high end finishes, etc.

    When the size comp is selling for $400-450k, or maybe $500-550k fully renovated, it would be impossible to resell the property.

    Renovating a used house is the way to go if you are looking for smaller sizes. Especially when you are considering you are essentially getting the “bones” for free – once you consider a comparable buildable lot, approvals, architects, etc. If the style, size, and layout work for you, its going to be more than $150k cheaper.

  15. grim – That’s the whole point. Augmented reality is getting hit by a bus while you are finding pokemon in the “real” world.

    Until some 9 year old gets killed playing Go.

  16. GOP's broken (the good one) says:

    @WSJecon
    Americans don’t want tiny houses: New homes were biggest on record last year (again)

    By JEFFREY SPARSHOTT
    Jun 2, 2016 12:02 pm ET
    42 COMMENTS
    Americans want bigger houses. Or at least that’s what they’re getting.

    The median size of a new single-family house was 2,467 square feet last year, the biggest on record, according to Census Bureau data out this week.

    With all that floor space, homes are 61% larger than the median from 40 years earlier and 11% larger than a decade earlier.

  17. Comrade Nom Deplume, the Deplumiest. says:

    [15] pumps

    “Dead on. My brother built his own house.”

    Too bad he didn’t have your financial acumen an unerring clairvoyance.

  18. Comrade Nom Deplume, the Deplumiest. says:

    Or unerring clairvoyance even.

    My iPhone voice recognition has developed some really curious habits, not the least of which is changing a word long after it recorded it.

    Today, I was dictating emails and it kept adding “I love” to the beginning of each new passage. Fortunately the messages hadn’t gone out when I saw this. That has to be the most bizarre glitch yet.

  19. [19] Nom – The voice recognition software has a feature where if it can determine your political bias as conservative it will do it’s best to twist your words. MSM is already using a similar algorithm to write first drafts of news stories.

  20. Record close for the S&P, but not a real strong close. The S&P 500 finished below the high of the first minute of trading.

  21. What a difference 2-1/2 weeks makes. If you wanted to build a 3,6,9,12 month CD ladder inside an Ameritrade IRA right now you would get .5%, .6%, .6%, .65%.

    The Original NJ ExPat says:
    June 24, 2016 at 8:53 am
    Back in April I laddered cash in brokered CDs at Ameritrade within an IRA account. I bought 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 1 year CDs at about .3%, .4%, .6%, .7%. The best rates right now are .6%, .6%, .75%, .9%. All are FDIC insured and sellable on the secondary market without penalty.

  22. Here’s how we/they roll in Boston:

    Tomorrow July 12, between 4:00pm and 7:00pm, BCC and its Social Impact Committee
    will be providing space for our community to come together to grieve, to spark
    dialogue, to be a helping hand. Food and drink will be provided. There will be an
    activity area for younger children. This gathering will be held at the BCC offices
    at 112 Shawmut Ave, Boston, MA 02118.
    On July 5 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Alton Sterling was pinned down by police, shot
    twice in the chest, and then four more times. Sterling was pronounced dead shortly
    after. Less than 48 hours later in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Philando Castile was fatally
    shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. His girlfriend and her 4-year-old
    daughter were both in the car. On July 7 at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas,
    Texas, snipers shot and killed 5 police officers, wounding several others.
    UPDATE: The Dallas shooting suspect was killed by a remote-controlled robot after
    negotiations with authorities. Early on Saturday morning, two Houston police officers
    shot and killed Alva Braziel in Houston. Several more conflicts emerged over this
    weekend.
    Our hearts go out to the families and communities affected by this violence. We
    are incensed by the injustice of violence on people of color(my insert)…unless it happens to be violence on the color white, dressed in blue, or in the ‘hood by our own people to our own people. Then it’s cool. Just business. Stay the fcuk out cops and snitches!!!, the disparities that
    exist in our criminal justice system, and the structures in place that teach us
    that Americans deserve different degrees of fundamental rights based on their race,
    their gender, their religion, their identity.
    Bias is learned. Prejudice is learned. Hatred is learned.
    These acts of violence affect every single one of us, because they impact the larger
    community that we are a part of. Instead of walking away, let’s come together. Instead
    of turning away, let’s unite our diverse communities, show compassion, do our part,
    and support each other. We write this in pain, knowing that while we plan and prepare
    our next season, our singers and our families are grieving. Let’s lift each other
    up.

  23. Bias is learned. Prejudice is learned. Hatred is learned. How to carry your drugs and gun is learned.

  24. Essex says:

    Do people still want to live ‘here’…and by here we mean the general area.
    Thankfully ‘yes’ things are selling. Signs are coming down from lawns. Our time will come and we’ll belly up to the beast and live the rest of the winners in our happy little hamlets. Amen.

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