At A Glance: Sparta, NJ
Listings As of 3/27
Total Active Listings: 148
Up To $500,000: 68
$500,001 – $1,000,000: 61
$1,000,001 And Up: 19
Listing Activity Since 3/1
64 Added
8 Back on Market
22 Price Reductions
37 Under Contract
13 Sold
23 Expired
4 Withdrawn
3 Temporarily Withdrawn
February Sales Activity
Up To $500,000: 8
$500,001 – $1,000,000: 8
$1,000,001 And Up: 0
Sales Prices were 5.82% below Original List Prices
(All data from GSMLS)
I’d love to see Rutherford done. I think it is at the high end of South Bergen, and I’m seeing deep cracks showing in the market…
Ok, repeat after me Sparter. I know this town well. Hey grim, I thought of another metric that may be worthwhile. The census has the total # of units in a given town. NOt that you don’t already go all out but would percentage of total be tough when you do at a glance? I think it would give an idea of the market tone.
148 units/ 6,590 = 2.25% of total units.
Anybody have an idea what historical averages for % on market is?
The link below (I hope)takes you to the jumping off point to the website where you plug in the name of the municipality.
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/AdvSearchByPlacenameServlet?_command=getResults&_keyword=montague&_programYear=50&_placename=06000US3403747430&_geoBucketId=50&_treeId=4001&_state=34&_lang=en
metroplexual,
The % units on market would be a very interesting stat. Great idea!
I would also like to see places that have been really built up like warren and basking ridge- this is where we see some major speculation by homebuilders(like our friend Mr Toll)
RW
Warren (the town) is not really built up. Much of the town has lots of over 1 acre. SOme towns that I’ve seen with agreat deal of development: West Windsor, Monroe, Hobokem, Edgewater
~Ok, repeat after me Sparter. I know this town well.
metro:
You lost me–what’s your point?
Roni
thanks for sparta listings. im currently looking there. i think i will rent for a year or so. i get the feeling real estate wont go up in the double digits this year. this way i can take my time and find the right place. thanks again.
Grim,
While we are piling-on the additional requests, how about total homes in a town in some phase of foreclosure.
http://www.realtytrac.com//freeSearchResult.asp
It’s a pretty simple search.
Sparta is currently showing 96:
74 Preforclosure
12 Auction
10 Banked Owned
In my experience, Realty Trac is notriously outdated. My records show only 23 NOD’s in Sparta since 9/1/2005 thru 2/28/2006.
The cracks are forming but we’re not there yet.
Tom
“D”igtal Breakfast
There are roughly 10 homes in Monroe owned by investors. They are all unoccuiped. Realtors have been calling me about these homes everday. There are a few properties in Primose Acres and several more homes in a community developed by Matzel and Mumford.
Grim-
Could you provide some information about Monroe? I have noticed many of the homes are starting to go stale. They have been on the market for an avaerageo f 60 days.
Jay
grimghost-
There are 81 properties on the market in Warren. When I wrote “built up” I meant “over built” in terms of new construction homes and not many buyers in sight. Certainly there is plenty of land to build, and these homes are on an acre of property. It is not the density of homes built next to one another rather the increasing inventory that is striking.
I think this area represents speculation by many home builders and these Mc Mansions are currently sitting unsold on the market. Just trying to offer another example of how those predictions Grim and others made a year ago are coming true. It will be an interesting market to watch.
A quick search on REALTOR.com and anyone can see for themselves the supply is staggering.
Your examples I am sure are just as relevant. Don’t simply dismiss my suggestions- you corrrected me in an earlier blog with information you were not entirely clear about.
If anyone is looking for fodder to support the bubble bursting watch these towns.
Anon — I have been watching Warren for around 6 months so I am quite familiar with the town. I’ve not looked much at the houses over 1M (other than to see that there are a lot of them).
Total inventory now in Warren is actually around where it was last Sep/Oct. It climbed to around 110-115 at one point in November/early Dec, but fell after that. Its only picked up a little in the last month or so (from 77 or so up).
I even made a bid on a house in Warren, bidding 10K over asking, but was beat out by another buyer who made an offer removing the inspection contigency (and the house did need work).
So Warren may have a lot of inventory, but its had more than that for a while. Last december, I saw some places go for good prices, that may happen again later this year. But not yet.
This post has been removed by the author.
Roni
It is just that alot of people who live there pronounce it that way.
BTW, the stat I quote is the census from 2000 so if alot of development has occurred in the town it may be off. However I know of projected stats for 2005 which could be more meaningful. The NJTPA did it in cooperation with the counties and the municipalities so it is likely the best yardstick for the other towns that come up.
http://www.njtpa.com/planning/forecasting/forecasting.html
I only used the census for Sparta because it is pretty much done with development.
Grimghost-
You have a much more recent view. A 20% decline in inventory certainly does not bode well with our declining market theory.
I looked at warren almost five years ago and there was no where near the supply of new homes.
The assumption that people could keep taking their equity, trading up and eventually we would all live in a million-2 million dollar home was a good part of what drove the bubble.
Home builders kept building bigger and more expensive and now the buying pool has dried up. When people refuse to get into the game and support the Ponzi scheme the pyramid will collapse.
I think that DOM stats on new builds are very telling wherever you are looking.
Taxes on new construction are a killer. For a comparable existing home you usually pay up about 30% for new.
RW
Metro-
Gotcha–although it’s not as bad now with the huge influx of young Bergen county folks. Roni
how bout NE towns in Bergen County : tenafly, closter, demarest, norwood, old tappan ?