Monthly Archives: July 2006

From the NY Times: Betting on Demand for a Castle THERE is a castle being built on speculation here beside the Saddle River: an 18,000-square-foot manse with a turret, two libraries, four laundry rooms, a six-car garage, nine full baths … Continue reading →

Observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing bubble, Open House reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week but never posted them up, let’s have them. … Continue reading →

From Inman News: Survey: Home-buyer, seller demand on equal footing The U.S. housing market has reached a balance in buyer and seller demand, according to a survey released Thursday, with 41 percent of participating real estate agents saying they had … Continue reading →

From the NY Times: Adjusting to a Buyer’s Market By ELSA BRENNER WITH black clouds hanging over the Westchester County housing market for the first time since 1999, Michael and Kara Lyons are caught in a bind: they are sellers … Continue reading →

Preliminary June sales data for Northern New Jersey is in.. The first graph plots the unadjusted sales data (closed sales) for the counties listed. Please note the lower bound of the y-axis, it is set to 1000, not to zero. … Continue reading →

From the Herald/Record: N.J. banks building bigger portfolios of construction, development loans By RICHARD NEWMAN With home equity lending slowing down, New Jersey banks are increasingly counting on short-term loans to builders. In the 12-month period ended March 31, construction … Continue reading →

From Yahoo Finance: Keeping Up with the Joneses Can Put You Behind by Laura Rowley You’re watering your lawn in your worn-out shorts and flip-flops on a warm summer weekend when you notice your Armani-clad neighbors opening the door for … Continue reading →

From the Montclair Times: Knock knock. Nice door. $700,000. By MARK S. PORTER Montclair Tax Assessor Joan Kozeniesky advised the residents to “sit back, relax,” in the auditorium of the Montclair Public Library, which was uncomfortable for some attendees due … Continue reading →

From the National Association of Realtors: Pending Home Sales Index Leveling Out The index of pending home sales, a leading gauge for the housing sector, rose slightly in May, an indication that the market is stabilizing, according to the National … Continue reading →

From CNN/Money: Mixed messages on Manhattan home prices Manhattan apartment prices have either stopped dead or have continued their upward trajectory. Two reports released Thursday gave conflicting reads, though both point to signs of softening. A report by broker Prudential … Continue reading →

From CNN/Money: Higher prices, higher rates: The 1st-time homebuyer squeeze What a difference a year makes when you’re in the market for a new home, especially if you’re a first-time buyer. Thanks to a combined jump in mortgage interest rates … Continue reading →

From the Hub: K. Hov bldg. among Dwek holdings sold BY SUE MORGAN The copper-colored structure along the banks of the Navesink River in Middletown that once housed home builder Kevork Hovnanian’s operations has been sold for $6.1 million. In … Continue reading →

From the Wall Street Journal: Surviving a Real-Estate Slowdown The real-estate market shows signs of slowing. Is there deeper weakness ahead? Fewer questions are more important to mutual-fund investors. Many own funds with real-estate-related shares — not to mention homes … Continue reading →

GSMLS – http://www.gsmls.com (Garden State Multiple Listing Service) Single Family Homes, Condo, Coop (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren Counties) 6/28 – 18,526 7/5 – 18,360 (0.9% Decrease) NJMLS – http://www.njmls.com (New Jersey Multiple Listing Service) Single … Continue reading →

I came across this commentary/opinion piece from “News With Views” this morning. I’ll add a disclaimer here, I don’t know who this outlet is, or what their agenda might be. I just thought this piece was interesting, so I’m going … Continue reading →