From the Philly Inquirer:
Crushing effect of property taxes
Imagine New Jersey as Michigan. Jobs vanishing. Wages languishing. Newspapers wailing (“The Michigan economy appears to be in dire straits,” Detroit Free Press).
All because of property taxes.
Well, this last statement is an exaggeration. I hope. But in the spirit of six degrees of separation, I connected enough dots to cause myself some alarm as I read “Prosperity at Risk: Toward a Competitive New Jersey,” a Brookings Institution report.
The report, ordered by the think tank New Jersey Future, has been out for a while. Frankly, the only reason you are hearing about it from me now is that I just saw it. But I feel it deserves even belated attention.
Its key conclusion is that “New Jersey is beginning to lose its competitive edge.”
The proof? (1) Average weekly wages in the state have grown at among the slowest rates in the nation since 2001. (2) “New Jersey industries with the greatest job gain have low wages; and those with the greatest job loss have high wages.” (3) Since 1995, no other state has lost more high-tech jobs.
Why is all this bad stuff happening?
“The threat to prosperity comes from multiple forces, including rising housing costs, persistent race, class and place disparities, and unbalanced development patterns,” the report says.
That’s a lot of different things, but maybe because New Jersey Future is focused on land-use policies, the study fingers housing as the main culprit.
New Jersey has the fifth-least affordable housing in the country, it points out. The state also has the third-largest proportion of homeowners who spend more than 35 percent of their income on housing costs (just behind California and Hawaii).
This causes people to leave New Jersey, even if many of them go just over the border and commute to their jobs. (Pike and Monroe Counties in Pennsylvania are filling up with former New Jerseyans.)
The theory is that as commutes get longer, highways more clogged, and houses more expensive, the jobs will follow the employees.
…
If the state fails to act, he says, “a significant element of the job base would erode as businesses locate in more affordable places for employees; the tax base would falter, and the tax load would increase” on those who remain.
From the Morris Daily Record:
J&J plans to eliminate 350 Morris Plains jobs
Johnson & Johnson will lay off 350 to 400 employees by Dec. 31 at the consumer health-care facility acquired last month from pharmaceutical competitor Pfizer, a J&J spokesman said Friday.
About 1,200 people work at the Morris Plains site, Johnson & Johnson spokesman Mark Monseau said.
Monseau did not discuss details of the layoffs.
Monseau said the company will “maintain a significant presence in Morris Plains.”
Johnson & Johnson closed the deal to buy Pfizer’s consumer healthcare operations on Dec. 20. The company also said in December that it would lease Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Parsippany on Jefferson Road — the workplace for 330 employees — and that there would be staff reductions there.
In November 2005, Pfizer announced plans to close the Parsippany plant by the end of 2008. Earlier in 2006, it laid off about 125 employees, or one-fourth of those at the facility.
Is credit still much too loose? From Broker Universe:
Loan scenario: NJ, $460,000, 637 FICO, 100% LTV, Refinance, SF, stated, OO
State: NJ
Amount: $460,000
Property type: SF
Documentation: stated
FICO: 637
LTV: 100%
Occupancy: OO
Loan purpose: Refinance
ok this is a tough one…i have a client with a 637 credit score…he has owned the home for only about 3 months now…the house was appraised at 460k at the time of purchase however it was purchased for 430k, so he would like to cash out refi at 100% LTV and pull out the remaining equity from the house…of course this would require a bank that has “no seasoning”
It is a single family detached home in NJ…does anyone know of a bank that can do this deal for me “stated” with this score and this scenario?…i’m stuck on this one…tradelines aren’t the greatest but does have some and can provide alternate tradelines if needed…I need help on this one…Thanks
And the call us renter losers!