114 Boulevard, Pequannock NJ
Purchased: 10/25/2005
Purchase Price: $615,000
MLS# 2426227
Sold: 1/16/2008
Sale Price: $550,000 (11% Loss)
26 Schmidt Circle, Watchung NJ
Purchased: 1/8/2007
Purchase Price: $659,900
MLS# 2417672
Sold: 1/17/2008
Sale Price: $450,000 (32% Loss)
163 County Road, Demarest NJ
Purchased: 6/18/2005
Purchase Price: $685,000
MLS# 2731929
Sold: 1/16/2008
Sale Price: $633,000 (8% Loss)
Purchased: 6/18/2005
Purchase Price: $685,000
MLS# 2731929
Sold: 1/16/2008
Sale Price: $633,000 (8% Loss)
Even though it can’t be calculated, the loss is actually higher due to the updates to the baths and kitchen.
No Hovnanian at Hilltop, or the battle for Hilltop?
Essex County opts not to sell Cedar Grove property to housing developer K. Hovnanian
The sprawling 90-acre campus of the old Essex County Hospital Center on the Hilltop in Cedar Grove will be preserved by the county as parkland instead of being sold to a housing developer.
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo announced today the county has opted not to follow through on a $20 million deal to sell the land to homebuilder K. Hovnanian.
“Our decision to preserve the last remaining Hilltop parcel as parkland is a direct result of listening to the public’s desire for more open space,” DiVincenzo said.
…
Over the years, Hovnanian, in discussions with Cedar Grove officials, had floated ideas ranging from a massive retirement complex to a cityscape design featuring closely bunched townhouses with front stoops and small back yards. But Cedar Grove rejected idea after idea, holding out for just the right mix of houses and open space.
Hovnanian spokesman Doug Fenichel said the Red Bank-based developer won the rights to purchase the property in competitive bidding process.
“We have a contract with the county,” Fenichel said. “We expect the county to meet all of its obligations.”
From the Star Ledger:
NJ economy predicted to lag rest of country ’til 2017
New Jersey’s economic growth will lag the nation’s through 2017, a Rutgers economist predicted yesterday during a 10-year economic outlook conference in New Brunswick.
Nancy Mantell, director of the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service, is forecasting a 2.2 percent rate of annual state output growth between 2006 and 2017, slightly below her nationwide forecast of 2.5 percent in annual gross domestic product expansion.
“This differential is due to the relatively higher cost of living and doing business in New Jersey, as well as our lower rate of population growth, expected to average 0.6 percent,” Mantell said.
…
“The average unemployment rate is expected to exceed the national rate in 2008 as well as through the 2017 period,” Mantell said. She predicted the state’s unemployment rate will be 5 percent in 2008, and will average 5.2 percent through 2017.
Hat tip to the folks over at DealBreaker for this link.
Choice, worth the time wasted to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnPnLvsl6Aw
These are the people that run our country? Someone please pass me the cheese grater.
Psss… Blue Horse Shoe Loves Anacot Steel
From the AP:
Texas Justice Charged in Arson Case
A Texas Supreme Court justice was indicted Thursday on suspicion of tampering with evidence in a fire that destroyed his home, a blaze the judge’s wife is accused of setting, their attorney said.
Justice David Medina and his wife, Francisca, have denied involvement in the June fire, which caused nearly $1 million in damage, attorney Terry Yates said.
…
The fire began June 28 in the three-car garage next to Medina’s house in the Houston suburb of Spring and spread to the home next door. The fire engulfed the rest of the Medinas’ home and damaged a third house.
The fire was not electrical or accidental, the Harris County fire marshal’s office has said. A dog detected an accelerant, and authorities identified six ”persons of interest.”
Investigators became suspicious after discovering that a mortgage company sued in June 2006 to foreclose on the home. The suit, filed after the family missed payments for five months, was settled in December.
In a November interview with the AP, Yates acknowledged Medina’s financial problems. In addition to the attempted foreclosure, the family owed nearly $1,900 in fees to its homeowners association.
#2 Thanks Grim for the article on Hilltop. As a resident of this area we had been hearing for months (very hush-hush) that Hov no longer wanted the property because of the real estate downturn. Residents of this area fought for years to have as much land as possible preserved (rather than developed and overdeveloped), but it took this real estate downturn for developers to no longer crave/want/desire it.
Bye Bye SCUMBAGS:
Washington Mutual swings to 4Q loss
January 17, 2008: 08:44 PM EST
Jan. 17, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) —
SEATTLE (AP) – Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) Inc., the country’s biggest savings and loan, said Thursday it swung to a $1.87 billion loss in the fourth quarter, hurt badly by the sinking value of its mortgage portfolio.
The quarterly loss was $2.19 per share, compared with a profit of $1.06 billion, or $1.10 per share in the same period last year.
Those earnings included a write-down of $1.6 billion that WaMu had previously disclosed as the value of its home loan portfolio withered. WaMu also socked away a whopping $1.53 billion to cover future loan losses, within the range of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion it forecast in December.
Revenue, including net interest income, or what the bank made on loan minus what was paid out on deposits, and non-interest income, or the cash WaMu made from mortgage loan service fees and other fees and charges, totaled $3.41 billion, lower than Wall Street’s expectation of $3.51 billion.
The thrift’s percentage of non-performing assets to total assets rose to 2.2 percent in the quarter, from just under 1 percent a year ago.
‘The second half of 2007 has been a period of extreme stress and turmoil for the mortgage and credit markets,’ said Kerry Killinger, WaMU’s chief executive officer, in a conference call.
While the report was grim, Wall Street was expecting worse, said Howard Shapiro, an analyst for Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia.
‘There was a big sigh of relief,’ he said. ‘If they can get through this next year, then I think they’ll stay viable.’
WaMu’s mortgage division was hit hardest in the quarter. Its home loans volume sank 97 percent to $19.09 billion compared with the fourth quarter of 2006, and the division’s net loss totaled $1.96 billion, compared with a loss of $124 million in the year-ago quarter.
But it was WaMu’s credit card division results and outlook that most surprised Shapiro. WaMu said card services net income sank 35 percent to $92 million in the quarter. Killinger said rising unemployment pushed up delinquency rates and credit losses.
Whoopie Sh^t
Bloomberg News, citing people who insisted on anonymity, reported that the White House is likely to propose an $800 tax rebate for individuals, a $1,600 rebate for households and investment incentives for businesses.
pretorius – how many layoffs at Citi?
9 essex
Thank goodness. That’ll fix our little problem.
The government is going to pay people to shop.
Well THAT will solve all our problems :-).
Sixteen hundred big ones people!!!! MY GOODNESS!!!! Do you realize what you can do with that……………………………
This is it!!! If congress can work together….they can DO this! We’ll all be in tall cotton folks…..$1600…..amazing.
NJ needs to do some serious soul searching…..this place will be empty soon….cause people aint here for the weather .
I, personally, will buy TWO HDTVs. This will, in turn, cause property values to rise.
Thanks goodness.
Most people — the semi smart ones will use it to pay of existing debt…..doubtful that amount will do a damn thing on it’s own.
Let’s see $1600…..
*less than 1/4 of my daughter’s tuition next year.
*Maybe two bimmer payments…..plus sushi out a few times.
*1/2 the cost of a decent hotel for a week in Cape May.
P.S. Big time Schaden for the morons at the big banks…..PNC is the only decent one left!
A little something from the LA Times, for pretorius:
“A stream of unwelcome economic data has added to politicians’ sense of urgency. The Labor Department announced Wednesday that consumer prices rose 4.1% last year — the fastest in 17 years — led by soaring gasoline costs and higher prices at the supermarket. Average wages, meantime, recorded a slight drop when adjusted for inflation. Earlier this month, the department reported unemployment had hit 5%, the highest rate in two years.”
It’s always helpful to adjust for inflation when talking about wages. That way, you don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re rising.
At exchange rates published on Bloomberg.com, 800 USD would be worth about 24 million ZWD. Should I buy a dump truck now so I can bring home my paycheck?
13. Essex Says:
January 17th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Sixteen hundred big ones people!!!! MY GOODNESS!!!! Do you realize what you can do with that……………………………
It should cover a movie for two, 2 sodas and the Big Popcorn at the Theater.
I’m sure the “investment incentives” will be much more significant than the bone they are throwing out to regular people.
#4 –
if you watch enough of these, over time you come to realize that so many of these rep.’s are idiots. i came to the conclusion a few years ago, while watching one with greenspan, that some of these reps probably didn’t write their own questions, and really don’t know what their own questions mean.