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From the New Jersey Association of Realtors:

Realtors say New Jersey home sales are healthy

Sales volume of existing single family homes, condominiums and co-ops in the fourth quarter of 2007 are stable.

According to statistics released by the National Association of Realtors last week,“New Jersey’s real-estate market continues to offer a number of tremendous opportunities,” said NJAR 2008 President Drew Fishman. “With extremely low mortgage interest rates and large selections of homes for sale, conditions are good right now for people to enter the housing market.”

Fishman noted that the fourth-quarter statistics show that home sales in New Jersey remain healthy and that New Jersey does not follow national housing trends. New Jersey’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of home sales equaled 128,400 in the fourth quarter of 2007.

“While other states have seen home sales plummet, New Jersey’s housing market remains stable,” added Fishman. “Some housing markets in New Jersey have even experienced a slight appreciation in home sales prices.”

After Binghamton, New York, fourth quarter median sales price of existing single-family homes in the Atlantic City area showed the largest increase in the entire Northeast region.

The median sales price grew from $251,900 in fourth quarter 2006 to $278,800 in 2007, an increase of 10.7 percent. The Trenton-Ewing market also experienced an increase in median sales price. The median sales price rose from $289,000 in the forth quarter 2006 to $306,800 in 2007, an increase of 6.2 percent. In the Newark-Union area the median sales price increased by 5.3 percent and in the metropolitan Philadelphia area prices rose by 1.1 percent.

“Looking at national statistics or even statewide statistics doesn’t paint the full picture,” Fishman said. “All real estate is local, and that it is why it is so vital to contact a Realtor. A Realtor can help explain local housing trends and give you better understanding of what is truly happening in your local market.”