Monthly Archives: December 2008

“You can sort of feel the local economy on the edge of a cliff.”

Posted on December 31, 2008 by grim

From the Wall Street Journal: New York, Boston Prices Expected to Fall Further By JUSTIN LAHART and CONOR DOUGHERTY DECEMBER 31, 2008 Although New York has been at the epicenter of the financial crisis, housing prices in the city haven’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Bubble, New Jersey Real Estate | 212 Comments

New Jersey Home Price Tracker

Posted on December 30, 2008 by grim

NJ Home Price Tracker has been updated with S&P Case Shiller October HPI Data: (click to enlarge) Or in spreadsheet format for those who prefer: NJ Home Price Tracker (XLS) For those looking for volume measurements, the most recent version … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 114 Comments

S&P Case Shiller October Home Price Index

Posted on December 30, 2008 by grim

From the AP: Home prices post 18 percent annual drop in October A closely watched index shows home prices dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record in October. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday fell by … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, National Real Estate, New Development, Risky Lending | 275 Comments

“It’s about as bad as we’ve seen in several decades”

Posted on December 29, 2008 by grim

From the Daily Record: Economic woes loom large as N.J. closes ’08 It’s a bad sign when mild-mannered nonpartisan legislative analysts start measuring the depth of the state’s budget problems by how many decades back you have to look to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes | 309 Comments

History Rhymes: Gold Coast Loses Its Glitter

Posted on December 27, 2008 by grim

I came across “Housing Inventories on the Rise” this morning and thought it sounded a bit familiar. Sure enough, the same story was published in the New York Times nearly 18 years ago, when the last real estate bubble burst. … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing Bubble, New Development, New Jersey Real Estate | 213 Comments

Weekend Open Discussion

Posted on December 26, 2008 by grim

This is the time and place to post observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing market, open house reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 288 Comments

BusinessWeek: 2009 Real Estate Forecast

Posted on December 24, 2008 by grim

From BusinessWeek: 2009 Real Estate Forecast: Troubles Spread Wealthier neighborhoods that avoided subprime borrowing will be hurt in the new year as the downturn weakens even healthy markets 2008 was the year that subprime borrowers and speculators got hurt by … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, National Real Estate | 211 Comments

November New and Existing Home Sales

Posted on December 23, 2008 by grim

From the AP: Existing home sales sink by 8.6 percent in November, as prices plunge a record 13.2 percent A real estate group says sales of existing homes plummeted far more than expected last month as buyers reeled from October’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Bubble, National Real Estate, New Development, New Jersey Real Estate, Risky Lending | 343 Comments

Predictions 2009!

Posted on December 22, 2008 by grim

OK pompous prognosticators, dust off those crystal balls and lets hear ’em! Ground Rules Predictions provided should either be for June 30th, 2009 or December 31th, 2009, please specify. Provide justification for your forecast, where applicable (unless you are just … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 315 Comments

Realtor Chief Economist: “I spun”

Posted on December 20, 2008 by grim

AKA: Why you should ignore your Realtor and everything the National Association of Realtors Says David Lereah was the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) up until April 2007, the time period otherwise known as the “Bubble”. … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing Bubble, National Real Estate | 281 Comments

North Jersey November Residential Sales

Posted on December 18, 2008 by grim

Preliminary November sales and inventory data for Northern New Jersey (GSMLS) is in. Please note that this data is subject to revision. The first graph plots the unadjusted sales data (closed sales) for the counties listed. Please note the lower … Continue reading →

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate | 423 Comments

NJ Unemployment Rises to 6.1%. 6,200 jobs lost in November.

Posted on December 17, 2008 by grim

From the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development: Employment in New Jersey Fell by 6,200 in November;Unemployment Rate Rose Slightly to 6.1 Percent New Jersey employers shed jobs for the fourth consecutive month in November while the state’s unemployment … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 202 Comments

Time to start the real cuts, Jon.

Posted on December 17, 2008 by grim

From the Record: Corzine looking for another $1.2B to cut from budget Governor Corzine will announce new spending cuts early next month, his response to a recession-fueled budget deficit that is now $459 million and likely heading to well over … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes | 123 Comments

A Bank Too Important To Fail

Posted on December 15, 2008 by grim

Kudos to Deborah Smith over at the Jersey Bites Blog for putting the “Blogging Out Hunger” campaign together. Deborah managed to get more than 100 blogs to spread this very important message. Economy Leaves Americans with Empty Plates More than … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 251 Comments

Record foreclosures clog NJ courts

Posted on December 12, 2008 by grim

From the Record: Credit crunch cases clog the courts New Jersey’s courts are feeling the pressure of the ongoing recession with mortgage foreclosures soaring and credit-card debt lawsuits on the rise as well. The state court system in October posted … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 411 Comments