Monthly Archives: April 2012

The fear is gone?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by grim

From the WSJ: Housing Ends Slide but Faces a Long Bottom Nearly six years after home prices started falling, more U.S. housing markets appear to be nearing a new phase: a prolonged bottom. Hitting a bottom, of course, isn’t the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 138 Comments

Otteau: Big jump for March contracts

Posted on April 28, 2012 by grim

From Otteau: NJ Home Sales Up 25% YTD (Click for graph) Home sales continued to surge in March as combined purchase-contracts for resales and new homes rose by 20% in March. YTD sales are now running 25% ahead of 2011 … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, New Jersey Real Estate | 76 Comments

Northeast pending home sales up 18.4% YOY in March

Posted on April 27, 2012 by grim

From Bloomberg: Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Increased 4.1% in March Signed contracts to buy U.S. homes rose more than forecast in March as low interest rates drew buyers back into the market. The index of pending home purchases … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 151 Comments

Property taxes are too damn high!

Posted on April 26, 2012 by grim

From the Philly Inquirer: Realtors’ group poll: Property taxes irk N.J. residents If you want to rile a New Jersey resident, two words will do it: property taxes. Most state residents — 89 percent of the 800 registered voters surveyed … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 110 Comments

February Home Prices

Posted on April 25, 2012 by grim

From Bloomberg: US home prices drop for 6th straight month Home prices dropped in February in most major U.S. cities for a sixth straight month, a sign that modest sales gains haven’t been enough to boost prices. The Standard & … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 159 Comments

Is distressed the new normal?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by grim

From CNBC: Short Sales Higher, Prices Lower Buyer traffic is strong, supply of homes for sale is low, and yet home prices continue to defy the usual formula, falling again in March. Prices usually rise as supply shrinks, but demand … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Foreclosures, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 133 Comments

How North Jersey came to be

Posted on April 23, 2012 by grim

From the Record: Our growing ‘City of North Jersey’: How we got here and where we are going It’s not surprising that Englewood chose to name its high school for Dwight Morrow, a city resident who was a U.S. senator, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Development, North Jersey Real Estate | 112 Comments

How much higher can NYC rents go?

Posted on April 21, 2012 by grim

From the NY Times: The City of Sky-High Rent GARY L. MALIN, the president of Citi Habitats, the city’s largest rental brokerage firm, has seen the real estate market at its giddiest heights and its deepest despair. There should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, NYC | 90 Comments

New Jersey loses jobs in March

Posted on April 20, 2012 by grim

From the Record: Loss of 8,600 NJ jobs clouds economic picture Optimism that New Jersey’s economy is on the rebound took a beating Thursday with the release of figures showing the state lost 8,600 jobs in March, the first decline … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 131 Comments

March Existing Home Sales

Posted on April 19, 2012 by grim

From Bloomberg: U.S. Existing-Home Sales Probably Rose Sales of previously owned U.S. homes probably increased in March as a drop in mortgage rates propelled demand to its strongest quarter in almost two years. Purchases climbed 0.7 percent to a 4.62 … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 155 Comments

Expected the best, but worst still better than last year

Posted on April 18, 2012 by grim

From Bloomberg: Housing Data Disappoint … Again So the latest housing number is kind of bad: 654,000 new units were started in March, 5.8 percent below the revised February numbers. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting something considerably higher. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, New Development | 118 Comments

Income or Property Tax Cut – Which would you prefer?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by grim

Editorial on NJ Property Taxes from the Philly Inquirer: N.J. needs property-tax relief, not income The one thing that seems to get otherwise rational New Jersey residents to foam at the mouth is the state’s punishing property-tax system. Property owners … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes | 168 Comments

Surprise! Rents are high here too.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by grim

From the Press of Atlantic City: Rents in New Jersey the third-highest in the nation A new survey has found that state residents continue to pay some of the highest rents in America, making it difficult to afford an apartment … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 125 Comments

Risky loans bite Jersey banks

Posted on April 14, 2012 by grim

From the Record: North Jersey banks repossessed more properties In banking, OREO is not a cookie, and there’s no sugary frosting in the middle. It’s an acronym for one of the industry’s most unpleasant statistics, Other Real Estate Owned, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Foreclosures, Risky Lending | 41 Comments

Are those rising prices on the horizon? Or just a mirage?

Posted on April 13, 2012 by grim

From Reuters: Home prices close to bottoming, to rise in 2013 The relentless decline in home prices is nearing an end and prices should rise for the first time in seven years in 2013, but a possible new wave of … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate | 109 Comments