It’s the end of the world Hoboken as we knew it

From Bloomberg:

Hoboken Moms Replace Maxwell’s Rock Fans in Housing Boom

Jack Mello first came to Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the early 1980s to see a then-little-known band called R.E.M. He since has attended hundreds of shows at the club, most recently to watch the Feelies perform their July 4th farewell concerts before the venue closes next week.

“This is the sort of place where bands play that are up and coming as well as those that are well-known,” Mello, 53, said as he stopped for a drink at the club, located across the street from the fifth-floor walk-up apartment where he has lived since 1987. “I’m just glad it’s lasted this long.”

The demise of Maxwell’s, a 35-year-old rock institution where Kurt Cobain once performed and Bruce Springsteen filmed his “Glory Days” music video, highlights demographic and cultural shifts in Hoboken as young families and wealthy couples increasingly join the artists, post-college singles and Wall Street commuters that have transformed the mile-square city from its industrial roots. Home prices are surging as buyers seek a more affordable option than New York City, just across the Hudson River, while independent businesses are giving way to chain stores.

“Driving down the streets in Hoboken five or 10 years ago, what you saw was young singles and couples, now you see mothers and fathers pushing strollers,” Otteau said. “Households with children are now opting to stay in places like Hoboken which, in turn, is putting pressure on demand for larger-sized apartments.”

Demand for three-bedroom units is especially high, with frequent bidding wars, according to Lori Turoff, a Realtor in Hoboken since 2004. Home purchases rose to 140 in the first quarter from 137 the prior year as the number of active listings fell 45 percent.

Units were on the market for an average of 50 days in the first three months of the year, compared with 77 days at the same time in 2012, according to data compiled by Turoff earlier this month. That was the fewest for a first quarter in data going back to 2000. The average listing discount, or the difference between the asking and final sale price, fell to 1.12 percent, the lowest for the period since 2004, she said.

This entry was posted in Demographics, Economics, New Jersey Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

43 Responses to It’s the end of the world Hoboken as we knew it

  1. grim says:

    From the WSJ:

    Hamptons, Long Island Markets Flex Housing Muscle

    The Hamptons housing market showed renewed strength in the second quarter as property sales in the Long Island summer playground rose 25.2% over the year-earlier period, a new report shows.

    There were 675 sales in the second quarter, the highest number of sales in any quarter since 2006, according to the report being released on Thursday by Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

    “It’s a big jump,” said Jonathan J. Miller, president and chief executive of real-estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc., who prepared the data for Douglas Elliman.

    Hamptons sale prices also increased, with the median price going up by 8.2% to $920,000 in the latest quarter from $850,000 in the same period in 2012.

    This was the second highest median level for prices in any quarter in five years. The quarterly market peak for median prices was $1.1 million reached in the second quarter of 2007.

    “We saw a lot more activity above $1 million, but not at the extreme high end,” said Mr. Miller.

    Mr. Miller said there have been fewer sales above $5 million this year because these sales were poached during last year’s fourth quarter when there was a flurry of sales as sellers sought to avoid capital-gains tax increases.

    In the luxury sector, defined as the highest 10% of deal prices for all Hamptons house and condo sales, the average was down 11.7% to about $7.1 million while the median price fell 18.6% to about $5 million.

    Paul Brennan, Douglas Elliman’s Hamptons regional manager, believes the decline in $5 million-plus sales this year is related to interest rates.

    “The rumblings of interest rates beginning to go up are affecting people so they’re jumping in now, but that price bracket is where people need financing,” said Mr. Brennan, referring to the $5 million-plus category.

  2. grim says:

    Did Sandy push folks further east? Did wealthy NJ buyers decide to go out to LI instead?

  3. grim says:

    From Bloomberg:

    Best Home Sales in Five Years Signal Building Gain: Economy

    Sales of new U.S. homes rose in June to the highest level in five years, pointing to gains in residential construction that will support the economic expansion in the second half of the year.

    Purchases climbed 8.3 percent to an annualized pace of 497,000 homes, the highest level since May 2008, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The median estimate of 77 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a gain to 484,000.

    Growing employment and the desire to take advantage of historically low borrowing costs before they rise further will probably keep releasing pent-up demand, driving builder confidence and sustaining increases in home construction. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said policy makers are prepared to act if the recent jump in borrowing costs shows signs of hurting demand.

    “It’s a builder’s market,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, who forecast sales would climb to a 500,000 pace. “The housing market is poised for further gains and is a key component of the U.S. recovery overall.”

    Projections in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 415,000 to 518,000. The Commerce Department revised the May figure to 459,000 from a previously reported 476,000.

  4. grim says:

    From Newsday:

    Sandy-damaged home prices slide, as other LI areas see upturn

    Home prices on Nassau County’s Sandy-damaged South Shore fell nearly 19 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, even as most other parts of Long Island began to emerge from the real estate downturn.

    Homes along Nassau’s South Shore fetched a median price of $298,700 this spring, down from $367,500 a year earlier, according to a second-quarter report to be released Thursday by the appraiser Miller Samuel and the brokerage Douglas Elliman. The number of sales in the area fell by nearly 18 percent year-over-year, to 173.

    On Suffolk’s South Shore, not including the Hamptons, home prices were flat year over year at $275,000. Suffolk wasn’t hit as hard by the storm.

    In contrast to Nassau’s South Shore, the county’s northern coast posted gains this spring. The median price along the Gold Coast rose year-over-year by 6.4 percent, to $715,000, and the number of sales jumped by 15 percent, to 594.

    Across Long Island, the median home price ticked up by 1.4 percent year-over-year, to $355,000, and the number of sales increased by 15 percent, to 5,281. Those figures exclude the East End.

  5. grim says:

    From the Huffington Post:

    400,000 Foreclosure Settlement Checks Sent To Wrong Address

    Like millions of Americans who tried to stave off foreclosure in recent years, Lanette Worles says her bank repeatedly lost vital paperwork she submitted, scuttling her chance at saving her home.

    Now, as Worles attempts to collect on a legal settlement intended as a remedy to just this type of practice, she confronts a depressingly familiar predicament: The check for her share of the settlement has gone missing, too.

    “It’s been a total nightmare,” Worles, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Allen Park, Mich., said of her effort to track down the check. It was apparently mailed months ago to the wrong address, despite her attempts to correct the mistake in advance. “It seems like such a simple fix,” she said.

    Worles is one of 4.2 million homeowners who qualify for a share of the $3.6 billion in cash payouts as part of the foreclosure abuse deal. And she’s one of 400,000 whose checks could not be delivered because they were sent to the wrong address, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

    That amounts to 10 percent of all foreclosure settlement checks mailed so far. The return-to-sender problem could go a long way toward explaining why such checks totaling nearly $1 billion have not yet been cashed.

    It’s understandable that some of the people owed a check have been difficult to reach, given the nomadic lives many have lived following foreclosure. But if it turns out authorities could have made a greater effort to verify home addresses in advance of mailing out those checks, critics who have blasted the settlement as ill-conceived and poorly executed will have a new reason to complain.

    “An error rate of 10 percent in the simple task of mailing checks to homeowners is shocking,” said Elizabeth Lynch, a foreclosure lawyer at MFY Legal Services in New York. “But unfortunately this has come to symbolize the farce that is many of these settlements where regulators [opt] for a quick flurry in the press instead of the long-term systemic reform that is actually needed to help homeowners.”

  6. JJ says:

    That article is a bit misleading. A house worth 550K in Spring 2012 sold in Spring 2013 for 400K that sustained 150K in damage that was unfixed in my opinion is flat in price.

    Homes are down at best slightly for undamaged homes. Up slight for remodeled homes and way way down for damaged homes sold as is. Average it together and you get 19% down.

    Hampton sales are way up due to wall street. Also they stole Fire Island, Long Beach NY and Jersey Shore Sales. Very few homes in Hamptons are actually by Dune Road or near water. Actually very hard to find a house walking distance to Beach.

    Most Jersey Shore Folks were suprised I drove to beach every day when they visited me, some houses I was three miles away. No flooding. Out in Hamptons people go to beach just once a day. Short ride in convertible big deal. But down by Dune road, no stores, no places to eat, nothing pretty much. Everytime you want a coffee, paper, errand, go to a BBQ, go to a bar you have to keep driving away from beach. Most Hampton houses are not required to have Flood Insurance and most houses I rented had full basements.

    Home prices on Nassau County’s Sandy-damaged South Shore fell nearly 19 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, even as most other parts of Long Island began to emerge from the real estate downturn.

    Homes along Nassau’s South Shore fetched a median price of $298,700 this spring, down from $367,500 a year earlier, according to a second-quarter report to be released Thursday by the appraiser Miller Samuel and the brokerage Douglas Elliman. The number of sales in the area fell by nearly 18 percent year-over-year, to 173.

  7. JJ says:

    he median sale price of all co-ops, condominiums and single-family homes in Hoboken — the birthplace of Frank Sinatra — jumped almost 11 percent in the year through June to $516,000, according to data compiled by Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate appraiser and president of Otteau Valuation Group Inc. in East Brunswick, New Jersey. That surpassed the $510,000 median in June 2006, near the peak of the U.S. housing market. The average household size rose to 1.95 this year from 1.89 in 2005, Otteau said.

  8. grim says:

    Ok – I’m swapping headlines today.

  9. JJ says:

    D.R. Horton, which sells homes priced between $100,000 and $600,000, said average selling price rose 15 percent in the third quarter.

    Orders — a key indicator for builders, who do not book revenue until they finish a house — rose 12 percent to 6,822 homes.

  10. grim says:

    Jobless claims up 7k to 343k, slightly above the median forecast. 4 week average down slightly to 345,250.

  11. Carlos Danger says:

    Maxwell’s restaurant and bar always was and still is busy resturant bar almost every day of the week. Todd has owned the place since he was 24 years old, he recently said business was respectable, but he decided he is going out on top. Somebody will rent the place (new rents might be steep) and open a business there. Todd is walking away a multi millionaire I gather.

    The real problem is parking, for bands, buses and late night kids from out of town who drive in to see bands. They were constantly getting booted, ticketed and towed, so Todd has decided to go out on top and move his business. He books bands for a place called the Bell House in Brooklyn a bigger hipster venue near Park Slope. Brooklyn is it these days.

  12. Juice Box says:

    “But down by Dune road, no stores, no places to eat, nothing pretty much.”

    Did you say Dune Road JJ?

    You forgot about the only place that matters. Neptune Beach club!

    http://neptunebeachclub.net

  13. JJ says:

    They had a weekday special last week three tall boys for nine bucks. That is a great deal throw ten on the bar and with tip three tall boys. My buddy is out there this month. He goes to the town beach next door and sneeks away from family now and then.

    Remember Crazy John the DJ back in the day at Neptunes who used to always wage war with the Guidos at Summers

    Juice Box says:
    July 25, 2013 at 9:17 am

    “But down by Dune road, no stores, no places to eat, nothing pretty much.”

    Did you say Dune Road JJ?

    You forgot about the only place that matters. Neptune Beach club!

  14. Juice Box says:

    Speaking of Hamptons it seems Richard Gere try to cash out of the Hamptons. This looks to be the most expensive house out there @ 65 million.

    http://luxe.truliablog.com/2013/07/23/richard-gere-selling-hamptons-estate/

  15. joyce says:

    (5)
    Speaking of wrong addresses:

    http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2013/07/22/athens-county-woman-wants-possessions-back-after-bank-tried-to-repossess-wrong-house.html

    Vinton County Woman Wants Possessions Back After Bank Tried To Repossess Wrong House

  16. Libtard at home says:

    Saw many a good show at Maxwell’s. Ween, Charlie Hunter (jazz guitarist), Consolidated. Sorry to see it go, but it’s all about supply and demand.

  17. Juice Box says:

    JJ – last time I was there was 2001, so it’s been a while for me. I do remember allot of guido types at Neptune’s most seemed to be day trippers on roids. We had a house rented for the July 4th week and I had a boat that year same week Lizzie Grubman drove into the line at some club. Lots of house parties, expensive clubs late nights this was peak DOT COM bubble time just before 9/11…. I haven’t been back since. These days I will take a stroll by by some of my old Jersey haunts to reminisce. If I get a boat again I might join one of the boat clubs down by me or the Elks lol! No more clubbing for me, I can’t stay up past 10 anyway…

  18. Painhrtz - Disobey! says:

    Lib last show I saw there was Dinosaur Jr in 1995-96. I honestly don’t know why anyone drove to Hoboken when it is super easy to take the train. Leave your car at the train station. Stop drinking an hour before you go home usually sobered up enough for the short drive back to the apt or girlfriends apt. Driving in was just inviting a DUI conviction. Same thing with going to the city, just dumb.

  19. JJ says:

    last clubbing I did was in Southbeach in Spring Break time 2006. I got to go to a conference down there the week before I gave notice. Damm I was doing $100 shots on my corp Amex card. Spring 2006 ws like Spring 2000/2001.

    Last really sick club night I had was in 1999 at height of internet bubble. Drunk as a skunk I was at some Internet type party thing at Webster Hall. Dont even remember what BS IPO, all I know I ended up on stage with Naughty by Nature – YOU DOWN WIT O.P.P.? HIPHOP HOORAY!… HO!… HEEEEYYYY!… HO! It was crazy cause I was in a suit from work, and I was drinking since 5pm and I think I was on stage at 2am with like 3,000 people cheering me on. I think I just walked on with authority and took the mike, back then if you had a SUIT at an IPO/Internet party they thought you were venture capital or a banker. No one messed with you. Now I would be thrown out. Sadly my street cred it dead. I better get out my RUN DMC/Beastie Boys together forever shirt throw some NWA in my DVD and do it Bronx style this weekend as I pick up milk and eggs at stop and shop.

    Juice Box says:
    July 25, 2013 at 9:47 am

    JJ – last time I was there was 2001, so it’s been a while for me. I do remember allot of guido types at Neptune’s most seemed to be day trippers on roids. We had a house rented for the July 4th week and I had a boat that year same week Lizzie Grubman drove into the line at some club. Lots of house parties, expensive clubs late nights this was peak DOT COM bubble time just before 9/11…. I haven’t been back since. These days I will take a stroll by by some of my old Jersey haunts to reminisce. If I get a boat again I might join one of the boat clubs down by me or the Elks lol! No more clubbing for me, I can’t stay up past 10 anyway…

  20. JJ says:

    Folks like me used to drink and drive a lot longer than younger folks. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s Hoboken and NYC was so seedy and scary I rather drive after drinking then risk the train. I recall in the 1980s I used to bar hop in my car. I had buddies on the east side, buddies in murry Hill I pick them all up in my old Plymouth and we used to drive all over. I recall once in the 1980s I had six people in my Plymouth at three am all drunk screaming out windows as we rolled through times square and by Javits looking for BJS as it was my buddies bachelor party. I ended up plowing a Japanese tourist in a rental car by accident and we got out and yelled at him calling him a stupid picture taking Jap and he apoligized and off we went.

    I even used to drive New Year Eve into city. Even worse I drove in the city when I lived there to go bar hopping. There was no unlmited metro card, cabs were hard to get at four am and expensive if you lived downtown. Plus I had friends on 89 and 1st. No mans land. Those days are long over. Now even the coach of nets gets charged for denting his car in the Hamptons, meanwhile I was in a triple rollover with a cop behind us and it was like whatever.

    Painhrtz – Disobey! says:
    July 25, 2013 at 9:51 am

    Lib last show I saw there was Dinosaur Jr in 1995-96. I honestly don’t know why anyone drove to Hoboken when it is super easy to take the train. Leave your car at the train station. Stop drinking an hour before you go home usually sobered up enough for the short drive back to the apt or girlfriends apt. Driving in was just inviting a DUI conviction. Same thing with going to the city, just dumb.

  21. Statler Waldorf says:

    Doubtful, NJ has a far better commute into NY City.

    “Did Sandy push folks further east? Did wealthy NJ buyers decide to go out to LI instead?”

  22. JJ says:

    Sandy did push folks further east vacation home wise. Sandy did push primary home buyers in Nassau North. But that is causing Hampton prices North Shore prices to rise quickly. Come 2015 the buyers will come back to south shore as they will be priced out of North Shore and Hamptons.

    Big difference between Jersey Surburbs and LI is every town in Nassau county is pretty much a train town. NJ has lots of towns close to city with no train. Therefore there is a larger prem based on train towns.

    NJ is also more catholic, college educated and white than most of LI except a few neighborhoods. LI is a melting pot except for a few towns.

    I would move to Jersey in a minute, I dont have to be on LI. But trouble is to get a house with less than a 45 minute commute, good schools, train town and four bedrooms they are also pretty expensive. And property taxes are damm high. For instance Little Neck, Douglaston and Flushing in Queens near Nassau boarder all the rich folks with own businesses mainly asian live. Part of allure is insanely low property taxes. They dont report much income so who cares about NYC tax. Also short commute and good schools in Bayside area. Also asians dont like to waste time with lawns. Kinda like beach houses. I found it funny when beach house hunting how many were on small plots and nearly all had cement backyards. Asians and Indians hate large plots, pools and snow shoveling they view it as a waste of time and expense. They are the new home buyers.

    Statler Waldorf says:
    July 25, 2013 at 10:57 am

    Doubtful, NJ has a far better commute into NY City.

    “Did Sandy push folks further east? Did wealthy NJ buyers decide to go out to LI instead?”

  23. Richard says:

    Path is good, but hasn’t been as reliable since Sandy. Penn station and Port Authority Stink, plus are bad locations. If you’re coming from Bergen, the Secaucus change is really annoying. Meanwhile with new tunnels the LIRR will go straight to Grand Central. I’m thinking of moving to JJ land tbh.

  24. Anon E. Moose says:

    Statler [21];

    Doubtful, NJ has a far better commute into NY City.

    As a former monthly holder on LIRR, my perception always was “as sh!tty as this is, at least we don’t have it as bad as THOSE poor b@stards on the other side of the river”.

    When I lived in the Baltimore/DC corridor and relied on their regional transit rail (MARC) to get to work near Reagan National Airport — Hope you didn’t like going to happy hour after work – last train north leaves Union Station at 7:45 PM. The only alternative to driving all the way in was to drive to where the subway started – METRO ran until about midnight.

  25. JJ says:

    Richard I got a nieghbor selling a house for 229K as is, walking distance to train. Just bring 20 mexicans with you. House is a ranch with a full basement. We have four feet of water on that block so with basement it had 10-11 feet of water in house. The house is like putting your ear to a shell at the beach, you feel and smell the ocean till this day.

  26. Richard says:

    You’d make a great realtor.

  27. Anon E. Moose says:

    JJ [<a href="https://njrereport.com/index.php/2013/07/24/first-timers-missing-out-or-hiding-out/#comment-561349"62, yest],

    How does that work with Cablevison. Can I get wifi for free if I have this?

    What’s ‘free’? You have to buy the hardware, and you have to pay the subscription.

    With Cablevision, internet is just like another premium channel that comes in through the wire. When you pay for internet, they turn on that channel to the serial number on your box, and give you the modem box to convert the coax signal to ethernet. The box they give you is bare bones; you can sub in your own box that acts as a router (more than one port), or includes WiFi on-board. My box was given to me and there is no monthly charge for its ‘rental’ yet, so it was just as easy to buy a $20 WiFi router. If they were dinging me $9/mo for the box, I’d drop it like a bad habit.

    The only down side is that when their service STB (and it will) if you call to complain, they will ALWAYS blame your equipment first, and will not troubleshoot anything that they didn’t provide.

  28. Firestormik says:

    Can anybody recommend a good moving company? Moving from Edison to Wayne
    Thanks

  29. Juice Box says:

    HAMP ain’t HARP

    NEW YORK (CNNMoney) –

    Borrowers who received help through the government’s main foreclosure prevention program are re-defaulting on their mortgages at alarming rates, a federal watchdog said in a report released Wednesday.

    Nearly 1.2 million mortgage modifications have been completed since the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was first launched four years ago. Yet more than 306,000 borrowers have re-defaulted on their loans and more than 88,000 are at risk of following suit, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) found in its quarterly report to Congress.

    In addition, the watchdog found that the longer a homeowner stays in the HAMP modification program, the more likely they are to default. Those who have been in the program since 2009, are re-defaulting at a rate of 46%, the inspector general found.

    http://www.localnews8.com/lifestyle/money/watchdog-borrowers-in-obama-housing-program-redefaulting/-/461672/21137896/-/y77kcz/-/index.html

  30. Bystander says:

    So, here is a good one. I was practically begged by a recruiter to do interview at UBS bc my background was a perfect fit. It was 6 mo. contract of course but told recruiter I am only looking at contract to hire or FT. She assures me they are thinking hire so I did it even though feeling bs. Two phone interviews and the UBS project manager says probably no extension after 6 mo. and no chance of hire. Ask recruiter wtf?? They say it is long term and UBS team likes me and wants face to face. I do it and ask about length of project and funding..blah blah. Today recruiter tells me no go from UBS bc I am a flight risk, looking for FT work.
    This is the job market today. Keep believing faux recovery media hype.

  31. bystander, you should go to interviews and start by putting a loaded .38 on the table.

  32. grim says:

    bystander, you should go to interviews and start by putting a loaded .38 on the table.

    How about sliding your mobile phone across the desk and starting with “I’m the real Carlos Danger.”

  33. grim says:

    Or in my case, courtesy of the name generator: Guillermo Precarious

  34. Brian says:

    NJ SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR 2A CHALLENGE TO THE REQUIREMENT OF A “JUSTIFIABLE NEED”

    http://howell.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/nj-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-2a-challenge-to-the-requirement-of-a-justifiable-need_0905b02f

    You may be able to lay your .38 on the table at an interview……….

  35. joyce says:

    ” The question before the court is “Does the statutory requirement that an applicant for a permit to carry a handgun demonstrate “a justifiable need to carry a handgun,” N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(d), violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution”? ”

    … I know I’m just a simpleton, (unlike those nobles wearing the robes) but if that is the question than not a sole on earth (who can read) can disagree with the fact that the law on paper as well as its application is clearly unconstitutional. Wanna regulate guns?.. fine, amend the constitution first. This ain’t rocket science.

  36. Anon E. Moose says:

    Joyce [35];

    There you go again, Joyce. Obama is the transforming culmination of decades of work. You won’t get very far in Obamerica talking nonsense like that. They’ve been sizing him up for Rushmore since 2010. What they haven’t committed to is leaving the other president’s faces.

  37. Juice Box says:

    Bystander – we are like frogs.

    EOM

  38. chicagofinance says:

    un mod….no idea

  39. Anon E. Moose says:

    Bystander [30];

    Unfortunately, the only thing you can do about it is say no. If enough people say yes, the employers are satisfied. I wonder if UBS can trust some lowest bid contract worker not to drop dime on them for a fat whistleblower reward.

  40. Juice Box says:

    re# 34 – Brian is no longer a Padawan. Use it wisely….

  41. joyce says:

    Brian,
    I’m not much of a beer drinker, but you can get cheaper beers than that and they taste better. YL has the BAC of a light beer, calories of a heavy… And so-so taste.

  42. joyce says:

    39
    Moose,

    If not enough people say yes, more visas will be issued.

  43. Anon E. Moose says:

    Joyce [43];

    Yep. The aristocracy of “Pull”.

    The one thing that made me laugh about Bystander’s anecdote was the ‘flight risk’. They’re looking for a totally non-committed short term relationship, but ding a candidate saying he’s might leave for a FT job. It’s like going into a singles bar looking for a one night stand, getting a girl to go back to their place, then turning her down because — of all reasons — she’s not a virgin. What exactly were they expecting to find?!?

Comments are closed.