“I’m afraid I might lose my home because of this”

Posted on May 19, 2010 by grim

From the Star Ledger:

Irvington residents are reeling from 17 percent tax hike

A 17 percent municipal tax increase here has given rise to resident anger in recent days as the township’s quarterly bills began arriving in mailboxes.

Although the township council adopted its municipal budget two weeks ago, it did so without addressing the substantial tax hike accompanying the spending plan, leaving residents surprised to see the tax impact last week.

Residents’ frustrations were compounded by the bills’ late arrival. Although fourth-quarter tax bills typically arrive on or around May 1, a late budget process pushed back the mailing of the bills by about 10 days, in most cases a day or two after municipal elections held on May 11. That timing led some residents to question whether officials delayed sending out the invoices to minimize a potential voter backlash at the ballot box.

“It was very sneaky the way they did it,” said Berkshire Place resident Marie Vaughan, who said that taxes on her home went from $1,875 last quarter to $2,945.

She said it would be a hardship to make the increased payment, particularly before the June 7 deadline.
…
Grace Schmidt, who bought a home on Madison Avenue six years ago, said the tax increase is all the more jarring because, she believes, township services are in decline.

“Where is it going? It’s not going to garbage pickup, it’s not going to the schools, it’s not going to the roads,” said Schmidt, a single mother who works in retail and as a nurse’s aide.
…
She said her fourth-quarter bill rose from about $1,200 last year to around $1,900 this year. “It’s a concern. This is really killing me. I’m afraid I might lose my home because of this,” she said.

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 191 Comments

The End of Big Box Mart

Posted on May 18, 2010 by grim

From GlobeSt:

Northern NJ Big Box Spaces Remain Unfilled

The vacancy rate in retail properties along Northern New Jersey’s six major shopping corridors reached 8% in April, according to R.J. Brunelli & Co., LLC. This compared with a 6.6% vacancy factor in the firm’s previous study, which was conducted in February 2009. Of the six highways, only one–Route 4–saw its vacancy rate decline from 2009 levels.
The locally based retail real estate brokerage shifted the study period for its annual surveys of the Northern and Central New Jersey retail real estate markets to April from February. “Given the fact that retailers often wait until after the holiday season to begin liquidating failing stores, we felt that conducting the study in April would give a better, ‘post-shakeout’ view of the market, going forward,” explains Richard Brunelli, president of the firm.

The firm’s twentieth annual study of the six-county Northern New Jersey market found 2.27 million square feet of vacancies in the 28.53 million square feet of space reviewed along the six corridors, with availabilities seen in 174 of the 816 properties evaluated. This compared with 1.84 million square feet of vacancies in 27.96 million square feet of space in the 2009 study, in which openings were seen in 118 of the 808 properties reviewed. For nine of the prior 10 years, the region’s rate had stayed in a very narrow range of 2% (2003) to 3.6% (2008), before escalating to 6.6% in 2009.

After driving 58% of the vacancy factor in the firm’s 2009 survey, big box spaces exceeding 20,000 square feet accounted for approximately 973,000 square feet, or 43%, of the region’s total vacancies. Of the vacant big box space, approximately 814,000 square feet, or 84%, came from stores that were dark in the 2009 survey–and, in some cases, have lingered from prior years. The remaining 159,000 square feet, or 16%, were from new vacancies along the six corridors. Eight vacant big box spaces totaling approximately 273,000 square feet were absorbed during the past year.

“The results underscore the difficulty landlords are experiencing in attempting to fill big box vacancies arising from the earlier bankruptcies or closures of such major chains as Circuit City, Linens ‘n Things, National Wholesale Liquidators, Levitz, CompUSA and Home Depot Expo, as well as selective closings by chains like Pathmark, Office Depot and Office Max,” Brunelli tells GlobeSt.com. “While a number of national and regional chains have stepped up to the plate and snapped up some of these prime locations at favorable rents, it could be some time before this glut of big box inventory is fully absorbed.”

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | 322 Comments

South Jersey Slump

Posted on May 17, 2010 by grim

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Southern New Jersey builders say this has been a depression for them

Despite a housing slump that devastated the home-building industry, new homes continue to be built in southern New Jersey, mostly in projects started before the end of the real estate boom.

“The perception that there are no new homes out there is not true,” said Doug Fenichel, spokesman for K. Hovnanian Homes. “We have homes available, a good selection.”

Home builders say that while the rest of the nation has been in a severe recession, they have been in a depression.

The figures show they’re not exaggerating.

From 1.8 million housing starts in 2006, the industry was cut to less than a third of its former self with a low of 553,000 starts last year, the National Association of Home Builders says. Sales of new single-family homes plunged 65 percent, from 1 million to 372,000.
…
The home-building slump has nearly halted the large new developments that were common in the growth townships of southern New Jersey during the mid-decade housing boom.
…
“When the economy and market turned south, home builders stopped building. They certainly stopped building new communities, especially with the heavy regulations in New Jersey,” he said.

The falloff can be seen in K. Hovnanian’s numbers.

In the fiscal quarter ended January 2006, the company signed 608 contracts for homes in the tristate area of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, Fenichel said. In the same quarter in 2009, its home contracts had plunged to 130.
…
The industry is aware that it’s going to be a long wait, until next year at least.

“We’re all just treading water and hanging in there,” she said.

Posted in New Development, South Jersey Real Estate | 205 Comments

Open Houses… What’s the point?

Posted on May 15, 2010 by grim

From the NYT:

Brokers Divide on Utility of Public Open Houses

THE thought of holding a public open house makes Paul A. Falla wince: strangers traipsing through his five-bedroom contemporary in White Plains, peering into his closets, opening the kitchen cabinets and checking out the equipment in his home theater.

What is more, some of those strangers won’t be potential buyers, but rather the curious — among them, nosy neighbors — who like looking inside other people’s homes, especially the expensive ones.

Even so, Mr. Falla, a retired New York City firefighter, and his partner, Lisa Rizzi, a court officer, have agreed that a public open house might increase the prospects for a sale.

The 28-year-old house, which Mr. Falla bought eight years ago and fully renovated, is listed for $949,000. It came on the market five weeks ago, after an unsuccessful stint a year ago without a public open house.
…
Not all brokers, however, believe that inviting the public is worth the time and trouble, preferring instead to restrict open houses to other agents.

“I am the antithesis of the public open house,” said Mark Seiden, who owns a real estate office in Briarcliff Manor. “I’ve done that — invited all the neighbors, put up balloons and signs, and given people tours of the house. But in a year of more than 100 public open houses, all I got was a ton of what we call ‘looky-loos’ in the trade, and only one property sold.”

As a result, these days Mr. Seiden sticks to brokers-only open houses, and doesn’t offer lunch or a drawing for a bottle of wine as an enticement, as some agents do. If a house is priced right, he said, the other brokers will come.

Loretta Rapisardi of Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye, sees it differently. “The idea is to get as much exposure as you can,” she said. “There have been a couple of cases just within the past few weeks when someone walked into a public open house and purchased it on the spot.”

That is not to say that Ms. Rapisardi doesn’t also ply her trade using broker-only open houses and advertising heavily. But she has become partial to the public open houses. “You can never have enough exposure,” she insisted.

Posted in National Real Estate | 130 Comments

Abolish COAH and Fair Housing?

Posted on May 14, 2010 by grim

From the Record:

Christie recommends eliminating affordable housing agency, law

Governor Christie on Thursday recommended eliminating the Council on Affordable Housing and repealing the Fair Housing Act, the agency and law that largely guided housing development across New Jersey for the past 25 years.

Describing the changes as a shift from state to local control, the Republican governor endorsed a system in which towns — rather than the state — would determine how much low- and moderate-income housing they need. The plan, which needs legislative approval, would require future projects to either include affordable housing or require developers to pay into a fund to build affordable housing elsewhere.

“This is about getting Trenton the hell out of the business of telling people how many units they’re supposed to have — some arbitrary, ridiculous formula that nobody could ever explain,” Christie said. “We need to lift that wet blanket off of the municipalities and put the people who were elected back in control of making these decisions. And I believe that they’ll approach that in a fair and responsible way after having been put upon for so long with controls — undue controls — from Trenton.”

The proposals immediately drew praise from municipal representatives, but criticism from affordable housing advocates and environmentalists. “Affordable” means monthly housing expenses eat up only 28 percent of renters’ incomes and 30 percent for homeowners, including rent, mortgage, utilities, homeowners association fees, insurance and property taxes, according to the state.

Advocates said the move would return the state to practices that occurred before the state Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decisions, so named for the township that was sued for its zoning policy. The courts said a town’s poor residents needed a “realistic opportunity” to live in an affordable home, and towns needed to also take surrounding towns’ needs into consideration. The decisions sparked a generation of lawsuits.

“The reason the court acted the way that it did was because towns were not giving families the opportunities to have the kind of housing they could afford,” said Kevin Walsh, the associate director of Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending Mount Laurel. “We’re not sure why the governor thinks that we can go backward.”

Posted in General | 275 Comments

Bergen ain’t special

Posted on May 13, 2010 by grim

From CNBC:

Home Buyer Tax Credit Takes its Toll

As the end of the home buyer tax credit neared last month, we all argued whether or not the increase in sales and the relative price stabilization could survive on their own.

The first clues indicate the answer is: No.

One full week after the tax credit’s expiration, mortgage applications fell 9.5 percent; this as mortgage interest rates dropped below 5 percent.

Sure, refis jumped, but that doesn’t help us much with the currently bloated inventory of homes on the market.

Another report today from Trulia.com showed home sellers losing that little bit of ground they had recently gained in pricing. The number of properties on the market as of May 1st that saw at least one price cut rose 10 percent.
…
As we read just to the free market, we expect to hit turbulence in some markets,” says Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. “We won’t know the true severity of the tax credit expiration until the conclusion of the peak home buying season in the summer months. Only then will we have a better sense if the U.S. housing market can stand on its own two feet.”
…
Sellers may have thought they were at least edging toward the driver’s seat again, but not so much.

Inventories are rising, thanks to foreclosures and the new hope that Spring afforded. Pent up selling demand surfaced, and unfortunately now much of it is sitting.

From one of our own CNBC producers, Andrea Mantia:

“I’ve been househunting for a few months now…we totally got caught up in the “tax credit frenzy”….thank God we took a deep breath and relaxed…EVERY SINGLE HOME we had our eye on dropped in price this week…and this is in Bergen Co (NJ) where prices weren’t budging!”

Posted in Housing Bubble, New Jersey Real Estate | 359 Comments

North Jersey Recovering, Central and South Faltering?

Posted on May 12, 2010 by grim

From the Record:

North Jersey home prices steady in first quarter

Home prices in the New York metropolitan area, including North Jersey, rose slightly in the first quarter of 2010, in another sign that the housing market may be stabilizing.

The median price of an existing single-family home in the region hit $436,900 in the first quarter, up 2 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. But values have dropped since 2006 and 2007, when the median price was around $540,000.

Nationally, the median price of an existing single-family home was $166,100, down 0.7 percent from a year earlier.

The North Jersey price rise was in line with gains in household incomes, said Patrick O’Keefe, an economist with the accounting firm J.H. Cohn in Roseland.

“While the region’s economy is beginning to recover, it will be quite some time before business conditions — and employment — return to pre-recession levels,” he said. “As a consequence, housing will recover only slowly.”

The number of sales statewide was up 14.5 percent over the first quarter of 2009, probably because of an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers and a $6,500 credit for repeat buyers. Since both credits expired April 30, buyers had an incentive to jump into the market during the first quarter. The increase in sales also reflected the fact that the market was very slow during the first quarter of 2009, which was just a few months after the financial market crisis.

The expiration of the tax credit may lead to slower home sales during the rest of 2010, some analysts say. In a recent report, appraiser Jeffrey Otteau of East Brunswick said the real estate market will be affected by the end of the tax credit and an expected rise in mortgage rates later this year. In addition, he said, the inventory of homes for sale has been rising in New Jersey, as homeowners who waited out the recession put their properties on the market.

“It appears likely that home sales will slow at some point later this year and then regain their recovery momentum heading into 2011,” Otteau said.

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Area home prices are down, and sales are up

Median home prices in southern New Jersey in the first quarter of 2010 were down 2.6 percent from the same period the year before, while nationwide prices fell by 0.7 percent, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday.

The region’s price drop, after near stability the previous quarter, went against a nation-leading 9 percent jump in home prices in the Northeast as a whole.

Sales levels were strong in the state, however, despite severe winter storms in January and February.

New Jersey was one of just three states (with Michigan and Wyoming) to show a gain in sales — up 6.8 percent from the prior quarter and 14.5 percent from the same period a year ago — in the Realtor report. The state’s annualized sales rate was 120,600 homes.
…
Carol Anderson, president of the Cape May County Association of Realtors, said home prices have fallen a bit as most sellers have become more realistic.

Posted in Economics, Housing Bubble, New Jersey Real Estate | 310 Comments

2.5% Cap – But will it pass?

Posted on May 11, 2010 by grim

From the Philly Inquirer:

Christie urges sweeping changes to cap property taxes

Gov. Christie unveiled a sweeping package of proposals Monday aimed at solving the state’s “property-tax crisis,” minutes after Democratic legislative leaders proposed reinstating an income-tax surcharge on residents who earn more than $1 million a year.

On a day of especially sharp exchanges among political leaders, and with the deadline for a completed state budget less than two months away, the governor said his plan would require passage of 33 pieces of legislation. At its heart: a constitutional amendment to place a 2.5 percent cap on increases in property-tax levies for municipal, school, and county taxes.

Governments could exceed the cap with voter approval; the only other exception would be for debt-service payments. Currently, the state has a 4 percent cap, but many more exceptions are permitted.

The legislation, Christie said, “will for the first time deal with the root causes of New Jersey’s property-tax problem.” Property taxes in New Jersey are among the highest in the nation.

“We cannot any longer have business as usual in this town,” Christie said. “We believe these reforms present us with both a unique opportunity and a unique solution to finally getting at the root of the things” that can make New Jersey unaffordable.

Other bills in the package would cap state spending, excluding aid to municipalities and school districts and direct property-tax relief, at 2.5 percent; prevent arbitrators from awarding contracts that exceed 2.5 percent, including salaries, benefits, and other economic compensation; allow counties and municipalities to opt out of civil service; and move school and fire elections to November.

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 396 Comments

“We’re just not going to recover if the jobs don’t come back”

Posted on May 10, 2010 by grim

From the Daily Journal:

Real estate market not out of woods yet

VINELAND — Residential real estate still struggles in communities in Cumberland County and western Atlantic County, especially in the high-value end of the market.

Federal tax credit incentives for new and existing homebuyers were some help over the past 12 months, local real estate professional say.

But those credits, which expired April 30, weren’t nearly enough to counteract what ails the market:

* A continuing lack of credit.

* High unemployment.

* General consumer jitters over the future.

Vineland broker William Jannarone said the size of the unemployment rolls is equal or greater than any other problem in the market.

“We’re just not going to recover if the jobs don’t come back — and they’ve got to come strongly,” Jannarone said. “That should be the issue we’re focused on. What do we do about creating jobs?”
…
The real estate market’s condition recently led Millville-based agent George Pangburn to retire.

“We went from 43 agents at G.R. Pangburn to 12, and those agents weren’t doing anything,” Pangburn said. “At 74, I didn’t need to do that.”
…
There were 846 homes sold in the area between April 2009 and March 2010. That’s a respectable 11 percent increase compared to the preceding 12-month period.

In addition, the total dollar value of all those sales rose from about $124.3 million to about $132.7 million, a positive difference of about $8.4 million.

Behind those facts though, the average sales price went down for the area as a whole.

# In Vineland, there was a roughly $6 million increase in sales value over the past 12 months compared to the preceding year. That’s about a 12 percent increase. But the average price dropped almost 6 percent.

# In Millville, sales volume went up about $2.4 million for the same periods. That’s about a 9 percent increase. The average price for a sale was down almost 6 percent, though.

Posted in Economics, Housing Bubble, South Jersey Real Estate | 322 Comments

No worries, we’ll make it up in property taxes

Posted on May 7, 2010 by grim

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Atlantic City suffers biggest 2009 revenue decline among nation’s gaming markets

The nation’s commercial casino industry experienced a slump in jobs, revenue and tax receipts in 2009, with Atlantic City suffering the most among all the gaming markets.

A report released Thursday by the American Gaming Association showed that gaming revenue sank 5.5 percent to $30.74 billion last year in the 13 states that have commercial casinos. Of those states, eight had revenue declines. Indian-owned casinos were not included in the report.

“I don’t think there is any way to sugarcoat it. The past year was tough,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., the gaming association’s president and chief executive officer. “The down economy dealt most Americans challenges we haven’t faced in some time, if ever. For those of us in the commercial casino industry, that meant people had less money to spend on our products.”

The recession has driven down gaming revenue nationwide for two years in a row. In addition, casino employment fell 8.1 percent nationally last year and tax revenue generated by the gaming industry was off nearly 2 percent, to $5.59 billion, the gaming association said in its annual “State of the States” report.

Nowhere was the revenue drop steeper than in Atlantic City, where winnings from slot machines and table games plunged 13.3 percent to $3.9 billion. New Jersey also had the sharpest decline in casino tax revenue, down 18.6 percent to $347.6 million.

From the Philly Inquirer:

N.J. sees biggest gaming decline; Pa. sees biggest increase

New Jersey – with its 11 casinos in Atlantic City – saw the largest decrease in both gaming revenue (minus-13.3 percent) and tax revenue (down 18.6 percent) due to the weak economy and increased competition, mainly from Pennsylvania casinos.

Pennsylvania reported the largest revenue increase among the 13 states with commercial casinos – up 21.6 percent – as it continued to expand its industry and added two casinos last year – the Sands Resort Casino in Bethlehem and the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s waterfront.
…
Pennsylvania was one of the four states with commercial casinos that saw their gambling and tax revenues increase last year. It was also one of only three states to report an increase in employment at its racetrack casinos: up 17.2 percent from a year earlier.

New Jersey, on the other hand, saw a 5.7 percent decrease in employment at its casinos. The state went from having 38,585 casinos workers in 2008 to 36,377 last year.

Posted in Property Taxes | 546 Comments

¡Viva la Revolución!

Posted on May 6, 2010 by grim

From Investor’s Business Daily:

Ready To Revolt In New Jersey?

Two states in particular, New Jersey and New York, could use a version of California’s much-maligned Proposition 13. Without it, they might start seeing the middle class squeezed out of homes.

What does it take for taxpayers to say, “Enough is enough”? We may soon see that question answered in the stressed-out suburbs around New York City. A perfect storm of recession, cuts in state aid and overspending by schools and local governments is pummeling homeowners who were already paying the nation’s stiffest property taxes.

In the big suburban counties in New Jersey and New York, people already paying 8% of their income or more in real estate levies (see table above) are facing new hikes that could push them to the breaking point.
…
A tax revolt may already be brewing. New Jersey voters have rejected a record 59% of proposed local school district budgets, the first time in 30 years that more than half of those budgets have been turned down.
…
The locals are hardly innocent victims. They’ve been living beyond their means as much as some, though hardly all, homeowners have. As in many other states, pension costs and public salaries are rising faster than inflation or sound fiscal practice would dictate. By one estimate, local governments in New York will have to pay 61% more to cover pension costs in 2011 than they do now.
…
All this profligacy is coming back to bite homeowners, just when they have enough problems of their own. One likely effect of property tax hikes in the current housing market is a new wave of foreclosures as higher tax bills tip the balance for those who are already struggling. Prospective buyers might also be scared away by the monster tax bills they’re likely to pay.

Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 385 Comments

Snow falls in May

Posted on May 5, 2010 by grim

From the Press of Atlantic City:

Condo owners hit with steep assessments for snow removal

Spring has arrived and, for most residents of southern New Jersey, the winter and its record snowfall are just an unpleasant memory.

But many people who own condominiums and townhouses are getting reminders of just how much it cost to plow that snow off their streets – in the form of additional assessments.

Donna Kelly, a resident of London Court II in Egg Harbor Township, said she got a letter from her homeowners association that she is expected to pay more than $300, her share of the community’s snow-removal costs.

“These are bad times financially, and coming up with that extra money is hard,” said Kelly, who has lived in the complex for four years. “They didn’t give us a lot of notice, either.”
…
London Court II spent about $50,000 on plowing snow this past winter; it usually budgets $6,000 to $7,000, Gurwicz said. Owners of the complex’s 158 units were assessed a share of the costs, based on the size of their homes.
…
The residents of London Court II are not the only homeowners being forced to pay extra for snow removal.

A letter sent to the 490 owners at Society Hill at Galloway II stated the homeowners association had budgeted $25,000 for snow removal but had spent about $100,000, “or approximately $1,370 for every inch of snow Mother Nature dealt to us.” Homeowners were assessed an extra $150, which could be paid out in six $25 installments.

Associations kept their snow-removal budgets low for the winter of 2009-10, hoping it would be relatively dry like the last five winters, said Michael Mendillo, president of the Wentworth Group, which manages nearly 75 communities in southern New Jersey.

The storms put “a huge financial strain, not only on the communities, but on the vendors,” Mendillo said. “It snowed, it needed to be removed, and somebody needs to be paid.”
…
Some communities haven’t crunched the numbers yet or are waiting to see how other 2010 expenses play out. The Woodlands in Hamilton Township is assessing its 766 homeowners for other emergency expenses, but hasn’t gotten to the snow-removal part, said property manager Brenda Morrison.

“We’re just taking care of expenses we couldn’t meet for 2009,” Morrison said.

But the community where she lives sent her a $375 special bill for getting rid of the snow, Morrison said.
…
“Unfortunately, our country as a whole, over a period of decades, went with the mentality of living above our means,” Mendillo said. “Now we have to go back to the basics and prepare for that rainy day.”

Or for the next snowy winter.

Posted in Economics, South Jersey Real Estate | 427 Comments

Christie drops the V-word

Posted on May 4, 2010 by grim

From the Record:

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie: Vouchers offer a ‘final solution’ for school system

A voucher system that lets any child in New Jersey go to any school, public or private, is the “final solution” to an overly expensive system that continues to fail too many children, Governor Christie said Monday.

Christie told an enthusiastic school choice advocacy group in Washington that he will expand the number of public charter schools and supports a bipartisan bill to provide thousands of public scholarships so children in failing districts may attend private or parochial schools.

“They are trapped by a self-interested, greedy schoolteachers union that cares more about putting money in their own pockets and pockets of members than they care about educating the most vulnerable and needy children,” Christie said.

But Christie said he was committed to going further. He said he saw families in Newark agonize over children losing a lottery to get into a successful charter school, while his income gave him the ability to choose to send his children to Catholic school.

“A single mother in Newark working two jobs to keep a roof over her child’s head should have no less ability to make that choice than my wife and I had,” he said.
…
Christie said the climate is right for passage of a scholarship bill that some advocates say could serve as many as 24,000 children. It is sponsored by Sens. Raymond Lesniak, D-Elizabeth, and Thomas H. Kean Jr., R-Westfield, and will have its first hearing later this month.
…
Baker said that if schools are failing, giving the money that’s being spent on them to other schools won’t fix them, Baker said. The public needs to provide the resources to help them perform, and data have shown New Jersey among the nation’s leaders in closing the gap between the best schools and the worst, he said.

But Jackson said annually increasing budgets did not produce needed results.

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate | 285 Comments

Bargains at the shore?

Posted on May 3, 2010 by grim

From the APP:

Shore’s summer rental market remains unsteady

Jim Fuhse has rented property in Manasquan to summertime tourists since the early 1990s, through recessions and expansions, through sun and rain, so he can attest: This season is just, plain strange.

He had hoped the apparent end of the recession would unleash a pent-up demand, but that hasn’t been the case. Instead, he has gotten calls at the last minute from groups backing out because they couldn’t find enough friends to go in with them.

“It’s never been a worry before,” Fuhse said of trying to rent the home, three blocks from the beach. “It’s just unusual.”

The Shore’s summer rental market, an early indicator of the upcoming tourism season, remains solidly in the renters’ favor. They are waiting longer and asking for discounts. And they are causing landlords some sleepless nights.
…
For property owners, there is a lot at stake in getting their share. They depend on the summer months to pay the mortgage, taxes and insurance, and at least some of those expenses have risen sharply in recent years.

But their chances of keeping up with those costs by charging higher prices are slim. The recession has taken a toll on consumers. Some have lost their jobs. Others have found it tougher to find disposable income or borrow money for vacations.

Jerry Fahey, a real estate agent from Providence, R.I., symbolizes the mindset. He comes to the Shore virtually every year for a family reunion and rented a house last year on Long Beach Island for $2,500 a week.

This year? “We’re definitely looking for (a home for) less than that,” Fahey said. “You’d like to save a few dollars if you can, you know?”

Posted in Economics, Shore Real Estate | 275 Comments

Bend Over NJ

Posted on April 30, 2010 by grim

From Bloomberg:

Christie’s Cuts May Push N.J. Property Tax Up 8%

New Jersey property tax bills, the highest in the U.S., may rise an average of $600 to make up for Governor Chris Christie’s proposed cuts in school and municipal aid, the state Senate budget committee chairman said.

Towns and schools may boost taxes as much as 8.2 percent as they seek to replace lost funding, Senator Paul Sarlo, a Democrat from Wood-Ridge, said at a hearing in Trenton today. The average property levy was $7,281 last year, according to state data.

“This is going to be a seismic shift onto property taxes,” Sarlo said in an interview. “They are being asked to shoulder a larger burden this year.”

Christie, 47, a Republican who took office Jan. 19, seeks to close a $10.7 billion deficit without raising taxes. His $29.3 billion spending plan would lower state aid to education by $820 million and trim municipal aid by $445 million.
…
Sarlo’s projected increase may exceed a 4 percent cap on school- and municipal-tax growth enacted in 2007, he said. That law contained a provision allowing schools and towns to go beyond the limit to replace state aid cuts. Christie has said he’d make dollar-for-dollar reductions in funding to towns that go over the cutoff.

Governments will need to be creative and find savings by firing workers, eliminating programs and sharing or consolidating services, Lori Grifa, acting commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, told Sarlo’s committee.

“We’re asking these entities to control their spending just because the state’s not in a position to send the monies that we have in the past,” Grifa said.

New Jersey’s tax bills went up an average of 3.3 percent last year, the smallest jump since 1999, Grifa’s agency said in February. Property taxes are New Jersey’s primary source of funds for schools and local government.

Christie plans to seek a constitutional amendment to cap future property tax increases at 2.5 percent, with little or no room for exemptions, Drewniak said.

Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Property Taxes | 540 Comments