The Bergen County Homes Blog

Every year residents of Tenafly NJ look forward to the town’s 4th of July festivities.  If you just bought a Tenafly home, you could miss it because Tenafly never has it’s 4th of July celebration on the 4th.  This year it’s going to be on Saturday, July 2nd, but don’t let that worry you.  It’s going to be a great Independence Day Celebration as it always is!

 Held each year at the Roosevelt Commons, Tenafly has a townwide Independence Day Celebration featuring all sorts of booths sponsored by local groups and businesses, rides for the children, food and prizes.  From 10 am to 3 pm bring your family to Roosevelt Commons for a day of fun where you’ll meet neighbors and friends alike.  Even if you don’t own a Tenafly home and are just in the area, feel free to drop in.

Later that night there will be fireworks.  Come behind the high school to watch – it starts about 9 pm give or take.  There’s a rain date too on the 3rd.  So if you own a Tenafly home and want to celebrate the 4th in town, you better come on the 2nd!

Tenafly NJ has a very dedicated Mayor in Peter Rustin.  In spite of the 2 party system, Peter Rustin ran and won as an independent.  Whether you like him or not, one thing everyone can say about Mayor Rustin is that he is dedicated to his job and the people of Tenafly. 

You can also say he’s dedicated to his 2 dogs who go everywhere with him.  Riding along in his lime green Porsche, Mayor Rustin’s dogs go everywhere he goes and even up the Tenafly Borough Hall steps into his office when he goes to work at his desk.  It’s no wonder that under Mayor Rustin’s stewardship that Tenafly is exploring the posibility of a dog park.   If you own a Tenafly home and have always wanted a local dog park in town, this is good news indeed. 

The Tenafly Borough Council has approved the formation of a committee to create a plan for a dog park in town which they will present to the Borough Council.  Stay tuned – it sure looks like a dog park is coming to town!  If you want to participate, you can email the Mayor at prustin@tenafly.net  Having a dog park in town is certainly going to be another positive for Tenafly homes and their 4 legged friends.

Rainy weather forced the Borough of Cresskill to move it’s Annual Spring Festival to this Saturday and the weather in town will be perfect – low 80′s and sunny all day! 

Started only a few years ago, the Cresskill Spring Festival has become a major event of the year with thousands of people coming out for an entire day of fun.  Food, all sorts of vendors, rides, games, contests, music and more will take place from 10 am through 5 pm on June 18th at the ball field and new Recreation Center at 3rd and Madison Avenue.  Run by the Cresskill Recreation Department, this is a very well organized event that’s enjoyed by everyone from the very young to senior citizens.

If you own a Cresskill home you know how great it is to live here.  This is a family friendly town where people get to know each other and make lifelong friendships.  A real small town with the heart of a lion, Cresskill homes are always in strong demand not only because of it’s  proximity to NYC and great schools, but also because of the town spirit.  The Annual Spring Festival is only one of several town wide events that bring people together in a fun atmosphere.

If you want to get an idea of what it’s like to live in Cresskill, come on over to the Annual Spring Festival this Saturday and experience the Cresskill spirit yourself!

While everyone follows the single family housing market there’s another real estate market that’s also important – the multi family home market.  Quietly but steadily the demand for 2-4 family homes has been increasing over the past 2 years and this year it’s been picking up a lot of steam. 

If you consider that a mortgage is the biggest cost of owning property, then it’s easy to see how the combination of low interest rates and low prices have made multi family homes very popular.  Investors for multi family homes are coming out in large numbers.  Owner occupiers are no longer limiting themselves to two family homes as they are now purchasing 3 and 4 family homes as well.  In the past, it was rare to see an owner occupier buyer look at anything but a two family property. 

Other factors creating this increased demand are the law of supply and demand and the rate of return on multi family homes.  With new construction being so soft, few multi family homes are being built at a time when demand is rising.  More demand with the same supply equals higher rents.  Multi families also give better rates of return often than what you can get in a money market fund of CD.

All of this adds up to an increasing demand for Bergen County multi families.  Long term I can’t think of a better investment.

Isn’t the internet great?  When you are buying a home nothing seems to beat it for all the information it has.  But when it comes to knowing a town and the neighborhood, nothing replaces being there.  Still there is one place where you can get to know a community and that’s the town website. 

Town websites give you a special look into the character and services of a community.  Although not all towns have a website, most do and they are filled with information and community news.

Are you shopping for a Tenafly home?  The Tenafly Borough site has the Tenafly Memorial Day Parade schedule telling you that everyone is invited to the Tenafly Elk’s Club for refreshments after the ceremony. 

Looking for a Ridgewood home?  If you go to the Village of Ridgewood website you’ll learn that the Ridgewood flood rating is unchanged which gives it’s residents a 15% discount on insurance. 

Looking for an Englewood home?  The City of Englewood website tells you that all Englewood residents are eligible for a 20% discount card for prescriptions.  

If you’re thinking of buying a home in Cresskill the Cresskill Borough website announces that the town is having it’s Spring Festival on June 11th.

I have all the town websites for you on my site.  Click Here and choose the town you want!

The State of New Jersey had a great idea – help for homeowners who had underground oil tanks.  Whether leaking or not, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) would administer a fund to reimburse homeowners who wanted to remove, replace or remediate their underground oil tank.   Thus was born the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Remediation, Upgrade & Closure Fund or UST Fund as it was commonly known. 

Actually the program worked very well.  Applications for funding were processed in a timely mannter; most homeowners only waited 2 months to receive their reimbursement check.  There was only one problem – the money to pay for all this was not unlimited and now the $20 million set aside for the UST Fund has been depleted.

Because funds are so low, the NJDEP is no longer taking new applications for non leaking tanks.  If you have a leaking tank , you can send in an application which will be date stamped and held until more funds are available.  Applications now awaiting approval will be processed with what money is left.  Whether or not funding will be restored by New Jersey is truly unknown.

If you own a Teaneck home, I’m sure you go to the town’s outstanding public library.  While growing up in Leonia, I spent many happy hours in the Leonia Public Library but Teaneck’s library is so much bigger that I often went there to do research for my high school reports.  Now when I’m showing Teaneck homes to customers, I  make it a point to drive them by the Teaneck Library.  Like all buildings, it needs housekeeping from time to time and now is one of those times.

Starting this Wednesday, May 18th, until June 1st the Teaneck Public LIbrary will be closed while asbestos is removed and a new HVAC system is installed.  For this period the Bergenfield Library will have Teaneck Library staff on hand to help out. 

It’s important to understand that no one should return books or anything else during this time.  No fines will be assessed.  The due date for all materials that were supposed to be returned then has been changed to June 6th.

If everyone cooperates by just holding on to the materials due to be returned from May 18th until June 1st, it will avoid chaos for the library and the librarians.  So if you’re looking for your favorite librarian from May 18th until June 1st, you might find her or him at the Bergenfield Library.

For the full announcement on the library closing, clck here for the Teaneck Public Library website.  Just remember – if you have a Teaneck home and want to visit your local library from Wednesday until June 1st, you’ll have to go elsewhere.

If you own a home in Cresskill you’ll be very happy to hear that the Cresskill real estate market is brisk so far this year.  No matter how you slice it, more homes have sold this year through April than they did last year.  Town wide we have 24 sales this year with 19 in 2010.

Because Cresskill has a significant number of high end homes, it’s a good idea to look at the statistics through $1 million because that really is the bulk of the market in town but the results are the same – more sales in 2011 than we had in 2010.  The time it takes to sell these homes is a little quicker than in 2010 but for the $1 million + market, homes are selling much faster this year.

The median price is up too – 17% more for the under million dollars Cresskill homes and 21% more for sales at over $1 million.  Using average sales prices the results are the same – it’s all good.  There is no doubt about it – the market for a Cresskill home is much better this year with more sales, better time on market figures and higher median prices.

So the bottom line is that Cresskill homes are selling and selling well in 2011.

Haworth NJ is a wonderful town.  Small with less than 3,500 residents, it’s also gorgeous with street after street of magnificent towering trees and mature plantings that give it a beautiful, idyllic charm.  Because of it’s special ambience and great schools, Haworth homes are in high demand.  For such a tiny town, Haworth has some amazing services and chief among them is the Haworth Swim Club.

The Haworth Swim Club has 2 large pools (heated and unheated), a kiddie pool for the little ones, refreshment stand and picnic facilities too.  If you get tired of swimming, you can play basketball, ping pong, volleyball or board games. 

What’s so nice about the Haworth Swim Club is that it truly is a town facilitiy.  People form long term friendships while watching their children swim in the pool.  Open to both residents and non-residents (who are charged only $100 more), many members come back for decades where they meet old friends and make new ones.

If you own a Haworth home you’re bound to join the swim club where you really become part of the community.  Since the Haworth Swim Club opened in 1952 it’s been a large part of the fun of owning a Haworth home.  But you better join now – rates go up on May 28th!  Just click here for the application.

While I know that many news reports are filled with gloom and doom, Bergen County real estate is following a more positive path according to New Jersey MLS data:

Through April comparing this year to last year  for single family homes, there are 8% fewer closings, barely 1% less in the average sales price and  only 9  more days of marketing time.  While the number of closings were up  in February, March and April had less but it’s not like we fell off a cliff - down 19% in March and 16% in April. 

OK, why isn’t this troubling?  Because last year to take advantage of the tax credit you had to be in contract by April 30th and closed out by June 30th.  One would think that the artificially high number of closings from the Homebuyer Tax Credit (which overheated the market for the first 4 months last year) would result in much worse 2011 figures. 

Let’s see how things look at the end of May.  I’ll be back to you on this then but for now it sure doesn’t look like the market has jumped off any cliffs this year.