The Bergen County Homes Blog

     Trolley service was  used in Bergen County until the advent of the Automobile Age in the 50’s and 60’s which made them seem old fashioned and restrictive.  You could drive anywhere in a car at any time – not so with the trolley.  Another change was development of large scale shopping malls on Route 4 and Route 17.  The Bergen Mall and Garden State Plaza were the first major shopping malls opening in the late 50’s.  People flocked to these new malls in their cars.  Even with a great business district locally, if you owned an Englewood home, chances were that you drove to these malls.   

In the affluence of the post World War II era, the American Dream of owning a home with your own backyard and a car in the driveway took over.  Soon even public buses  linking all 70 communities in Bergen County became a thing of the past.  People went everywhere in their cars.  I remember watching trolley tracks being paved over on Broad Avenue in Leonia when I was a young girl.  Everyone was proud of how “modern” Leonia now appeared.  But, times have changed and trolley service is one of the advantages of owning an Englewood home.

Green is in which means using public transportation to commute to work, shop and dine out is  more important than ever.  People who are thinking of buying a home now use such websites as Walk Score to measure how accessible homes are to basic services. 

In December of 2008 the City of Englewood began an experiment – free trolley service to the downtown business district where an Englewood resident could connect to NJ Transit and Coach USA express buses to work.  In addition to  normal rush hours, the trolley operates until 8 pm during the work week so commuters can shop and dine downtown on their way home at night.  (Saturdays it runs from 1 to 8 pm).  Having this free service is quite an advantage if you own an Englewood home.

The trolley experiement has been a huge success and is another benefit for Englewood homes.  For more information , Englewood has a detailed brochure and a map of the trolley line .

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 On January 15th the IRS released a new form for home buyers who want to claim the tax credit when they file their taxes this year.  This is Form 5405.  Form 5405 is a revision of the previous  2009 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit so that the current 2010 Home Buyer Tax Credit program is covered. 

I would like to point out 2 important changes:  Along with Form 5405 you MUST include documentation such as your RESPA closing statement.  Because there is more documentation required to claim your tax credit for both a repeat and a first time home buyer, your tax return must be filed manually.  So remember – more documentation and manual filing is what you’ll have to do. 

For more information, just go to the IRS website .  It’s really not hard to take care of this and since you will have purchased your home recently, it shouldn’t be difficult to access your RESPA closing statement.  As always, I recommend that you consult with a tax professional.

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