The Bergen County Homes Blog

When you are buying a home, part of the process involves a home inspection.  Home inspections are usually done in 3 sections – structural, termites and wood destroying insects and radon.  Radon is a gas that occurs when uranium and radium breaks down in the soil or in rock formations.  When this gas is released, it can build up to dangerous levels in a house.  Radon is a leading cause of lung cancer. 

Not only is it dangerous, it’s clear and odorless.  The only way to discover if the radon level in your house is unsafe is to test for it.  Home buyers rarely re-test after they’ve moved in and most people who bought their home before radon became a known issue have never tested to see if their home is safe from this dangerous gas.  The good news is that you can solve a radon problem through contacting a licensed radon mitigation contractor; this often involves a simple ventilation system in your basement.

Bergen County Executive, Kathleen Donovan, announced that there will be a limited number of free radon testing kits for Bergen County residents on a first come first served basis this month.  Just call the Bergen County Department of Health Services at 201-634-2803 or stop by Room 103A, 327 E. Ridgewood Ave in Paramus to pick up your free testing kit.  Do this today to protect yourself and your family!

This has been some January!  It seems that every week brings a new snow storm and now they’re predicting the entire month to be filled with storms.  I went to school in upstate New York and New Jersey is beginning to resemble my experience there.

What we’re used to is a snow storm of 2-3 inches and we’re getting 5-9 inches so far and now we are increasing this to 10 inches and more.  It’s really been an amazing month.

We have had so much snow, fire hydrants were nearly covered

The difference between 2009 and 2010 wasn’t much county wide.  According to the New Jersey MLS there were only 58 fewer units (from 7,315 in 2009 to 7,257 in 2010) while the average sales price was higher by 2% to $500,710.  2010 turned out to be a solid year for Bergen County’s housing market.

The truth is that real estate here pretty much stabilized and is poised to move forward in 2011.  Let’s check out a few towns to see how we’re doing on a local level:

Tenafly did very well.  Sales units in Tenafly were down by 8% but the average sold price rose 4%.  Teaneck also turned in a strong performance – units were down 14% and average sales prices were up 8%.  On paper Dumont didn’t do as well with 6% less sales and a 6% drop in the average sales price but a good number of short sales were to blame.  Cresskill has a large inventory of luxury homes so I kept it to $1 million sales.  Through $1 million, Cresskill had 19% fewer units at only 1% less in the average sales price. 

Bergen County beat the ”prevailing wisdom” because of our proximity to Manhattan, excellent schools, good commuting and diverse economy.  While Wall Street and the financial markets do employ many of us, there’s more to the Bergen County job picture than stocks, bonds and trades.  We have 4 major hospital centers in Englewood, Hackensack, Ridgewood and Teaneck employing large staffs of doctors, nurses and all sorts of support systems.  Bergen County is the most populous county in New Jersey and one of the largest in the US with over 900,000 residents. 

With all these advantages, it’s no wonder that things are better here.