The Bergen County Homes Blog

Are you a senior citizen?  Do you own and live in your Cresskill home?  Is your income low?  Do you need a new roof?  Does your plumbing need work?  Does your central air conditioning need to be recharged?  Is it time to paint the exterior?  If you fit this profile, the Borough of Cresskill has a program for you!

On low fixed or limited incomes, senior citizen homeowners simply can’t afford to make the house repairs they need.  It is for many seniors an unfortunate fact of life that they can barely make ends meet.  The Cresskill Housing Rehabilitation Program is the solution for this problem.

The application form shows you the income levels that qualify and if you do, this is a fabulous opportunity.  The Cresskill Housing Rehabilitation Program gives qualified seniors who own and live in their Cresskill home interest free loans  for house repairs that are repaid only when the house is sold.  That’s right – 0% interest and no monthly bills!

Don’t you wish more towns helped their senior homeowners the way Cresskill does?  Cresskill homes are always in demand because it’s a great place to live.  Here’s just another reason why.

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!

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.

If you own a home in Cresskill NJ you’ll want to hear about this -

The Borough of Cresskill is hosting a paper shredding day on Saturday, May 14th, from 9 am to 1 pm.  This is free for all Cresskill residents whether you own a Cresskill home or are a tenant.  This free event will be held at the Cresskill High School parking lot which is located at 1 Lincoln Drive.

If you’re doing some spring cleaning and don’t know what to do with that stack of old newspapers or those checks you’ve had gathering dust in a cabinet for the past 20 years, you can bring them to the paper shredding event if you’re a Cresskill resident and have your confidential papers shredded for free.

Please remember that hardcover items are not allowed – just paper items please.  For any questions you may have, just call 201-567-2184.

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.

The New Jersey MLS informed me that I am not allowed to post their statistical reports but I am allowed to email it to you.  Confused?  So am I. 

If you’d like this information, just email me at barbara@bergencountyhomes.com  and I’ll email it to you right away.  I apologize for this inconvenience but it’s beyond my control.

Cresskill is like  “A Tale of Two Cities.”  At over $2 million, the for sale to under contract ratio is 20 to 1;  at under $1 million, it drops to 5 to 1.  According to Jeff Otteau (www.Otteau.com) when you get to 5 to 1, you’re entering positive territory.  

The rarified world of luxury properties has suffered.  On top of the economic collapse, financing for these estates became extremely demanding with down payment requirements of 45-55%.  This recently adjusted to a realistic 20-25%.  For most of us the picture is different. 

The product mix moved higher this year.  Fewer homes should close under $350,000 and more at $350-450,000.  Homes are selling much faster – how about a 33% improvement in the $400-900,000 price range?  This is huge; today a mortgage requires more time due to new regulations.  This shows demand is up for Cresskill plus pricing is even. 

For most of us, Cresskill real estate is past the bottom and has stabilized.  Luxury real estate remains problematic; there is simply too much inventory and so much over pricing to get through.  For the heart of the Cresskill market, however, 2011 will be positive.  Stability should continue over the next few years; I don’t believe we’ll see any real upward movement before 2013.

What about interest rates?  At some point they will have to move higher but are still excellent at around 4.5%  On mortgages, the higher loan limits for Fannie, Freddie and FHA are being extended through September 2011 which helps us tremendously.

For the average Cresskill house 2011 will be better as we emerge from the most challenging housing market since the 1930′s.

You don’t have to own a home in Tenafly to know what’s happening there – all you have to do is to go to the Borough of Tenafly website where you’ll discover that Tenafly is doing a revaluation right now.

Let’s say you’re thinking of buying a home in Englewood.  You see that many of the homes there are from the early 20th century so you’d like to know about the city’s history.  Just go to the City of Englewood website where you’ll find the Our History page that takes you from Englewood’s earliest days to the present.

The River Vale website is the place to go for local events – it’s always on their home page.   Park Ridge and Westwood does this too along with many other local communities.  You may find important changes on a town’s home page – this year Westwood began registering it’s various Recreation Department activities online; the announcement is on it’s home page right now.

Town websites are also a great help when you need a form.  For example, if you want to put up a fence on your property and you live in Cresskill, the fence permit form can be downloaded from the Cresskill Boro website Some towns like Tenafly actually have a step by step guide for you when it comes to getting a permit

Many community sites have portions of their building codes right on their websites.  Old Tappan has their entire borough code on line.

You may be amazed at how much information can be found on a town website.  If you’re thinking of buying a home or if you’re a Bergen County resident now, check out the borough website.  You’ll be glad you did.