The Bergen County Homes Blog

If you are a home buyer and you qualify for the first time home buyer tax credit, time is running out for you to find a home.  You must buy a home by November 30th and because getting a mortgage these days often takes 45 days, many buyers feel pressured to make a decision now.  As a result, a first time home buyer who qualifies for the $8000 Tax Credit may find himself scrambling to get into contract this week.  However, I’m wondering if some of you aren’t making a mistake.

$8000 is nothing to sneeze at but a buyer may be missing out on a home value that far exceeds the $8000 credit – short sale opportunities are still available.  There are many homes for sale with steep discounts because they are a short sale and you may find a house that is a better “fit” for you in a short sale than trying to buy a home that you really don’t love just because of the tax credit.

In the New Jersey MLS this morning, searching for short sale homes shows that of the 3,796 single family homes for sale, 352 are a short sale.  There are also many that are described as potential short sales.  For our purposes, let’s say that a bit more than 10% of the Bergen County housing market is a short sale.   This figure has been pretty constant this year.  The bottom line is that there are other opportunities out there.

Even if you can’t find a home that works in time for the tax credit, you shouldn’t go into contract on something that isn’t the right home for you and your family.  Opportunities come in many ways.

While I normally blog about the real estate market and life here in Bergen County, I want to bring Jake to your attention.  This is a sad story about a pet rescue – the owners had just adopted this dog who is still a puppy – from an animal rescue group when things went terribly wrong:

Please post this story in your blog, on Facebook, tweet about it, etc. so maybe someone will find poor Jake.  What set him off we believe is the fact that there were fireworks last night in town.  If you’ve ever been a pet owner, you know how fireworks can upset an animal.  People everywhere throughout Bergen County are posting this and many volunteers have been helping to try to find him.  In fact, the local police messaging services put out the call for all policemen to be on the watch for Jake last night as soon as the owners called for help.

If you’re in Bergen County or near by, please keep a look out for this frightened little guy.  Thanks a lot!

Buying a home should always include a home inspection. Even if the home is new construction, it’s best to have the guidance of a professional home inspector. In New Jersey, home inspectors are licensed by the State but there’s also another resource for you – the American Society of Home Inspectors known as ASHI.

ASHI was started in 1976 by a group of home inspectors who wanted to set standards of practice and create a learning center for inspectors, buyers, sellers and real estate professionals. Every member of ASHI must take a Standards and Practices training module and agree to abide by their Code of Ethics. Today ASHI is the largest trade organization of home inspectors in the US. I consider ASHI to be a wonderful organization and only recommend home inspectors who are both licensed in New Jersey to perform home inspectors and members of ASHI.

BTW, when you’re on the ASHI website, be sure to check out the Virtual Home Inspection

You should always attend your home inspection. It’s one of the most important parts of buying a house plus you’ll learn a lot about your new home. The average inspection takes around 3 hours but this varies on the size and condition of a home. Be sure to bring a pen and pad so that you can take notes during the inspection. The inspector will tell you about the home’s condition and teach you how to maintain various aspects of it.

If you are selling, it’s a good idea to inspect your home before it’s for sale. An inspection can uncover problems you never knew existed and gives you an idea of what a buyer will hear.

The New Jersey MLS is the primary multiple listing service for all of Bergen County and they do a simply outstanding job in so many ways. Not only do they have comprehensive information on homes for sale in Bergen County but they also have statistics on all aspects of the real estate market from the sales in their system.

What their data shows us is an improving market for homes in Bergen County. The number of days it takes to sell a home has been decreasing since March. If you take a look at the NJMLS Average Days on the Market Graph you’ll see this very clearly. While it’s still taking more than 100 days to get a home sold, we’re closing in on this number and I’ll bet we’ll be under 100 days to get a home sold very shortly.

You should also take a look at the Average Sold Prices Graph which again shows a definite move up although this time it begins in April. However, this makes sense because almost all first quarter sales come from contracts written during the prior year. What this graph shows it that we’re moving toward an average home sale of $500,000 and that’s positive.

I’m not saying that house prices are going up – prices for homes are not going up. In fact they will continue to go down for a while yet but you can only get a rise in the average sales price for a home when more expensive homes are selling. That happens when the real estate market is getting better throughout all price ranges.

First time home buyers have been kept in the market by such things as the First Time Home Buyer $8,000 Tax Credit which, one week ago, was added to FHA backed loans and low mortgage rates. As everyone knows, it takes the first time home buyer to get things moving and it sure looks like this is happening. At least that’s what the New Jersey MLS data shows.

When people decide to buy a home they naturally start to look at the real estate market, do some number crunching and find statistics which explain the market trends. Lately, a statistic on homes that’s been quite popular is the absorption rate.

Absorption rates simply put tell you how long it will take to sell off the existing inventory of homes. This shows you how properties are selling; it’s measured in months as in how many months it will take to sell all the homes for sale. Understanding market activity is important but I think that looking at absorption rates this early in the year can be misleading.

No matter the economy, the housing market has a unique rhythm of it’s own. Most homes for sale go on the market during the early part of the year and are sold during the summer so statistics for the first few months of the year that track the relationship between sales and available inventory can be tilted in the wrong direction. In fact, absorption rates at this point can be very confusing if you look at the report appraisers use when they do an appraisal on a house. This is the 1004MC Report.

Let’s look at Tenafly, NJ. If you go back 12 months from today, the Tenafly real estate market for homes really looks weird. For example, take a look at the number of Active Listings – it looks terrible doesn’t it? Well, what would you expect for this time of year? It’s always larger now because more houses are on the market between March and June. At the same time, how long a home is on the market for sale is currently half what it was previously. That is extremely important. In truth, Tenafly houses are selling very well. Tenafly homes are always in strong demand. The New Jersey MLS 1004MC Appraisal Report for Tenafly can be found at tenafly-1004mc-report

Begen County is filled with families and children. There are many great facilities for kids which I’ll be talking about but I also want to feature some of the pets waiting for adoption here because we have many pet facilities where you can get a great pet.

Very often after a family moves into their new home, they get a pet and that usually means a dog or a cat. Many home buyers buy a home and then get a dog because they are coming from apartments or the city where having a pet is not easy or allowed. There are so many wonderful dogs and cats in our animal shelters and here’s one who’s on the Urgent List at The Bergen County Animal Shelter which means poor Elton doesn’t have a lot of time left on this earth.

Because so many families have lost their jobs or their homes or both, the animal shelters are overwhelmed. Bergen County has a large facility but they can’t handle the inflow and euthanize animals. If you know of anyone who’s looking for a good pet, take a look at Elton.

Fostering a pet is also something that’s urgently needed and it gives you a good chance to see if you and a dog are a good match. I know of many good pet organizations in Bergen County where you can get advice, help and obedience classes so that you and your new dog can bond properly. Take a look at Elton – you’ll be glad you did.

If you’re going to be in Bergen County next Tuesday please come by and help our Blood Drive by donating blood. This year we’ve teamed up with the philanthropic group Cresskill Gives Back so we’re hoping to be even more successful than we were before.

Cresskill Gives Back was begun by a group of local young adults who wanted to help others less fortunate than themselves and to assist with other community needs. Cresskill Gives Back is a wonderful example of the strong community spirit you’ll find here in Bergen County.

So come on over to donate your blood and help us make make this year’s Blood Drive the best ever!

Cresskill is celebrating Earth Day in a very special way by having it’s first ever Earthfest which is an all day fun filled event for people of all ages.  There’s going to be a large number of learning activities plus live entertainment by local musicians, a Family Bicycle Tour (it’s also ok if you’re not a family), an Environmental Fun Walk, a volunteer community clean up of the Tenakill Brook and just for the children there’s a Bicycle Rodeo and Safety Check so be sure to have them bring their bike. It’s on from 9 -2 and there will be many environmental groups and regulation agencies present to help educate everyone about how to preserve and protect the environment and to show you how to live a better life by going green. In fact, if you’ve ever thought about buying a green car there will be an exhibit of the latest in green cars. Put together by the Cresskill Environmental Commission and the Cresskill Education Fund, this is a very impressive event that has everything you’d expect of an Earth Day celebration from alternative energy exhibits to an arts and crafts table to foods from organic farms. If it’s about the environment and making your world more green, you’ll find it at Cresskill’s Earthfest 09 at the Recreation Center on 3rd Street. Go to Cresskill's Website and then on to Newsletters where you’ll find all the information in the April newsletter or you can email questions to Earthfest09@aol.com. Bergen County is known for it’s community spirit and Earthfest 09 sure demonstrates it!

The figures are in and the real estate market in Bergen County is doing OK.  It’s still a buyer’s market for homes but you can see some signs of improvement.

In January I had written that the real estate market in Bergen County would shift during the 4th quarter of 2009 and stabilize.  From then on for a few years we would be working in a narrow range before turning upward again.  This time it would take longer than it did in the early 90′s to rebound fully but being stable is good.  So far my projection is still on target.

Most of the reports at that time were for this to happen once we were solidly in 2010 – well, the media reports are singing a different song because things have changed.  And so has the market.

If you look at the number of homes coming onto the market and going under contract, what you’ll find is very interesting.  For the homes becoming active in the New Jersey MLS, there’s been an 11% drop during the first quarter of 2009 but the pace of homes going under contract is the same this year as it was last year.  Do I hear the word stable anywhere?  Yes, this is indeed a sign of stabilization and that’s, to quote Martha Stewart, a good thing.

For the first quarter in both 2008 and 2009 the Active to Under Contract ratio is 3.9 to 1 in the New Jersey MLS data.  This means that the pace of home sales is maintaining itself and it’s also quite respectable – the ratio of a strong seller’s market is 2 to 1.

Looking closer to see what happened we find that in 2008 the rate at which homes became active was pretty normal – a gradual progression as you moved more into the year.  But in 2009, January and February were anemic and then we had a 32% explosion upward in March.  Do you think that the spring real esate market is back in Bergen County?  I sure do.

Home buying activity has really picked up since March 1st and home sellers have correspondingly jumped into the real estate market.  Why would they wait until now to put their home on the market for sale?  Because the atmosphere was so negative at the end of 2008 that it made many homeowners hold off.  What’s changed?  Well, just to mention a few items – the $8,000 tax credit, liberalization of FHA mortgages, even lower mortage rates, home prices not seen in nearly 8 years and the natural spring rhythm of home buying.

While home values are still going down – another 5% for the rest of this year – I still feel that the market will be stabilized by the 4th quarter.  What we’ve seen so far this year in maintaining the pace of sales and in the recent surge in home buying activity certainly point to this and also to a good spring market for Bergen County homes.  In fact, I won’t be surprised to learn that the bottom of the real estate market in Bergen County was the end of 2008 and the very beginning of 2009.  2009 will be a year of change.

The most special aspect of selling real estate in Bergen County is the people you meet.  One of the nicest people I’ve met is a lady by the name of Laura who told me today about a pet portrait promotion to help out CLAWS – CLAWS is an animal rescue group based in Closter which is in the north eastern part of Bergen County but they help animals throughout the county.  I’ve inserted their flyer below which has all the details for you. 

By the way, if you are thinking about adding a pet to your family, in addition to CLAWS there are several animal shelters in Bergen County as well as breed rescue groups where you can save a pet and have the love of an animal who, from what I’ve been told, truly understands that their new owner has rescued them.  It is an unfortunate truth that there are always many fine dogs and cats available but the good news is that you have a good choice of many wonderful pets.

If you have a dog or a cat or a turtle or a bird or any other pet, wouldn’t it be fun to have a pet portrait of them?  Not only will you be helping out CLAWS to do more animal rescue work and to maintain the pets they now have, you will have a lot of fun with the folks at Motophoto while you’re getting your pet’s 5 X 7 portrait.