The Bergen County Homes Blog

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.

Live theater is alive and well in Bergen County.  No matter where you live from Ridgewood to Fort Lee or from Bergenfield to Mahwah, every Bergen County homeowner is within a 15 minute drive to a live local theater.

Teaneck has 2 major artistic entities - The Garage Theater Group and The Puffin Foundation.  The Garage Theater Group has been presenting live theater since 1993 and is located in the Fairleigh Dickinson University Becton Theater.  A strong focus of The Garage Theater Group is nurturing young actors.  Theater classes are offered for ages 6-18 during the school year plus there’s a summer camp.  Also offered are adult classes, individualized coaching and a dance class.

At the end of each play, the cast and director get together with the audience for an open forum discussion.  This is a uniquely special part of seeing a Garage Theater production and it’s a very enriching experience.  I’ve attended plays here which I’ve enjoyed tremendously.  It’s also quite inspiring to see how talented our young local actors are.

The next 2 productions are going to be a lot of fun and both are musicals:  Narnia from March 11-13 and Seussical from  June 3-12.  Tickets are affordable and I’m sure that both productions will sell out quickly.

If you own a Teaneck home, you’re only a hop, skip and a jump away but no matter where you live in Bergen County, the Garage Theater Group is conveniently located.  At the same time, The Garage Theater Group is a positive for Teaneck real estate.  Being able to tell Teaneck home buyers that we have live theater in town adds value to Teaneck homes.

While it may not be glamorous, recycling is an important part of life today.  The Township of Teaneck Department of Public Works (DPW) is pitching in to help it’s residents by offering free recycling receptacles.  

To get your free receptacle, go to the DPW facility at 1600 River Road between the hours of 7 am and 2:30 pm from Monday through Sunday (except for legal holidays of course).   All you’ll need to bring with you is proof that you’re a resident of Teaneck.  

If you have questions about recycling, call the recycling hotline at 201-837-1600 extension 1946.  Teaneck is a great place to live and having such services is one of the many reasons that Teaneck homes are so popular.

Credit Suisse Bank has a really neat way of looking at the local housing market – they send out a monthly questionaire to top real estate agents on over 40 housing markets in the US.  As one of the agents surveyed by Credit Suisse, I get the these reports and find them to be very valuable.

The Credit Suisse  “Monthly Survey of Real Estate Agents”  for the New York – Northern New Jersey area is really quite accurate. It found that January had an inventory build up which put pressure on pricing.  No doubt the 7 major snow storms we had then caused many buyers to stay home.  However, concerns over jobs and year end bonuses that were less than in the past also had an effect.  The sum total was pressure on pricing and homes on the market longer. 

At the same time, agents were seeing signs of pent up demand, frustration with renting and fear of higher interest rates.  56% thought the activity level was more than expected, 31% saw it as what they expected and only 13% saw activity as less than expected.   

Near term prices will soften a bit more but as the weather changes, so will the mood of many buyers.  Halfway through February, I can report that activity has definitely increased.  If you look at the activity ratios of a few towns, you’ll see they’re under or just over 5 to 1 which is great:

Tenafly is 4.3 to 1, Cresskill is 4.2 to1, Teaneck is 6 to 1,  Dumont is 4.3 to 1, Englewood is 4.8 to 1 , River Edge is 2.9 to 1 and Oradell is 3 to 1.

Buyers are snapping up the bargains that are now out there and are locking in interest rates as soon as they can.  Without snow and ice to slow things down, the real estate market will be very active this spring.

Whether you’re buying a home in Cresskill, Tenafly, Teaneck, Englewood or anywhere else in Bergen County, you need to do a home inspection.  Once Attorney Review is completed and you have a firm purchase contract on your new home, often the next step is to do the home inspection. 

This is when most people focus on finding a home inspector.  And for most people they find a home inspector in a matter of minutes which really doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Consider this:  Didn’t you spend a lot of time doing research on the market and looking at a variety of locations?   Let’s say the home you picked is in Bergenfield.  Didn’t you also spend time looking at homes in Englewood, Teaneck, Dumont, Bogota and perhaps further out in Bergen County like Fair Lawn and Waldwick where pricing is similar?  

Amazingly enough, most people spend hardly any time at all in finding their home inspector.  Just a few minutes on the web and that’s it.  I tell my buyers to get ready early on.  Don’t wait until you’ve found your house to find the right professionals you need and that includes a home inspector.

The State of New Jersey licenses home inspectors.  If someone gives you a recommendation, you can go to the State of NJ Divison of Consumer Affairs to verify that the person recommended is licensed.  A great resource is the American Society of Home Inspectors and HUD has it’s own top 10 list of questions to ask the inspectors you investigate.  Another idea is to consult with your attorney and, of course, your real estate agent can suggest home inspectors too.

When you buy a house the home inspection is one of the major parts of the home buying process.  Spend the time to do the research you need to get the right home inspector for you.

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.

What do Mahwah, Paramus, River Vale, Rockleigh and Teaneck have in common?  Each of these towns has a public golf course.  Bergen County supports 5 excellent public golf courses and has an award winning junior golf program as well.  Golf is big here and well supported by the Bergen Couny Parks Department.  

The 5 public golf courses are Darlington in Mahwah, Orchard Hills in Paramus, Overpeck in Teaneck, Rockleigh in Rockleigh and Valley Brook in River Vale.  All are 18 hole courses except Orchard Hills which is a 9 hole course.  Darlington also has a concession based driving range as well as a pro shop and snack bar.  You’ll find a clubhouse at Overpeck, Rockleigh and Valley Brook.  Course fees are very affordable as one would expect with a public golf course and facilities are truly excellent.

There’s an automated tee time reservation system where you can also reserve a golf cart.  Tournaments are scheduled from mid June to the first week of October and run from highly competitive events to golf outings that are geared to beginning players as well as seniors.

A recent addition to the Bergen County golf program is the Pioneer Program.  Begun in 1995 to introduce golf to young people from 8 through 18 years of age, the Pioneer Tour has had a major impact.  Close to 1,000 young golfers participate with more tournaments added each year.  An outstanding program, Golf Digest in 2000 awarded the Pioneer Junior Tour it’s prestigious award for being the best municipal junior golf program in the US.

So whether you buy a home in Dumont, River Vale, Tenafly or anywhere in Bergen County, there’s a golf course and a program just perfect for you.

Does this look familiar? 

If it does, then you”re like many people who’ve bought an older, charming colonial home in Bergen County.  Along with the home (and especially if you bought it in towns with large inventories of charming colonial homes like Tenafly or Teaneck or Ridgewood) you got a red brick fireplace in the living room that you figured you’d fix in the future.  An article I read in Lowes “Creative Ideas” magazine recently showed how you can transform that old red brick quickly and affordably.   

Lowes has a special program for real estate agents which I’ve found to be a great help for my clients and myself.  Recently there was an article in “Creative Ideas” that solved this problem.  By resurfacing the existing red brick with a combination of tile and slate you create an amazing, beautiful effect immediately. 

This fireplace was an old, stained, red brick unit and then the Lowes team went to work  with a combination of tile and slate.  You can, of course, use other tile and stone materials but the change is certainly remarkable.  No structural renovations were needed to make this fireplace a modern showpiece.

If you’d like to get “Creative Ideas” you can go to http://www.Lowes.com or you can get in touch with me for the full real estate agent benefits program.  Lowes has many simple and affordable solutions to design problems for homeowners and they also have a lot of good tips for you too.