The Bergen County Homes Blog

Every year residents of Tenafly NJ look forward to the town’s 4th of July festivities.  If you just bought a Tenafly home, you could miss it because Tenafly never has it’s 4th of July celebration on the 4th.  This year it’s going to be on Saturday, July 2nd, but don’t let that worry you.  It’s going to be a great Independence Day Celebration as it always is!

 Held each year at the Roosevelt Commons, Tenafly has a townwide Independence Day Celebration featuring all sorts of booths sponsored by local groups and businesses, rides for the children, food and prizes.  From 10 am to 3 pm bring your family to Roosevelt Commons for a day of fun where you’ll meet neighbors and friends alike.  Even if you don’t own a Tenafly home and are just in the area, feel free to drop in.

Later that night there will be fireworks.  Come behind the high school to watch – it starts about 9 pm give or take.  There’s a rain date too on the 3rd.  So if you own a Tenafly home and want to celebrate the 4th in town, you better come on the 2nd!

  Trees and nature have always been important in Tenafly NJ.  When I bought my Tenafly home I was amazed to learn how important trees were to the Tenafly Planning Board.  The builder had to agree to plant fast growing maple trees along the building line in Walnut Manor, where I bought my Tenafly home, so that in only 7 years the area would have tall trees throughout.

Today Tenafly has over 400 acres of municipal parks and open space.  Preserving natural woodland is so important here that in 1972 a 4 year campaign was begun to save 194 acres on the East Hill from development.  Along with grant money were hundreds of donations from individual Tenafly residents. 

Today that 194 acre purchase is part of the total 330 acre Lost Brook Preserve that so many Tenafly residents enjoy bordering on the 52 acre Tenafly Nature Center for a spectacular nature preserve.

Following Tenafly’s tradition of preserving woodland and trees, the Tenafly Public Works Department is hosting a free tree planting this spring.  Every Tenafly homeowner can call 201-568-4134 to be put on the list of homes that will be checked out to see if there is enough room in the borough right of way to plant a tree. If there is, the Public Works Department will come back in the spring and plant a tree there for free.

When you buy a Tenafly home, you’re buying more than Tenafly real estate.  You’re buying the Tenafly lifestyle and a big part of that is respect for trees and nature.

Everyone wants to know and for good reason – real estate is not only your home, it’s a key part of the economy and it’s very local.  When real estate is good, people go out more, restaurants are busier, life just seems better.   You can feel it when you go downtown or talk to your neighbor.  So, how is the Tenafly market?

Tenafly real estate has stabilized almost completely.   Over all we are moving forward and have been recovering since late last year.

Today, September 18^th, 126 homes are for sale with 18 under contract for a 7 to 1 ratio which isn’t, frankly, great.  Things turn positive at 5 to 1 but autumn traditionally has an inventory buildup.  The question is whether this is of disastrous proportions and the answer is No.

We are on track to have the same number of sales as last year.  Taking it through September 15^th for both years, 2009 had 93 sales and 2010 had 94.  What about the tax credit?  This is the under $500,000 market which was 21% of all Tenafly sales in 2009 and is 20% now (with under contracts).

Average sales prices support positive change too.  Significantly higher, this demonstrates that the product mix in Tenafly tilted toward higher priced homes in 2010.  Through September 15^th the average sales price rose 5% in 2010 to $910,866 from $865,679 last year.   

The heart of Tenafly real estate is the $650-950,000 price range.   The year to year comparisons clearly show how this market has come back.  It picks up again substantially in the important $1-2 million range.  The upper tier looks quiet but it isn’t.  This is luxury new construction and financing for high end new homes was non-existent until recently.   Never doubt Tenafly’s East Hill.  Demand was always there even if financing wasn’t.   Take a drive up Tenafly’s East Hill.   You’ll be amazed at all the high end new construction.  The East Hill is most definitely back.

What about the future?  Clearly Tenafly real estate has stabilized.  The New Jersey MLS inventory of short sales and foreclosures runs at 10-15% so while not terrible, it’s certainly a factor.  This together with job uncertainty will keep pricing pretty even for the next year or two.  Tenafly may experience some appreciation but at anemic levels.  I remain convinced that significant upward movement won’t come before 2013.  For Tenafly, the storm is behind us; we’ll be on calm waters till then and that’s good.

What could be better than buying a home in Tenafly NJ and taking a walk downtown on a Sunday only to find an amazing assortment of fresh produce at the Tenafly Farmer’s Market?

Every Sunday from May through October, Tenafly NJ residents as well as people from neighboring towns come to the local post office parking lot on Tenafly Road where from 10 am to 2 pm there is a wealth of fresh fruit, vegetables and organic items for sale.  You’ll also find wonderful fresh baked bread, pies, muffins and scones as well as bottled jams and honey.  There’s even farm fresh milk.  Many Sundays local artisans have their crafts on display along with local artists.

The Tenafly Farmer’s Market has become so popular that if you’re coming, it’s best to get there early so you don’t miss out on anything.  Without a doubt, one of the special advantages of owning a Tenafly home is the Sunday farmer’s market.  You can check it out online at http://www.tenaflyfarmersmarket.com

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.

One of the truly great aspects of buying a Tenafly home is the wonderful shopping district Tenafly residents enjoy.  Although Bergen County is well known for the major shopping malls that line Route 4 and Route 17 in Hackensack and Paramus, the value of a local downtown where merchants and shopkeepers know you by first name is cherished here.

I remember how my mother took all of us children to a very special book store in Hackensack.  Womrath’s was the place where you could browse for hours until you found the perfect book.  If you needed help, Mr. Kutik and his staff would always find what you needed.  My mother would reward us with a trip to Womrath’s.  Today Mr. Kutik’s son Bob has maintained that tradition.

Bob Kutik owns and operates Womrath’s in Tenafly with that same wonderful customer service but he’s also moved into the 21st century – Womrath’s has a website, email newsletter and a page on Facebook.  It remains a treasure for Bergen County book lovers and is another reason why buying a Tenafly home brings you more than living space – it also brings you a great suburban lifestyle.

Small bookstores are rare these days but Tenafly has one of the very best in Womrath\’s.

As incredible as it may seem, Tenafly homes are selling in greater numbers this year than they did in 2008.  As of tonight, 125 Tenafly homes have closed so far this year.   In 2008, 117 Tenafly homes sold so we’re 8 sales ahead of last year with more to come.  Currently there are 23 Tenafly homes under contract so it’s reasonable to expect 132 Tenafly home sales in 2009.  This would represent a stunning 13% increase at a time when most other towns in Bergen County are having fewer sales.

The New Jersey MLS data shows that Bergen County has experienced a 13% price depreciation this year; Tenafly homes have depreciated along with the County but at far less – only 6%.   So here too, Tenafly homes have performed much better than Bergen County’s real estate market in general.

Take a look at this New Jersey MLS chart of Tenafly homes that sold in 2008 and so far in 2009.  The picture it paints is simple – demand for Tenafly homes has increased substantially this year:

On January 27, 2009, a home at 221 Churchill Road was listed for sale at $1,590,000. This was an extremely well kept original D’Agostino ranch home on a gorgeous acre lot. It was listed twice – as a single family home and as a building lot. On the Tenafly East Hill, original homes are sought after on their acre properties so that they can be removed and a new luxury home constructed.

A short while after being listed, the price was reduced to $1,425,000. Only 2 weeks later, on February 23rd, an offer was accepted and the home went into the Attorney Review process. Those of us who watched the market took note of this transaction because it demonstrated the strength of the demand for new luxury homes in Tenafly.

What happened next is even more intriguing as an indicator of the real estate market for homes in Tenafly.

On May 22nd the home came back on the market for sale. I called the listing agent who happens to be a very nice person and she told me that the owners were purchasing a short sale property out of the area and that their buyer had become frustrated with the long time it was taking and wanted to close on a home within the near future so the contract fell apart. Short sale transactions can take many many months – sometimes as much as one year. If you are buying a short sale and your buyer is not prepared to wait 6-9 months, it’s not going to work in most cases.

The home went back on the market on May 22nd at the start of the Memorial Day Weekend which, I am sure you will agree, is not the best time to start marketing a house. After all, a lot of your market is on it’s way out of town. The house had multiple offers and it was in Attorney Review again in 5 days.

What this tells you is that the market for luxury homes in Tenafly is still strong and that the market is stronger now than it was at the end of February. But wait, you say, if things are so fine and dandy on the Tenafly East Hill, why are there so many homes for sale? Because they are not marketed correctly. It really IS as simple as that. It is true that upper tier properties are having a hard time in this market but it is not true that you cannot be successful. However, you have to put yourself in front of your buyer and the homes that are for sale there are marketed using traditional methods which no longer work. That is the long and short of it.

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