Welcome to the New RealTown! Submit Feedback

New Jersey Real Estate

Hillsborough, New Jersey

Real estate information and opinions about residential real estate in Somerset, Hunterdon, Mercer and Middlesex Counties by a REALTOR� with over a quarter century of experience. COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. Please use the Add Comment link at the bottom of the posting.

Subscribe

Your E-mail Address:
Subscribe to:

Recent Comments

RE: National Real Estate Trend Up?
This is at once the worst and best time to invest...
RE: IndyMac Bank
Hmmm.  All Realtors are liars and lazy worker...
RE: IndyMac Bank
  If you ask me all realtors are liars and l...
RE: Franklin Township (Somerset) NJ Real Estate Trends for July
Jim, thanks for reading my blog.  You're righ...
RE: Franklin Township (Somerset) NJ Real Estate Trends for July
I enjoy following your blog.  It looks like a...

Favorite Links

Site Feed

RSS Feed

New Jersey Real Estate

January 2008

Old News Still Sows Fear

Jan. 30, 2008
Categorized in: Media Distortions

Standard and Poor is still trying to keep people out of real estate and in stocks.  Why else would they make a big deal of November home prices falling "at a record pace?" (http://tinyurl.com/2b2pkf)


Aside from the fact that their Case-Shilling Index is severely limited in scope and depth (see my earlier blogs on that index), November numbers are based for the most part on September contracts. I think we all know that October, based on contracts written in the depth of the mortgage crisis, was bad.  I think using year-to-year drops are not useful four months later.  Unless it is an attempt to prolong the bad news and keep buyers out of the market.

Even the good news that Charlotte, NC, Portland OR and Seattle WA "posted positive annual growth rates," was tempered by the observation that they will "fall into negative territory in the next few months."

Pay attention to your local market.

New Home Sales up in Northeast

Jan. 29, 2008
Categorized in: Real Estate Market

I'll bet you didn't see this headline today.  It was the only positive note in the Commerce Department's report at http://tinyurl.com/bp7jtThe Northeast  region is experiencing less of hit to new home sales than any other part of the country.  In 2007 there was a 1.6% advance in sales over 2006 at a time when the West recorded a decline of 32.2%, the Midwest 26.7%, and the South 26.3%.

Keep in mind these are new home sales, not "resales."

And, like all numbers on the real estate market, it depends on where you live.  There is no national real estate market.


60 Minutes on the Real Estate Market

Jan. 28, 2008
Categorized in: Media Distortions

The CBS news magazine program. "60 Minutes," did a real estate piece yesterday that approached reality.  They focused on Stockton, California, generally regarded as one of the hardest-hit markets in the subprime mortgage meltdown.  It was clear that times are very difficult in Stockton, with hundreds of mortgages in default, foreclosure or bank ownership.

But, once again, there was an allusion to Stockton being perhaps typical of conditions across the country.  Stockton is a worst-case scenario, not typical, anymore than the oil patch towns of Texas are typical in their booming economy, or the city of Charlotte, NC.

Maybe eventually the media will catch on that they can spotlight individual markets without extrapolating from them a general overall "national real estate market." 

Maybe.  Don't hold your breath.