Friday, February 24, 2006

North Jersey Real Estate News

Morristown Green development approved

The Morristown Planning Board gave the green light last night to a residential-retail development that will dramatically change the downtown streetscape facing the historic Green.

The unanimous vote on a proposal first announced in September 2003 paves the way for the demolition of the vacant Epstein's department store, which for 90 years has overlooked the Green on West Park Place.

With Epstein's and adjacent properties reduced to rubble, some 246 luxury condominium and apartment units will be built along with 72,000 square feet of retail space split up among ground-floor shops in three new buildings.


Transit village eyed for J&J tract

The Johnson & Johnson property on Route 1 is full of empty warehouses and barren parking lots, but what North Brunswick officials see is potential commerical growth.
...
Last night, in the first of many planned public meetings, the property's buyer tried to convince officials and residents that housing should be built on the sprawling 220-acre tract. Municipal officials, however, seemed unreceptive.
...
Even a real-estate agent at the meeting seemed against new housing.

"We're all scared to death of housing from that concept," Realtor and township resident Pete Maimone said. "There's absolutely no need for it. We have sufficient housing already."


Kearny resident feels New Jersey's 'affordability crisis'

Since moving to New Jersey from her native Puerto Rico two decades ago, Delia Andaluz has lived in some rough spots. She started in Newark's housing projects, then worked her way through a series of run-down apartments in the city's North Ward. Last summer, the 36-year-old single mother of two decided it was time to buy a house.

Easier said than done.

Andaluz eventually managed to purchase a three-family house in Kearny, but her inexperience in the daunting world of real estate left her with a $4,000 monthly mortgage. Despite rent checks from tenants and help from her fiancé, she is struggling to make ends meet on her $38,000 salary as a counselor at a local nonprofit organization.


County purchases 14 acres of open space in Clark

The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders announced last week that the county has preserved 14 acres of open space in Clark. County officials say the move will prevent the land from being developed into a residential subdivision site of 30 single-family houses.

The freeholder board voted Feb. 16 to authorize the county's purchase of the property from the Hazelwood Cemetery for $6.25 million through the Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.


Mortgage brokerage pulls vanishing act

They drove brand new luxury cars and were rarely seen without their staple accessories: cigarettes and cellphone earpieces.

But the men behind AMG Mortgage suddenly vanished one weekend in early November, just two months after moving into a Palisades Park office building. They left behind furniture, paintings, even half-empty coffee cups.
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The FBI has said AMG helped Korean-Americans in North Jersey secure as much as $100 million in fraudulent loans. With AMG's assistance, a homeowner would collect multiple loans on a single property, fooling each bank into thinking it was the only home equity lender, the FBI said.


At the corner of Grinn and Barret

Paul Eisenstein barely made it home for Thanksgiving last year. On his way from Pleasant Ridge, Mich., to his mom’s place in New York City, a street sign made him laugh so hard he nearly veered off the highway: Fangboner Road.
...
Eisenstein’s personal contest favorite is New Jersey’s Shades of Death Road, which runs through Allamuchy in Warren County. Although there are several theories on the name’s origin, the contestants submitted their own belief — that the Lenni-Lenape people who once occupied the area suffered from malaria and tuberculosis, and were slaughtered at the hands of an Iroquois tribe.

21 Comments:

Blogger Metroplexual said...

Shades of Death Road is in my town. The name is so bizarre that the signs would get stolen. The solution was metal posts 8 feet tall with thye name painted in white in a green background. Warren County is home to many strange names. Foul Rift (a place on the Delaware River, has a road named for it too), Dark Moon Road, Buzzards Glory Road. There is the Jenny Jump Mountains where legend has it that a young colonial maiden jumped off a mountain rather than be violated by Native Americans. Even the name Allamuchy means place of the cocoons by one interpretation I saw. There is Buttsville, and Manunkachunk Road. I could go on, I am originally from central Jersey which is wierd enough but this place is odder.

2/24/2006 08:36:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That Morristown development will really change the area....for the worse. That's a shame.

2/24/2006 08:37:00 AM  
Blogger Metroplexual said...

I think that Morristown could use some more residents. That train station is going to probably take most of those people to Manhattan. It will probably be DINKs or Empty Nesters anyway. I think it is a good move by Mo-town. Just who is going to build it in this down market we are headed into.

2/24/2006 08:54:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I live in Morristown, and have been looking around town, and initally was interested in the condos they are building around town; there's the Epstein's project, one at Vail Mansion and one at the train station. I don't expect that I will be able to afford any of them tho, and I'm wondering what will happen to the town while they are being built. Someone told me that the Vail Mansion condos are starting at 600,000 (I don't know if that is true)At this point, not a lot going on in Morristown, except some restaruants and every time you turn around another bank is open. I was really bummed that the old novo motors building is turning into a North Fork Bank. I can't think of anything new that has opened in the last year around the green or on South Street that isn't a bank.

2/24/2006 10:10:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How would one go about pursuing the opportunity to purchase a condo before they are developed? I have been looking to get in at ground floor somewhere but really do not where to start as I am inexperienced when it comes to this type of stuff. Would I contact the builder or a realtor?

2/24/2006 10:39:00 AM  
Blogger grim said...

I've been hoping to publish a the log of incoming URL's for everyone here to take a look at.

I'll usually have a good laugh every morning by taking a look at my referring URL log. When someone comes in via google, msn, yahoo, or any other search engine, I can see the "search string" they used to find my site.

It's amazing what some people are looking for when they come across my site.

My personal favorite this morning was:

"How does richard davis of trademark homes find his properties flip this house "

grim

2/24/2006 10:58:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

An excellent NNJ real estate news roundup!

2/24/2006 11:12:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"How does richard davis of trademark homes find his properties flip this house"

LOL.

I love that show! That guy is so loaded, he drops $100K donations to his college alma mater for some box seats at the football stadium.

2/24/2006 11:14:00 AM  
Blogger grim said...

No comments on the Kearny piece?

36 year old single mother making $38k a year with a 4k mortgage.

Even at $1000 a month on each of the rentals she isn't left with much of anything at the end of the day.

I've got a sinking feeling that this situation is much more common than even anyone here would think.

grim

2/24/2006 11:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"36 year old single mother making $38k a year with a 4k mortgage."

Most definitely a FB.

Her best shot would be to sell NOW, and rent in a half-decent town for the sake of her kid, and her financial sanity.

2/24/2006 11:46:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think we discussed this article a while back.. but maybe it was on FB. I know I've seen it

2/24/2006 12:03:00 PM  
Blogger Metroplexual said...

grim,

I saw that article over a week ago. I shared it with SoCalmtgguy on AFB. It seemed to be a good example of a seriously FB. Sorry I left you out.

2/24/2006 12:40:00 PM  
Blogger grim said...

Thought it seemed familiar as well, but the story was tagged with today's date, so I thought it was fresh.

jb

2/24/2006 12:49:00 PM  
Blogger Metroplexual said...

I ordered the IRS migration data.

2/24/2006 01:24:00 PM  
Blogger Metroplexual said...

Grim,

The IRS migration data has past year location of filers and present. It does not have individual incomes or even aggreagated. It has total migrants from each county to every other county in the US.

I'll map it by individual county in NNJ when I get it.

2/24/2006 01:57:00 PM  
Blogger grim said...

Can't wait to see it, if you need some help with the analysis just let me know.

grim

2/24/2006 02:33:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WHAT???

I'm sorry, but that story in Kearny has much more to do with stupidity than affordability.

A $4K mortgage would be what, a $650K home? Someone making $38K per year certainly has other options in Kearny. I mean, COME ON. This is about someone not doing their research or homework before making one of the buggest financial decisions of their life. I have no pity for someone who can't figure out a priori that 4000x12=48000 which is more than 38000. Tenents or not, there were some pretty easily overlooked errors on the part of this buyer that preclude her from being a victim of NJ prices. She's not an FB, she's a stupid b.

2/24/2006 04:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 8:37 - why on earth would the Epstein's redev be bad for Morristown?

I'm stoked. I think it's fabulous. With the huge influx of inventory I doubt that developers are going to get what they want for these condos, but I don't think they're going to attract the wrong element to town either.

Mixed use is fab. It's exactly what the town needs. I'm not crazy about the architecture of the main building in the plan, it's pretty milquetoast but I suppose that's better than ugly.

2/24/2006 04:47:00 PM  
Blogger Metroplexual said...

Grim, I have the out migration and the in. they are each over 250kb for a total of around 600k. What email should I send it to? I will map each NNJ county and NJ as a whole I should have that done by wednesday (the data needs cleaning up). I think it will be very interesting to see the diasopra in color.

2/24/2006 06:39:00 PM  
Blogger grim said...

nnjbubble@gmail.com is the best way to reach me.

2/24/2006 07:35:00 PM  
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4/18/2006 09:37:00 PM  

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