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New Year But Same Old Runoff Problem for Upper Saddle and Saddle River Communities

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photos by Derek Michalski

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Upper Saddle River NJ, A New Year, but the same old problems for Upper Saddle and Saddle River communities. Apparently brown Wonka water is good for home values in one of the richest zip codes in the United States 07458. Of course I am being facetious. All kidding aside have you checked your home value lately?

Continue reading New Year But Same Old Runoff Problem for Upper Saddle and Saddle River Communities

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Ridgewood,Glen Rock and Ho Ho Kus all Make the NICHE 2017 100 Best Places to Buy a House list

Ridgewood Realestate

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June 7,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood ,Glen Rock and Ho Ho Kus all Make the NICHE 2017 100 Best Places to Buy a House list.

The NICHE 2017 Best Places to Buy a House ranking provides a comprehensive assessment of the housing and community of an area. This grade takes into account key factors of a location’s housing market, including home values, taxes, crime rates, and quality of local schools, in an attempt to measure the quality and stability of an area’s real estate market.

In Bergen County  Ridgewood neighbor Glen Rock fared best with a rating of 17, Ho Ho Kus  a 55, Ridgewood  66, and Fairlawn 87. Other Bergen County towns who ranked well Haworth 24, Demarest 29, Ramsey 32, Mahwah 42, Oradell 66 , and Allendale 93.

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Glen Rock Makes the List of 19 hottest real estate markets in N.J.

glen_rock_theridgewoodblog

A revival in Bergen County : After seeing its growth stagnate in the 1980s and 1990s, Glen Rock has been steadily gaining population in the 21st century. In a few years, it could near its peak population of 13,000, set in 1970

The 19 hottest real estate markets in N.J. are surging

Updated May 31, 2017
Posted May 31, 2017

Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

New Jersey’s real estate market has been fairly fractured since the Great Recession ended in 2009. A slow recovery has meant many are still waiting for their property values to recover, but that’s certainly not true across the board.

A handful of towns are seeing incredible demand and, combined with low inventories, prices have been skyrocketing in recent months.

The 19 towns below all, according to real estate tracking giant Zillow, have seen their median home values peak at the start of 2017. We used Zillow’s own Home Value Index for our analysis (methodology here) and excluded shore communities where there is a strong secondary home market.

Each of these towns stand a head and shoulders above New Jersey’s statewide price growth during the last year and some have seen home values soar to remarkable heights.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/05/the_hottest_real_estate_markets_peaking_right_now_in_nj.html

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Reader says Reluctantly After 20 years in Ridgewood, we have changed our plans and will be joining others who are leaving

realestate_forsale_theridgewoodblog

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Truly Amazing to see any official defend this type of budget. If my company performance mirrored that of our schools with the never ending costs I would be fired in a moment. Ridgewood you win.

Reluctantly After 20 years in Ridgewood, we have changed our plans and will be joining others who are leaving. Our children are gone and although we planned to stay and the village should also want us to stay as we have no longer have kids in the system, we have lost the fight. Our property taxes are almost $50,000. The taxes have gone up almost 8x in 20 years while my home value has been stagnant or reduced. The schools do not excel despite the spin, I can’t water my lawn, can’t park at the station to get to work, can’t get through town with all the traffic, very hard to live here now. The mayor is able to get her family village jobs, sell us her property for millions, Spend money on a old house and then fight to protect it, guess the list goes on.

Funny thing. We have a house in another part of NJ with a higher value, half the taxes, higher ranked schools, and much easier commute to NYC.

Good luck Ridgewood. Will miss it.

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Home Values Slide 16.9% in Bergen County

realestate_forsale_theridgewoodblog
December 13,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, According to the latest census data home prices across the state are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, According to the most recent Census data, the median home value in New Jersey is $315,900, a 20 percent decline between the 2005-2009 Census and the 2011-2015 data.

Bergen County had the highest home values in the state, with the runner-up position going to Morris County. Bergen home values dropped from $530,867 to $441,100 or -16.9% from the 2005-2009 period to the 2011-2015 period compared to New Jersey values which dropped 19.5% and US values dropped -12.5% during the same period.

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GROUP’S REPORT WARNS THAT NEW JERSEY IS IN MIDST OF MILLENNIAL OUTMIGRATION

moving-out

JOHN REITMEYER | FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Business-lobbying organization says brain drain makes it hard for state to attract cutting-edge companies that need younger, skilled employees

New Jersey loses a portion of its senior population every year to less-expensive — and less snowy — states like Florida and North Carolina. But a new study of outmigration trends issued by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association raises new alarms about the number of so-called millennials who have also been leaving the state.

Of all the age groups in New Jersey that experienced a net loss in population from 2007 to 2014, the highest rate was among people between the ages of 18 and 34, according to the business-lobbying organization.

That brain drain hurts the overall New Jersey economy and makes it harder for the state to attract the type of companies that rely on young, skilled workers, the association said.

The new data on millennials leaving New Jersey was included in NJBIA’s broader outmigration study, which concluded that the state had a net loss of 682,062 residents between 2005 and 2014. And from 2004 to 2013, New Jersey lost $18 billion in net adjusted gross income, the NJBIA said.

The organization blamed New Jersey’s high taxes and overregulation for that loss of wealth and residents, and it offered a list of recommendations that ranged from tax reform to better workforce development and making higher education more affordable as remedies.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/02/15/new-report-warns-that-new-jersey-is-in-midst-of-millennial-outmigration/#

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“Which Areas Have The Lowest Property Tax” Is The Wrong Question

Michael Shetler,

BY MICHAEL SHETLER
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty 0569304
February 10, 2016 08:30 AM

Every year around this time we see headlines about property taxes.”Which counties in NJ have the highest, lowest property taxes?” is one from NJ.com. “See what town had the highest property tax rate in Bergen County,” is another.

Headlines like these are deceptive – written expressly to get attention rather than inform the public.

The problem with these headlines is readers infer these areas have the highest/lowest tax rates, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the case of one of the aforementioned articles, the first paragraph identifies Alpine, NJ, as having the highest average tax bill. While that is true, the article fails to mention the average home sale in Alpine over the last 12 months was $3,939,944. Or that Alpine has the lowest effective tax rate in Bergen County.

And Carlstadt, which is identified in the article as one of the areas with the lowest tax bills, has a tax rate over three times that of Alpine.

Wouldn’t you think some mention of home values in an area would be relevant when you’re talking about who pays the highest taxes?

The table below shows that actual tax rates of each area in Bergen County. And even more importantly, it lists the Effective Tax Rate. The latter takes into account that assessed values are not equal to market values. One town may be assessed at 95% of market value and another at 80%. They may have the same tax rate, but because the assessments are lower in the second town, the effective tax rate is also lower.

If you have any questions about property taxes in Bergen County, or are deciding which area to buy a home in, please call me at 201-421-0506 cell.

Download the chart below, sorted by Effective Tax Rate.

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Home values in North Jersey, are still no higher than they were 11 years ago

for sale Ridgewood_Real_Estate_theRodgewopodblog

Region’s home prices rise 2.8%

AUGUST 25, 2015    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015, 4:09 PM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Home prices continue to edge up in the New York metropolitan area, rising 2.8 percent in June compared with a year earlier, the S&P/Case-Shiller index said Tuesday.

Nationally, prices were more buoyant, rising 4.5 percent over the year.

Despite the recent gains, home values in the region, which includes North Jersey, are still no higher than they were 11 years ago, in September 2004. They are still almost 17 percent below their mid-2006 peaks in the region. Nationally, home prices have returned to the levels of winter 2005 nationwide, and remain 12 percent to 14 percent below their peaks.

“Nationally, home prices continue to rise at a 4-5 percent annual rate, two to three times the rate of inflation,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He said that the Federal Reserve’s signals that it will raise interest rates this year could lead to higher mortgage rates, which will make buying a home more difficult.

“A quarter-point increase in the Fed funds rate won’t derail housing,” Blitzer said. “However, if the Fed were to quickly follow that initial move with one or two more rate increases, housing and home prices might suffer.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/region-s-home-prices-rise-2-8-1.1398017

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Home values up 2% in region, 4.6% nationwide

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file photo Boyd Loving

Home values up 2% in region, 4.6% nationwide

DECEMBER 30, 2014    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2014, 1:42 PM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Home values continued to cool off in October, with prices in the New York metropolitan area up only 2 percent from a year earlier, the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index said Tuesday.

Nationally, single-family home values were up about 4.6 percent in that period, a slowdown from last year’s pace, and evidence that a full recovery from the housing crash is still out of reach. Home values in the region and the nation remain 17 to 18 percent below their peaks in mid-2006, and are at the levels seen in mid- to late-2004, Case-Shiller said.

Case-Shiller does not follow home values county by county, but New Jersey Realtors, the statewide trade group, said that single-family home values in Bergen County rose 2 percent in October from a year earlier, to a median $459,000. In Passaic County, prices were flat, at a median $295,000.

The Case-Shiller figures follow other recent housing data that David Blitzer, head of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, called “somber.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/home-values-up-2-in-region-4-6-nationwide-1.1183300