Tag: Real Estate

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After transforming the region, Hartz is looking beyond N.J.

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After transforming the region, Hartz is looking beyond N.J.

DECEMBER 15, 2014, 10:17 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014, 10:31 PM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Soggy marshes don’t usually provide a good foundation for construction, but in the past half century, Hartz Mountain Industries Inc. has created a multibillion-dollar real estate empire in North Jersey’s Meadowlands, transforming the region. Now the Secaucus-based company is in the final stages of a tumultuous shift that has taken it down the East Coast and as far west as Seattle.

Hartz, one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in the nation — with about 38 million square feet of properties — is diversifying and expanding into the red-hot industrial and multifamily residential real estate markets. The company has “a billion-dollar pipeline” for projects under development or planned, Hartz Managing Director Gus Milano said at a conference in September.

Major changes are taking place within the company as well. This month, sources said Milano, 61, who helped steer Hartz into new markets, will become the company’s president and chief operating officer next year. Emanuel “Manny” Stern, 51, will relinquish those titles to Milano and become vice chairman. The company declined to comment on the changes, but real estate industry insiders predict Stern will continue to run the evolving company, in close counsel with Milano.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/after-transforming-the-region-hartz-is-looking-beyond-n-j-1.1154964

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N.J. Supreme Court to hear arguments in affordable housing regulations case

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N.J. Supreme Court to hear arguments in affordable housing regulations case

December 4, 2014, 5:23 PM    Last updated: Thursday, December 4, 2014, 5:23 PM
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
State house bureau |
The Record
Print

The state Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear arguments in a case that will decide who gets to write the rules that govern affordable housing regulations, a long-standing issue that could impact every town in the state.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday announced it would hear oral arguments in a case that could transfer the power of writing affordable housing guidelines from the executive branch to the judiciary.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 6.

The Council on Affordable Housing, whose members are appointed by the governor, is tasked with  which is in charge of writing affordable housing rules., The council missed a state Supreme Court deadline to approve new guidelines, a time limit set by the Supreme Court as part of an ongoing lawsuit. After they missed the deadline, Fair Share Housing Center, an advocacy group focused on affordable housing, asked that the courts judiciary to take over the process.

The council operates within the executive branch. The A change in venue for affordable housing law would be significant because Governor Christie, who has loudly criticized affordable housing mandates, would have a downsized role in the rule making process. Instead, the court system that originally said affordable housing was a right would gain a new role in how it is implemented.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-affordable-housing-regulations-case-1.1146732

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Valley Hospital buys more land in Paramus

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Valley Hospital buys more land in Paramus

November 22, 2014    Last updated: Saturday, November 22, 2014, 1:21 AM
By LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
The Record

The Valley Hospital has purchased 11 1/2 acres in Paramus across the street from its same-day surgery and outpatient cancer center on Winters Avenue, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Valley Hospital

The site, not far from Route 17 and the Fashion Center mall, has been the data-processing and software-development facility for the global package distributor, UPS.

The hospital has no immediate plans to use the property, said Megan Fraser, a spokeswoman. It will lease the land and buildings back to BT Property, from whom it was purchased, for three years.

Fraser declined to give the sales price.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/valley-hospital-buys-more-land-in-paramus-1.1139536

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Share of First-Time Home Buyers Hits 27-Year Low

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Share of First-Time Home Buyers Hits 27-Year Low

Just 33% of primary residences sold this year were purchased by first-time buyers, down from 38% last year to the lowest level since 1987, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.

The NAR says that the first-time-buyer share of home sales has typically hovered around 40% since 1981.

The headwinds facing young buyers are well known: higher student debt, rising rents and a weaker job market have made it harder for would-be buyers to save for a down payment and qualify for a mortgage, particularly in a lending environment where banks are much less willing to overlook credit blemishes or spotty incomes.

Separate surveys, including one by the New York Fed earlier this year, showed that  insufficient savings or incomes were the biggest headwinds keeping renters from buying homes. Many households may also be less able to get help from their parents than in the past, because their parents’ homes have fallen sharply in value.

Advocates of looser lending standards may point to the NAR’s latest survey to highlight problems on the mortgage market. But it’s worth noting that the share of first-time buyers didn’t increase during the housing bubble, when it was too easy to get a mortgage. That’s because home prices were rising. The share of first-time buyers fell to 36% in 2006, at the peak of the bubble, from 40% in the prior three years.

And even though credit was much tighter in 2009 and 2010, the share of first time buyers jumped to 47% and 50%, respectively. Lower home prices helped. So, too, did an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers, which expired in June 2010.

Home prices have been rising for the last two years—and first-time buyers have accounted for a falling share of sales in that time.

https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/11/03/share-of-first-time-home-buyers-hits-27-year-low/?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second

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Rutherford industrial tract getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space

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Rutherford industrial tract getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space

OCTOBER 7, 2014, 7:26 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014, 10:46 PM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

North Jersey’s Meadowlands, once home mainly to warehouses and industrial sites, will be getting a new mixed-use redevelopment with two hotels, 500 apartments and retail space in Rutherford.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has approved amendments that Lincoln Equities Group LLC sought to the roughly decade-old redevelopment plan for its Highland Cross project.

Lincoln Equities is ready to proceed with the project, set for 26 acres near the intersection of Routes 17 and 3, said Joel Bergstein, president of the East Rutherford-based real estate firm. The property, a former “brownfield” site, fronts on Veterans Boulevard and is behind the Meadows office complex on Route 17.

Construction is likely to start in about 18 months, Bergstein said.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/rutherford-industrial-tract-getting-2-hotels-500-apartments-retail-space-1.1104204#sthash.utuenaVg.dpuf

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You know it’s a tough market when Bernanke can’t refinance

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You know it’s a tough market when Bernanke can’t refinance
October 3, 2014    Last updated: Friday, October 3, 2014, 11:31 AM
The Record

Bloomberg News

Ben S. Bernanke said the mortgage market is so tight that even he is having a hard time refinancing his own home loan.

The former Federal Reserve chairman, speaking at a conference in Chicago yesterday, told moderator Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics Inc. – “just between the two of us” – that “I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so.”

When the audience laughed, Bernanke said, “I’m not making that up.”

“I think it’s entirely possible” that lenders “may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions,” he said.

Bernanke, addressing a conference of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care in Chicago yesterday, said that the first-time home buyer market is “not what it should be” as the economy in general strengthens.

“The housing area is one area where regulation has not yet got it right,” Bernanke said. “I think the tightness of mortgage credit, lending is still probably excessive.”

Bernanke already has refinanced twice. When the former Fed chair and his wife Anna bought their Capitol Hill rowhouse in May 2004, they took out two loans, according to Washington, D.C., land records.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/you-know-it-s-a-tough-market-when-bernanke-can-t-refinance-1.1102102#sthash.A5iff3q8.dpuf

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Real Estate’s market keeps growing

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Real Estate’s market keeps growing
July 25, 2014    Last updated: Friday, July 25, 2014, 12:31 AM
By Laura Herzog
STAFF WRITER

As Ridgewood-grown indie rock band Real Estate’s success grows, the founding members, all former Ridgewood High School (RHS) students, are dealing with growing up.

Following the March release of their third album “Atlas,” the band played on “The Late Show with David Letterman” in April. Their biggest headlining show ever is coming up on Oct. 2 at Terminal 5 in New York City.

Real Estate’s success has worked in tandem with other personal achievements.

Soon after the Letterman appearance, singer and guitarist Martin Courtney, a 2004 RHS graduate, and his wife, a fellow RHS graduate, welcomed their first child, a baby girl. Meanwhile bassist Alex Bleeker, a fellow ’04 grad, is busy touring with his second band, Alex Bleeker and The Freaks.

Guitarist Matt Mondanile, who attended RHS before transferring to a boarding school, is also still busy with his other band “Ducktails.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/music/real-estate-s-market-keeps-growing-1.1057087#sthash.yNDgb6xS.dpuf

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N.J. fourth in nation in number of vacant foreclosures

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N.J. fourth in nation in number of vacant foreclosures

MARCH 14, 2014, 12:00 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

* February level doubles from year earlier

New Jersey continued to deal with a backlog of distressed properties in February, ranking fourth in the nation in both the number of vacant foreclosed homes and the number of foreclosure filings, a company that tracks the market reported on Thursday.

While the worst of the foreclosure crisis has passed in most of the nation, New Jersey foreclosure activity doubled from February 2013 to February 2014, according to California-based RealtyTrac. About one in every 739 housing units in the state faced a foreclosure filing during the month. At the same time, overall foreclosure activity dropped 27 percent in the U.S. overall.

And in New Jersey, 8,595 homes were vacant and in foreclosure, up 24 percent from the third quarter of 2013.

“The biggest threat from foreclosures going forward is properties that have been lingering in the foreclosure process for years, many of them vacant with neither the distressed homeowner or the foreclosing lender taking responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of the home,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

“These properties drag down home values in the surrounding neighborhood and contribute to a climate of uncertainty and low inventory in local housing markets.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/n-j-still-trails-nation-in-easing-foreclosures-1.740197#sthash.ExrVSQYA.dpuf

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Home builder sentiment index logs sharpest drop ever

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Home builder sentiment index logs sharpest drop ever

Published: Tuesday, 18 Feb 2014 | 10:00 AM ET
By: Diana Olick | CNBC Real Estate Reporter

Sentiment among the nation’s home builders fell dramatically in February, and while builders blame much of it on the weather, that is not the whole picture. Confidence fell 10 points, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ monthly sentiment index, from 56 to 46—the largest drop in the history of the survey, which started in 1985.

Fifty is the line between positive and negative sentiment. The index has not been below 50 since May.

“Significant weather conditions across most of the country led to a decline in buyer traffic last month,” said the association’s chairman Kevin Kelly, a home builder and developer from Wilmington, Del. “Builders also have additional concerns about meeting ongoing and future demand due to a shortage of lots and labor.”

https://www.cnbc.com/id/101423771

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Rentals on historic pace in New Jersey

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Rentals on historic pace in New Jersey
Sunday, February 2, 2014    Last updated: Sunday February 2, 2014, 11:05 AM
BY  KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

New Jersey’s got a new pattern of home construction, and it’s much denser and more urban.

In a state long dominated by single-family development, multifamily construction — especially rentals — last year accounted for 57 percent of home permits in the state, and helped to propel home building to its strongest year since 2007.

“It’s probably the biggest rental housing boom in the state’s history,” said James Hughes, a Rutgers economist.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/243167861_Homebuilding_has_a_different_face_in_NJ__and_it_s_multifamily.html#sthash.EINkNGQX.dpuf