AUGUST 10, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2014, 1:21 AM BY JENNIFER V. HUGHES SPECIAL TO THE RECORD THE RECORD
In the past few years, members of the Kaiser family have radically transformed the back yard of their Ho-Ho-Kus home, starting with a patio, a deck and a built-in barbecue.
Drainage projects came next, followed by additional plantings, exterior lighting and, finally, a full-sized pool.
“My husband likes to grill and I like not to cook,” said Michelle Kaiser, who said their three teenagers adore the pool and their extended family from the city loves to visit the great outdoors. “As the years have gone by, we’ve been able to make it into the space that we really love and really can use.”
Creating outdoor living spaces is one of the hottest trends in landscape architecture, local and national experts say.
“There is a real focus on the exterior of your home,” said Mark Borst, owner of Allendale-based Borst Landscape & Design, which did the project on the Kaiser home. “It’s almost like creating a different room for your house. It’s about the barbecue, outdoor rooms that have a roof but open sides, a fireplace. There are outdoor TVs with surround sound. Everything you think of normally having inside is creeping outside.”
Home prices in region rise, but slower than national pace
JULY 29, 2014 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014, 12:06 PM BY KATHLEEN LYNN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Home prices in the region rose 4.8 percent in May over a year earlier, slower than the 9.3 percent national increase, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index said Tuesday. Nationally, housing values continue to rebound after the deepest real estate bust in decades, but not as quickly as last year.
“Home prices rose at their slowest pace since February of last year,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Housing has been turning in mixed economic numbers in the last few months. Prices and sales of existing homes have shown improvement, while construction and sales of new homes continue to lag.”
Both nationally and in the New York metropolitan area, which includes North Jersey, the housing bust wiped out a decade’s worth of gains; single-family home values are now at the same level they were in summer 2004. Values in the region are about 20 percent below their peaks in mid-2006, while values nationally are about 18 percent below that peak.
In Bergen County, single-family home prices ticked down 0.3 percent in May from a year earlier, to a median $450,000. In Passaic, prices dropped 2.6 percent, to a median $285,000. These numbers are from the New Jersey Association of Realtors and are affected by the mix of properties sold in a given month. Case-Shiller does not break out price data by county but is considered a reliable measure because it measures the value of the same properties over time.
Home values in the region have not rebounded as strongly as national numbers because they didn’t fall as far during the housing bust. In addition, while the worst of the foreclosure crisis has passed in most of the nation, New Jersey is still dealing with distressed properties going through the process. Foreclosed properties tend to sell at a significant discount.
