Text of video & supporting charts are below

Hi this is Dave Miller from Remax Integrity in Dumont, NJ. I'm coming to you from my home office, excuse my casual attire. This is my October 2011 market update for Bergen County NJ. I'm wearing my Texas Longhorn tee shirt... my daughter is a freshmen this year in Austin Texas. My wife and I miss her terribly but fortunately I still have my 14 year old daughter at home and my dog Chester...
I just want to give you a brief history of prices that might help us understand where we are now.
I picked Dumont, NJ as an example. These stats go for almost any town in Bergen County. At the end I will bring in Bergen County prices.

This history starts in 1985, when I started in real estate. Prices started at $126,000 then went up to $190,000. In October of 1987 the stock market crashed prices we had a savings and loan scandal and prices dropped 15 to 20 percent. People tend to forget that prices came down quite a bit. So all threw the 1990's we were selling houses that were slightly increasing each year. Until we got to 2001, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks the interest rates dropped tremendously and that helped spur (along with lenient loan practices) prices doubling in a short period of time and that's part of the mess we are in now.

I wanted to point out does feel like we have some footing. Finally this year are prices are slightly higher then last year Hopefully you can see that there. This is very encouraging news. This proves Bergen County as a whole. You can see last years average price $560,190 for a single family home and this years average price of $568,070 (as of Sept 28th). We are finally seeing a light increase... of course the prices are down quite a bit from the height of $680,313 in 2006.

Notes: Sold = total singe family homes sold in Bergen County
Co-Broker = homes sold through MLS with two brokers involved
List/Sold = homes listed in MLS but sold by the listing agency
DOM = Days on Market
Sale Price/List Price = example: Sellers revieved 92% of their asking price

What this means is from a buyer stand point is you might finally have confidence that we've hit bottom. It might take 5 to 10 years to recover prices but we are going to see a slight increase each year from here on. Interest rates are now approx 4%. Now is terrific time to buy. You can gain equity not just by home prices increasing but by owning and paying down the mortgage aggressively... better then renting over 5 to 10 years.

As far as selling I think to have to make a decision whether how long you are going to wait it out.
There is also the factor of foreclosures flooding the market but I've recieved over 240 emails recently from buyers inquiring about homes. There are a lot of buyers out there who have been holding off that are tired of waiting.
My prediction is we are going to be treading water in regard to prices...going up slightly. I feel like we are turning the corner and I think people are going to look back and say I wish I bought a home in 2011 - 2012.