West Orange, NJ

Last weekend's weather may have slowed us down, but it didn't knock us out. The town's big St. Patrick's Day Parade was rescheduled to tomorrow (Sunday) and you should stop by to meet new friends, relax in the gorgeous weather, and just have a good time.

If you've driven down Main Street, you've seen the green line in the middle of the road. Just be around there at 12:15pm to line the parade route, or at Town Hall at 66 Main Street, West Orange.

I wish I could be there, but I will be basking in the sun from 2-4pm in West Orange at our public open house we're doing. I can't wait to have the cookies baking as I'm talking to visitors about how I love the neighborhood and all this house has to offer.

I don’t have power, heat, or gas; but I don’t have water in the house either. Today proved here’s why you need a backup.

If you live in West Orange, New Jersey like I do, or any of the surrounding towns, you have been pounded with rain for the past two days and your yard may look like mine to the right. If you happen to live on my block, or a few of the others, we lost power last night around 10pm. As of 3pm today the power still isn’t on.

Most of us have waterproofed our basements. We either got French drains, sump pumps or both. What my husband and I realized today is that not everyone got the magic pill – the sump pump backup battery.

The power left us but the rain kept coming and our battery kicked in and has been working our sump pump overtime. Now our yard may be overflowing with a high water table, but our basement is not. Unfortunately some neighbors have been trying to manually pump out their sump or are just getting water in their basements waiting for the power to come on. The battery costs us about $500 when we got it a few years ago during our basement construction. We thought the contractor was trying to scam us and we made him remove it. We then decided to go ahead and get it in just in case. It has saved us more than a couple of times. It’s a great peace of mind. I hope it last through this little ordeal.

The other magic pill we have – a generator. We got this during hurricane Katrina. Yes, that was in New Orleans, but that’s where a lot of our family resides and we got one to FedEx to them. We couldn’t break through the barriers and get it down there in time to really help so we kept it (or did they use it and send it back; don't remember now). However it made it to our storage shed, it now is keeping our food cold and helping our neighbor activate his sump pump. Although, I wish it wasn’t so loud, and our neighbors probably wish the same thing; but I’m not going to complain...not just yet anyway.

There are a lot of maintenance things we don’t do. A lot of backup plans we don’t implement. I’m glad we at least did these two things. Take it from us, backup sump pump battery and generators are king.

Whew!

I don’t have power, heat, or gas; but I don’t have water in the house either. Now we just need the power to come back on.

Can West Orange achieve market stability this year and set the stage for an upward turn in the right direction? It depends a lot on the realistic expectations of homeowners and the courage of their real estate agent in setting the correct market price. As real estate experts who live and work in town we, Bev and Bob Meaux of Towne Realty Group in Short Hills, strive to show homeowners why it’s important to price it right, understand inventory levels, and acknowledge the lessons learned.

Pricing Right

Between 2008 and 2009 we saw an 8.3% drop in average home price sales. We also saw a drop in average sales price to list price ratio, moving from a high of 98% in 2005 to a low of 95% in 2009. We can begin to rebound, but we have to be honest with ourselves. If your house is not priced right from the start that’s more money out of your pocket. The numbers don’t lie. See the chart above. On average, there’s a direct correlation between days on market and the ultimate amount of money you get to walk away with. The longer a house was on the market, the further away the sales price was from the list price.

Inventory Levels Defined

Absorption rate is one part of the method for finding the right price point for a house. This tells us the average number of homes sold per month over a particular period of time. Knowing this will tell how long it will take the homes that are on the market to sell. West Orange’s 2009 results from the 399 residential home sales was an average of 33.25 sales per month. This translates into a 12-month trend of 11.76 months of housing inventory to sale. The 6-month trend is slightly better with 8.17 months of inventory. This tells you more as you delve into different price ranges. For example, since only 7 homes sold between $500,000—$600,000 last year and 21 are already on the market as of mid-February, it will take years to deplete this inventory at the current rate.

Lessons Learned from 2009

Last year’s market tells us a lot in preparation for this year:

• 86% of the homes sold last year were sold for $450,000 or less;
• Only 7 homes sold between $500,000—$600,000 in all of 2009, and none sold last quarter in this price range;
• Of the 46 homes that sold over $600,001, only 6 of them were not brand new cons

  

  truction, in Llewellyn Park or a total renovation; only 6.
• There were 22 short sales — a transaction where the bank(s) has to approve the sale because more is owed on the home than it is currently worth.
• There were 14 foreclosures — a property that is owned and sold by the bank.

2010

Many buyers are active now due to the low interest rates and the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit for first-time home buyers and existing homeowners. They must have a contract executed by April 30, 2010 and the sale must close by June 30, 2010. This has caused a great momentum in the market already and gives us a jump start to a potentially successful year.

Please Note: Our reports are compiled using information from the Garden State Multiple Listing Service (GSMLS). Private sellers, new construction or new developments not selling via the GSMLS won't be tracked here. All information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed and includes information on single-family homes from the GSMLS.