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I don't understand, the options in NJ for new construction are either townhouses/condos with HOA or Single Family Homes with >3000 sq ft. that cost nearly 1M$+ that cost a fortune to maintain let alone utilities.
Developers can at least leave a 5-10 ft space gap when constructing a home and charge an extra 100K+ rather than create a water fountain entrance to the development.
Land is very precious anywhere close to NYC so developers are trying to maximize their investments. The way to do that is build the biggest house possible on the land that they buy.
This is happening everywhere. In Westchester, developers will build a 3500 SF house on an 1/8 of an acre and build a 6000+ SF house on a 1/4 acre.
Land is very precious anywhere close to NYC so developers are trying to maximize their investments.
It's not just that. I've owned a couple of lots (one in Hudson County, one in Bergen County) that I interviewed builders for. My lot, i.e. no investment on the part of the builder. I said that I wanted to build a modest home. As if they were reading from a script, they all said the same exact thing -- "I only do high end".
WTF ?
I'm hiring you, not the other way around ! e.g. I don't need, nor want, a $60K kitchen
But, since they know they can get their obscene markups elsewhere, they walk.
That, is greed. Plain & simple. And this has been the case whether it was a buyer's market or a seller's market.
Friend of mine bought a 2600 sq ft new construction for 245k in Mays Landing so these are available just not where you want. For in-demand towns, developers can easily walk away with an extra 200k in profit just by adding a few hundred sq ft, hard to argue with that.
The housing stock in North Jersey sucks for middle class people. One of the many reasons why i'm heavily considering moving is because you can attain such a higher quality of life elsewhere; even if you take a big salary cut.
It's sorta painful watching most of my middle class friends who live just about anywhere outside of the NYC metro area enjoy nice fresh new homes that they were able to attain easily; while the only thing available to us over here are small beat-down 1950's capes/ranches, condos or stuff in crap neighborhoods (all with insane tax bills attached to them).
Last edited by OceanDude; 06-24-2020 at 07:39 AM..
It's not just that. I've owned a couple of lots (one in Hudson County, one in Bergen County) that I interviewed builders for. My lot, i.e. no investment on the part of the builder. I said that I wanted to build a modest home. As if they were reading from a script, they all said the same exact thing -- "I only do high end".
WTF ?
I'm hiring you, not the other way around ! e.g. I don't need, nor want, a $60K kitchen
But, since they know they can get their obscene markups elsewhere, they walk.
That, is greed. Plain & simple. And this has been the case whether it was a buyer's market or a seller's market.
It’s unfair to call that greed. Constructing a high end kitchen is probably not much more work than constructing a modest kitchen. Would you leave your current employer to do the same work for another company for less pay, everything else being equal?
The reason why is simple. Builders simply can't make money off new, singe-family homes that cost $250k-500k. That's why every new home development in NJ that isn't a townhome complex or a senior community are composed of the same old bland, brick McMansions. Even in more blue-collar towns where the school districts are just eh, these McMansions are still the only type of new homes being built. I now live in the DC area and its the same way; every new development is expensive, and the only affordable new homes are an hour and a half away in West Virginia. It's the same reason why every new apartment complex in NYC is luxury penthouses and not apartments for the working or middle class. The profit margin for building new homes that are affordable is simply too low, while the profit margins for McMansions are much higher. The land in NJ is also quite expensive so that is another contributing factor. The state needs to step in and incentivize lower-priced single family housing that isn't townhomes or senior communities. The middle class in NJ is dying more and more as time goes on; there is simply less and less places for them to live here.
There are plenty of options for brand new entry level starter homes, but only in South Jersey. I bought my first new construction home a few years ago in Union County for $250k with high taxes, but only because the builder was receiving a grant from the state to build new homes in a certain area that used to be run down. Now those houses have nearly doubled in price simply because property values have increased since then. But like many people have stated here, the reason you don't see affordable new homes in North Jersey is simply because there is no money in it for the builders (GREED).....
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