The average price of an N.J. home is $100K more than what it was last year (Sussex: short sales, renting)
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I am soon to close on my late mother's house. We sold it for exact asking price, which was fine. I was afraid the Realtor had priced it too high. It needs major updating. It's never been sold before, so no "last price" to compare it to. My parents paid $27K to have it built in 1957, then did a $8K addition ten years later.
We had one offer $25K over asking, but they wanted a lead paint and environmental inspection contingency. We took the asking price offer that wanted only a basic structural inspection and test for radon.
Thought it amusing that they did a scan for "old oil tanks". The house has had gas heat since it was built; as a matter of fact, it still has the original boiler (and the manual that came with it!). My parents bought the property from the woman up the road whose family had owned the land as part of their farm for 175 years. We found stone arrowheads in the yard when we were kids. Who had these oil tanks? The Lenape?
I know they have to do that, though.
Hoping for a smooth closing!
The arrow head were probably Lenape. They're the only ones I know that were in NJ. One was married to one of the White family, so my son has Lenape DNA that doesn't show at ancestry. It did show on another site called GEDmatch.
Wouldn’t it have been better to save that $225 a month from the beginning? I see not having to refinance as a pro not a con. There’s always HELOCs if there’s a need to borrow in a few years
Bought 8 years ago at a lower price than you could have today. Refinanced down to a 15 year 2.5%. Knocked 7 years off the mortgage and kept the payment the same. Those buying at today's elevated prices will likely never see a refi opportunity.
The arrow head were probably Lenape. They're the only ones I know that were in NJ. One was married to one of the White family, so my son has Lenape DNA that doesn't show at ancestry. It did show on another site called GEDmatch.
LOL, I know, that's why I said that. Northern NJ has a lot of town and street names based on Lenape names, as well as a lot of winding roads that were likely once hunting and trading trails.
Down here in Monmouth County, they had the Sand Hill Indians, so named because there was a sand hill on the property of one of the largest families. In the 1800s, a small band of Cherokee from Georgia was relocated to Monmouth County and intermarried with the existing remnant of Lenape, who by then were intermarried with the Dutch. They are still around. One of them worked as a PT at the place I went to when I fell and injured my back five years ago.
Christ Church Episcopal in Shrewsbury has a copy of the original deed showing that they bought the land on which the church stands in 1706 from the local tribe. I've seen it. There are Whites in the church cemetery, by the way.
None of which has anything to do with the topic of an average price of a NJ home except to say that the price of land in Monmouth County has gone up significantly since 1706.
=theoakman;61088848]Bought 8 years ago at a lower price than you could have today. Refinanced down to a 15 year 2.5%. Knocked 7 years off the mortgage and kept the payment the same. Those buying at today's elevated prices will likely never see a refi opportunity.
That's fair. But I don't see a scenario where either the price of my home or interest rates are lower than they are today so I don't really view not having the opportunity to refinance as a negative. Only time will tell.
LOL, I know, that's why I said that. Northern NJ has a lot of town and street names based on Lenape names, as well as a lot of winding roads that were likely once hunting and trading trails.
Down here in Monmouth County, they had the Sand Hill Indians, so named because there was a sand hill on the property of one of the largest families. In the 1800s, a small band of Cherokee from Georgia was relocated to Monmouth County and intermarried with the existing remnant of Lenape, who by then were intermarried with the Dutch. They are still around. One of them worked as a PT at the place I went to when I fell and injured my back five years ago.
Christ Church Episcopal in Shrewsbury has a copy of the original deed showing that they bought the land on which the church stands in 1706 from the local tribe. I've seen it. There are Whites in the church cemetery, by the way.
None of which has anything to do with the topic of an average price of a NJ home except to say that the price of land in Monmouth County has gone up significantly since 1706.
LOL pretty common for threads to have OT convos
Very interesting, I didn't realize there were so many tribes. I'd only looked into Lenape who also ran through the land at my dad's Watchung gas station on Somerset Street.
Refinancing my original loan balance of $69K at 13% interest up to my final balance (when I sold my house for $385K) multiple times over 22 years kept me afloat and provided tax free income as I withdrew equity when I needed it. During those years I had no savings except for my 401K. My house was my cash machine.
I suppose it is a kind of dividend income bobspez took over the years. Instead of taking a lump sum capital gain income that bobspez could have taken when the house was sold, if the equity had not been tapped.
Although, inflation probably ate his salary increases, and redistributed it in the form of increase in property value. Even-Steven!
There are still towns that are affordable for 1st time homeowners. We moved to Browns Mills back in the 90's to be able to buy a cheaper house with low taxes. We were paying less then $2,000 a year in property taxes up until we moved farther South in 2008.
A lot in this age category have student loans to pay. I've seen articles where they put that payment on hold due to COVID, instead saved it, then used that money to buy a house before having to pay the student loans again. I wonder how they'll pay a mortgage and student loan if they couldn't make it before buying a house.
I'd reckon that if someone could afford rent plus student loans, then they could afford mortgage plus student loans. The big barrier is saving enough for a down payment, which might require as much as $100k these days to avoid PMI. And I haven't saved nearly enough on waived student loan payments to approach anything that looks like a down payment (does cover a trip to Hawaii though lol).
And I've been keeping a close eye on the market. You're just not going to find affordable homes in North Jersey unless you're looking at Warren or Sussex. Maybe young people can consider condos, but that's not my preference.
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Northern NJ has a lot of town and street names based on Lenape names, as well as a lot of winding roads that were likely once hunting and trading trails. 
