Buying a house on S. Martine ave, Fanwood (Edison, Westfield: real estate, mortgage)
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We are thinking of buying a house on S. Martine Ave, Fanwood. The price is great, the house is 2 blocks from the train station, which suits my husband so that he can just walk rather than driving.
But my concern is that it is on a busy road and we have a 20 month old and the second one is on the way. I just cannot convince myself to go for this house. Please advise.
I just cannot convince myself to go for this house. Please advise.
This sounds like a red flag to me. If you truly have serious misgivings about this house, I advise you to continue looking until you find a house you are more comfortable with.
Prices are still sinking in NJ and you will have many options to choose from. In fact, prices are predicted to fall anywhere from an additional 15% to 40% in this area, so you need to be sure you really will want to stay in the house long-term, because there is a good chance if you buy today you will find yourself underwater on the mortgage (i.e. owing more than the house is worth) for a number of years, and you won't be able to sell for what you owe. So if you buy anything now, make sure you're really happy with it.
Sounds like this is not the house for you. Keep looking don't worry there are plenty of fish in the sea.
The backyard is fenced and we will be getting the picket fence for the front. I like the house and the fact that it is close to the train station but being on the busy street was the only worry. I checked out the neighborhood as well. There are quite a few children in the neighborhood and the families seemed friendly to me.
I'm not sure how much the prices will go down, as the houses are selling like hot cakes in this area. We are looking at Scotch plains, Fanwood, Westfield, Summit and North Edison. 15 days earlier when we were not ready to make an offer, any house that I liked online, would like to see in person and has been on the market for a week only has already accepted the offer and is under attorney review.
Good houses are going pretty fast, that's why the dilemma.
my wife and i bought our first house on a main rd. we had no kids at the time, and we knew going in that we would not be there for more then 5 yrs. we did not really meet many people in the neighborhood, and the fact that it was a main rd had a lot to do with this i think. kids can't ride bikes, no one walking with strollers etc.
we had our first child while living in the house, and moved when she was about 2 yrs old.
i was just in fanwood earlier this week, it seems to me that walking to the train from just about anywhere in town is possible?
I'm not sure how much the prices will go down, as the houses are selling like hot cakes in this area. We are looking at Scotch plains, Fanwood, Westfield, Summit and North Edison. 15 days earlier when we were not ready to make an offer, any house that I liked online, would like to see in person and has been on the market for a week only has already accepted the offer and is under attorney review.
Good houses are going pretty fast, that's why the dilemma.
I think you're extrapolating too much from a very small window of time and a small number of houses you've looked at. Houses are not selling like hotcakes anywhere in NJ, based on all the data I've seen.
There is the usual seasonal uptick around this time of year, but it's substantially lower than in previous years, and with each house sold the median price seems to continue to go down, down, down ...
Did you see this recent analysis that one financial firm expects houses in the NY/NJ area to fall another 40% from March 2009 prices?
Even if a further 40% decline from today's prices is an overestimate, it seems clear that all analysis points to continuing falling prices.
This isn't to say that if you're financially stable (6 to 12 month emergency fund, etc.) you shouldn't buy. Just be darn sure you will be content to stay in that house for the long term, because falling home values are a reality that could interfere with any attempt to sell/move to a different house in the near and mid future.
If your experience is that the homes - as you say, good homes - are going fast then don't listen to people who throw statistics and reports at you because location, location, location is all that is relevant in real estate. Your actual experience is what matters not any punditry.
Even though the home may be on the main road visit at different times of the day to ascertain if the traffic is only at rush hours or is it a main thorofare that everybody has to use going anywhere in the vicinity.
Since the backyard is fenced, evaluate if it is large enough where the children could play and not in the frontyard where traffic could be. Generally, convenient places tend to be where everybody wants to live - ergo - good selling point when it is time to sell.
It is very hard to sell a home on a busy street - most people with kids do not want to live on a busy street - dont buy it.
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