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True marc.... they just plowed our street but the plow guy hasn't come for our driveway yet... which is approx 250' by 14' wide, with what looks like a steady 24" deep plus the big drifts. The comparative "dusting" they just got at St James would be welcomed.
30 inches here in Tinton Falls and haven't seen a snow plow since last winter. This is crazy. This is what we pay high taxes for?? Get me out of here!!
OK, so we just made the travel arrangements to go back down to St James for another 5 days in late March. We're pretty sure, but we're going back for another extended closer look and to experience more of everything..... in warmer weather..... and especially some of the restaurants we didn't get to on the last trip. It's tough duty, but someone has to do it !
Another question if you don't mind Stoney. Did they give you any indication on that the multiple is from land to cost of the house. Back in the late 80's when I moved to PA it was 4 to 1 so a $50,000 lot required a $200,000 house. At St James is it that or a square foot threshold?
Perhaps I don't understand the question.... as I have already stated, I am not always the sharpest knife in the drawer..... BUT you can build any size / price house on any size / price lot that you care to..... just like up here.
If a lot sold for $150k a few years ago.... and now it's under $100k.... you can still build any size / price house that you want, that fits on the lot..... the existing houses that we saw are priced all over the spectrum anyway.... not always priced as per the "reality" of the present market situation but according to the wishes and thoughts of the seller..... just like up here.
I hear you but when I was looking at Ocean Ridge I thought they had square footage minimums depending on the "neighborhood". They didn't want small and large next to each other no matter how "nice" it was.
Why do People leave New Jersey and move to North Carolina and make NC a better state? Its people like this that give the people of NJ a nudge above LeRoi and his hooligans!
Read this in my local paper:
A year ago, Kathy Schwed was drowning. She worked as a special education teacher during the day and cared for her 11-year-old triplets, two of whom had autism, after work. Her husband worked two jobs to try to make up for the income he lost when he was laid off. The bills were piling up. Sovereign Bank wanted to foreclose on their Ocean Township home.
We caught up with them just before Christmas last year and wrote about their tale, an example of hundreds of people at the Shore who couldn’t keep up with their mortgages and couldn’t convince their lenders to give them a break.
Then we packed up and left. But the story didn’t end there. It turned out an APP reader in Monmouth County who worked in the financial services industry saw the story and couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t imagine how Kathy managed to find the energy and love and compassion to make it through a day as creditors closed in on her. If it were him, he thought, he would crumble under the weight of it all. So he got in touch with Kathy and offered to negotiate with Sovereign, to try to lower her mortgage rate so that she and her family could stay put.
Handing over your legal rights to a complete stranger who offers to negotiate on your behalf simply because he’s a nice guy is not something I’d normally recommend. But Kathy was in dire straits, so what the heck? After all, every time she’d get on the phone with Sovereign, she’d break down in tears at the thought of needing to uproot her kids. “I’d just cry,” she said, “get on the phone and whine and cry and sound like this woman who whines and cries.”
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, began calling and e-mailing Sovereign, somehow putting things in motion and getting Sovereign and whoever owns the loan to agree to lower the monthly mortgage payments by $700.
And then the man’s friends stepped up to donate furniture and negotiate with credit card companies to get those bills reduced. The man sent over bags of used clothes that Kathy said were nicer than even her newest outfits. And still, to this day, they’ve never met, because the man knows he’d start weeping and create a bad scene for everyone involved.
“What she’s going through is unbelievable,” the man said. “The woman’s a saint.”
After what we’ve been through the last three years, I’m desperate to end this on a fairy-tale note. Believe me, I wish I could report that Kathy’s husband no longer has to work two jobs, leaving his home at 7 a.m. and returning at midnight. Or that a miracle drug was invented and helped not only Kathy’s sons, but also all of the children at Kathy’s school.
But, alas, this isn’t Hollywood; it’s New Jersey. The economic shock reverberates. The Schweds’ expenses remain high. And Kathy is a tad worried that her teaching job will wind up on Gov. Christie’s chopping block.
The best Kathy can do is the best any of us can do. And that’s going to have to suffice for now.
“Every month we just make it, but you know what? We’re making it. We’re not going under,” she said. “There’s nothing left at the end of the month, but you know what? (The lender is) getting paid. I’ve got a roof over the boys’ head. And they’re safe.”
new to this site. interested in commments about southport and st james
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