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People can argue all day long -- but, as a the cliche goes -- the three most important things in real estate, are location, location, and location. LOL. Bergen County is as close as you can get to NYC, so, for whatever that's worth, in good neighborhoods, et al, you are going to pay for all that goes along with that.
That said, my experience and sense, observation of the marketplace -- a house is "worth" what someone is willing to pay for it. Bring the "right" product to the marketplace, at the "right" price, and it is going to sell, and quickly. The landscape has changed with banks/lenders, so that may have dwindled the pool of "qualified" buyers so to speak, but they are still out there. And so is the product. An abundance? I don't know, that's a relative term. Some marketplaces maybe yes, some maybe no. I recently listed a house with a top broker in Bergen County, and put a house on the market (for an estate client of mine) at the price he recommended. It had four scheduled showings in one day, one offer sight unseen (from a builder) in one day, and three additional offers, one within a couple of thousand of asking price, the other two higher than asking price -- and everyone felt the asking price was "strong" so to speak. We wanted the house to sell within 30 days. It did and for more than asking price.
The right inventory -- yes, I think the right inventory is low so to speak. But I think that is a function not of the marketplace, but of the people in the marketplace, LOL.
Seems like inventory in the lower to mid price ranges are low. Expensive houses are staying on the market for a long time. Lots of new builds and beautiful homes over 2m in cresskill, tenafly, demarest, alpine, closter just sitting.
Is it just the upper middle class and upper class are doing much better these days, and so because of jobs/careers Bergen County is still growing? Is it because more foreigners are buying homes in the area, or even moving there? I have a brother looking for a home in one of the northern Bergen County towns and I feel bad for him as he can't really afford anything, even though he and his wife bring in about 160k together. And because we grew up in north Bergen County, he's not really that interested in the south part of the county, which use to be rather dumpy and more working class when we were kids. Wood-Ridge, Hasbrouck Heights for a 600k or 700k home? Not bad towns, but just a tough pill to swallow.
Is it just the upper middle class and upper class are doing much better these days, and so because of jobs/careers Bergen County is still growing? Is it because more foreigners are buying homes in the area, or even moving there? I have a brother looking for a home in one of the northern Bergen County towns and I feel bad for him as he can't really afford anything, even though he and his wife bring in about 160k together. And because we grew up in north Bergen County, he's not really that interested in the south part of the county, which use to be rather dumpy and more working class when we were kids. Wood-Ridge, Hasbrouck Heights for a 600k or 700k home? Not bad towns, but just a tough pill to swallow.
I have roughly the same family income as your brother, although I'm from Hudson County so I would happily live in one of the nicer southern Bergen county towns. There really is not a whole lot of good single family homes under 400k. It's a shame because it feels like 160k should be a good income for a family of 3 but at this point it looks like I'm just going to have to keep renting and hope for a pullback in real estate prices.
Is it just the upper middle class and upper class are doing much better these days, and so because of jobs/careers Bergen County is still growing? Is it because more foreigners are buying homes in the area, or even moving there? I have a brother looking for a home in one of the northern Bergen County towns and I feel bad for him as he can't really afford anything, even though he and his wife bring in about 160k together. And because we grew up in north Bergen County, he's not really that interested in the south part of the county, which use to be rather dumpy and more working class when we were kids. Wood-Ridge, Hasbrouck Heights for a 600k or 700k home? Not bad towns, but just a tough pill to swallow.
Has he tried Midland Park, Waldwick, Township of Washington or Westwood? You can still find deals in these towns.
I wonder how much of this is attributed to spillover from New York....Even comparable homes in NYC's boros like Queens and Brooklyn are going for 1.5x-2x more. It's becoming more common to see single family homes going for 800-1M in so-so areas of Brooklyn or Queens. Folks priced out of those areas are likely looking at Bergen County as cheap by comparison...
I have roughly the same family income as your brother, although I'm from Hudson County so I would happily live in one of the nicer southern Bergen county towns. There really is not a whole lot of good single family homes under 400k. It's a shame because it feels like 160k should be a good income for a family of 3 but at this point it looks like I'm just going to have to keep renting and hope for a pullback in real estate prices.
I think if you have a income of 160k you can afford more than a 400k house, but some of the towns mentioned 700k is not the norm, that is for a completely renovated house. If you look at existing home sales for the price's people are actually paying you will be better able to judge the average.
You can still find a house for under 400k in Lyndhurst, its southern Bergen county, on route 3, and has bus and a rail line, if a easy commute to nyc is what your looking for, also the school's have to be at least as good as most Hudson county schools.
There are no new homes because it's built out
Want a new home? Buy a tear down and build one
Don't have a million to spend...take your choice of a 20s Sears kit house, a ranch, split level or 80s colonial (although those can be close to a mil if they are updated)
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