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Real Estate in
Spring Lake
NJ and the Jersey Shore
Real Estate in Spring Lake
New Jersey is a very valuable commodity. It’s one of the most exclusive New
Jersey Communities and probably the most exclusive community by the New Jersey Shore. The proximity to the beach make this
small shore community a beautiful place to live or vacation. The New Jersey Shore
area is a relaxing and beautiful place. NJ Homes
for sale are a good long term buy.
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Housing prices in holding pattern
Down 0.1% from a year earlier
Posted by the Asbury Park
Press on 08/16/07
BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER
Home prices in the area including Monmouth and Ocean counties
were stagnant in the second quarter, dipping by less than 1 percent, as the
state's housing market remained in a slump.
The median sale price for an existing single-family home in
Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex and Somerset
counties was $385,100, down 0.1 percent, or $200, from $385,300 in the same
quarter last year, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.
The median means that half of the homes sold for more, the other half for
less.
"At best we are stagnant in the market," said
economist James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning
and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. "The
market is really a weak one, and it is likely to remain weak for an
extended period of time."
The Shore region fared better than other parts of New Jersey. For
instance, the median price in an area that includes Essex, Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex
and Union counties fell 6.4 percent. But
the price in the northern New Jersey
counties of Bergen, Hudson
and Passaic
rose 6.3 percent. Nationally, prices fell 1.5 percent, according to the
real estate association.
The housing market remains a challenge. The collapse of the subprime
mortgage market has shrunk the pool of available home buyers, Hughes said.
Loose lending standards, such as mortgages approved for credit risks or
without income verification, had led to an increase in housing demand.
"The standards are being tightened now," said
Hughes, and that has affected prospective buyers' ability to afford a home.
"The asking ranges (for home prices) are still probably higher than
the market will bear."
Jim Brown, executive vice president at USA Financial Services
in Spring Lake Heights,
said lenders are taking a "step back." For instance, they may
require a larger down payment and more money in the bank.
"They are going to want to see maybe two or three months'
worth of mortgage payments in the bank," Brown said.
Still, he has written some fixed-rate 30-year mortgages for
100 percent of the purchase price, he said. Those also required personal
mortgage insurance to protect a lender against default.
Meanwhile, a large number of homes remain on the market.
According to East Brunswick-based Otteau Valuation Group, Monmouth County
had 6,888 listings as of June 30, virtually unchanged from the 6,884
listings for the same time in 2006. Ocean County
had 7,633 listings, up 13 percent from 6,728 last year.
Lawrence Vecchio, broker-owner of BetterHomesNJ.com/VRI
Realtors in Middletown,
said he sees the market leveling off. Some homes remain overpriced, but
those that are priced according to market conditions are selling, Vecchio
said.
"There are a lot of buyers out there. It is not like it's
dead," Vecchio said. "There is more for them to look at so they
are taking longer."
Laurie Brooks was looking for eight months before she and her
boyfriend purchased a three-bedroom house in Brick for $311,000. They
checked out about 15 homes, mostly in the Wall and Brick areas. Houses in
the price range for first-time home buyers were competitive, she said.
"We found that if we discovered a good property, we had
to act pretty quickly," Brooks said. "The house we ended up
purchasing had two back-up offers just waiting in case our deal fell
through."
But Brooks also knew there were many choices out there. In two
cases, they wanted the owners to correct problems, but the sellers did not
want to negotiate.
"We just walked away because we didn't like them
enough," Brooks said.
The seller of the Brick home agreed to pay $6,000 toward
closing costs.
Mary Goss, a real estate agent with Chris Smith Realty in Spring Lake, closed on a $343,000 sale of
her house to a first-time home buyer in July. She priced it according to
market conditions.
"I knew I would be able to list my house and sell it
quickly based on the competition," she said.
In turn, she bought a house in Wall for $520,000. The owner of
that house is buying a new high-end condominium in Point
Pleasant.
"The first-time home buyer is such an important part of
this market right now," Goss said.
Homes
For Sale in Spring Lake NJ
Spring Lake
NJ AND Jersey Shore
News
New
attractions pop up as some landmarks bow out
From Philly.com
By ROBERT STRAUSS
NORTH WILDWOOD - Back
in 1912, Robert Moore drifted to Five Mile Island from South Philadelphia
and built a summer tavern at the corner of Old New Jersey and Spruce. He
called it Moore's Inlet, and it stayed in business nearly a century.
The latest generation of Moores
finally succumbed to the skyrocketing real estate values and sold out last
year to Beazer Homes, which is putting up The Pointe at Moore's Inlet,
a 60-condominium complex.
The Jersey
Shore changes
mercurially and glacially. Sometimes a spot is hot one season and gone the
next, but more often it's like Moore's Inlet - a favored place built into
generations of Shore memories - that suddenly succumbs to changing times.
Where once you could enjoy Moore's
water views for the price of a beer, you'll now pay upward of $649,900 for
a two-bedroom, two-bath "Strathmere" or $1.29 million for a
three-bedroom, two-bath "Spring
Lake."
Here are some other Shore landmarks that are going, gone or in
transition.
A roller coaster ride
The proposed Trump
hotel/retail expansion on Steel Pier across the Boardwalk from the
Trump Taj Mahal is still getting permits finalized, so Atlantic Pier
Amusements will continue to run its 24-ride park there at least through
Labor Day.The days of the famous diving horses and shows from the likes of
Frank Sinatra or the Temptations are gone, but at least there will be a
Ferris wheel and go-karts for one more summer.
Roll the credits
The Beach Theatre
on Beach Avenue
across from the center of the Cape May beach
promenade may be on its last picture shows. A group is trying to buy and
restore the Beach as it looked when it opened in June 1950 with
"Father of the Bride," but owner Franks Investments wants to turn
it into retail and condos.
The City of Cape May is on with the restoration plan,
promising to lend the Beach Theatre Foundation $100,000, but it will take
$12 million to buy and restore the place - a long shot at best.
No more ticket to ride
E-ZPass for bumper
cars?
At the three Morey's Piers in Wildwood and North
Wildwood, they've unveiled MOR-EZ ticket cards, a credit-card-like
affair that ride operators swipe at the entry gates. Customers can load up
the cards at home via the Internet (www.moreyspiers.com), or at kiosks on
the piers.
Par for the courses
Blue Heron Pines Golf
Course East in the Cologne section of Galloway Township was good enough to host the
U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 2003, but today it's a housing
development.
Back open to the public, though, is Atlantic City Country
Club, one of the nation's oldest, dating to 1897. In the Harrah's
takeover of Caesars, the new management decided to reconvert it from a
private course to a public one.
Atlantic City Country Club is said to be the place where the
"birdie," for a one-under-par score, got its name. Now, for a
mere $180 a round Mondays through Thursdays and $206 on weekends, you, too,
can shoot a bird at its seminal course. (www.harrahs.com/golf or
609-236-4431).
TSO silence
When it comes to
clubs, it's one-in, one-out at the Tropicana Casino & Resort. TSOP,
The Sound of Philadelphia, inspired by the Gamble-and-Huff Philly Sound
and run by the Bynum brothers, Philly's jazz and blues entrepreneurs,
closed at The Quarter, the Trop's entertainment complex, in October.
Next month, The Quarter will get Providence,
a DJ/dance type of place with four outlets in New York that will open at 10 p.m. most
nights. Its Manhattan locations have been sites of MTV and VH1 shoots and
wrap parties for "The Sopranos" and "The Apprentice" -
celebrity action that may shift to the Trop. *
Spring Lake NJ Homes for
sale
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Quiet retreat on
the Shore
From
NorthJersey.com
By SHANNON ROXBOROUGH
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
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In 1875, a group of wealthy Philadelphia
developers founded The Spring Lake Beach Improvement Company to create a
luxurious seaside resort in southern New
Jersey. The fruit of their labor was Spring Lake,
a tiny Victorian enclave on the Jersey
Shore encompassing
roughly two square miles, a quarter of which is water. In the center of
town is Spring
Lake, the village's
namesake, an apostrophe-shaped, spring-fed pond.
With its beginnings as a late 19th-century summer retreat, in
many ways Spring Lake
has never left the Gilded Age, managing to maintain its reputation as a
quaint, family-oriented community. Although it has a broad stretch of
Atlantic beachfront and the longest noncommercial boardwalk in the state, Spring Lake
has actively rejected the tacky tone some other Jersey Shore
towns embrace in the name of capitalism. The town is much quieter and more
upscale than most of its neighbors.
Spring Lake has a population of just about 3,600,
and these days, roughly 30 percent of residents are part-timers. The Spring Lake area is referred to as the
"Irish Riviera" because of its large Irish-American population --
44 percent of the town's residents, the highest percentage in the country.
Ken Silverman, a freelance illustrator from Newark,
has fond memories of spending childhood weekends in Spring Lake
in the 1970s. The attraction continued in his adulthood, and in the late
1990s, Silverman bought a second home in Spring Lake,
a short walk to the beach. "The town really hasn't changed much at
all. I felt like I was stepping back into my childhood," he said of
his arrival a decade ago. "Thankfully, Spring Lake
isn't much different than it was in the good old days."
His neighbors, Karen and John Murray, live in New
York City but spend summers with their grandchildren in Spring Lake in an 1880s colonial. Murray said he had been coming to Spring Lake
for 40 years, and nothing much had changed in all that time -- he doubts
that much had changed since his grandmother arrived in Spring Lake
in the early 1900s.
Silverman's and the Murrays'
stories are not uncommon in Spring
Lake. Manhattanites,
North Jerseyans and Philadelphians have been visiting this part of the Jersey Shore
for generations, attracted by Spring
Lake's wide beach,
2½-mile-long boardwalk and small-town ambience.
Weekenders and vacationers arrive in the summer months when
the beach and the boardwalk are the center of activity. The town's
beachfront is quiet and pristine, with no blaring radios or empty beer
cans. Instead, you'll find beachcombers, joggers and casual walkers. Along Spring Lake's quiet streets sit
charmingly-restored Victorians with spacious porches, all within a shell's
toss (or, at least, a short drive) of the ocean.
"We all need somewhere to enjoy peace, quiet and a little
breathing room," Murray
said. "It's all about being able to get away from the pressures of
urban life. Everyone should be fortunate enough to have a place like Spring Lake to retreat to."
Got a second-home story you'd like to share? E-mail Shannon
Roxborough at ForeignPassport@aol.com
* * *
Perks
Its trademark Victorian gingerbread homes, well-regarded
restaurants, pristine shoreline, golf courses and slow-paced atmosphere.
Rather than attracting raucous college students seeking a spring break
party zone, Spring
Lake is the type of
place where time is passed by taking a leisurely stroll, relaxing on the
beach and enjoying a cold drink on the porch in the afternoon.
Drawbacks
Some of the things that make Spring Lake
special can also make it seem unwelcoming. Keeping the beach tidy and the
place quiet tends to make the town feel staid and stodgy. Food and drink
are not allowed on the beach; they are restricted to the boardwalk.
The costs
Spring Lake's real estate is decidedly more expensive
than many Jersey
Shore towns.
Single-family houses have a median price of about $1.3 million. Waterfront
homes can easily fetch $8 million to $10 million. Currently, there are
several smaller mid-century homes listed for $400,000 to $600,000. (Houses
like these are frequently bulldozed to make way for grand new homes.) In
nearby towns, such as Sea Girt, property prices drop significantly.
Getting there
Spring Lake is in southern Monmouth County,
about five miles east of Exit 98 off the Garden State Parkway.
Where to stay
The Breakers Hotel ($100-$435; 732-449-7700; breakershotel.com)
provides Spring
Lake's only
full-service oceanfront accommodations.
Must see
The architecturally dignified establishments along Third Avenue,
including Spring
Lake's take on a
five-and-dime, antique shops, private boutiques and a homemade-candy store.
NJ Homes for Sale
Sharp drop seen in N.J. housing starts
Nearly 20 percent, head of home builders group believes
Posted by the Asbury Park
Press
BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER
WEST LONG BRANCH — Housing starts in New Jersey are
forecast to drop nearly 20 percent this year, according to the head of the
state home builders association, but the market could show signs of
improvement in the second half of 2007.
Patrick J. O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the New Jersey
Builders Association, expects about 27,000 houses to be built, compared
with the 33,400 that were built in 2006 and the 37,980 that were built in
2005.
"We are now at the nadir," O'Keefe told a meeting of
the Shore Builders Association of Central New Jersey on Wednesday night.
"We are now starting to see a bottom form."
The sale of new houses is linked to the existing-home market
because most new houses are bought by people who have to sell their old
houses before they can buy new ones.
But sales of existing homes slumped in 2006. Prices got too
high for a lot of buyers, and when homeowners who wanted to move up into
new houses couldn't sell, the new-home market suffered.
For builders to sell houses, there has to be some changes in
the existing-home market, O'Keefe said.
"They (homeowners) continue to believe they are going to
get what their neighbor across the street got in the first half of 2005.
That market is not there anymore," O'Keefe said. "Individual
sellers are only now beginning to understand that the market has
changed."
In the second half of the year, O'Keefe said he expects
new-home buyers who have adjusted their expectations of how much they will
receive for their current homes will come back into the market.
"2007 is not going to be a great year, but it is a year
where we are going to see a turnaround,"
O'Keefe said. "For those who are nimble, for those who
are competitive, for those who are creative, it should also be a year of
profit."
The year's forecast of 27,000 new homes in New Jersey is the level of new
construction in 2001, O'Keefe noted.
New-home builders adjusted to last year's slowdown, O'Keefe
said. Prices were cut and discounts were offered. Builders got out of land
contracts. "The large portion of this adjustment for new sales seems
to be behind us," O'Keefe said.
Tom Critelli, president of Danitom Development, said his
company is offering some smaller square footage homes at lower
"entry-level" prices to compete with existing homes.
Last year, Danitom, which has offices in Holmdel and Paramus,
was selling four-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot Colonial-style homes for about
$425,000 in Ocean
County. Now the
company is offering 2,000-square-foot four-bedroom homes for $380,000, Critelli
said.
"I think you are seeing buyers are more selective than
they have been in the past," Critelli said on Thursday. "They are
definitely shopping the competition a little deeper then they have in the
past so you now have to have a competitive edge over the other people out
there."
Despite adjustments, builders had a tough time last year.
When it filed for Chapter 11, Kara
Homes of East
Brunswick blamed the housing slowdown, saying it ran out of
cash needed to keep building. The bankruptcy filing has left prospective
Kara homebuyers, some of whom had put down tens of thousands of dollars in
deposit money, in limbo.
Red Bank-based Hovnanian Enterprises, the state's largest home
builder, posted a third-quarter loss, its first in nearly 10 years, as
customers canceled more than a third of their contracts for new homes.
Douglas Fenichel, a spokesman for Hovnanian, said there are
signs of improvement.
More customers?
Last week, 701 potential customers visited the company's sales
offices in the Northeast region, which includes most of New Jersey. That compares with 373 in
the same period a year ago.
"While that might not be continually the case throughout
the year, it's certainly a sign that there is a tremendous amount of
increased interest on the part of customers in looking at homes,"
Fenichel said. "One of the things we are seeing is that people who are
looking for homes are going to buy homes."
Potential buyers are not investors, which is a "very
key" change in the market from last year, he added.
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Tip #19
Home Buying Tip, Online Searching:
Searching online is a very effective way to look for real estate in New Jersey, or
anywhere for that matter. Good
websites allow you to search through multiple MLS’s so you can
cover a wide range. For example here
you can Search for NJ
Real Estate.
After you find the house you are
interested in you can inquiry with the real estate agency to find out
more information or to arrange an appointment to view the house.
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Tip #18
Home Selling Tip, Targeting Out Of State:
When you sell your home you sometimes have to put yourself in the
potential buyers’ shoes. In New Jersey many home buyers are from the
surrounding area, like New York or Pennsylvania.
Knowing this can allow your agent to
market your house more effectively.
If he/she will advertise in a New York publication they can describe
the proximity to NY. This allows
your potential Buyer Base to expand.
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