Bergen County Real Estate News: June 2005

Leonia Council OKs $199 Municipal Tax Hike

Average homeowners in Leonia will now pay an additional amount of $199 this year to support the 2005 municipal budget. This would mean an increase of 8% in taxes. Many defended the budget stating that it would mean only an increase of $500,000. Also $141,000 has been budgeted for legal expenses. Under the new tax rate, the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $255,112 will need to pay $2,722 for municipal services, an increase from $2,523 last year. The amount does not include school and county taxes. The total tax rate is projected to be $3.44 in 2005 per $100 of assessed value, or $8,775 for the average home.

Deadline for Building Law Closing in

The state environmental commissioner at Trenton said on Friday, June 17, 2005 that he will not implement a law that allows developers to fast track permit applications. Builders and environmentalists in Trenton debated over the issue after the statement. While a hold on the law expires next month; July 9, 2005 has been set as the startup date for implementing rules that allow builders to pay for their own permitting. Under the still-delayed plan, builders will be able to use private experts and consultants. This will help to avoid long waits when the same work is conducted by the state Department of Environmental Protection. However, it appears that the state may not be able to meet the deadline. It will wait until the state Legislature makes changes to the fast-track law, supposedly to placate environmental objections.

Dumont Now Blames Its Auditor

Fiscal mismanagement in Dumont cost residents hundreds of thousands in extraordinary state aid. Borough officials are now blaming Steven Wielkotz, the auditor for the same. Reports filed in the years 2002 and 2003 showed little wrong with borough finances and, furthermore, indicated thousands in surplus funds. However reality was a different picture, with the borough accumulating a debt of more than $1 million that would lead to charges of misconduct and theft, resignation of the mayor and a state takeover of the finance department. Current officials say Wielkotz omitted the bulk of Dumont’s problems from reports in an effort to protect the Republican administration that hired him. Officials at the state Department of Community Affairs, which reviews municipal audits also say that the reports did not indicate the extent of Dumont’s financial troubles. Also late bill payments or interest penalties were not mentioned. The reports didn’t hint the town would be more than a million in debt by 2005. The state is now overseeing the borough’s finances and its appointments.

Cost of Living in New Jersey

Residents in many parts of New Jersey need to earn over thrice the amount over the official poverty level to meet the basic needs of their families. This fact came forward in a report released on Tuesday, June 14, 2005. The real cost of living in 2005 report found that Atlantic county was the least expensive to live in while Somerset county was the most expensive. Also as per the report a single parent with two young children would need $ 39,679 to make it out of poverty in Bergen County. These reports consider the cost of living based on the most basic factors that include housing, transportation, medical care, taxes, child care and groceries. Entertainment, vacations, savings and money for education are not included. The self-sufficiency standard for New Jersey was last updated in 2000, but rates for basics like rent and food are increasing much faster than most luxury items.

State Agrees to Expansion of EnCap Housing

Over 600 rental apartments for the EnCap golf development in Rutherford were approved by state officials. This now brings the housing total of the project to 2,580 units. Under this project four garbage dumps in Lyndhurst and Rutherford will be cleaned and covered to give way to development. Lyndhurst will have two golf courses, 1780 residential units of which 930 will be for seniors. Rutherford will have 800 residences, of which 89 will be affordable housing units and 200 units would be reserved for seniors. The building heights will be under 15 stories. Besides this, EnCap also plans to build 1,375 housing units and golf courses in North Arlington. If approved, this will bring the total to 3,955 housing units to south Bergen County.

Paterson Loses $1.3M for Housing

The government took back more than $1.3 million granted for fair-housing construction grants, after Paterson city failed to use them despite several warnings. A deadline was issued last June to the then director of the city’s Department of Community Development. The city also missed the October deadline to allocate the funds from the 2002-03 budget year for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which subsidizes builders and developers. On Tuesday, June 14, 2005, the City Council took the money that was meant for a later budget year and pledged it to the seven for-profit and non-profit developers whose projects it had committed to in December. The developers will use the funds to build 111 units for low- and moderate-income families.

Ridgewood to Have Golf

If the neighborhood agrees, then Ridgewood would become the first town with municipal putting 1500 square foot golfing green. While putting greens are common for private residences and adult communities, this is one of the rare events planned by a municipality. Planned on Bellair road, the project is on hold until all nearby residents are notified of the project by mail. The project is estimated to cost about $16,500, funded through a community development open-space grant from the county. It would come up next to a small animal cemetery that holds the remains of fire-team horses. Also nearby are a sewer pump house and three tennis courts. Maximum community input is being sought for the project and many feel that a spot of green is required in the neighborhood.

High Prices for Houses in North Jersey

House prices in North Jersey have risen far and fast with middle-class towns like Lyndhurst, commonly having houses selling at half a million dollars. As per the National Association of Realtors, the median sale price of an existing single-family home in Bergen and Passaic counties, stood at $448,100 in the first quarter of 2005. This was noted to be up 18 percent from the same period a year ago. Also house prices are unlikely to collapse in North Jersey, mainly because of strict government restraints on new construction. National predictions by the Realtors’ association show that house sales will set their fifth consecutive record this year, with the sale of 6.9 million existing houses and 1.24 million new homes. It is also forecast that mortgage rates will rise only a small amount, hitting 6.5 percent by the end of 2006.

Statistics on Home Prices

David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, addressed a group of North Jersey real estate agents on Friday, June 3, 2005. The Park Ridge meeting was held for the RealSource Association of Realtors, a Waldick-based group of 3,100 real estate agents. In his speech, he indicated that the housing market was on a rise, but was all set to deflate slowly. He added that while the demand for houses has grown throughout the nation, prices have particularly risen in New Jersey and California. Prices in the area have more than doubled since 1999. Lereah predicts that house sales will hit record or near-record levels this year too with prices to rise about 9 percent nationally. The boom is caused by historically low mortgage rates, peak earning years of the baby boom generation, incidence of immigrants purchasing houses and new types of mortgages and technology that eases loan approvals.

New City Council for Jersey City

As the new City Council and re-elected mayor for Jersey are sworn in on July 1, residents want to see them accomplish more affordable housing, fewer potholes, and a better response to crime. Jerramiah Healy will be sworn in for a four-year term as mayor and nine City Council members will be sworn into their positions on July 1. Affordable housing came up as a key issue, especially in areas like the Bergen-Lafayette area from Halladay Street to Grand Street, where over 42 development projects are currently slated to be built over the next few years. While many development projects are on, affordable housing forms a very small part of the picture. Residents feel that tax abatements should get serious consideration too. Police presence and new police stations are also felt as the need of the hour for better response against gangs and drug dealing.

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