It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted – I’ve been very busy!  Believe it or not, I have been managing mulitple offers on several of my listings and for one of my buyers.  The market has certainly picked up.  In fact, there have been TEN contract sales in the first TEN days of March.  That’s pretty terrific.  List prices for these properties have ranged from $299,000 to $1,100,000; five town houses and five single family homes.

There were THIRTY new listings here in town since the first of March.  Two of those properties are under contract and one is in attorney review.

Are you considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge?  Now is the time to make that move!  Visit my website for information on what has sold in Basking Ridge or to search homes for sale in Basking Ridge.

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20 Old Coach Road in Basking Ridge is a traditional center hall colonial with an expanded kitchen featuring a center island, french doors, skylights and two pantries. It boasts a huge family room with cathedral ceilings and a first floor study. It has a great fenced yard with a two tiered deck and an inground pool. There is recessed lighting throughout the house, a newer roof(‘07), two zone central air and several rooms have recently been painted. It also features a terrific master bedroom with lots of light, two walk-in closets and a bathroom with two sinks, a stall shower and a jetted soaking tub. 

List Price: $929,000

If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, please visit my site for information on what has sold in Basking Ridge or to sign up for listing alerts.

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Yes, 2010 tax assessments have been published. And yes, they are lower than they were last year.  Mine dropped almost 7%.  But this does not mean that all listings currently on the market are overpriced! (okay, I will admit that there are probably lots of listings on the market that are overpriced, but that’s not because of the 2010 tax assessments and we can talk about that later.)

Tax assessments in Basking Ridge follow the market – NOT the other way around.  I wrote about this in June and I do often analyze sale price to tax assessment when working with buyers and sellers – either to set a list price or to make an offer.  But – we only have past data to look at.  We KNOW how properties are selling relative to 2008 and 2009 taxes, we do not know yet how properties will sell relative to these new 2010 tax assessments.  I have told all of my current seller clients that my pricing recommendations will not change just because we got our new green tax cards.  And to any potential buyer who brings up the new assessment, my counter offer will be this: “we cannot base a current sale price on the new 2010 tax assessments, we can only look at what we know – which is relative to 2009 tax information, not 2010.” 

Another angle – Jeffery Otteau, at his last seminar, stated that prices have dropped approximately 4% this past year.  My tax assessment dropped 7%.  There’s a 3% discrepency there – why would I base a negotiation on the lower number?  I’d rather base it on recent comparable sales.

Visit Basking Ridge Real Estate for information on the value of your Basking Ridge home – relative to current tax assessment or not.

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Contract sales since Feb. 15th

77 Alexandria Way, Spring Ridge condo, $214,000
17 Baldwin Court, Society Hill condo, $265,000
318 Alexandria Way, Spring Ridge duplex, $489,900
29 Penwood Road, single family, $780,000 (multiple offers!)
11 Stirling Lane, single family, $869,000 (came on the market in atty rvw)
97 Bullion Road, single famiy, $965,000
88 Manchester Drive, single family, $1,000,000 (multiple offers)
33 Summit Drive, single family, $1,030,000
26 Deer Creek, single family, $1,199,000
9 Caldwell Court, single family in the hills, $1,299,000
47 Clairvaux Court, single family, $1,425,000

Closings since Feb. 15th:

94 Potomac Drive $215,000/$203,500, spring ridge condo
51 E Oak Street, $458,800/$445,000, single family home
18 Mayflower Drive, $518,000/$506,000, Hamilton Crest townhouse
93 Alder Lane, $635,000/$597,000, single family in the hills
322 S Finley Ave, $1,299,900/$1,200,000, single family

There were 25 new listings during this time frame.  Current market absorption is 6.2 months.  There are 12 properties working through attorney review.

If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, please call me.  As a full time Realtor and Basking Ridge resident, I love what I do – and I’m happy to help!  I can help you find the value of your Basking Ridge home, keep you informed of what has sold in Basking Ridge and notify you of new listings in Basking Ridge.

If Basking Ridge isn’t your destination, follow the links to find out what’s going in Bedminster, Bernardsville or the surrounding areas.

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This three to five bedroom cape has had so many updates over the last six years – it’s perfect!  It offers three bedrooms upstairs with a full bath.  There are two rooms downstairs that are currently used as a family room and a play room; they can be bedrooms or not – depending upon your needs.  The front room – currently a dining room – features a wood burning fire place and could easily be a formal living room.  A large fenced yard is hard to find in this part of town.  Contact me for all the details.

It is a great time to buy!  If you are looking at your first home purchase or to move up from a condo, this might be the perfect house.  Not interested in Bernardsville?  That’s okay, there are lots of homes for sale in Basking Ridge too!

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Ahhh, another snow day here in Basking Ridge.  This time I am letting my kids sit in front of the television!  I will be posting Basking Ridge sales activity shortly, but I also wanted to share some information that I received from my broker.  One of the reasons I like working for Weichert, Realtors is that I feel that the management team does a great job of staying on top of the market – at a level one (or two) higher than I sometimes do.  It is so important for your agent to be clued in to the LOCAL market and sometimes people forget to look at the bigger picture.  Weichert makes it impossible for that to happen to me.

This news release was issued about a week ago.  Buying a Home Offers Many Happy Returns:

Investors who are uneasy with the ups and downs of an unpredictable stock market might be interested in a more reliable, steady option. If history is any indicator, perhaps the best decision those investors can make at the moment would be to purchase a home.

Since the 1940s, home prices have risen an average of 4 percent a year. However, since most buyers only put down a small percentage of the home’s total cost, a buyer who pays 20 percent down still gets to enjoy all of the appreciation. That turns a 4 percent increase in home prices into a 20 percent yield on the money actually invested by the buyer.

“Today’s market gives individuals a chance to enjoy some of the lifestyle perks associated with owning real estate that they might not otherwise be able to afford. This might be the only time they can move to the more prestigious neighborhood, trade up to the larger home or get that cabin by the lake they always wanted,” said Jim Weichert.

Even with real estate’s proven track record of financial returns, perhaps the best reasons to buy now are the personal benefits associated with homeownership that you just can’t get from other investments.

“Many Americans successfully fund their retirement in large part through the equity they earned by owning a home over the years. Why not use that same investment practice for other purposes? Instead of buying mutual funds which are just paper until you cash them out, buy a vacation property that you can enjoy for 10 or 15 years and then sell when it comes time to finance your child’s education. Not only will you have a place to build great family memories, you’ll also see a healthy financial return,” added Weichert.

This press release supports and maybe illustrates my most recent negotiation.  I negotiated a contract yesterday – the property was priced in the low $800,000’s and we offered a very strong bid in the high $700,000’s expecting to negotiate and hoping to end up with a price that would allow my clients to qualify for the tax credit which caps at properties priced over $800,000.  The seller came back with a terrific counter offer but presented it as their bottom line which was higher than my clients had wanted to go.  After much discussion among themselves, they told me that they decided to meet the counter.  Their reasoning:  “it doesn’t make sense for us to be stubborn about $8,000 or $10,000 when we are discussing a property that is going to be our home for many years to come.”  Sometimes, it makes sense to look past the dollars and cents and realize that you are talking about your home.  (Please don’t misunderstand, I am not advocating for spending more than you can afford or for spending more than a property is worth – this example assumes that we are working within the parameters set by your comfort level, your mortgage rep and the appraiser of the subject property.)

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What a great time of year – I love listing homes and this is the time of year when I list the most properties! Even more exciting is that they are SELLING!  There is real estate activity going on all over the place – I just negotiated multiple offers on my listing in Bernardsville.  If your house is on the market and you aren’t getting offers – something is wrong and you should work with your agent to find out what it is. You can’t blame it on the market because the buyers are out there!

I listed this home on Monday and forgot to blog about it!

32 Coppergate Drive in Basking Ridge

Welcome home

This is a great house!  It’s a three bedroom split level – all bedrooms are upstairs.  It has two full baths plus a half and there is a spare room - a den, or an office – off the family room. The kitchen is in great shape, the furnace and air conditioner have been recently replaced.  And it’s location is second to none!  Contact me for  more information or an appointment or feel free to come by the open house on Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00pm.

Listing alerts in Basking Ridge, See what has sold in Basking Ridge, Search available homes in Basking Ridge, Get your home’s value.

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My partner Judi and I are listing a beautiful Cornell model in the Hills – it will be active in the MLS on Monday, 2/22.  It has a beautiful finished basement, an updated kitchen with granite, a four-season sun room which actually makes the basement bigger!  It’s on a corner at the end of a cul-de-sac: this location allows for a square shaped back yard which is fenced and treed – affording lots of privacy not usually found in the Hills!  List price is $1,075,000.   Sneak Peak pictures to follow this coming weekend.

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The $700-$1,100,000 price range in Basking Ridge is heating up.  Several properties came on the market over the past few weeks only to sell almost immediately with multiple offers. Yes, in this buyer’s market, there have been multiple offers! 

I signed two listings earlier in the week.  Neither will be in the MLS for a little while as last minute preparations are being completed.  But, for my loyal Basking Ridge Real Estate blog readers, I have a sneak peak!

161 Thackeray Drive is on the corner of Pond Hill Road and Thackeray Drive.  It is a four bedroom, two and half bath split level home with a large family room addition.  It has a two car garage and a basement.  It sits on .76 acres in the R6 (.75) acre zone, with an inground pool.  The house needs some work – okay, it needs a lot of work - but it’s a great location on a conforming lot.  The neighborhood sells strongly – the last property was listed at its tax assessed value and sold almost immediately over asking after multiple offers in February of 2009 which was before we started to see the market come back.  This property is a Weichert exclusive listing which I am happy to show you.  We are cooperating with other brokers so if you are already working with an agent, have them contact me and we can make arrangements for you to see the house.  Call me at 908-432-0318 or contact me via my website.  List price: $529,000

20 Old Coach Road is a traditional center hall colonial with an expanded kitchen featuring a center island, french doors, skylights and two pantries. It boasts a huge family room with cathedral ceilings and a first floor study. It has a great fenced yard with a two tiered deck and an inground pool. There is recessed lighting throughout the house, a newer roof(‘07), two zone central air and several rooms have recently been painted. It also features a terrific master bedroom with lots of light, two walk-in closets and a bathroom with two sinks, a stall shower and a jetted soaking tub.  This property will be in the Garden State MLS on March 3rd and I will be hosting an open house on Sunday, March 7th between 12:00 and 4:00.  List Price: $929,000

If you are considering a move into or out of Basking Ridge, please visit my site for information on what has sold in Basking Ridge or to sign up for listing alerts.

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The following Basking Ridge properties have gone under contract since 2/1/2010:

3701 Balsam Way, The Cedars (Affordable Housing) $119,500
234 Irving Pl, Society Hill $245,000
90 Jamestown Rd, Spring Ridge $254,900
102 Woodward Ln, Society Hill $259,000
105 Jamestown Rd, Spring Ridge $259,900
2602 Hemlock Pl, The Cedars $299,900
15 Quincy Rd, Single Family $449,000
35 Cannon Ct, The Hamiltons $539,000
36 Appletree Ln, Single Family (REO) $549,900
25 S Alward Ave, Single Family $559,000
165 Smoke Rise Rd, Single Family The Hills $689,900
21 Martinsville Rd, Single Family $719,900
84 Blackburn Rd, Single Family  $1,099,000
115 S Alward Ave, Single Family $719,000 (Closed: $650,000)

There are another nine homes making their way through attorney review and with 167 properties available, current market absorption is at 6.9 months for the township.  Breakdown of market absorption by price range:

• under $300,000: 2.25 months
• $300,000-$500,000: 14 months
• $500,000-$700,000: 6.3 months
• $700,000-$900,000: 7.7 months
• $900,000-$1,300,000: 5.7 months
• over $1.300,000 – there have been no sales in this price range since January 4th when 28 Fawn Lane went under contract and then closed for $1,375,000 after almost a year on the market and almost a 20% price reduction from it’s original list price of $1,799,000.

I am working on market analyses for two properties that I believe will list in the low to mid $500,000’s; so I have also calculated market absorption for $450,000-$550,000.  That comes out to about 10 months.  I am not sure how to explain the lag in that middle-range price point. My educated guess, looking at sales activity, is that first time buyers are choosing lower priced condos and townhouses and people moving up from there are choosing homes in the $500,000-$700,000 range.  Leaving the $300,000-$500,000 range to be a little sluggish.

As a seller in that price range, my recommendation is to price the property as attractively as possible  in order to be the next to sell.  Buyers are looking for VALUE – you want to be the property that offers the most in that price range: either your are the biggest house, or the most udpated house, or something that makes you stand out.  Work with your Realtor to understand your competition and price accordingly.

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