Bubble Wrap

Firms fault Jersey business climate

The Star Ledger reports on results of the survey, done for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association advocating many changes to Jersey’s regulations and taxes.

Of the 278 business executives polled and interviewed last fall, only 23 percent say New Jersey is doing a good or excellent job of making New Jersey affordable. The skill level of the state’s work force got high marks from 51 percent, while less than one-third percent approve of the state’s energy and health care affordability and overall tax structure. Less than half are satisfied with New Jersey’s transportation infrastructure and its labor and environmental policies.

Hoboken Weathers the Market

The NYTimes describes the Hoboken real estate market as still humming along, with new developments still selling out, yet at a slower pace.

Hoboken was often held up as the prime example of the booming real estate market, and now it appears that the city is showing that it can hold its own in a down market, too.

Newark Making Strides

AMNY has a great article detailing the enormous change underway in Newark. With bargain prices, Newark real estate is starting to attract buyers priced out of New York.

It’s definitely a buyer’s market these days in Newark. Foreclosures and short sales are making it easier, and most importantly, cheaper, for anyone to buy a home in Newark. Young people are moving to the city in droves—specifically to the Ironbound neighborhood, which is considered one of the safest areas in Newark.

Better rates for bigger mortgages in North Jersey

According the The Bergen Record rates on Jumbo loans have seen a small decrease as a result of the new government package allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase or guarantee loans of up to $729,750, but it is largely seen as not enough.

“I am disappointed,” Frank said in a speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association in early May. “We fought very hard to raise the loan limits for Fannie and Freddie, and there have been a lot of problems in implementation.”

This lifting of the cap on jumbo loans is temporary: It’s set to expire at the end of 2008, but Congress is considering making it permanent.

A break for Bergen sellers

According to The Bergen Record, Bergen County prices are holding up better than other areas of the country although foreclosures and inventory are up, causing property value to come back to 2005 levels.

Median home prices dropped 2.4 percent in Bergen County and 8.1 percent in Passaic in the first quarter of 2008, compared with the same period a year ago. That compares with a nationwide drop of 7.7 percent, according to price data released Tuesday.

“You’re getting better value for new construction than for resales,” Somerville said. “Builders have no choice but to sell. They’re sitting on inventory they can’t afford to keep.”

Investors urge Ratner to ditch Brooklyn for Newark arena

Spokespeople for the Nets and Bruce Ratner say they are moving forward with the Brooklyn arena, but sources of The Real Deal say discussions about moving the team to Newark have life.

Developer Bruce Ratner has been approached by several New Jersey investors and public officials on a plan to relocate the Nets to the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, according to sources familiar with the talks.

“If they don’t get that arena built in Brooklyn in the next couple of years, I’m doubtful that Ratner would want to keep paying for losses for the Nets,” said Michael Cramer, professor of sports management at New York University. “It would have been good to get the Nets and Devils in the same arena.”

Immigrants help market stay afloat

The Bergen Record details how the growing immigrant population calling New Jersey home is propping up the Bergen County real estate market.

According to the National Association of Realtors, two out of three households in New Jersey are being formed by foreign-born/ethnic minorities; they are projected to account for more than 50 percent of first-time home buyers by 2010. About 9 percent of the Garden State’s population is represented by nationalized citizens.

Jersey City Arts District Coming Undone

New York’s Sixth discusses the recent reversion of Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District.

The long fight over the Toll Brother’s planned towers for the former Powerhouse Arts District essentially came to an end at last night’s planning board meeting with the board voting 8 to 0 in favor of approving Toll Brothers new vision reports the Jersey Journal. The plan includes building towers of 40, 35 and 30 stories in the former warehouse district and dwarfing several projects that conformed to the original Powerhouse Arts District Plan including the recently completed Waldo Lofts and Morgan Lighthouse.

Job Losses Continue in New Jersey

Detailed in the monthly report prepared for NJBIZ ,New Jersey’s nonfarm employment decreased for the second straight month.

So, we are not off to a very positive start in 2008. Even though the nation’s job growth had already slowed significantly in 2007, New Jersey’s employment trajectory had virtually flat-lined, signaling far less economic momentum in the state compared to the nation as 2008 unfolded. With the United States now probably in recession, gauged by three straight months of private-sector employment decline, it appears that New Jersey’s economy will be in for a very tough struggle for the balance of 2008.

Bloomberg Proposes Neighborhood Parking Permits

Crain’s reports a new piece of the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan Now, neighborhood parking permits?

Designed to give residents preferential parking treatment in their own neighborhoods, the plan would restrict parking in certain spaces during a 90-minute period for those without permits.

Under the proposal, which could come to fruition as early as next fall, individual neighborhoods could opt in to the program through their Community Board, with additional approval from their City Council member and borough president.

City officials hope the plan will prevent commuters from driving into neighborhoods and parking for the day, while using the subway to get into Manhattan. The proposal could be particularly beneficial for neighborhoods that include Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Long Island City, and the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.

Paulson Calls Housing Crisis Significant Risk to Economy

Wall Street Journal Online reports Treasury Secretary Endorses Standards for Mortgage Brokers, Expects More Declines in Housing Starts

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offered a sobering view Tuesday of the pressure the housing market was having across the country, saying the decline stood “as the most significant current risk to our economy.”

Mr. Paulson even acknowledged that problems in credit, mortgage, and housing markets were much more severe than anticipated.

“The ongoing housing correction is not ending as quickly as it might have appeared late last year,” he said in a speech to Georgetown University Law Center, according to prepared remarks. “And it now looks like it will continue to adversely impact our economy, our capital markets, and many homeowners for some time yet.”

NYC not totally immune

Crain’s New York Business reports NYC braces for foreclosure surge

The number of New York City homeowners facing foreclosure is on track to reach the highest point in more than a decade.

Lenders have started foreclosure actions on 7,000 homes since January, according to the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. By the end of the year, the number is expected to exceed 14,000, which would represent a 60% increase over 2006.

Gehry Playground at the Battery

From Gothamist, Frank Gehry Designs His First Playground for NYC

At the Battery Conservancy’s gala last night, Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe announced that Gehry would design his first playground in Manhattan. Benepe said, “It is fitting that the Battery, the birthplace of New York, will be home to another first Frank Gehry’s newest creation will be a truly innovative play experience for New Yorkers and visitors alike, for the young and the young-at-heart.”

City Got Stonewalled

From the New York Post, Apt. Bosses ‘Knew Collapse Was Near’

The collapse of a massive stone wall on the Henry Hudson Parkway two years ago could have been prevented if the property owner’s engineers had alerted the city to the danger and done more than try to tie the structure to a tree, a scathing city report has found.

A nearly two-year probe of the collapse at Castle Village in Washington Heights determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling.

Pier 40 plan runs into wall of opposition

From Crane’s New York Business

A proposal by The Related Cos. to develop Pier 40 ran into stiff opposition at a public hearing held by the Hudson River Park Trust on Thursday night.

The hearing drew about 1,500 people to P.S. 41 on Thursday night, witnesses say. The crowd, rallied by a coalition of parents and community leaders who are against Related’s plans, spilled out of the school’s auditorium and into the street for the meeting, which started at 7 p.m. and continued past 10 p.m.

Top Five Price Cuts

Based on StreetEasy research, New York Magazine covers the top five price drops in The Year of the Price Cut

So is it a soft market, or isn’t it? The consensus is forming: Sellers just can’t overreach and expect a huge payout the way they did a couple of years ago. New York asked Streeteasy.com, an online database that gathers information on most listings in the city, to run the numbers and find the largest price drops of the year (leaving out mixed-use and multiple-unit buildings and new developments). Bargain-hunters and bonus-toters, this may be your moment.

Mayor's priorities for managing growth: more housing, parks and mass transit

Crain’s New York covered Bloomberg’s remarks made in a speech to the League of Conservative Voters in “Mayor Bloomberg sets goals for growing City” regarding his vision of how the city should manage its expected population growth to nine million by 2030.

That growth, coupled with an aging infrastructure, will take its toll on the city’s environment and require some sweeping changes. “Growth is a challenge that can produce great benefits, but only if we prepare for it and guide it,” said Mr. Bloomberg.

His top three goals are to create enough housing for the expected surge in population, to ensure there are enough parks and green space, and to add capacity to the regional mass transit system.

NYC Real Estate '06 Review

Over at the NY Post, Max Gross does a solid review of the NYC real estate market highlights from 2006. In The Big Picture: The Highs and Lows of 2006, and What to Expect in 2007 , Gross takes a good look at 15 CPW and other important developments, as well as the factors contributing to the overall tone of the market as we enter the new year.

And appraiser Miller Samuel reports that the average price of a Manhattan apartment ($1,323,923) was 7.5 percent higher in the first three quarters of 2006 than the first three quarters of 2005, although units have stayed on the market an average of 35 days longer this year.

“You saw the separation of the men from the boys,” says Shaun Osher, CEO of Core Group Marketing. “Well-conceived product is selling as well as ever. Not-so-well-conceived product is not selling.”

Whitney and City sign agreement for High Line site

The NY Times reported today, in Whitney’s Expansion Plans Are Shifting South, to the Meatpacking District that while subject to review, an agreement has been reached for a new art museum at the southern end of the High Line.

The Whitney recently reached a conditional agreement on Wednesday night with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to buy the city-owned site, at Gansevoort and Washington streets, officials at the museum said yesterday. Plans call for the new museum to be at least twice the size of the Whitney’s home on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, they said, and to be finished within the next five years.

South Bronx Greenway gets $30M and green light

Crain’s NY Business reports on the latest South Bronx initiative to clean-up the Hunts Point area and provide better access to the waterfront.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a $30 million plan on Monday for the South Bronx Greenway, a key component of a broader vision to revitalize the Hunts Point Peninsula.

As part of a wider plan for Hunts Point, which was first outlined in 2005, the city will implement the “Greenway plan” with four short-term projects and additional improvements that will add 1.5 acres of open space and 2.3 miles of pedestrian routes.

When it’s completed, the South Bronx greenway will encompass 1.5 miles of new waterfront greenway, 8.5 miles of new green streets, and nearly 12 acres of new waterfront open space.