Bubble Wrap: July 2008
Entries
Second Homes Beckon as Real Estate Prices Drift Down
The Sun reports on the area’s second home market experiencing weakness, as brokers claim it is the perfect time to buy.
Areas outside New York, where wealthy city-dwellers flock on weekends — beaches in the Hamptons, vineyards on the North Fork, horse farms in northern Dutchess County — are not as resilient. For the Hamptons and North Fork of Long Island, for example, new figures released this week show the median sales price dropped 9.2% to $817,500 compared with the same period last year, while the total number of transactions declined 13% to 541, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s second-quarter report.
NJ rental market continues to grow
According to the Bergen Record the rental occupancy rate in New Jersey has risen to 97 percent with an average rent of $1,453 per month, coupled with many significant rental projects being completed in the last few years.
The mortgage crisis and uncertainty about housing prices have meant that many people who might have bought houses are instead choosing to rent. In addition, renters who can’t afford Manhattan prices have been moving across the Hudson River to New Jersey, especially along the waterfront.
No, We Can’t
The Observer reports on the strong rental market buoyed by gradual layoffs, many newcomers to New York, and fewer buyers who are now renting.
Some rents in some neighborhoods did drop, on average—Chelsea non-doorman one-bedrooms dropped 9 percent from April to July—but the general trend was one of unremitting steadiness: no sharp peaks, and, more importantly, no deep valleys.
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.
Fed to Clamp Down on Exotic and Subprime Mortgages
While both the Financial and Housing markets are still rocky, Bernanke said on Tuesday morning that the Fed would issue new lending rules next week to restrict exotic mortgages and high-cost loans for people with weak credit, as reported by The New York Times
“The financial turmoil is ongoing, and our efforts today are concentrated on helping the financial system return to more normal functioning,” Mr. Bernanke said, according to an advance text of his speech issued by the Fed. “It is not too soon, however, to begin to think about the steps we might take to reduce the incidence and severity of future crises.”
