Bergen County Blog

Allendale Real Estate Market Conditons

Below are the market statistics for Allendale residential homes from the New Jersey MLS system for the period 5/1/2008 through 5/31/2008 compared to 6/1/2008 through 6/30/2008.

A big increase in the number of closed homes for June over May while inventory remains fairly constant. List to sale price is holding at 91% -92 % fairly average for Bergen County at this time although a drop off from higher percentages(about 95%) from last year.   The biggest eye opener is the drop to 48 days average on the market for the homes sold in June.  This would indicate to me that these homes came on the market recently and were priced right for this market.  Expect this number to go back up next month and in the months to come.

Anything in these numbers you see that you would like to discuss? Would you like to see any other statistics for Allendale or surrounding towns?  Send me an email and let me hear your thoughts! I am always interested to hear what you have to say.

If you are interested to find the current value of your home allow me to provide a free Comparative Market Analysis specifically for you. Please visit my website at http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/ or call me directly on my cell phone: 201-674-3114

If you would like a free list of homes for sale in Allendale or would like more information about Allendale, or you would like to be the first to know about hot new listings before other Allendale buyers do, then give me a call at:

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Statistic from NJ MLS System. Information herein deemed reliable but not guaranteed!

On May 14, 2008 there will be seven distinct Allendale homes on display between 9:30 am and 2;30 pm. 

This is a great way to get some decorating ideas for the interior and exterior of your home while supporting a worthwhile cause.

The Allendale Womens's Club will host the event for the benefit of The Smile Forever Foundation a 501 (c )(3) not for profit charitable  organization dedicated to providing financial aid directly to families touched by cancer.  Other local charities will also benefit. Tickets are $40 and can purchased from local merchants.  Check the Allendale Womens's Club website for more information.

There is also a raffle for four Grand Prizes:A GreenLife African Safari for 2; a Samsung 42" Flat Panel HD Plasma TV, a $1000 BestBuy gift certificate and a private dinner party for 15 hosted by the Allendale Bar & Grill. Raffle tickets may be purchased for $10 prior to the event from AWC members, anytime during the House Tour or by logging onto the club's website .The winning raffle tickets will be drawn at 5:00 pm on May 14 at the AB&G. ( Winners do not need to be present.)

Realtors in New Jersey just received a link from NJAR to the 2007 Profile of NJ Buyers and Sellers report which was compiled by the NAR for NJAR.  It is interesting enough that I suggest all that can access it take a look.  One section which I will share with you is how home buyers felt about their real estate professions.

- 96% of home buyers ranked "honesty and integrity" as very important factor when choosing a real estate professional to assist with a home purchase.

- 85% reported they were "very satisfied" with the honesty and integrity of their agent.

- 66% of buyers said they would definitely use their agents again.

If I read into these numbers I see that 11% of buyers felt their agents were not honest with them or did not possess enough integrity.  If that is not enough, 30% of agents did something their buyers did not like so that they would not use them again!  

I for one do would not accept these numbers if they were rating my performance.  75% of my business comes from referrals of past clients and friends.  If I do not perform better than satisfying 66% of my clients, I might as well change my profession.  

How do you insure you are satisfying your clients during the process?  

Do you get the same interpretation of the numbers?  I would love to hear your response!    

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Pardon me but who decided to change the time to leap forward so early this year?  I didn't beleive it when someone told me in the beginning of the week that Saturday night was time to spring forward.  OOps, can't use that one anymore since it is not even spring yet!

Here in New Jersey we had a massive rain downpour all day followed by 60 -70 mile per hour winds Saturday evening. The lights kept flickering and I knew the electricity was going to go out at some point in time.  Still when getting into bed to go to sleep, I set the digital clock at the bedside ahead one hour. 

When I woke up to a cloudy sky I thought it was about dawn, my clock was flashing with a time of 4:05 am.  Sorry, just couldn't be. The electricity must have gone out and the clock reset to 12 midnight sometime when I was asleep. 

OK, so what time was it? I checked my cell phone. 7:05 it read. but does the phone reset itself or did I have to do that last fall. I couldn't remember.  I looked up at the cable box on top of the Television. 7:05. Must not be right. How would the cable box know to move ahead one hour? Still unsure, I went into the kitchen. the microwave clock read 6:45.  Now that does not make sense at all!  If the electricity went off, I know that clock could not be right.  Going into the office I check the clock on the computer. One computer read 7:10, the other read 6:15.  Now we were getting somewhere.  The machine with windows xp was one hour ahead of the windows 2000 machine.  I think I knew what time it was.  Then I thought, what about Grandma's old battery clock? The one from 1940's.  Sure enough, going into the guest room the clock read 6:12.  I walked over and set it ahead one hour.  At least I knew what time it really was. Setting the clock for one hour change twice a year is a small price to pay for knowing what time it really was.

Ever had trouble getting in to show a home to your buyer client?  Today was one of those days.

On Friday I talked with my buyer and and she wanted to see five different homes on Saturday.  I printed out the listings, went through the showing instructions and mapped out a good tour.  Then I sat down with the phone and tried to schedule the appointments with the sellers or their agents.

OK, one was vacant. I could use this one as a filler in case one appointment went short or bypass it if one went long and come back later. We may have to drive a bit further to make the appointments work. No problem.   So I call the first seller.
"Hi Ms. Seller  "Can I show your home at 3 pm on Saturday to my clients? 
"No, I am having company tomorrow. It is not a good day. How about Sunday?" 
"Sorry Ms. Seller, we will have to reschedule."

On to the next call. "Hi Ms. Agent, can I show the home at 123 Main St at 3 pm tomorrow?". 
"Let me talk to the owner and  call you back". 
Five minutes later the phone rings. "About 123 Main St.  The owner says tomorrow is no good. She has to put the dogs outside when showing and it is suppose to rain and she doesn't want the dogs to get wet."
"Ok, we will try another time".

Call number three, another call to an agent. "Can I show the home at 456 Maple St tomorrow at 3 pm? "
"Sorry. We have two contract offers which are really good and we are deciding on which one to accept.  The owners are really tired of people going through their house all the time so they don't want any more showings right now."    
"Congratulations! I hope it works out for them. Can you take my number in case they change their minds?

So now I am O-fer 3 with one more possibility.  I make the call and get an answering machine. "I would love to show the home at 789 North St. tomorrow at 3 pm. Can you call me back at this number to confirm?"

So with only two of the five still in play, I call my buyer back and give her the news. "Oh Jim, we are sorry, we have to cancel tomorrow because the baby is sick. Can we reschedule?"

I can't make this stuff up!   

County Executive McNerney still pushing shared government services for small NJ towns!

In the Opinion section of The Record today( Sunday, 2/17/2008)  there were  two articles as a follow-up to an earlier article which ran this week commenting on County Executive Dennis McNerney's call for consolidation of services of towns which have less than 10,000 residents.  

The first article was an open letter by McNerney.  He states that the solution to his constituents complaints about high taxes is for small towns to consolidate administrative services.  He proposes a plan for a pilot program in which two smaller towns would merge all government services. The carrot on the end of the stick is for a five year timeframe of transition, taxes will be frozen,  the state will supplement the towns for any justifiable financial increases and homeowners would be entitled to a 100 percent increase in property tax rebates.

 The second article  was an evaluation of McNerney's plan by Ernest C. Reock Jr., who  was director of the Rutgers University Center for Government Services, until 1992. In his opinion article  Come Together , Reock  states "When we rank the state's municipalities by size and examine their budgets, we find that there is little difference in the average budget per capita for large and small communities".  He goes on to say this is so because the smaller towns do not offer the services of the larger towns.

I said in my last blog on the subject (Allendale - Past to Present  - And into the Future?) I don't think town mergers will ever happen in New Jersey and especially in Bergen County.  I do think Reock said it best in his article when he wrote:

"Obviously, these New Jersey residents or their ancestors did not choose urban living - they chose small-town living. And this is what they are getting in New Jersey.  This is a small-town state by choice, and a large majority of its residents apparently prefers to keep it so."

I would love to hear other views about this proposal. Can it work? Will it work? Does it have even the slightest chance of becoming law?  Let me know.

Interested to know more about Allendale and the Allendale real estate market?  Contact me for a free consultation!

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email:jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Allendale and Waldwick to merge into new town of Allenwick.  

Not it hasn't happened yet but beware, if Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney gets his way, towns of less than 10,000 people would merge with similar towns with the purpose of reducing administrative costs and decreasing taxes.

Ok so call me old fashion, a homer, or a snob, but my first thought is I like Allendale the way it is and that is why I chose to live here for the last 42 years.  Yes, taxes are high. The majority of that going to the school system.  Already the high school is regionalized with Upper Saddle River, Saddle River and  Ho-Ho-Kus. But the schools are what  initially attract people to move to Allendale. The local town feel, the small neighborhoods where everyone knows your name and the community activities is what grows on you over time.       

If I review the proposal and think about it a little deeper, I can understand the rational. Yes, it does maybe make sense to combine such services as garbage collection, recycling, street sweeping and other DPW functions where it makes economic sense. Should  Allendale open up Crestwood Lake to Waldwick?  The place is really never crowded and I am sure Waldwick residents would like a lake instead of a little pool. In exchange how about Allendale using the Waldwick high school's new turf field.  That sure would stop some of the bickering going on in town on whether(weather?) to turf the Highlands football field.  Combine libraries? Sure why not? Fire departments and police departments? I am not so sure about these.

But let's get down to the real issue.  How will property values be affected in each town?

According to the NJMLS in 2007, for residential properties in Allendale,

In Waldwick in 2007 for residential properties,

Can you see where this is going?  In order to make the McNerney's plan work, there is going to have to be more equity in the choice of the towns that merge.  In any case, someone is always going to feel they are getting the short end of the stick in some way.

While I understand the intent of the proposal, I don't ever see a full merger of towns in Bergen County happening.  Some services, yes.  It could help to some degree.  Stay tuned. You will be hearing a lot more of this in the future as the battle to decrease taxes in New Jersey and Bergen County continue in the political arena. 

Please read the article in The Record for more detailed information: Bergen Towns to Merge?   

I would love to hear other views about this proposal. Can it work? Will it work? Does it have even the slightest chance of becoming law?  Let me know.

Interested to know more about Allendale and about its real estate market?  Contact me for a free consultation!

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Allendale Real Estate Market Conditons

Below are the market statistics for Allendale residential homes from the New Jersey MLS system for the period 1/1/2008 through 1/31/2008.

Current Inventory remains constant at 31 homes or about 6 months of inventory using the statistic of 61 homes being sold last year.  List price to sales price of  the three homes which sold in January was down drastically from last years average of 95.169% to 88.573%.  These three homes sold in January were on the market for an average of 85 days. 

Anything in these numbers you see that you would like to discuss? Would you like to see any other statistics for Allendale or surrounding towns?  Send me an email and let me hear your thoughts! I am always interested to hear what you have to say.

If you are interested to find the current value of your home allow me to provide a free Comparative Market Analysis specifically for you. Please visit my website at http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/ or call me directly on my cell phone: 201-674-3114

If you would like a free list of homes for sale in Allendale or would like more information about Allendale, or you would like to be the first to know about hot new listings before other Allendale buyers do, then give me a call at:

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Thinking of moving to Allendale?  Have you just moved to our wonderful town?  Sometimes it is difficult getting to know where find all the information you need about a new town or to make a decision to look at real estate in a particular area.  To make your job easier, I have compiled a list of websites that will help you learn about Allendale and find out everything you need to know about the Borough of Allendale.  Still can't find what you need?  Don't worry, I am a 40 year resident of the town. Give me a call. My contact information is at the end of this page.  

Official Borough of Allendale website. Great information on town services.  
http://www.allendale.org/

Wikipedia entry for Allendale. Many background facts about Demographics, government, education and history of the Allendale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allendale,_New_Jersey

Allendale Newcomers Club.  Great way to get acclimated to the town and meet its residents. when first moving in or even if you have been in town for awhile.
http://www.allendalenewcomersclub.com/

Allendale Recreation Committee website. These folks take care of all the children's recreation programs in town from kickball for the real youngsters to softball, baseball and soccer for the older kids.
http://www.arcsports.org/

Allendale Chamber of Commerce website.  Find a list of the town's merchants and what is available without going out to the highways for shopping. You will be surprised!
http://www.allendalechamber.com/

New Jersey MLS town statistics.  Information about local neighborhoods and schools. Select Bergen County and then Allendale from the menus
http://www.njrealestate.com/information/school_2006.cfm

Allendale Elementary School website.
http://www.allendaleschoolsnj.com/

Northern Highlands Regional High School website.  The regional high school encompasses students from Allendale, Upper Saddle River, Ho-Ho-Kus and Saddle River.
http://www.northernhighlands.org/northernhighlandsrhs/site/default.asp

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/

Allendale Market Statistics - 2007 Allendale Homes Review

We all listen to the media and the countless stories about doom and gloom of the real estate market.  In order to put it all into perspective, I have pulled some basic statistics from the New Jersey MLS  regarding Allendale homes for sale from the years 2005 through the end of 2007.   It is best viewed in graph format as seen here:

As you can see, the numbers indicate in 2005 an average list price of Allendale homes is $822,902 and an average sale price of $805,219 or a list to sale price of 97.851%.  In 2006, as prices increased, so did the asking prices of Allendale sellers. Average list price for 2006 was $899,118 with an average sale price of $850,625 or 94.607%.   Now at the end of 2007 we see a return to 2005 prices with and average sale price of $805,566.  Sellers still are thinking they can get 2006 prices as the list price of homes is $849,291 or 94.852% of asking price.

2006 was definitely a high watermark in both terms of price and number of homes sold as 75 homes sold.  In 2005, 68 homes old and this past year 61 homes sold.  

So what is in store of 2008?   Economists indicate a flattening of the market and more of the same as 2007 at least for the first half of 2008.  No really that much gloom and doom for the homeowners in Allendale.

If you are interested to find the current value of your home allow me to provide a free Comparative Market Analysis specifically for you. Please visit my website at http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/ or call me directly on my cell phone: 201-674-3114

If you would like a free list of Allendale homes for sale or would like more information about Allendale real estate, or you would like to be the first to know about hot new listings before other Allendale home buyers do, then give me a call at:

James Lockard
RE/MAX Properties
Office: 201-825-6600
Cell: 201-674-3114
Email: jlockard@remax.net
Website:  http://www.bergencounty-homes.com/