UPDATE ON THE NORTHERN NEW JERSEY HOUSING MARKET
According to reports, the pace of home sales continues to decline in NJ with another significant decrease in October. There are still many buyers out there but they have begun to push back on the highly elevated prices. The $1 million and above price range continues to be the most sought after range with the under $400k seeing the greatest decline. Part of that decline is however due to the lack of available housing at that price point.
Last year NJ had about 23k homes on the market in October while this year that number was closer to 19,800. As you can see, inventory remains restricted with October showing a decline for the 3rd straight month. We expect this trend to continue thru the end of this year. It is therefore an excellent time to put your home on the market if you are considering a sale.
Mortgage rates are beginning to creep up as well highlighting what is to come over the next year. Each 1% rise in interest rates cuts buying power by 10%. This is a very important piece to pay attention to. While home prices will continue to rise, it will be at a very slow pace. Buyers should not put off their search a year expecting home prices to decline significantly. While things may continue to level out over the next 10 months, a buyer will pay more in their mortgage by this time next year and their buying power will decrease due to the increase in rates.
LOCAL MARKET STATISTICS**single family homes only
ACTIVE (active as of 10/17) UNDER CONTRACT since Oct.15
MAPLEWOOD 17 (22) 23
SOUTH ORANGE 19 (25) 17
WEST ORANGE 54 (55) 33
MONTCLAIR 18 (18) 21
BLOOMFIELD 36 (44) 38
MILLBURN/SHORT HILLS 28 (33) 15
ORANGE 16 (22) 15
UNION 49 (64) 55
SUMMIT 11 (20) 14