The realignment and signalization of Irving-Fulton streets is now expected by May 1, City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said after Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
Originally ahead of schedule for the first week of April, the Irving-Fulton realignment will be the first step in a series of changes to downtown traffic flow. Two-way traffic on Irving and Main streets is scheduled to change on or around May 15 and before that happens, three streets will reverse their one-way directions: Coach, East Cherry and Poplar, which will change from two-way to one-way.
The Irving-Fulton realignment was part of the approval for the hotel, which is scheduled to open June 1. Two open houses at the end of last month yielded some 20 pending contracts on units at SkyView at Carriage City Plaza, according to a spokesman for Silcon Group, which is constructing the project.
For those feeling nostalgic about what the Irving-Fulton intersection looked like before the project, above right, is a photo taken from December (I haven’t had time to take an updated shot — or post much lately, but hopefully I can catch up in the next week).
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20 pending contracts. Bravo. http://www.northjersey.com/realestate/More_deals_falling_through.html“Home builders are especially plagued by canceled deals. Large builders say their cancellation rates have soared in the past year or two — to 35 percent or higher…”Let’s hope they can close most of these sales.
…sorry, try this one:http://tinyurl.com/4xrdyj
I wonder how this will effect Hot Rods and Harley’s on May 17th. It was a lot of fun last year. I hope they can clear the streets in front of the hotel so people can at least walk around. That picture looks like the Irving/Milton intersection.
Realist – I have a sneaking suspicion that you read njrereport.com – am I right?I came across an article recently which blamed slow NJ downtown condo sales on the fact that the targeted buyers (Baby Boomers with empty nests) can’t unload their present homes in the current market in order to make the deal go through. You would think someone nearing retirement could cough up a nice DP and wait it out, but this is America, and between HELOCs and refis many Baby Boomers can’t come up with the cash to trade down to a condo. I wonder how many cancellations will happen because the buyers can’t sell their present homes – housing gridlock is here.I wish I had the source article. One of these days I’ll figure out how to use Google Notebook to keep track of all these tidbits.
Not only that, NCR-The NYTimes published this story last week about the slump in housing sales affecting mobility and the job market. Housing gridlock, indeed.You are spot-on with your comment about borrowing practices. The pendulum may yet swing the other way and make credit tighter for those who want it, but let’s hope the days of 0% down, no-doc loans are over.
I think the important thing with the housing market is that we put it in perspective. The New York area market is much different than an Arizona, Texas, Florida, ect…There is no space available in this area. An hour from Phoenix and you’re in the middle of nowhere. An hour from New York and you’re still in a densely populated area. People buy here because they NEED to, there’s not a lot of options. There are no huge plots of land around waiting to be developed. Of course there has been a some slowdown in the New York area market. You can’t sell your home for 5x cost after owning it for 2 years anymore, but it just means real estate appreciation is at a more normal level. As for condo sales, like in Skyview, they should be fine too because most buyers are first timers or empty nesters. First timers don’t have a house to sell and empty nesters generally have enough equity in their existing homes to weather the storm. Also, if the value of your house goes down, generally so does the value of other houses. If yours goes up, generally so does the value of other houses. The reason I like Rahway is because of the development that is taking place which means that there is more upside to prices than a Westfield or a Cranford which are already priced out. So everyone relax, you’ll be fine.
not considering, I read all of Kathleen Lynns stuff as she follows the North Jersey RE beat but I will start reading njrereport. Their lead article today is hilarious.Scott, I think it was Tony Soprano who decided real estate was a good investment because “they ain’t buildin’ any more land!” If that argument was true, then why are Jersey Shore RE prices also heading downward? Are they planning on building a Palm Jumeirah off of Belmar?Talk to Thomas Glick about this gem he has for sale: http://tinyurl.com/5ksrjtWhen your neighbor starts pricing his bad investment at $100k less than he paid, guess what, the value of your home goes down too. There are already Skyviews listed for sale on the MLS. I don’t know if these people were flippers or if they suddenly had to move out of the area but they are selling something they have not even lived in yet. How much profit do you think they will make?Anyone who buys in to Rahway or ANY PLACE for that matter right now better be in it for the long haul. You aren’t going to recover your investment until Obama or McCain are running for re-election.Finally, surely you have heard the age old RE advice of buying the smallest home in the nicest neighborhood you can afford? I would take a cape cod in westfield over a condo in rahway in a NY minute. Rahway is known for having a less than mediocre school system and a prison (yes, I know its really in Woodbridge.) I mean, Camden has high schools that rank higher than Rahway!
Realist, it seems you post an awful lot of comments to a town you dislike so much. First though, comparing Belmar and Rahway is reaching for it. Rahway is in the middle of everything and in the shadows on NYC and a major commuter hub. Belmar is shore town for vacationers and college kids that is empty most of the year. Second, of course Westfield and Cranford are better towns. That’s why it costs a fortune to live there. If you’d rather live in a tiny old cape house there then go do it. Just remember to tack on an extra 50k to fix up that POS and increase your monthly expenses and commuting time for driving to Rahway and parking there for the train since you’ll be on a 7yr waiting list for a parking space at the train station. And don’t forget to transfer at Newark! Finally, anyone buying real estate is supposed to be in it for the long run. That’s not now just for now, that’s how it’s always been. It’s your kind of thinking that created the housing mess. People treated their homes like dot com stocks that they could flip instead of investing for the long term.Rahway is not a place for the glass is half empty kind of people. It’s had a long history of that and times have changed. Rahway is not a Westfield, but it’s not the Rahway of old anymore either. Things are changing for the better. The schools need work, yes, but they are more lagging indicators of improvement rather than leading indicators. Once the town is cleaned up the schools will start to as well. Besides, condo owners are mostly first time buyers or empty nesters. The quality of the Rahway high school is not a big concern for them. Having a walkable downtown to bars, restaurants, and shops is what’s important, and that’s happening. As for your RE advice, what if you bought the largest home in the not so best town, but then the town turns into a good town through redevelopment. Now you have the largest home in the nicest town. I think that might be better advice, don’t you. If you don’t think so you should talk to some of the early buyers of Hoboken and Jersey City RE who were told not to live there either.
I have to agree with Scott. My wife and I currently rent in Rahway and will be eventually become first time home buyers in the near future. We like Rahway because of what it can be. The school system doesn’t concern me at the moment since I don’t have any kids and if I were to go home now and my wife was pregnant, it would be at least another 4-5 years before my first child would be going to school. For people like us, I think Rahway is a great place to just enjoy and see as it becomes what the plans say it will become. When we are ready to start a family and start to consider schools, then it becomes a whole different ball game and we’d have to choose what’s best for us at that time. In terms of Westfield, I like it but it’s dead. And Rahway is much more diverse and I like that.
Realist – Thanks for the link. Once you start reading njrereport.com your work productivity will go down the drain! I went to the last board happy hour and the crew is from all walks of life. We were all tied together by the belief that buying a home in NJ should not fund someone else’s retirement. I saw some dumps in Rahway last spring and summer where the sellers were still looking to cash in as if it were 2005 – no thanks.Scott- the housing mess was created when people were buying homes they didn’t want using loans they couldn’t afford because they were scared they would be priced out forever. It was also due to people buying homes with stars in their eyes, believing the NAR line and cocktail party chatter that a home is a ticket to neverending wealth. Previously ignored towns and cities saw crazy appreciation when all kinds of speculators rushed in “before it was too late”. Rahway is nowhere near Hoboken or JC in terms of its renewal, and soon the city and state will run out of money to throw at developers and businesses to help with the renewal.Alexis – If you start a family soon, what happens if you have a problem unloading your Rahway condo in 5 years to trade up for a POS cape in Westfield? Remember, diversity is fun when you’re young and carefree, but when your kid is going through a “diverse” school system, it’s another ball game.
Scott,>>”It’s your kind of thinking that>> created the housing mess.”That’s the funniest thing anyone has said about me since forever. You won’t find a more passionate person than I about the “housing mess” and who is responsible. It certainly was NOT my kind of thinking that created the housing mess. I never took out a no-doc, interest only, ARM on a condo I intended to flip after 6 months to make 50% profit. I also never wrote the loans to people who had no business buying expensive homes or investment properties they could not afford. I also am NOT a RE agent who told people that home prices only go up and so not to worry about their interest rate adjusting, they could just refi when the time comes and their home is worth twice as much. I also don’t work for the Fed and I don’t work for a bank who created investment vehicles out of these horsedung subprime loans being made. So please explain how my thinking caused the housing mess.Now, point by point…I live in Rahway and I like it because it is very convenient for commuting to the city. Thats about the only thing I like about it. I live downtown. There is no nightlife here. Even the lowlifes who hung out at the BackStage grill no longer have a place to go. Cubano is nice, The Waiting Room is fine for what it is, but Rahway is the “dead” town. I can walk around Westfield any time of day or night and see people frolicking. No such luck here in Rahway. Frankly, I find Rahway a bit depressing because there is not much life around the downtown. (Yes, I know, “yet”. But there are 100s of people who live in the downtown area. My husband and I patronize the places around here, where the hell is everyone else???)Next, you don’t seem to understand why I brought up Belmar. It is not meant to be a comparison to Rahway. I was responding to your assertion that there is no more room available to build in the NE Corridor and therefore, property in the area will continue to grow at more normal rates of appreciation as opposed to lose value. I disagree with you. Properties have and will continue to lose value around here. I am not making this up, the NAR and NJAR track data on this. Home prices are down. Its a fact.I bring up Belmar as an example of a place where they are not able to make more land. You can’t make any more shoreline, it is what it is. Shore homes have always been in demand and they always will be. But even the prices at the shore are down down down.As for Westfield and Cranford, I think you might have missed my point here too. When the RE market turns around (and it eventually will) you will be much better off financially if you bought in one of those towns vs. Rahway. Check with me again in ten years and you will see. (Also, the wait list for Cranford parking is not 7 years, thats a Westfield issue. And a lot of people who use the Rahway train station get off the train at Newark to use the PATH so if you are a downtown NYC worker, then Raritan Valley line is just as good as NEC or NJC.)>>Rahway is not a place for the>> glass is half empty kind of>> people.I agree 100% with you on this one.Let’s stop for a moment and rejoice in that….There is no guarantee that schools get better once a town is “cleaned up”. How many people who live in the more expensive Hoboken and Jersey City dwellings send their kids to public school there? A lot of people buy in to Plainfield because of all the gorgeous Victorian Mansions. They all send their kids to private school too.Condo owners may not be concerned about schools and such and hopefully, the people who eventually buy their condos aren’t either. But this does not bode well for a cleaned up school system does it?>>As for your RE advice, what if>>you bought the largest home in>>the not so best town, but then>>the town turns into a good town>>through redevelopment. Now you>>have the largest home in the>> nicest town.I have yet to hear a single person use this as guidance in buying a home but you should give it a try and see what happens. Keep us posted.
I’m with Scott on this one.Here’s my situation: my wife and I are looking to buy a larger home, and we’re seriously considering Rahway. That’s why I’m following the Rahway redevelopment (and this is a fantastic blog, Mark). We’re white, early 30s professionals who work in NYC and have a 1 year kid, and hope for more children.What do I see in Rahway? A town whose worst days are behind it, that’s on the verge of becoming a much more vibrant, safe, economically diverse, and stable place to live. Note: I’m not a misty-eyed liberal who likes to congratulation himself about how his kid will go to school with real, actual black kids and kids who speak Spanish. To me, economic diversity is the only kind that matters. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a mix of kids of all types.Gas prices are skyrocketing and every year the gridlock on the roads gets worse; towns with excellent links to public transportation have a great asset. Rahway has outstanding rail connections to NYC: two lines and frequent service, direct connection to Newark Airport, and easy connections to AMTRAK stations along the NE Corridor if you want to get anywhere from DC to Boston.Rahway is also a very walkable town, with a number of nice parks and open space, a great new library, and some cool old architecture. All it needs is to build up the social aspect of its downtown.It’s also nice to find a town with some solid corporate tax base in the town, as well as in the county. Taxes in Rahway are high compared to the rest of the nation, but compared to other NY-metro towns in Jersey they’re very reasonable.There will always be people who will prefer a tiny house in Westfield to any house in Rahway. But not everyone fits that mold. The urban-friendly NYC crowd is expanding outward from the city; I just read an article on MSN about the “new NYC borough” – Philadelphia. Many people who are priced out of NYC still want to live somewhere near it, and similar to it. Not everyone wants the tiny house on a street with no sidewalks in a wealthy, nearly all-white town.Even now, before all the redevelopment comes to fruition, Rahway is not bad – it’s no worse than the town I grew up in. So even though I’m in a higher income bracket than my parents ever were, I like the feel of Rahway and don’t mind its rough edges.I’m no cheerleader when it comes to the housing market – I have been pessimistic about the whole housing market for a long time. I think we are in for a long period of flat prices, even in the NYC region, and I think inflation will bite us hard so those flat prices will be price declines in real terms. But I don’t think we’ll see a crash in the NY-metro area like we’re seeing in NV, CA, and FL. Towns with decent commutes to NYC are tied into a massive center of gravity for professional jobs, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.When it comes time for my kid to go to school, I’ll do what my parents did – stay involved in his academic progress, make sure my kid stays out of trouble, and watch him grow up learning to deal with all kinds of kids, including no doubt some rotten ones. I do think Rahway’s school will improve along with the town, as more involved parents start sending their kids through the Rahway school system.I agree with much of your pessimism about the housing market in general, but I find the negative energy you’re focusing on Rahway amusing. If you’re “not considering Rahway” then … well, why waste your time talking about it? I’m not considering Westfield, and I’m not following what’s going on there, or spending time talking it down.;-)
Realist – I agree, Rahway downtown has been surprisingly DEAD every time I have visited. That needs to change if the town is going to improve. The question is – will it?I can’t see how it won’t. You bring in all those new people, whatever they’re paying in rent or purchase price, and you’re going to have foot traffic and stores opening up to serve them. Nothing is guaranteed, but it seems pretty certain to me.As for the Raritan Valley line, I’m one of those who work downtown, and like man young professionals I either work late hours or go out in the city after work. I want a no-stop-over-in-Newark commute home at the end of the night, so the Raritan Valley line doesn’t work for me. Also, I work downtown now and have the choice to do Hoboken+PATH or Midtown+Subway and I have found that taking the train to midtown and then the subway saves me a reliable 10 minutes on my commute, and avoid the long, cold, windy winter walks from the WTC Path station to my downtown office.
Realist/NCR: Not sure what the negative agendas are all about. Seems odd that you don these screennames with negative connotations and trash a town that you’re choosing to live in. But regardless, you still don’t seem to get the picture of my original post in that it doesn’t matter. As a general rule, if my condo loses 10% in value, the real estate market in the area is down 10%. I lost value in my home but now a future home that I would like to buy is also 10% cheaper. If my home doubles in price, real estate in the area also doubled in price so my increase in value is effectively worthless. So there is no right or wrong answer as to whether someone should live in tiny house on the outskirts of posh Westfield or in a luxury building in the heart of a growing downtown, it’s just a matter of personal preference.By the way, NCR how’s your website that you keep advertising doing? Gettin’ any hits yet??
njrereport.com is a good website – I have been checking it out for at least a year now. Throughout the real estate bubble it has always been a good place to read and discuss things with people who still have a grasp of reality when it comes to the housing market.That said, the question as it concerns Rahway isn’t “What’s going to happen to the NJ real estate market?”The question is “What will happen to Rahway in relation to other areas in NJ?”If you think the entire NY-metro region will experience a housing market decline, but you’re cool with buying ANYWHERE in NJ at this point, and you’re cool with Rahway and don’t expect it to decline any more than anywhere else, then there’s no reason not to move to Rahway.Even more, if you think Rahway is going to get better relative to its position next to other towns, not necessarily better than those other towns, but better relative to where it is today, and you’re already looking to buy in NJ in today’s market, then Rahway is a good place to move.Of course, if you think Rahway is going to get worse, then stay away (but I don’t see that happening.)Or if you don’t want to buy ANYWHERE in NJ right now, well, that’s a fair position, you’ll have to ride out the market and see how far things drop before you’re ready to buy somewhere. But that’s not really a Rahway-specific discussion.
Train access is great…. if you happen to work in the city. Matthew, you are right about gas prices, however NJ commuting patterns have changed from a suburb-to-city to a suburb-to-suburb model. Most of us now have no choice other than to drive to work, and our politicians and planners have failed tragically to recognize the need for public transit – but that’s a story for another day. The point is, train access only helps around here if you work in NYC or happen to work within walking distance of a train station. NYC layoffs will mount as the financial sector implodes, reducing demand for NYC access, and how many of us NJ worker bees are lucky enough to work next to a NJT station?As far as the negativity goes, I’ve always been a bit contrarian. I was considering Rahway, but after realizing how much of a premium I’d have to pay to live in a city with a dead downtown and some sketchy parts just to have easy train access for the dozen or so times a year I go to NYC, I’ll look elsewhere. The taxes are low for now but after checking tax figures for new developments my spider sense told me that the city fathers are seeing Skyview and Riverwalk buyers as ATMs, with the rest of the town to follow. Buying into an up and coming area is a gamble, and I was not about to overpay for something and place my fate into the hands of politicians and developers who seem to slip away when the reality doesn’t match the rosy projections in the brochure.Scott – before you poke fun at njrereport.com, check it out, and read this article as well:http://tiny.cc/ORxko
NCR,NYC is expected to grow by another million people in the next decade. I agree we’ll see some short-term financial sector pain on Wall St., but as with the stock market collapse of 8 years ago, I’m not convinced that another bubble won’t just pop up to replace the housing bubble which replaced the dot-com bubble …If you’re betting against NYC staying a strong and growing economy for professionals, then I can see where your viewpoint about the low importance of train access comes from. I take a more bullish view on NYC, and by extension, towns that are tied into NYC via solid public transportation. Rahway is one of them.As far as taxes go, taxes might rise everywhere in NJ, but the question is what will the taxes do in Rahway in comparison to what they do elsewhere? Rahway has some existing commercial/industrial tax-base and a growing residential tax base. If anything, as more people move to Rahway that either (a) have no children or (b) have children but also have enough money so as not to drain public services, I don’t see taxes growing in Rahway at a faster clip than in any other towns. Check out some towns like Maplewood or South Orange, towns with almost no commercial/industrial tax base, and you’ll see some crazy property taxes.I’m all for being contrarian, and who knows what will happen, you may be right. It’s good to hear different opinions.I’m just saying I don’t think anyone who spends as much time focusing negative energy on Rahway as you do is truly “not considering Rahway”.
NCR,You’re right diversity is fun when you’re young. It continues to be fun even when my kids are in school because guess what, if the school isn’t diverse then my children will be part of the 2% and feel like they don’t fit in. It’s your type of thinking that makes me avoid Westfield completely, because guess what…I don’t match the 96% that are currently living there. I only match the 4% that decided to move there. I can’t believe after all these years of existing there are still people out there who think like you. Thinking in this manner only causes the separation in our society to further increase. So according to your statement, you’ll enjoy the diversity but hey once you have kids don’t your kids around that.. God knows that learning about other cultures will damage they’re outlook on life and they’re ability to grow as respectable human beings (if you couldn’t see it, that was sarcasm).
NCR, the website sucks. Just a collection of negative newspaper articles. Stop advertising your hack website on here. Get a life man.Mark, you should be removing this guy’s postings. His agenda is his website, not to discuss the positive changes in Rahway.
My handle is realist. If I shared the belief that within 4-5 years, Rahway would have a booming downtown and a vastly improved school system, I would have used the handle of “optimist”. If I was trashing Rahway (and I really don’t think my comments count as trashing but, potato potahto) and saying that it didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of suceeding, I would have used the handle “pessimist”.I suppose my comments are a bit too nuanced for some readers so let me point out that I said “Anyone who buys in to Rahway or ANY PLACE for that matter right now better be in it for the long haul. You aren’t going to recover your investment until Obama or McCain are running for re-election.”So my guesstimate is that it will take until 2011 for RE values to start gaining again (factoring in inflation). That’s not all that pessimistic.Those of you who are considering Rahway in the belief that the schools will improve by the time your kids are of school age, you need to look at other cities that are experiencing a renaissance and consider how quickly their schools turned around. Newark’s “emerging” downtown got a kickstart when NJPAC opened in 1997. Its been over ten years. Newark has a better proximity to NYC, more trains running through, better mass transit, high rise commercial, plentiful restaurants, diverse community, and now Riverfront Stadium and Pru Center. Would you want your kid in the Newark school system? I applaud those of you who are willing to make the system better from within. I don’t have the patience to debate with school boards on the benefits of advanced placement classes, lowering avg. class size, hiring faculty with advanced degrees, etc. etc. I will need to utilize the school system before it will have had the opportunity to turn itself around.Finally, I thought I would compile a list of things I like and dislike about Rahway and hopefully we can keep the dialogue going in a civil tone.Like:- two train lines at Rahway station – Rahway Library- Mr. Apple Pie (if Rahway were the Lower East Side, Mr. AP would be considered retro cool)- The look of Cherry St. if you just take away the boarded up buildings that have claimed for years that the “new” Rahway is coming.- The chili at the Waiting Room- Access to Newark airport either via the train or a quick ride up 1&9- the Victorian homes, some of which have been redone and some of which are just waiting for the right person to come along and fix them up- Milton Lake section of town has lots of lovely (overpriced) little starter homes- Restaurant David Drake and Cubanu- the pizza at Nancy’sDislike:- walking around downtown in the middle of the day is depressing- walking around downtown at night during the week is depressing- walking around downtown on a Sunday morning to get a Sunday paper and coffee is…. depressing.- many of the streets surrounding the downtown area have lots of dilapidated homes- all the bodegas have to post signs saying “no more than two minors allowed in store at once”- the fire alarm constantly going off at night in one of the downtown buildings (can someone help me figure this out, I don’t know if its the Golden Age Towers or the Fire Dept HQ but every 30 minutes I hear HONK, HONK, HONK)- the poor attendance at First Thursdays- the poor attendance at the Farmers Market by the train during the warmer months (I actually like those previous two but its sad that they are so poorly attended)- not a single decent chinese food restaurant- the rest of the food at Nancy’s (thats not pizza) is either not very good or overpriced.
Mark, is this blog only supposed to be about the “positive changes in Rahway”? If so, I apologize for posting sometimes negative items and I won’t post again. I was under the impression this was a space to debate the redevelopment of the town.
Realist, you’re missing the point. Rahway downtown is improving, no one said it is perfect now. But I moved to Rahway 3 years ago and it was dead. I mean no one was around, ever. Now, on Friday and Saturday nights Cubanu is packed, Luciano’s is packed, the irish pub, Nancy’s all have people there. The fact that there even is a First Thursday now is an achievement (and they started that in November, now that it is warmer I guarantee attendence will be up). I have be amazed at the changes in just three years and it’s only going to get better. And it’s really exciting to be a part of that as well.
Realist, how is pushing your hack website discussing the redevelopement of Rahway. You don’t even like Rahway so why are you posting here.In fact, I’ll bet you don’t even live in Rahway and just go on Jersey websites advertising your website.
So… my comments should be banned simply because I haven’t taken a big gulp of the “Rahway is the next Hoboken” Kool-Aid? Ok…And I’m a racist because I believe that if children are involved, I’d rather have my kids in Westfield schools than Rahway schools? Ok…Matthew, NJ lost 72,000 people last year netting a gain of only 20,000. What manufacturing base are you talking about? Jobs are leaving this state left and right. Pharma is dying a slow death. NYC area expanding by a million over the next decade? Ok….I’m for redevelopment and bringing back our cities, but rememeber Hoboken and JC were decades in the making. (Actually, Hoboken was known as Arson City for a while – another topic for another day.) In my Rahway housing search I came across multiple dumps priced as if the city were the happening destination it’s supposed to become, and that was where I started to take issue. I was not about to fund someone else’s retirement or North Carolina escape plans for the privilege of gambling on Rahway’s rebirth. All I say and have been saying is that the a lot has to happen for the rebirth to work, and that a Rahway purchase should not be done with the expectation that in 5 years you’ll be able to double your money.
Regardless of location and school. If you don’t want me to think that then explain exactly what you meant by this comment:”Remember, diversity is fun when you’re young and carefree, but when your kid is going through a “diverse” school system, it’s another ball game.” – NCRMaybe I misread it so let’s discuss so neither of us are jumping into any conclusions.
Um. Wow. I love the fact that there are 25 comments on an “oh by the way” post that I put up because I’ve been busy, without consistent Internet access, and hadn’t posted in some time. Granted, a few tangents didn’t hurt, but I love it. This discussion has been outstanding all around; namely because it’s intelligent and hasn’t devolved into name calling. You guys are awesome.Where do I begin? I didn’t see NCR’s comment as warranting removal. It didn’t strike me as advertising (at least not in a junk mail/Viagra/Cialis kind of way). Short of slander, really salty language or just extreme stupidity, I won’t be touching comments much. If someone’s directing readers to another site that might relate to the blog somewhat, I’ll let them decide whether they want to go there or not. Just so everyone knows my thought process on moderation.As for the blog talking about “positive changes” to Rahway: I started the blog to keep people abreast of the changes in Rahway that might not make it into the papers, be it big or small. Whether they’re positive or negative, you guys can decide. I have no problem with readers “debating the redevelopment of the town.”I think realist and NCR have both brought some great comments to the blog since it start. By great, I mean informative and cogent ones that really drive a discussion, and without being rude.The diversity of opinion has been outstanding and frankly, quite energizing. Keep it up, but keep it clean. Thanks everybody!
Don’t remove anyone’s posts – I’d rather hear all kinds of opinions (even if they are suspect) than see this place become censored based on point of view.Realist – I actually agree with your estimate for when the housing market will start to pick up again. But that’s going to be region-wide, not a Rahway issue. So if someone is looking to buy now, for whatever reason, looking at Rahway isn’t any worse from that perspective than looking at any other towns in the region. I don’t think the housing slump will hit Rahway any WORSE than it will hit anywhere else around here.I think schools are definitely a lagging indicator, but comparing Rahway’s school district to Newark’s goes way too far. The impact of the NJPAC or PRU Center on a huge mess like Newark is a drop in the bucket. Changing Newark is like changing directions in a huge ocean liner. Rahway is so much smaller and easier to change, not to mention it’s got nowhere near the type of problems Newark has. (And I know Newark pretty well, having lived there for a while.) Just check out the crime stats, income states, demographics, etc. Rahway is hardly comparable to Newark.But anyway, that’s a pretty good list of likes/dislikes about Rahway. It’s interesting to me since I’m still learning about the town. I can’t comment directly, as I don’t know enough about Rahway yet, but I agree with you about the downtown being depressing. But I actually take your list of dislikes pretty positively – almost your entire list of dislikes is related to the same thing: there are not enough people downtown, and not enough stuff to do downtown. Bringing in more people (and a hotel) is almost certain to improve that (although, to what extent it will improve remains to be seen).I never said Rahway had a “manufacturing” base: Merck is an industrial tax base, whether it manufactures anything or not.And as for NYC expanding, I was wrong: it’s predicted to expand by 1 million over the next two decades. So that’s only half a million within the next decade. Still, NYC is growing.Double your money in 5 years? No way – I agree with you there! You buy anywhere today, you’ll be lucky if your house value increases at small rate year to year for the next 5 years or so; and it’s very likely your house won’t increase in value at all if inflation kicks in too bad.Bottom line: if you buy ANYWHERE now, don’t expect to make a quick buck.
I agree, I wouldn’t delete any comments. They definitely keep me interested and continuing to check all the post. In terms of making a quick buck, I’m not going with the mindset that I can double my gains in five years if I purchase now. Rather, I like the area and it suits my interest, so purchasing a condo here may be a good investment if it continues to grow they way it has grown. Even if I get stuck with the condo years later, say 10, and I have kids and am now looking into the school system, I still think it’s a good purchase. Personally, I came from one of the worst high schools in philly and I now consider myself really successful. A great school system means nothing if a parent isn’t pushing their child. If school becomes a problem in Rahway and I happen to still be here, than I’ll just go private.
I only found out about this blog because an automated craiglist real estate search led me to it – Mark, there’s a Realtor (TM) who’s linking to your blog in craigslist ads to get people buzzing about Rahway – does the name Mike Davidson ring any bells?Hehe… actually, I post here occasionally because I’m bored with preaching to the choir at njrereport.com. It’s fun to mix it up with housing bulls from time to time. My Rahway search ended last October when I saw a dump of a condo in the Cherry St. building across from the train station – between the bare slab floors, ancient appliances, and abandoned tools, it looked like a flip that ran out of money – and the seller had the nerve to list it for 220k. It eventually went down to 189k on the MLS, but it easily needed 30 grand worth of work to make it habitable. I would enjoy living in a walkable city with a thriving downtown and train access to NYC, but I’m not about to overpay for it, that’s all.
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OK – that was uncalled for. That kind of stuff should be deleted.
Here’s some recent sales in Rahway. The Riverwalk townhomes seem to be selling pretty nicely to me ($525k).Rahway347 Jaques Ave.,$120,000, Anthony Gargano, Carl Gargano (Joann Ramirez)876 Maurice Ave.,$315,000, Ronnie Carter, Dawn Lizardi (Kimberly Chavan)540 Jefferson Ave.,$375,000, Donald Sirey, Catherine Sirey (Paul Chreisty)1338 Genovese Lane,$524,900, Ronald Collins Jr. (Riverwalk Dev. LLC)318 Russell Ave.,$365,000, Maria Cruz (Willard Jacobs)
save your money move to the hill’s and forget this talk. the world is over pop and coming to a end,lol.
NCR, No idea who Mike Davidson is, but my sister found that craigslist link not long after I started the blog. You’re right about the Cherry Street unit (if it’s the one I’m thinking of). That’s my building and I heard that particular unit was a nightmare (*lots* of issues), but some owners have upgraded nicely.
anonymous who posted the recent sales. Regarding 876 Maurice:The property was sold twice in the past 5 years. July 2003 it was sold at $270k. March 2008 it sold for $315k. You are sort of proving my point here. In a region where properties had price gains of double digits year-over-year in ’03, ’04 and ’05, this property gained only 2.6% year-over-year from the 2003 sale to the 2008 sale.In Westfield, even homes selling in this down market are maintaining gains closer to 7% year-over-year during a similar time period. If you factor in the broker fees and closing costs on the Maurice sale the gains were closer to 1.7% a year. Now if you factor in inflation (I don’t recall any recent years when CPI went up 1.7% a year or less), this owner lost money on their home. They lost money on something they bought in 2003! So Rahway may be a bit more like Miami than previous posters would have you believe. I’m just saying…
Without doing any number checking and just taking what you posted at face-value …With national historic year-over-year real estate price increases of between 4% – 5% per year on average, wouldn’t Westfield at 7% year-over-year increase in cost be more similar to bubblicious Miami than Rahway?What goes up faster/higher than average must come down.Just saying.
Realist, it seems you failed to mention that the Jefferson home that was sold had a 12% yearly gain. Here’s another recent Rahway sale:2096 Ludlow St., $370,000, Tanisha Riley, Orlando Riley (William Graiefer) This house was also sold with a 12% yearly gain. And here’s a recent Westfield sale:654 Knollwood Terrace,$675,000, Joseph Glavin (Christopher Gaito)This was sold with only a 4% yearly gain. That would put a Rahway home at a bigger gain than a Westfield home.Anyway, the reason I was putting the sales data was to refute previous posts that claimed the Riverwalk apartments were having trouble selling or were at huge discounts which is obviously not true. Real estate in Rahway is doing just fine.
anony, The Jefferson home is tough to follow because the same address is listed as two different sales over the recent years. (Two different Block / Lot combos). I will see what additional info I can find on that one because if it was a multi lot combo, then the most recent sale was a major loss (too major for even me to believe) so there must be something more to the story there. Any Realtors reading here who can help?One thing that poses a challenge is knowing which homes were renovations or even total remodels and which ones were not. I am sure I can find Rahway homes that show 20% gains in the past ten years because they were teardowns.The Knollwood sale is a great one. 4.5% gain YOY indeed (it didn’t sell exactly 5 years from previous sale to most recent, thus the extra 0.5% I calculate). Great example of how the wind has been knocked out of the sails of the RE market.I will try to find time to look up your other data points and find more info on the Jefferson lot.Riverwalk apts – I don’t know. It just seems odd to me that there are still so many of those condos being held in Riverwalks name. The Genovese street for example, there are 18 addresses listed and 13 are still “owned” by Riverwalk Developers. Do you know what the story is there?
Realist, I’m not sure how 4.5% is poor home appreciation. Matthew was correct in saying that historically the average year over year home appreciation is 4% to 5% so it’s actually in line.I’m afraid I don’t understand what point you are trying to make. Are you saying people should not buy in Rahway? Are you saying that people should not buy anywhere? Should we all be burning our cash on renting? Should we be moving back in we our parents?? Afterall, we need to live somewhere.
Let me be the first to say that renting may be a better option than buying right now, everywhere. I don’t know. Renting doesn’t necessarily mean burning your money any more than paying interest on your mortgage is burning your money; both are simply costs of living.But it’s worth repeating – the overall state of the housing market is not a Rahway issue. If someone is looking to buy in NY-metro New Jersey right now, then the question is simply about the prospects for Rahway’s revitalization efforts and what type of town it will be in the near future.I think Rahway is going in a positive direction, regardless of the regional housing market slowdown.
Matthew, I agree with you that Rahway is headed in a positive direction. Renting vs. buying is a difficult question because it depends on the situation. Generally, if you plan on staying in the same place for at least 5 years then buying is a better option. Yes when you buy you have to pay interest but don’t forget that this is tax deductible along with property tax as well. Plus, you have that well discussed home appreciation average of 4% to 5% and you build up equity in the home. Here’s an excellent website that you can use to perform a rent vs. buy analysis.http://www.ginniemae.gov/rent_vs_buy/rent_vs_buy_calc.asp?section=YPTH
I took a look at foreclosure heat maps on http://www.hotpads.com – according to their data, Rahway is a foreclosure hot spot. Not nearly as bad as Trenton, Elizabeth, or other usual suspects, but enough to raise some questions. How much of Rahway’s appreciation is due to Greenspan’s policy of asset bubble inflation with low interest rates and how much of it is due to Rahway becoming a nicer place to live? How much of it is due to speculation bringing up the comps? I mentioned the heat map because areas where speculation is high tend to have more foreclosures than average – wild guess on my part I’ll admit – but it’s hard to speculate in places like Westfield since the barrier to entry is high, while up-and-coming areas tend to attract investment purchases, some of which don’t work out as planned.Interestingly the hotpads.com map showed higher than average foreclosure activity in Cranford and Westfield.I’m not saying to not buy in Rahway. I just think there was too much a speculation premium built into list prices for the properties I was interested in. Think carefully before deciding that yes, Rahway is twice as nice as it was in 2002, so here’s my deposit on your full list price… umm… now about that mortgage application … I need a down payment?!Today my girlfriend and I checked out some open houses in Hillsborough – the market there is on its way to normalcy. Prices are back to 04 levels, and the seller of the place we liked the best is looking to double his money in 10 years of ownership. Not unreasonable considering the craziness of the last few years.
Hillsborough is great if you like 2hr commutes to New York.
Blogs are not good. Blogs impede my productivity at work. I won’t get sucked into the time-suckage vortex of defending my completely rational and data-supported posts so this last post notwithstanding, you can either believe that I am posting based on facts and evidence or call me a crazy windbag who only claims to live in Rahway even though I can tell you the market price of the chili at The Waiting Room on any given day.Source: http://www.ofheo.gov/hpi.aspxData for 4Q OFHEO MSA-Level House Price Indexes for Newark-Union, NJ-PA (MSAD) [The HPI is a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices. See website for additional detail.]4Q 2007 0.83 4Q 2006 5.16 4Q 2005 14.00 4Q 2004 14.40 4Q 2003 11.20 4Q 2002 12.10 4Q 2001 9.93 4Q 2000 10.10 In a market that saw double digit (rounding 4Q 2001 up to 10%) home price appreciation between 2000 and 2005, I think 4.5% price appreciation over the last 4 to 5 years stinks. Even with the obvious slowdown that is happening, the home in Westfield should have appreciated closer to 9% year-over-year.I don’t disagree that over the long haul, 4% appreciation is the norm. I am saying that 4% gains on sales between 2003 and today are terrible even in this market. (Anony, I am agreeing with you that your Westfield example is a good one of how no home will go unscathed in this market and yet you still want to argue??!! Really?)With all of its flaws, the OFHEO data is a good indicator of the trend. Check out what happened after the last real estate bust and you will see that it could easily take 9 years for your home to start gaining value after a major bubble (look at the data going back to the late 80’s through the mid 90’s. 5 years is not enough time to see home price gains if you are buying right now).>>Are you saying people should not>>buy in Rahway?YES, don’t buy in Rahway unless you find someone who has a realistic expectation on their homes current value. Good luck with that.>>Are you saying that people should>>not buy anywhere?YES, don’t buy anywhere unless you find someone who has a realistic expectation on their homes current value. Good luck with that. There are a few folks out there who know how to price their home but they are in the minority.>>Should we all be burning our cash>>on renting?Not even going to get into an argument with someone who doesn’t see the value in renting when considering the rent vs. buy decision over the last few years. Hands down, for me, renting was the right decision, tax benefits of ownership included. Buying would have been like purchasing a stock that everyone else was shorting so I could take a tax writeoff on my loss. I would rather just own something that was increasing in value rather than losing my investment value for the sake of a tax writeoff. >> Should we be moving back in we>> our parents??Do they have a nice house?I have not lived with my parents for more years than I care to count but I don’t think it makes me better than people who do live with their folks while trying to buy a home the old-fashioned way; with a down payment and enough earnings to comfortably pay their mortgage.What does this have to do with the revitalization of Rahway?Nada.Anyone tried out Norky’s BBQ on Irving yet? Any good?For those looking for additional NJ economic news, check out “How low will homes go?” from Kathleen Lynn. http://tinyurl.com/3wcsj2
Anon @9:36-A valid point. Good thing I don’t have to commute to NYC. If my needs change I’ll use my 2 hour train ride to browse through Union County Sheriff’s Sale listings and find something closer.
Realist,I think you summarized your point very well as:”[D]on’t buy anywhere unless you find someone who has a realistic expectation on their homes current value. Good luck with that. There are a few folks out there who know how to price their home but they are in the minority.”Good advice, and I’m not arguing with it. But all that tells me is that IF I’m going to buy anywhere, whether in Westfield or Rahway, negotiate for a good deal. You pointed out an example of a property in Rahway that had about 4.5% annual increase in property value during the last 5 years, while other homes in the area bubbled up with double-digit annual percentage price inceases. While it’s a limited date set, that example would just tell me that Rahway was less bubblicious than many surrounding markets, and thus has less room to fall.Why did Rahway lag the performance of the bubble-market in the last five years? Maybe because 5 years ago Rahway was not as nice as it is today. Five years ago, Westfield was pretty much just a nice as it is today; in five years, Westfield will probably be just about as nice as it is today. The real estate market in Rahway is evolving against the backdrop of a city that is revitalizing, not a static city that is the same as it was 5 years ago. I suspect in 5 years Rahway will be nicer than it is today. And that’s one factor to consider when factoring in potential future price increases.P.S. Do let me know if you decide to check out Norky’s BBQ … with a name like that, it’s probably pretty good 🙂
Some of you folks who think that Rahway is the pits should have been here in the 1980s when the downtown was bottoming out. Ouch…