Real Estate in New Jersey
Real Estate in New Jersey
is a very valuable commodity.
Whether you are referring to North NJ, Central NJ or South
NJ; real estate in New Jersey has a tremendous amount of
value. This is if you are interested
in selling or buying. NJ Homes
for sale are a good long term buy.
Homes for sale in NJ
are good to have.
This is from a recent article from
Bloomberg
New
Jersey Builders
Face `Infinite Risk' From Ruling
By Bob Ivry
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A New Jersey Supreme Court ruling broadening the
eminent domain power of local governments will have a ``chilling effect''
on real estate investment in the state, the New Jersey Builders Association
chief said.
The high court's 6-1 ruling on Dec. 7 affirmed the right of Mount Laurel to seize the site of a
planned housing tract, and said limiting the number of school-age children
who might move into a town and attend its schools was a valid reason to
block residential development.
``This is an ambush,'' Patrick O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the
association, which represents 2,000 companies, said in an interview. ``With
this decision, even if an applicant demonstrates full compliance with all
of a municipality's rules, the public sector can seize the land if
school-age children are likely to reside on it.''
MiPro Homes LLC received approval from Mount Laurel's
planning board in 2002 to build 23 single-family homes on a 16- acre
parcel. Mount
Laurel seized the
property by eminent domain three weeks after consenting to the construction,
saying the land should be kept free of development.
Eminent domain allows governments and public bodies to seize private
property for public use, usually with compensation. The court ruled that
Mount Laurel, located 20 miles east of Philadelphia, will have to pay MiPro
what the land would be worth if it were approved for development.
Discouraging Investors
O'Keefe said the ruling will discourage investors at a time when the
number of new homes under construction is falling.
Housing starts in New Jersey
have dropped about 16 percent from 2005, when developers broke ground on
about 38,000 units, O'Keefe said. Nationally, the number fell to 165,000 in
October from a high of 241,000 in January.
``Investors in New Jersey
real estate can't prudently assess the risks and potential for reward
because those risks are infinite and retroactive,'' O'Keefe said. ``The
MiPro decision will have a chilling effect on prospective developers.''
Donald Witmondt, president of Woodmont Properties, a developer in Parsippany, New
Jersey, called the ruling unfair.
``This is a way for towns to circumvent zoning laws,'' Witmondt said.
``It's just too broad. It's a land grab.''
Overcrowded Schools
Towns worried that development strains their roads, sewers and other
infrastructure have long cited threats to the quality of air, water or
wildlife habitat to invoke eminent domain to block further construction.
The ruling in favor of Mount
Laurel, a township of
41,000, lets towns use eminent domain to keep away families with
schoolchildren, placing overcrowded schools on a par with traffic
congestion and pollution.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that local governments have broad
power to take over private property to make way for office parks, shopping
malls and sports stadiums. The New
Jersey court did not mention the federal ruling.
The court said it based its decision on ``strong and sustained public
interest in the acquisition and preservation of open space.'' New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the U.S., pours
almost $200 million a year into its Garden State Preservation Trust Fund,
which buys land for open space.
``Isn't there an ability of a town to say, `We've reached our limit?'''
said William Kearns, general counsel for the New Jersey League of
Municipalities, an advocacy group for local governments that filed a brief
in support of Mount Laurel.
Environmental leaders praised the ruling as affirmation that towns can
use eminent domain to limit development.
`One More Tool'
``This ruling gives municipalities one more tool when they run up
against areas that are the last prime spots that need to be conserved in
order to preserve drinking water or protect fragile habitat,'' said Lisa
Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Said Jeffrey Tittel, president of the state Sierra Club: ``The court is
saying that open space has greater public benefit than development.''
New Jersey's property tax, at $2,099
per person in 2004, was the highest in the U.S.,
according to the Tax Foundation, an educational organization based in Washington.
Rick Van Osten, executive vice president of the Builders League of South
Jersey, said Mount
Laurel used
environmental concerns as a cover for the real worries of township
residents.
``The issue is property taxes,'' Van Osten said. The court ``blatantly
came out and said they were against more schoolchildren.''
The case is Mount
Laurel Township
v. Mipro Homes LLC, No. A-85/86, Supreme Court of New Jersey.
Tip #23
Home Buying Tip, Big Ticket Items:
Before you buy a home
you should avoid buying any big ticket items. When this is found out during the
credit process or reporting it can make mortgage banks nervous.
Even if you will be able to get a loan, you might not be able to get
the best available interest rate.
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Tip #24
Home Selling Tip, Listing Right:
A common mistake when people list their house (especially in a
buyers’ market) is list the house at a high price that they
don’t anticipate to sell it at.
They figure that if they get it then GREAT but if not they can
always lower the price.
This is not a good practice because what mostly happens is it will
stay on the market for a while and make potential home buyers nervous because
it’s been on the market so long.
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