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.

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This is from a recent article from Bloomberg

Philadelphia Land Developers Losing $1 Rights to Riverfront

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Developer Daniel Katz paid $1 two years ago for building rights to 10 acres along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, the fifth-largest U.S. city.

A condominium project that size now may cost him $30 million for the land under a proposal being considered by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell.

Rendell, a Democrat, has halted construction along a three- mile stretch of the Delaware River to give the state time to figure out how to get more money for riverbed land it owns. Developers might be charged as much as 5 percent of a project's cost, said state Senator Vincent Fumo, a Philadelphia Democrat.

``The value of that land went skyrocketing up,'' said Katz, principal of the Isle of Capri, an Israeli developer that is building the $600 million Waterfront Square Condominiums & Spa. ``The state wants to be able to get some of the cake.''

Philadelphia, unlike Boston, Baltimore and Cleveland, has no comprehensive development plan for its waterfront. Civic groups say the hiatus offers an opportunity to come up with one before the riverfront is swallowed up in a real-estate boom that has attracted interest from billionaire developers Donald Trump and Neil G. Bluhm.

``Development along the waterfront has become like a train running without an engineer,'' Rene Goodwin, chairwoman of Riverfront Communities United, a coalition of seven neighborhood groups, said in a May 5 interview. ``I don't think it's going to kill a lot of projects'' to have a moratorium, ``but I hope it will rethink some.''

Four-Month Study

State officials expect to complete their review within four months, said Ed Myslewicz, spokesman for the Department of General Services.

Rendell, a 62-year-old Democrat and former Philadelphia mayor, ordered the construction halt on April 14, pulling workers from dozens of bulldozers and cranes along the Delaware. The move targeted condo projects, rather than proposed casinos, Fumo said. Philadelphia is set to get licenses for two slots parlors, whose revenue will be taxed at more than 50 percent.

``The state clearly wants these things up and running and generating revenue as quickly as possible,'' John Miller, a spokesman for the Bluhm's Sugarhouse Casino project, one of five contenders for the city's licenses.

Efforts to agree on a riverfront plan fell apart in the 1990s as real-estate prices dropped. Residential development along the river was further hampered by a lack of amenities, such as shops and restaurants, and the presence of Interstate 95, the federal highway that cuts off the idled docks from the rest of downtown.

Access Without Traffic

City leaders now are discussing the creation of a Central Delaware Development Corp. to oversee the waterfront from South Philadelphia to North Philadelphia, City Councilman Frank DiCicco said. The city may hire a consultant to help create a plan that would seek to ensure public access to the river and curb traffic congestion, he said.

``We want development, but we need to find out dimensions and scale, or at least have a blueprint, so that when all is said and done it works,'' said DiCicco, whose South Philadelphia neighborhood has been suggested as a possible home for at least two high-rise condo projects and two casinos.

Mayor John F. Street didn't return calls seeking comment.

Already, more than 1,400 condo units are under construction or about to be in Center City, Philadelphia's downtown. Center City's population grew 10 percent to about 90,000 during the 1990s while the total for the city fell 4.3 percent to around 1.5 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Housing Prices Triple

The boom caused median housing prices in Center City to more than triple from 1984 to 2004, to $525,960, according to the Center City District, an organization formed by property and business owners. It also has created what Fumo calls ``a traffic nightmare'' on city streets.

``We've gotten a number of requests all of a sudden for the riverbed leases, and we got concerned that there were too many,'' Fumo said in an interview. ``For many years, we gave those leases away for a dollar. I think we should be adequately compensated for that land.''

The state can stop projects that extend into the river because it owns the riverbed from the bank to the New Jersey state line at mid-river. Developers who plan to extend into the Delaware must buy or lease rights to use the underlying land. The increase in costs could deter builders or send them inland, Katz said.

'Remarkable Turnaround'

``Everybody in Philadelphia and the state is interested in developing the waterfront,'' Katz said. ``I don't think anybody will set up such high prices for the riparian rights that it would make people think twice and go somewhere else.''

He added that he wouldn't have started his own project if the costs had been too high. ``That would have scared us,'' he said.

Last month, Trump unveiled plans for a 45-story luxury condo high-rise along the Delaware, and Bluhm, No. 562 on Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's richest people, proposed the $450 million Sugarhouse Casino.

``The waterfront has been about to happen for a long time,'' said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. ``Changes the business district has put in place have made for a remarkable turnaround.''

At least four condo projects are proposed for the stretch of riverfront affected by Rendell's ban. Louis Cicalese, whose Delaware River Development Group is building the $100 million Marina View Towers at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, isn't worried.

``It could be a really positive thing for us,'' Cicalese said. ``The fence-sitters who haven't bought anything yet might be motivated once they see something coming out of the ground.''

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.

 

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.