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Newswire -- January, 2007
Last month’s headline read “the craziest month yet” for the
project….perhaps we spoke too soon.
The month of
November featured Long Beach Township passing a resolution urging review of the
DEP bathroom and beach access regulation.
The township is urging the DEP to look at the Island in the
aggregate. If the DEP takes this view,
there are plenty of beach access points and restrooms, but no one is too
optimistic that this view will prevail.
Next was the
State Attorney General filing an appeal, arguing a judge erred on several
points in his decision not to let government workers on the properties of five
Surf City residents who have refused to give their permission for beach
replenishment work.
While the
attorney representing the homeowners fighting the project felt that
compensation is clearly due to his clients in granting access for the work, the
A.G. opines that the benefit of getting replenishment IS the compensation. Meanwhile the hot rumor is that the attorney
for the homeowners may be running out of retainer funds.
Work will soon be
done in Surf City, and without some progress, the barge and engineers will be
moving on. The work done in Surf City
looks amazingly good.
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Property investors obtained large mortgages during the most recent
housing boom in the hopes of capitalizing on rapid home-price appreciation by
quickly buying and reselling, or “flipping,” single-family homes and
condos…..no more.
In the current
market downturn, investors are focusing their attention on rental properties
where more modest price gains are anticipated.
Rather than flip
these properties, investors are concentrating on cash flow and generating
profits over the long term. The people
are responding to the market changes with deals that promise long term and
steady rental income.
Investors
accounted for only 8.4 percent of home sales from January through September,
according to First American Loan Performance—down from 9.5 percent during the
corresponding period in 2005. In the
third quarter, the company reported a 70 percent drop in mortgages to purchase
investment homes from the previous July through September period.
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Lead by a surge in the Northeast, home sales inched up across the
U.S. last month, in what industry insiders say is yet another sign that the
year-long real estate slowdown may be ending.
The National
Association of Realtors reported last week that sales of existing homes in the
Northeast sored 6 percent in November, to an annual rate of 1.06 million. It
was only the second increase in the past nine months. In addition, the region’s medial sale price
was up more than 5%….the first increase since June.
“It appears we’ve
hit bottom,” says David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors
association. “As the housing market
recovers from its correction, existing home sales should be rising gradually
during 2007” he said. “We’ve entered a more sustainable period of home sales
now, and we expect greater support for prices over time as inventory levels
eventually draw down.”
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Subprime mortgages are coming under increasing scrutiny. Used as a vehicle to help financially
stressed people achieve home ownership, these loans are increasingly ending up
in foreclosure. The subprime segment
accounted for a whopping 15% of total loans from 1998—2006. While LBI will be relatively free of
foreclosure action, the banks that have been over anxious to lend with generous
terms and lack of financial investigation are ending the practice.
On top of this
trend, banks are doing more homework in the appraisal process prior to lending.
Adjustable rates
commonly found in mortgages are adding additional strain to many second home
homeowners as well.
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Beach
Haven has added its weight to Long Beach Township opposition to the DEP
regulations concerning beach replenishment. While Beach Haven already complies with the new regs, the Borough is
most anxious to keep the project alive.
Barnegat Light adopted a new
plan to recycle paper products. If you
have ever visited the Island during peak weeks, you can see how the current
regulations on paper recycling are confusing to renters. Going forward in B.L. all paper products will
be picked up in one bin.. GREAT IDEA!!
Beach Haven and Stafford
Township have entered into an agreement to share school services. Beach Haven will take advantage of the
special education programs that Stafford runs, and Stafford will utilize the
literacy and science programs that Beach Haven offers.Let’s hope more of this
takes place over time!
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Calling
all cars...or is it people? Long Beach Township Police are looking for people
to develop an all hazards mitigation plan.
The plan is to spell out how LBI’s municipalities would deal with
hazardous materials if they were to come in contact with them. Lifeguards in haz-mat suits, anyone?
This is a shocker! Surf City is going to require developers and
people doing renovations to their homes to sign a zoning compliance form,
making them responsible for knowing zoning codes. The Borough has issued permits in error in
the past, and has been involved in litigation to correct these issues.
The T.V. 10 Channel issue just
will NOT go away. Senator Connors, (also
Mayor of Surf City) is working to remedy the loss of the channel on basic
cable. The issue is one of safety, as he
claims residents need the T.V. 10 weather. (???)
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Municipalities
across Long Beach Island are in the process of laying the framework for a
budget professional to help review the upcoming regional budget. Each
municipality is kicking in $5000 for the help.
A recent report on the sand fill
used for the beach replenishment project in Surf City states that the new sand
on the beach is “coarser” than the native sand.
This type of sand may result in a reduction of sandbars.
Forced consolidations rumored to
be part of the property tax reform in N.J. have Long Beach Island leaders
concerned. The state has recommended
consolidation of the police departments in the past, and the entrenched interests on the Island
fought hard.
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December is not normally the best month for sales on LBI, THIS December
established a new low point for sales.
There were only 12 sales
of single family homes that closed last month.
Condo units fared much better, with five being sold. There was a total of 22 transactions this
last month.
Average ticket of the
single family home sold held steady, at over
$1 million.
Pending sales over the
course of the last three months have been much more positive, with total
pending sales in the last three months totaling about 80 units. Not all of these are going to close, but it
does indicate a potential up-tick in sales to come.
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