Blog, Essex, NJ Suburbs

Montclair NJ Real Estate Report | Homes for sale – sold

Click here for our NEW Montclair Real Estate Report page.  A report on absorption, inventory, and browse all homes for sale in Montclair.

So it’s been an interesting year to date when comparing this year to last years’ real estate prices.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  When real estate is supposed to be the driving engine to financial freedom, this recession has exposed the vulerability that real estate has from other industries. 

The glaring and most obvious  cause of the housing sector demise was the Wall Street meltdown in September of 2008.  Today, we enter September 1, 2009 and the overall mentality and confidence has enormously changed.  Entering September 1 of last year, we already experienced the March collapse of Bear Stearns when they sold the company for $10 per share to JP Morgan Chase.  Rumor speculation over the course of the summer was that the “sh!t” was about to hit the fan due to the subprime mess.  On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy which was the “death stomp” to the investment banking industry.

Visit our customized MLS feed to all Montclair homes for sale (please be patient while list populates)

Due to a lot of confusion and the loss of hudreds of billions of dollars of paper loss wealth throughout the world, real estate came to a halt and prices declined even faster than they already had been. 

Montclair is a New Jersey suburb who not only felt the “normal” heat from the recession, but due to Essex County housing many executives on Wall Street and the financial sector, it was just a matter of when, would we see Montclair NJ homes for sale decline in value.

Fast forward to today.  September 1, 2009.  Sure, we are still dealing with increasing unemployment, but we are seeing positive activity on Wall Street and positive activity in the housing market.  As banks slash their REO prices it also requires homeowners looking to sell to consequently become more realistic about their listing price.  Affordability has re-entered the market and more and more Americans can find a home in Montclair within their means of a budget.

There has been a clear change of values year over year to present day.  Here are the simple statistics.  I will give you a link to view the entire chart showing month to month as well.

Here is the interesting statistic:  From January 1, 2008 thru September 1, 2008, the average active listing was $709,030.  From January 1, 2009 thru September 1, 2009, one year later, the active listing average actually INCREASED to $719,331, however, NEW LISTINGS, for the month of August 2008 and August 2009, actually decreased from $708,105 down to $684,596, about a 3.4% drop.

Below is what matters most

Homes Under Contract:  From January 1, 2008 thru August 31, 2008, the average home UNDER CONTRACT was $759,499.  From January 1, 2009 thru August 31, 2009, the average home UNDER CONTRACT was $605,558, a 21.3% drop.

Homes SOLD:  From January 1, 2008 thru August 31, 2008, the average home SOLD was $764,396.  From January 1, 2009 thru August 31, 2009, the average home SOLD was $611,468, a 21.1% Drop.

What this chart does is gives an idea of year to date price drops.  Although more homes sold year to date (Sept. 1) last year, more than this year, we did not factor in Q4 which had the biggest drop in prices.  We believe that these numbers are a clear indicator of where prices have dropped to. 

Click_Here_For_Chart

If you are in the market for Montclair NJ homes for sale,  New Jersey Real Estate Guys can help you find a dream home within your budget.  Please call Scott @ 877-688-7582 for all of your northeast New Jersey real estate needs.

We will be happy to discuss the state of the market with you and assist in finding you the right home at the right price.

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