-- Real Estate - Overview
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 Built between 1638 and 1641 by Finnish settlers in colony of New Sweden, log home claimed to be oldest existing log building in US and oldest standing wooden structure in the Western hemisphere located in what is now Gibbstown section of Greenwich Township in Gloucester County. Image: Wikimedia Commons
-- Historical overview
Since its first settlement by Europeans, real estate has been at the center of New Jersey's economic and political evolution. Both the Dutch and the English used land grants as incentives to attract settlers to their colonies, and for many years as a Royal colony disputes over land titles provoked conflict--and occasional violence--dividing those within its towns and villages and sparking opposition to its rule by agents appointed from abroad. In the first half of nineteenth century, the state's strategic location between New York City and Philadelphia fueled its growth, leading to the development of industry and housing along the corridor connecting the fast-growing cities. Following the Civil War, New Jersey's position at the gateway for European immigration sparked further expansion and development into the next century. With the introduction of the automobile, communities outside the older cities began to emerge as what would become the pattern of New Jersey suburbanization, later spurring the surge in housing for the new families formed after the end of World War II. More recently, the impact of a densely-populated state and concerns for protecting environmental resources, have produced sharp debates on the use of increasingly limited available land and the consequences of its high costs of development and taxation. --Value and total construction
In 2018, New Jersey had a total aggregate value of real property exceeding $1.063 trillion, according to annual data published by the New Jersey Division of Taxation. As of February 2019, the national real estate site Zillow.com reported that the median home value in New Jersey was $325,000, with values increasing by 5.3% over the past year. The median list price per square foot in New Jersey was $182, and the median price of homes currently listed in the state was $319,000 while the median price of homes that sold was $277,300. The median rent price in New Jersey was $1,950. In 2017, a total of 25,464 housing units were authorized for new construction. Building permits in New Jersey peaked at nearly 40,000 units in 2005, before experiencing a steady decline over the following years. estimated cost of new construction authorized by building permits The estimated cost of new construction authorized by building permits issued in 2017 was $16.5 billion, comprised of $4.9 billion in new residential construction; $4.2 billion in residential additions and alterations; $2.5 billion in nonresidential new construction; and $4.9 billion in nonresidential additions and alterations. . In 2017, New Jersey’s construction industry averaged 155,000 in total employment, a 1.7% gain from 2016’s average. In 2016, the construction industry’s average salary was $71,150. Over the 10-year 2007-2017 period, the construction industry had an overall decline of 17,300 jobs, after peaking in 2006 with 174,900.
* Table of Equalized Valuations by County 1998-2018, New Jersey Division of Taxation  Home under construction in Princeton. Image: NewJerseyAlmanac.com
-- Office leasing and construction After the downturn of the recession, office leasing in the state recovered in 2015 to reach a statewide vacancy rate of 18.7% at the end of the year, its lowest level since 2011, according to the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. The report found that the strongest markets were near New York City, with Hudson County's vacancy rate at 14.5%, and that demand was highest for offices for legal, computer and financial services tenants. During 2014, 5.4 million square feet of office space was authorized by building permits, with 4.6 million of the total in new construction and the remainder in expansion of existing facilities. The 2014 results for total office construction represented a decline from 2013, when 5.8 million square feet in space was authorized; new construction was essentially flat at about 4.6 million. The relatively weak construction market has been attributed to the state's lagging recovery from the recession, with its unemployment rate remaining above the national rate since 2011 and less than 65% of the number of jobs lost in the recession having been replaced as of 2015. * New Jersey office leasing hits highest level in a decade, NorthJersey.com -- Home values and prices For the 2018 calendar year, the New Jersey Association of Realtors reported that the average sales price of a single family home in the state was$392,693, with 83,152 closed sales during the year and 29,954 homes remaining listed for sale at the end of the year. Towns with the highest median home value over the five-year 2011-2015 period were, according to the US Census Bureau:
* Building Permits: Yearly Summary Data, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs * New Jersey Home Prices & Values, Zillow * Monthly Indicators, New Jersey Association of Realtors -- Mortgages Mortgage rates in New Jersey are available from individual lending institutions, along with averages posted online by national web sites such as LendingTree.com, BankRate.com and Zillow.com. * mortgagestats.com * New Jersey Closing Costs, Bankrate.com * Mortgage Lenders in New Jersey, Zilliow.com * The Mortgage Reports |
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-- Rental market
New Jersey had slightly under 1.1 million renters in 2018, making up nearly 36% of New Jersey households according to a study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The median monthly fair market rent price in New Jersey for a two-bedroom unit was was $1,465, which required a monthly income of $58,603. Median monthly gross rent as a fraction of median household income was 20% in the state, according to the Census Bureau. * Out of Reach 2018, National Low Income Housing Coalition * New Jersey Home Prices & Values, Zillow -- Foreclosure When a homeowner fails to make a mortgage payment, the mortgage is delinquent and the lender may initiate the steps in the foreclosure process. A foreclosing party must send a notice of intention to foreclose, by registered or certified mail, to the borrower 30 days before filing a foreclosure lawsuit. Unlike several other states, New Jersey mandates that foreclosures go through the state court system, which substantially increases the time and costs of the process. In 2014, the federal housing arm Freddie Mac estimated the time in New Jersey for completing the foreclosure process from filing the notice to sale of the property at 450 to 600 days, tied with Florida as the lengthiest in the nation. Foreclosure actions are filed in the clerk's office of foreclosure of the Superior Court, Chancery Division, General Equity Part in Trenton. New Jersey has a statutory right of redemption, which allows a party whose property has been foreclosed to reclaim that property by making payment in full of the sum of the unpaid loan plus cost within ten days after the foreclosure sale. As of October 2016, 64,487 distressed properties in New Jersey wee subject to foreclosure, amounting to a statewide rate of 2.45% of all housing units. nearly five times the national rate of .5%. A total of 3,968 of the foreclosures were vacant -- known as "zombie foreclosures" --the most of any state. The Atlantic City-Hammonton region ranked as the sixth-highest metro region in the US in the rate of vacancies, with 3,918 vacant units constituting 3.5% of all housing. * Foreclosure Overview, New Jersey Judiciary * Top Foreclosure States, Bankrate.com * Foreclosure Trends, RealtyTrac.com * Summary of New Jersey Foreclosure Laws, Nolo.com |
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-- Homeless There were 11,671 homeless persons in New Jersey in 2014, a 2.8% decline from the number in 2013, according to a 50-state survey published in 2015 by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The state's rate of 1the number of homeless per 10,000 of its population of 13.1 was below the national rate of 18.3. Of the total 11,671 individuals who were homeless in 2014, the report found that 1,150 were "chronic" homeless--defined as those with physical or mental disabilities and who are homeless repeatedly for long periods. * The State of Homelessness in America, National Alliance to End Homelessness . |
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-- Residential Developers
New Jersey's residential housing market features a diverse variety of builders, from national firms to individual builders constructing single family homes. The state's largest homebuilder is Hovnanian Enterprises founded in 1959 by the late Kevork Hovnanian, which also has operations in 15 other states, including New York, Florida, Arizona, Texas, and California; it ranked as the seventh largest homebuilder nationally with over $2.1 billion in 2014 revenues, according to annual rankings published in May 2015 by Pro Builder magazine. Toll Brothers based in Pennsylvania--the fifth largest US builder with just under $4 billion in 2014 revenue--is also active in New Jersey, specializing in upscale single-family homes and multi-family condominium projects. Lennar, one of the nation's largest builders, has ten communities in New Jersey as of 2015. * New Jersey Builders Association
* Monthly Housing Market Statistics, New Jersey Association of Realtors * Guide to Affordable Housing, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
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