Passiac & Union Sales

CounsellorsTitle.net

June 11th, 2020

Title Wise

The New Jersey Real Estate News You Can Use

New listings in general have plummeted, as seen in both Passaic and Union counties, 71% and 68%, respectively. This shortage of homes for sale has in effect insulated home prices from seeing any dips in the average sale price. We are slowly reopening. The effect of COVID-19 will definitely have a positive impact on the way business is being done. For many of us in the business, this is all new, but the new buyer, the Millennial, has been functioning like this from the beginning.

Please feel free to email me at ralph@counsellorstitle.com

if you have any questions or would like to follow up on any of this edition's articles.

Ralph Aponte

732.914.1400

Manhattan Deals Plummet in May

The Wuhan pandemic, which made Manhattan an epicenter of the virus, had a catastrophic impact upon the number of real estate contracts signed in May. For the month, there were just 160 signed, which compares with 992 signed in May of 2019. This represents an 84% drop in signed agreements.

New Listings

In addition the number of new listings also fell but not as severely. In May 2020, there were just 574 new listings, which is a 71% drop from May 2019.

Some believe that the oversupply of high-priced new condos and penthouses was already causing the market to step back prior to the Wuhan pandemic.

In May, there were only 16 contracts signed for properties over $4 million dollars, representing a 90% decline from May 2019.

According to records, in May 2019 there were 111 contracts signed totaling $1.1 billion.

Urban Flight

According to some studies, the increased demand is coming from Manhattan and moving into Westchester County, Greenwich, Connecticut and Bergen and Monmouth counties.

Currently, in the adjacent New Jersey counties including Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties, the months supply of real estate inventory is 3.5, 3.8, and 2.9, respectively.

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Passaic & Union County Sales

Passaic County
Single Family Homes for April
Key Metrics 2019 2020 Change
New Listings       531    152    - 71.4%
Closed Sales    221 167    - 24.4%
DOM*    72 55    - 23.6%
Median PX    $329K $365K   + 10.9%
% of PX 99.1% 98.8% + 0.3%
Inventory 1,255     706    - 43.7%
Months Supply 4.7    2.9 - 38.3%
*Days on Market

Union County
Single Family Homes for April
Key Metrics 2019 2020 Change
New Listings      850    288 - 66.1%
Closed Sales    373 308 - 17.4%
DOM*    56 53    - 5.4%
Median PX $389K $450K +21.9%
% PX Rec'd 99.0% 99.0% + 0.0%
Inventory    1,805    1,053 - 41.7%
Month Supply    4.6    2.7    - 41.3%
*Days on Market

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Tips for Working Remotely

According to some surveys, 42% of individuals today are working from home.

A great deal of anticipation and expectation is surrounding the future of the new domestic economy as it begins to reopen in the post-pandemic era.

Some experts are anticipating that up to 25% of workers will be looking to work entirely from home.

Productivity, in some cases, may have taken a temporary hit, but approximately 60% of those individuals working from home state that they are either as productive or more productive working remotely.

According to a CNBC research survey, 42% of those responding to the survey indicate that they are working from home as compared to just 9% pre-pandemic.

What will take place following the pandemic with respect to the number of people working remotely versus those who work in a commercial office space may change dramatically. This could and most likely will translate into millions of dollars of losses for those commercial real estate developers and property owners.

According to the research survey, those individuals earning from $50,000 to beyond $100,000 are more likely to work from home.

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QUOTES TO LIVE BY

" Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." - Soren Kierkegaard

Keeping Your Focus in a Disruptive Market

Focus is the one aspect of business that you can't afford to lose.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR FOCUS

#1 - Don't expect to be appreciated.
Don't allow what you do to affect who you are.

#2 - Do your job well.
Resist the temptation to go through the motions. When you stop thinking about what you do, the results will begin to fade.

#3 - Seek opportunities to enrich your environment; resist dwelling on the negative.
Attitude precedes opportunity. The positive attitude will attract what you want, not what you don't want.

#4 - Don't let a negative environment get inside of you.

Look for one thing you can be grateful for and then work from there.

The day you start to think victim, you will lose the ground you have earned by deciding to be grateful.

#5 - Increase your capacity to work with different personalities.

Your ability to work with other kinds of people makes you an asset to whomever you are working for.

#6 - BIG IDEA - Where you are doesn't define where you are going. Have a plan; work the plan; improve the plan. Keep your focus, and not your frustration.

#7 - Don't be hijacked by difficulty.

Difficulty is not your problem; difficulty only allows you to demonstrate your value.

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How to Tell a Story

A.S.A.P. Attorney Settlement Assistance Program

Our real estate secretarial services are able to assist you in every

aspect of the sale, purchase, refinance or loan closing process. We will directly communicate with all the parties involved in the transaction and coordinate and obtain all the items necessary to bring the matter to closing.

Our ASAP services can be individually customized to fit your needs. These services include:

Documentation Preparation
Disbursement of Funds
Attendance at Closing
HUD Preparation or
Post-Closing Matters

Our Commitment to Excellence

Counsellors Title Agency wants to thank you for the opportunity to work with you and your clients to grow your business. Please feel free to click the link above or here to leave us a review on Google. We appreciate your business.

Careers @ Counsellors

Sales: Leading NJ title insurance agency seeks experienced licensed salespersons to help expand its market share throughout the entire state. Benefits include health insurance, 401k with an employer match, flexible spending account, expense account, & marketing support. Send resumes by fax: 732-914-8898 or ralph@counsellorstitle.com

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Free Online Title Insurance Calculator

Counsellors Title Agency announced its updated Title Calculator for New Jersey home purchases & refinances at: Title Calculator

Loan officers, real estate agents and home buyers can find out how

much title insurance will cost for purchases made in New Jersey.

Easy-To-Use Functionality
This online tool includes many of the endorsements involved in calculating the cost of a title policy in New Jersey. CTA's Title Calculator is a great tool for real estate salespersons, loan officers, attorneys and those who are buying or refinancing their home.

It calculates the cost of title insurance based upon the purchase price of the home, the loan amount, and the various endorsements that can accompany the loan. The calculator provides the user the scalability of selecting the various endorsements involved in the transaction.

Counsellors Title Closing Services for Attorneys

Counsellors Title provides its Attorney Settlement Assistance Program [ASAP] with the real estate attorney in mind.

The Counsellors ASAP program offers secretarial services to assist in the process of a sale, purchase, refinance or loan closing.

Counsellors will even communicate directly with all the parties involved in the transaction to coordinate and obtain all the items necessary to assist in the close.

ASAP includes:

Documentation Preparation
Disbursement of Funds
Attendance at Closing
HUD Preparation or
Post-Closing Matters

For more information about the attorney services provided by Counsellors Title call our home office: 732.914.1400 or email us at info@counsellorstitle.com.