Dear Ralph,

With so much fluctuation in the prices of homes, from the median price to the average price, many websites seem to be working off different data. One big snafu was with the Asbury Park Press reporting on the Monmouth prices. Another recent development was the revamp of the Homes.com website. It seems they are looking to compete with Zillow.com. Homes.com even advertised on the Super Bowl to announce its rollout. What is clear is that the real estate market is going to become significantly more competitive in the years to come.

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

Founder & President

732.914.1400

Statistics Don't Agree on Monmouth County Values

by Anthony DiMaio

Check the Facts

A recent Asbury Park Press article stated that Monmouth County median home listed prices crossed the $800,000 threshold. Back in December 2023, the median sales price for a home in Monmouth County, according to New Jersey Realtor, was $670,000, which was up from 2022, with a price of $615,000. But now the Asbury Park Press is quoting that the median home price in Monmouth County listed for $808,750 in January 2024. There are so many reports running through the market that it's hard to actually know what true market value is.

The Asbury Park Press stated that their statistics pertained only to houses listed for sale in Monmouth County, not that were sold. This makes such data difficult to accept since the median sales price and the listed-for-sale price appear to be at odds with each other.



There are also some discrepancies with respect to what the Asbury Park Press said about what Realtor.com said about Monmouth County. Realtor.com published that the home price in Monmouth County was $371 a square foot. They also posted that the median home price sold in January was $635,000. This all leads us to make sure that we go the extra mile and do our research, looking at various sources to find those sources that best represent what the actual market looks like.

Meanwhile Rocket Homes reported that median home price in Monmouth County, New Jersey was $609,000 or $320 a square foot.

All of this cautions us to do our own research always.

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Upgrades for Homes.com Website

by: Anthony DiMaio

It seems that whoever controls the Internet, controls the market. As Gen X’s and Millennials initiate their pursuit of their first home, they will naturally rely upon platforms that they are most used to navigating. For the last few years the primary real estate platforms have been Zillow.com and Realtor.com, but now it seems that Homes.com has done a massive renovation to their site, and it is not just cosmetic. They have put the time, effort and energy into providing buyers with the data and information that is buyer-centric, not just seller-centric.

Zillow is still, by far, the most visited real estate website, with Realtor.com recording half as many visitors. Homes.com was a distant third or fourth, with Trulia.com and Redfin.com in the rear of the pack.

Realtor.com

Originally, the Realtor.com site was a lead acquisition platform. It provides photographs and even details about the property, the construction, lot descriptions, size, heating and cooling facts, interior features, as well as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.



It also provides property price details with respect to history and property taxes. There are times such details are absent.

It does rate environmental risks as to floods and fires.

It rates the schools within the market and their quality.

Homes.com

The Homes.com website provides descriptions for properties in a bit more buyer-friendly format.

Since it is not sellers who need to know about where they live, the details are presented in both a simplified and visual format.

Most real estate websites offer detail as to the number of units, square footage and other aspects of the listing.

But in the case of Homes.com, they seemed to button-up a lot of the information.

■ It provides a snapshot of the Google map location.

■ It provides some history as to the neighborhood with photographs and some details as to attractions.

■ It gives photos and rankings or ratings of the local schools.

■ It provides photos and descriptions for parks and recreation in the area.

■ It lists the transit access points such as New Jersey Transit bus routes.

■ It also provides rankings as to crime level, walking access, bike score, and transit score.

■ It also lists tax history for the property and assessment as well as price history for the property.

Overall, the difference between Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Homes.com is that Homes.com presents the information in a more visual sequential fashion. Not all Realtor.com listings provide tax information, whereas most Zillow.com listings provide tax information and price history. Homes.com does both. 

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What Is Humor?

Humor is a sense of playfulness and lightness. It is a way

of looking at and describing the world that brings laughter

to people. A person with the strength of humor is skilled at seeing the funny side of things, bringing smiles and laughter to others, and identifying and communicating the absurdities in life. People with this strength don’t specifically need to be joke tellers, although many are. Humor can have a dark side, depending on how it’s used. Some humor is mean spirited and bullying. The type of humor that the character strength focuses on is that which

raises the spirits of other people.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

For individuals, humor has important health benefits, both

mental and physical. Humor stretches the mind to look at

things from different perspectives, keeping people mentally agile and alert. Making people laugh also produces positive

emotions and happiness for the initiator. And, when people

are on the receiving end of humor, they also receive many

benefits. Scientists have shown that laughter reduces

stress, promotes connection with other people, and can

even improve focus. Laughter is contagious and bonds us

to other people.

Click here to download or on the cover above.

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