Realtors Gearing Up For Brighter Housing Market In Montclair

Spring has sprung and, according to various real estate agents, the housing market is blooming as well.

According to Richard Stanton of Stanton Company Realtors, increased spring buying activity continued through March as 41 houses went under contract versus 26 in March 2011. This—coupled with 47 new listings in March 2012 versus 89 in March 2011—has lowered the inventory of homes.

"The result has been a spate of multiple offer situations, especially in the $550,000 to $900,000 range in Upper Montclair," he said.

Roberta Baldwin, partner at New Keller Williams NJ Metro Group, agreed that there is less inventory and more activity in the market right now.

"That mediates toward price stabilization and even some escalation in some cases where the home is perfectly positioned with respect to location, updates and presentation," she said. "I predict that there will be a larger flow of homes onto the market in coming months than there has been so far this year as the properties thatwere temporarily rented and other where owners were sitting out the economic doldrums are listed.

"While sellers should be thrilled with the increased action in the local market right now, they've got to realize it doesn't mean we'll return to the wild, out-of-this world housing values we had in 2006-2007-2008 any time soon," she said.

Meanwhile, Beverly Meaux, broker and salesperson at Towne Realty Group, pointed out that Montclair is in a good position in that it never experienced the drastic price drops to the same extent experienced by some other towns.

"The fluctuations today aren’t vast, and the median and average sale prices are staying above the half-million dollar mark," she said.

Meaux said that homebuyers are drawn to Montclair because of the beautiful home styles offered along with the great commuting, shopping, and entertainment /nightlife vibe.

"All this makes it such an easy town to sell because homebuyers request it. That’s what has gotten my partner Bob and I to gravitate to Montclair," she said. "Although we have friends and family in town, and have gone to church here and have been patronizing here for years, we love the chance we are getting to begin to extend the same successful service we’ve given our clients in West Orange and other towns, to here."

According to Meaux, out of 150 residential homes on the market for sale in town, 25 were listed in April (as of April 11). Right now, of the 90 homes under contract, 45 are priced under $500,000 and 45 are priced above. The difference is that the homes priced over $500,000 are seeing less days on the market, a median of 35 days.

March 2012 Town-by-Town Sales Comparison From Meaux:

The March 2011 numbers are in (parenthesis) for easy side-by-side comparison.

TOWN

TOTAL SOLD

AVG SALES PRICE

MED SALES PRICE

Montclair

15 (12)

$683,267 ($842,695)

$619,000 ($452,000)

Maplewood

17 (15)

$359,333 ($568,867)

$401,000 ($620,000)

West Orange

28 (29)

$295,420 ($341,694)

$265,000 ($325,000)

January – March 1Q2012 vs 1Q2011

The 1Q2011 numbers are in (parenthesis) for easy side-by-side comparison.

TOWN

TOTAL SOLD

AVG SALES PRICE

MED SALES PRICE

Montclair

42 (45)

$635,572 ($640,235)

$561,750 ($526,000)

Maplewood

49 (46)

$395,666 ($467,017)

$409,031 ($463,750)

West Orange

74 (74)

$327,516 ($369,857)

$282,000 ($323,750)