Non-Immigration. Please advice on townhomes

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NJ07054

Registered Users (C)
Guys,
Sorry for asking a non-immigration question here. But we all know there’s no better place than this forum to share our experiences, get advice etc. So I am not that sorry either :)

I wanted to wait till my green card gets approved before buying a house. But god knows when I’ll get my green card and in the mean time the real estate prices keep going up and the interest rates are record low. So I thought maybe I should buy a house before the interest rates go back up. I live in New Jersey by the way.

Home prices in NJ are ridiculously high. 3 bedroom town homes without a garage are selling for $300,000. Hell even 15-year-old 2 bedroom town homes are selling for that price. Obviously single-family units are way beyond what I can afford. For the price I can afford, it looks like I can only get a 3-bedroom town home with a small living room and 1-car garage.

Did anyone recently buy a house in NJ? Do you guys think 300,000 is a lot to pay for a town home? What’s really bothering me is .... what if the price falls when the interest rates go up and then the value of my home will go down. On the other hand if I don’t buy now and wait .... what if the home prices go up then I’ll have to pay more to get the same town home. I am kind of confused rite now.

Any advice / comments will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
Depends which county you are buying the house

* If you are buying a 15 yr old townhouse in bergen county the price is about $390 with $300 monthly maintenance.
* In morris county 15 yr old townhouse could cost you about #350 with $200 monthly maintenance.
* My friends have bought a 3 bedroom townhouse in parlin area for $245K and $265K respectively.

I would recommend buying a 15-30 yr old single family house for that price you mention. Let me know if you need further assistance. BTW i live in parsippany area too.
 
Indian_in_USA,
Thank you for replying. I should have mentioned the county. I am looking in Middlesex or Somerset. I work in Parsippany but my wife works in Somerset. The price I mentioned was for townhomes in Middlesex and Somerset counties. It's a new townhome by the way.
 
south brunswick

we bought a townhome on ridge road for 295k in september 2002. three bedroom no basement. There was one unit which went on market last week (same as ours) for 360K. It is 8-9 years old.

you won't get a decent town home (3 bed room) for anything less than 300...somerset may be 275K but school dist is the drawback.

Looking at the GC process, situation may change drastically...you may consider ours in about 6 to 8 months.
 
Go for it

Investing in a house is always good. You generally get the value back pretty soon. Especially if you have children or in the process of having a few, a house is highly recommended. Since both of you work, go for the 300K new townhome. Within a year the price may go upto 350K. So don't lose out on this. The real estate price in NJ will never go down. Its getting crowded day by day.
 
Home prices in NJ will never go down, only the rate of increase will go down. If you have decided to live here then investing in a home now, when interest rates are very low would be a wise decision.
 
Though i am waiting for my GC approval (and proper bank balance) to buy a townhome in NJ, i started exploring the same issue and things are as confusing as they are depressing. It's really tough to predict if the prices will go down or not after the interest rates go up later. My reading is that they will slightly fall, may be 5%, then start rising again, but slowly. If this theory is true, then you may really not lose much, ans you may really gain nothing by waiting for the prices to fall, because the rise in interest rates will compensate that 5% fall in price. I mean, a $300K house price may not fall to $270K, but may fall to $285K. But then, from now to November, the prices will rise by 10%. I am 100% confident about that. During the next 1 yr, the townhome prices (for the ones costing 300K now) might fluctuate in the 300K - 350K range. For all the negative factors, this place is where all the jobs are. Great place for jobs.
 
Never go down?

The last major real estate crash took place as recently as 1990 -91. There is no such thing as never go down. Tokyo and Hongkong prices fell inspite of both being very crowded cities. Closer to home, prices in Bombay reached stratospheric levels in 1997 and then crashed in 2001.

I am no expert on Jersey. Maybe buying a home makes sound sense for you if you plan on living there for 10 plus years. However, remember that real estate prices can and do go down thereby getting you into a problem if you are over-extended on credit. Iif you can afford decent down payment and can afford the mortgage if one of you loses job, then it does make sense to buy as a long term investment (10 plus years)
 
I am exploring a 3 BR townhome in middlesex or mercer county too.

Common goal, so why not contact each other?

Will be a great help to each other.

What you guys think?
 
Real estate as a industry does take a beating, but I'm talking specific to NJ, especially central/northern NJ. Prices may drop but not as significantly as elsewhere. I've been loosely following the real estate scene in NJ and PA for the past 3-4 years, very closely in PA for the past 5 months. Prices were going through the roof around 2000-2001 in NJ, when prices in PA were much lower. Now though prices in NJ have increased steadily and more or less stabilized, they've started shooting up drastically in PA where we've been looking for the past 5 months. Given the number of jobs in NJ I don't see a dramatic decrease in home prices there in the near future.
 
Indian_in_USA, rajudm, mavishka, dsatish, Stuka:

Thank you guys for all the comments and suggestions. You have helped me move a bit closer toward a decision. I think I’ll go for it. Just 1 thing bothering me now ... damn living room is not as big as I want.
Now if only you guys can do something about that :) Kidding!

Hey! I guess I should look at the positive things ... new construction, 1 car garage, big basement, deck etc. None of the other town home I saw has all these, well at least not for $300K.

Feb2002Case, homes in Mercer county are much cheaper. Look for Hallmark Homes. Almost identical model in Mercer county is for $225K. If not for the distance from our (Wife & I) work places, I would have bought it. Of course after considering the neighborhood and all that.

I think we should keep this thread alive so we can share our experience / information etc with everyone who’s looking to buy.

Thanks again you all.
 
NJ07054

Hey NJ07054,
Which community are you talking about in getting around 300K for a townhome? I am interested to know.
 
where

I live in middlesex county, but also close to mercer county.

Please let me know if you come across any good single family homes..


thanks
 
I think that "NJ07054" is talking about Somerset Park community (in somerset)on Route 27. I saw that place and the living room is too small and i will never buy a home with such a living room. I will rather stay in a comfortable apartment than an uncomfortable home.
 
Feb2002Case & pkp, I am talking about Somerset Glen, on Route 27. dsatish, I am not sure if you are talking about the same community, but yes, the living rooms here are small (12.5 X 17). And I don’t like it either. Especially after living in an apartment that has a living room of size 25 X 15. But there’s nothing else out there for 300K or less. Hell even the prices at Somerset Glen have gone up to 320K. Luckily I reserved it when it was 300K. And what makes me sick is that they were 274K until the end of January, which is when I seriously started looking.
At first even I thought that I’d rather wait (even for a year if I have to) than get a small living room. But by then the prices will go up for sure. Feds decided to keep the interest rates low and doesn’t look like they will go up at least until the end of the year. So they say that 2004 could be one of the strongest years for real estate market. Which leads me to believe that prices will go up. I could be all wrong here, probably just paranoid.
Hey! Let me know if you come across something better, maybe we can be neighbors :)
Yeah, real estate market in NJ is crazy rite now.

By-the-way guys does anyone know how good or bad that area is?
Thanks
 
Hey Guys

Hey guys and girls,

THIS IS AN IMMIGRATION FORUM. TAKE YOUR REAL ESTATE PROBLEMS SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Guys,
Since this is a I485 forum, it may not be the appropriate place to discuss non immigration stuff. But i agree that it's really hard to find people in similar boat and that makes people use this forum for getting info and opinions about non-immi stuff. Very shortly we are going to open a new forum for immigration.ORG activities ( the new organisation registered by the Core team, with Rajiv's help, for immigration reforms). The forum is already created and i am the moderator for that forum. Unless Rajiv objects, i would like to allow free discussions in that forum on all socio-economical issues. It will be a meeting place for all legal immigrants. Hopefully, that forum will be opened to public within a week.
 
Good, informative discussion.....but not related to immigration. Moving it to 'Unrelated Threads SubForum'. You can continue the discussion there.
 
NJ07054,
Actually i was talking about the same community (somerset glen). One of my close friends has bought one there for 275K in January. Initially, I also thought of buying there (after 3 months, but after seeing that house, i have decided not to buy, because the living room is too small and very badly designed. Still the prices are going up by atleast 5K every month. The area is OK and if you are an indian, then you will have plenty of company in that area. 80% of the people who are buying those homes, are indians. Also there are indian grocery stores and restaurants within 2 miles from there. I guess the school district rating is Average or Above Average. Look if you can find any other townhomes in other counties, with bigger living rooms, for < 350K.
Let's continue these discussions in the new forum that is going to be opened. If some of you are looking to buy a townhome after 3 or 4 months, then we might together, at one place (and try to get bulk discount) :)
 
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