NJ Real Estate Still Mixed Bag
According to the Commerce Department the number of new home development in North East NJ accelerated its decline in October. According to recotrds the annual rate fell from 69,000 to 59,000 since September, marking a drop of a wapping 18.8% in a signle month.
Those these numbers are cringingly painful to absorb, the whole picture is not black. During the same time, according to NJ State judiciary, residential foreclosures shrank for the first time in this year compared to the same period last year. In October of 2008 lenders initiated 5,262 foreclosure processes vs. only 4,991 this October.
Since the foreclosure segment is driven primarily by unemployment, which has reached a record breaking peak recently, thus this trend, however welcome, is not entirely understood. It is possible that it is a temporary pause, caused by the Obama administration Making Home Affordable debt mitigation programs, though the hope is this will be a continuing trend going on forwards.
The new development rate drop however is not a particularly encouraging outlook as it is the fallout of a large inventory of new houses on the market. Whether optimism is pre-mature or not, will be revealed by time alone.