Twenty this month. You can thank the 8K rope-a-dope tax credit for that:

6 Apache $336,000
416 Azalea $218,500
3 Birch $627,000
1613 Breckenridge $222,500
14 Cascades $510,000
620 Case $320,000
105 Choctaw Ridge $370,000
129 Howell $528,000
305 Kelly $619,000
3343 Lukes Pond $580,000 (short sale)
101 N Branch River Rd $310,000
114 N Branch River Rd $345,000
115 N Branch River Rd $365,000
118 N Branch River Rd $363,450
33 Oak Tavern $540,000
792 Old York $417,000
24 Preston $322,500
2250 S Branch Rd $463,750
112 Sturbridge $500,000
16 Susquehanna $418,000

Here’s another example of magical thinking. It’s a nice enough house…clean, updated kitchen, beautiful pool…but it was built in 1973 and has the limitations you’d expect of such a home. Unfortunately, the seller priced it out of the box at $539,000, thinking that the neighborhood had entered a time warp and traveled back to 2005.

There must not have been any showings, because two quick price reductions have dropped it to $499,900. Maybe somebody will at least show it now.

Warning! Caught In 2005 Time Warp!

Four closed sales so far this month. Two of them are short sales:

1520 Longley $250,000

1012 Hillcrest (short sale) $378,000

11 Winthrop $450,000

11 Lexington (short sale) $625,000

Note to Agent: Don't Shoot Pics of Listings With Cell Phone

This week’s installment is a dandy little Colonial on Station Rd. Currently asking $739,900 EXPIRED, it was originally listed at $949,000 on August 17, 2006 and has spent 806 actively-listed days hurtling toward oblivion. In the interim, it has had two tenants, who I’m sure have made an excellent contribution toward accelerating the depreciation.

Given that the current tax assessment on this property is $694,000- and that virtually no properties in this range sell for even the amount of the tax assessment in Branchburg- will this house ever find an owner? Or, will the next owner be the lender who financed the construction?

7 Thoroughbred, just listed for $589,900 REDUCED TO 574.9K AND IN ATTORNEY REVIEW CLOSED ON MARCH 30 at 545K…UNDER THE ASSESSMENT.  Lovely house, but it’s asking over the tax assessment.  Virtually no house in Branchburg in this price range sells at the level of the tax assessment these days.

Closings below were from 12/1/09 through 12/31/09.  Short sales are noted.

1705 Breckenridge Dr. $209,000 (short sale)

611 Magnolia Ln. $239,000

736 Magnolia Ln. $236,000

17 Cheyenne Trl. $375,000

2 Rolland Dr. $369,000

39 Seneca Trl. $407,500

129 Fairview Dr. $439,900

252 Carol Jean Wy. $400,000

141 Fairview Dr. $479,000

119 Brandon Ct. $465,000

2 Oak Tavern Cir. $560,000

24 Champions Cir. $600,000

The following Branchburg homes (out of a total 69 active listings) are marked “attorney review” as of this morning:

802 Breckenridge
104 Red Crest
110 North Branch River Rd.
43 Strawberry Hill
165 Fairview
410 Clover
2 Oak Tavern

My understanding is that the River Trace development (the 110 N. Branch River Rd. listing) has a lis pendens filed against it by Branchburg Twp. At least, the county clerk website indicates it. Anyone who has more info, please update me.

From a site I never heard of before, called Reason.com:

“Something called the National Consumer Law Center criticizes state mortgage-mediation schemes as well as the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, which at last count had managed to prevent 235,247 homes from coming onto the market. However, data from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency indicate that even when these programs succeed, about half of all the renegotiated loans end up back in default soon afterward.

In those cases, the renegotiation has made things worse for everybody. The lender ends up with lower payments in the short term and then has to foreclose on a less-valuable property at some point in the future. The borrower gets no financial upside and (though he or she gets the use of a subsidized domicile for some period of time) is encouraged to stay in a losing situation when immediate foreclosure would have been a more merciful option. Prospective buyers get locked out as dumb lenders, deadbeat borrowers and the government all collude to keep the price of the house artificially inflated. And taxpayers have to spend $75 billion (the budget of HUD’s Making Home Affordable program) for the privilege of making it all happen. The best option for all concerned would be to get the deadbeat out of the house as quickly as possible, but nobody is doing that.

Put it all together, and throw in mainstream media outlets that as recently as June were calling for mortgage haircuts specifically to allow people to keep borrowing against their houses, and you’ve got the mother of all perfect storms mixed with the crack cocaine of third rails on steroids. The foreclosure wave may seem all tired and 2008, but it’s hotter than ever.”

#mce_temp_url#

Come to the Branchburg Country Fair at White Oak Park this Saturday, September 26! Great crowd, lots to do, WDVR and fireworks at 8 PM.

http://www.branchburgcountryfair.com/

I actually made this call close to two years ago, on NJ Real Estate Report. You gotta believe it’s as sure a bet as the sun coming up tomorrow. Given the fact that: 1) a buyer who puts down only 3.5%- then has the seller give it back to pay closing costs- is underwater the minute the ink dries on the closing documents; and, 2) all the originators, brokers and processors who brought you the subprime phenomenon moved over to FHA when the water was adjudged to be suitably warm…and we have all the elements in place for a 10-megaton financial discharge that should pretty effectively kill-shot the economy.

If you think this is overstatement, just repeat this to yourself a few times:

“The only viable mortgage insurer left in the United States is the taxpayer.”

FHA has added to the general sense of impending doom by issuing a statement proclaiming that everything is just happy-happy-joy-joy. Even though they are tapped out of cash reserves: