Well, here it is 2011.  It’s a brave new world.  We currently have 14 residential listings available to buy that are priced under $200,000.  And that doesn’t include vacant lots.

The market determines the price.  Okay, the owner actually decides what price to ask after weighing – and sometimes discarding – the pricing advice of their realtor.  But if there’s no action after two months, it’s time to lower the price.  After another two months of minimal interest in the unit, it’s time to reduce the price again.  It’s called “finding the price point”.  Once you arrive at the price point, the unit typically gets an offer within 21 days.  Real estate, for the most part, is no longer “location, location, location”.  It’s “price, price, price”.

Several of our lowest priced units are seasonal, meaning the water is shut off from November 1 to late March or April.  There is too much chance of water pipes freezing and bursting in the cold winters for the complexes to take the risk.  Leaking pipes can do hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage in a short time in a two or three story multi-unit building.

Our lowest priced unit is in a campground complex, complete with swimming pool, basketball courts, tennis courts, a game room, and organized activities day and night for both kids and adults.  The 35-foot long trailer, built in 2004, is cute and homey.  The property is listed at just $59,900.

We also have three units in a complex on the 300 block east in Wildwood, just a half block from the beach and famous Boardwalk.  All three units are one bedroom, one full bath, and the complex has an inground pool.  Sold as a short sale, the 336 square foot unit is going for $99,000 and the two 450 sq ft units are priced at $120,000.  They have both price and location going for them!

We have two units a couple blocks away also in the 300 block east and a short walk to the beach and Boardwalk.  Both of these short sale units are 633 sq ft, two bedrooms, and priced at $112,000.  The remodeled units, featuring new carpets and new wood laminate floors and tastefully decorated, rent for $975 per week.

We just listed a 15′x25′ efficiency unit in the 400 block east in the heart of Wildwood Crest for $124,900.  It is totally remodeled, with new refrigerator, stove and range top, cabinets, countertops, etc.  The Caribbean theme really makes you think you’re on vacation and the swimming pool, barbecue grills, etc make life easy.  Can you say, “Pina Colada”?

Wrapping up my look at “too good to be true”  properties is a  cute, year-round single family home in Villas, Lower Township.  Situated on a 60′x86′ lot, the two bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home has an attached garage, fenced yard, and inside there’s a dining room, living room and family room with electric fireplace.  Originally, $149,000, two price reductions have brought the price down to its price point of $132,000.  It’s a great place to retire, vacation, or start a family.

There are bargains galore at the shore in Cape May County.  Maybe now is the time for you to take advantage of price, price, price.

- Mountain Man 

So what does $201,343,605 mean?  Unfortunately, it’s not how much money we won in the MegaMillions or Powerball lotteries.  It’s not our national debt, it’s not New Jersey’s budget deficit.

It is the total value of all properties sold in the Wildwoods in 2010 by realtors belonging to the Cape May County Association of Realtors.  That amount includes sales in Wildwood, North Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Diamond Beach.  Just think, $200 million changed hands.  Dreams were realized for some, while broken dreams were a reality for others.  For others, it was business as usual.

In all, 673 properties changed ownership.  Let’s break down the numbers:

148 single family homes sold at an average price of $338,950 and were on the market an average of 242 days. 

14 lots sold at an average of $216,817 and were on the market for 243 days average.

15 commercial properties sold for an average of $386,500 after being on the market an average 323 days.

38 multi-family properties sold for an average of $253,318 and were on the market an average of 234 days.

Now the big one.  458 condos and townhomes sold for a total of $137 million plus, with the average price $301,173 after 245 days on the market.

To summarize, 673 properties sold in 2010, or slightly less than two every day of the year.  They were on the market about eight months.  And condos and single family homes averaged over $300,000 apiece.  That’s not bad, and after the market conditions we saw in 2006-2009, it’s quite encouraging. 

As you no doubt noticed, the media finally acknowledged – or most of them did – that the real estate market was making a comeback in 2010.  Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, our sales were up 205% as compared to 2009.  And guess what.  We have set our goal at again doubling our business in 2011  compared to 2010.  A bold prediction, sure, but we can do it!  The numbers don’t lie.

- Mountain Man

Not so fast, my friend.

Sure, the national unemployment numbers are still tough to swallow.  And yes, we are still seeing more vacant store fronts popping up.  Discretionary spending is off, too, though you have to wonder when you see folks descend on a mall and drop hundreds of dollars on trivial junk for Christmas.

But here in Cape May County, New Jersey at the shore, the tide has turned in the real estate market.  Pun intended.  With interest rates hovering around 4% and prices nearly half of what they were in 2005, sales have been brisk.  We’re also seeing that folks are tired of sitting on the sidelines and after five years they ackowledge the opportunity is there to finally purchase and own a vacation home at the Jersey Shore.  If they were 55 years old back in 2005, they’re now 60 and not getting any younger.  I call it the “now or never” syndrome.  If they waited much longer to buy a second home, some would probably just say forget it.

Back in 2004, we began telling our clients that the days of buying pre-construction condos, then flipping them a year later the day after closing, were over.  We saw an overabundance of new construction and sensed that the market was shifting.  Unfortunately, we were right.  We are getting that same feeling again, except this time it’s a turn in the other direction. 

We believe that the vacation home market leads the way.  Our real estate market was the first to fall apart, and it is the first to recover.  And why not?  Folks who can afford second homes usually own their own business or they are high enough up on the corporate ladder to have a solid income.  When the national media began their gloom and doom predictions, the frugal upper and upper-middle class folks pulled back and stopped spending.  Now that they’ve endured five years of a recession and the sky hasn’t fallen in, they’re back.

Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, we have sold 2.5 times more properties this year than in 2009.  We’re not bleeding greenbacks anymore.  Not only are we relieved, we’re very optimistic.  No doubt, it will take the primary home market another two years to catch fire.  But when it does, all will be well in Whoville.

- Mountain Man

This past year, our thoughts in the warm months turned to many other diversions.  First up was The Free Meal Center, Cape May County’s first-ever daily soup kitchen.  We formed a non-profit organization on January 25, 2010 and took possession of the 4,275 square foot building situated on 2.38 acres on March 15th.  We spent the next eight months gutting the interior and improving the grounds and exterior of the building, thanks to the hundreds of dedicated volunteers who pitched in to make it a reality.  We received our building permit the day before Thanksgiving and now the renovations can proceed.

We also began the second story addition to our real estate office in Wildwood Crest.  The complicated footing is now in place, with a three-foot concrete block foundation above.  When the warm weather returns, we’ll begin building skyward.

We also began site work on our restaurant/sports bar in Green Bank, West Virginia.  We purchased the seven-acre bottom land on July 1st.  The beautiful property has 750-foot frontage on Routes 28 & 92 and 1,050 feet along Deer Creek, a 50-foot wide river that takes water from the Allegheny Mountains to the Greenbrier River.  The site work is just about done and the riverfront has been transformed into a beautiful setting. 

As you can see, we keep ourselves pretty busy.  And so, you’ll excuse us if we only find the time to relax and write blog posts in the winter.  Sit back and enjoy the next four months of opinions and observations on real estate and life in general.

- Mountain Man

The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) was created out of that controversial court ruling that mandated a required number of low and moderate income units for each of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities.  West Cape May needs to provide just two units by 2018, but they’re offering breaks for those creating the first 10.

Called “accessory apartments”, they can be in garages, above stores, in existing homes, or even new construction, as long as they’re in an area of the town where public sewer and water already exist.  No planning board approval would be necessary, just the usual construction permits.  The landlord would have to sign an agreement stipulating that the unit be rented below the market rate for 15 years.  But the town’s $25,000 to $75,000 incentive would help make up the difference.  After 15 years, the landlord is free to charge the usual market rate.

The borough will create a pool of tenants after determining their eligilibility based on income.  Landlords can ban smoking or pets or such, and do criminal backgrounds and credit checks, plus charge a security deposit.  The rent can’t be raised as unless a tenant leaves and a new one moves in.

In an expensive shore resort area like the Cape Mays, rentals are beyond the financial scope of many young families.  City officials hope that this will allow more to stay in the area and not move on to less pricey locales.

While West Cape May is just two units short of its COAH goal, two other Cape May County municipalities have a rougher road ahead.  Middle Township is mandated to provide 934 units and Upper Township 566 by 2018.  That would overcrowd the schools and burden the two towns’ services, not to mention the added real estate property taxes that residents would be forced to shoulder.  The towns have minimal areas of infrastructure and over 50% of each municipality is either federal, state or preserved land and not buildable.  Providing this absurd number of units definitely would promote sprawl and change the character of the towns.

Perhaps Governor-elect Christopher Christie, who has spoken out against COAH, will do something to abolish this forced build-up of semi-rural communities.

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

Here in Cape May County at the southern tip of New Jersey, we sell primarily vacation homes.  For many families that have worked hard their entire life, finally being able to afford this second home at the shore is the fulfillment of a dream.  We sell dreams.  It feels sooo good.

But there is another scenario for a realtor that is not so pleasing.  In fact, it is sad.

Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, we have had several occasions where we have sold a home for an elderly person and moved them directly into an assisted living home.

Two of my favorites ladies were Helen Smith and Clara Carr.  Mrs. Smith – as I called her out of respect and she called me Mr. Jewell – had lived in the same single family home in Wildwood since 1953.  When I first met her and listed her home in 2005, her husband had been deceased for over 15 years.  He had built the home himself – with a small apartment over top – and Mrs. Smith was proud of her property, as she should.  The craftsmanship was nice, though the property was obviously outdated.

After a few months, we put the property “under contract”.  In 60 days, Mrs. Smith would be leaving the only home she’d known for over a half century.  She was upset, but knew that she was no longer physically able to maintain the property.  With no relatives close by, I offered to move the belongings she was keeping to the assisted living facility 12 miles away.  She was relieved and gave me a big hug.  We each had a tear in one eye.

When the big day came, I brought along two of my maintenance guys and two pickup trucks.  We moved her bed, favorite bureau and stuffed chair, an end table or two, and the few boxes of clothes and such that she had so carefully packed.  Her family had come from out of state to pick through her possessions and take what they wanted, so we then packed everything else in the house and took several loads to drop off at a charity.

We got Mrs. Smith settled into her new room on the second floor of the facility, patiently placing each piece of furniture and possessions exactly where she wanted them.  “A little to the left,” the 90-year old would request.  No problem.  I promised to visit her, then left.

Clara – she called me Doug – and I had history.  A few years prior she was still on top of her game and sharp as a pin.  We had belonged to an environmental group together and stood on picket lines holding protest signs.  Nothing stopped Clara.  She was right there along with the rest of us.

We sold Clara’s house in 2003.  She was being pressured by a daughter to come live with them in another state.  It was hard to say goodbye to my 75-year old friend and comrade.  It was also hard to see her give up most of her lifelong possessions knowing she would be limited to one room of space in her daughter’s house.

And so, a week after moving Mrs. Smith to the assisted living facility I returned for a visit  to see how she was making out.  We hugged and talked for an hour about her new home and the world in general.  Then she said, “By the way, I ate lunch with a friend of yours the other day.”  It was Clara.  I was dumbfounded.

A few minutes later I was knocking on Clara’s door down the hall.  We hugged and had a tearful reunion.  It turns out that living with her daughter didn’t work out, so having no other options she moved to this facility to be back in her hometown.  We talked for a couple hours and Clara hadn’t lost a beat.  She was still totally together in mind and body.

And so a couple years passed.  I would visit Mrs. Smith and Clara around Christmas and a couple other times a year.  Then one visit I discovered that Clara had recently had a stroke and her speech was difficult to understand.  Still, we were both all smiles seeing each other.

On my last visit, in 2008, I sat with Mrs. Smith first and we talked and talked.  I mentioned that I was going to see Clara next, but she warned me that Clara had gone downhill lately.  “Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t recognize you,” she said.  She was right.  Clara was totally confused when I entered her room and didn’t recognize me.  She might have even been a little afraid of this stranger.  I left, disheartened by the loss of my friend.

Mrs. Smith died two months later.  At 93, she was still mentally on point right up to the end.

It makes me sad to think of the loss of my two friends.  But because of being a realtor I had the opportunity to really get to know these wonderful ladies.  I cherish our memories.

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

My wife Joyce and I opened our first office in 2000, then 10 months later opened a branch office.  Later this month will mark the 10th anniversary of us working six days a week – we try to take Wednesdays off together but often spend half the day on our cell phones – and answering our phones 6am to 9pm every day of the year.  Yes, I know what you’re thinking.  We must be crazy to be accessible 15 hours a day, right? 

But, you see, real estate is our life, our passion.  Our kids are grown and gone and now we have the freedom of a 20-something childless couple, although our combined ages is 120.  To avoid being kicked in the shins, I won’t say which one of us is older.

We are both early risers, so having our cell phones unplugged and turned on by 6:00 in the morning is no problem.  We find that many of our clients, stuck in rush hour traffic around Philly or NYC, make use of this time to call us and discuss the transaction we’re working on together or the properties they want to tour on the weekend.

Nighttime phone calls don’t crimp our lifestyle either.  Okay, we may be in the grocery store or a restaurant, but we’ve closed deals standing next to the broccoli and cauliflower display.  Our norm, however, is that we’re sitting on the couch together watching a cable movie or nature program.  Folks like to call us around that time after they’ve put their kids to bed and they finally have some quiet time.

In the warm weather months when the daylight hours last longer, we do have one other distraction in the evenings.  We jump in my pickup truck, select a town, and cruise up and down neighborhood streets seeing “what’s new”.  We notice new construction and homes newly put up for sale.  We talk about it like two excited teenagers.  And since the weather is warm, families are outside in their yards and we wave and our real estate signs on the truck doors get noticed.  More than once someone has waved us down to talk about the current real estate market.  That’s social networking in its purest form, I guess.

I know there are many, many other realtors across the country with passion for their trade.  Obviously, any realtor who takes the time to read and contribute regularly to Active Rain has that passion.  So do those who read the real estate trade magazines from cover to cover.  And those continually participating in some sort of continuing education and earning additional designations.

To all of you, I tip my hat.  Together, we’ve taken real estate sales from being a job to a profession we’re proud of.  And love.

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, we have a feeling about 2010.  A strong feeling.  All the pieces seem to be falling into place that 2010 is going to be a great year.  The best since 2005.

Our local real estate market is Cape May County, a small tourist-oriented county at the very southern tip of New Jersey.  While we have just 96,000 yearround residents, the summer population swells to 750,000 or more on any given day.  Our beautiful Atlantic Ocean beaches and back bays and famous boardwalks attract vacationers from Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania; New York City and the surrounding areas of northern New Jersey, southwestern Connecticut, and New York state; plus some fun-seekers from Maryland,Washington, DC and eastern Canada.

We almost exclusively sell vacation homes – including condos and townhomes - and multifamily homes, with an occasional commercial property.  We sell a few primary homes each year, mostly off the islands on the mainland.  There just isn’t a great demand.  The seasonality of our location makes us unattractive to yearround living for a young family just getting started.  There just isn’t enough yearround employment to suit their needs, so the younger generation tends to migrate toward the Philadelphia area and its jobs.  The primary homes we do sell are mostly to retirees looking to enjoy the quiet shore life, plus the restaurants, fishing, and attractions of Cape May, the Wildwoods, and even Atlantic City 35 miles to the north.

So back to the countdown to 2010. 

We are already showing properties every day, a phenomenon lacking over Christmas break the last two years.  Joyce wrote two contracts yesterday – both accepted – and we’ve got plenty of showings today and tomorrow, right up to New Year’s Eve.

People seem eager to buy right now.  There’s an enthusiasm amongst prospective buyers that has replaced the overall reluctance evident in 2007 through the first half of 2009.  Maybe it’s the low interest rates or the bargain basement prices of real estate.  Maybe it’s that folks are tired of sitting on the sidelines and putting off buying that American dream second home.  Or perhaps it’s because many in the media have given the green light to purchasing real estate and abandoned their doom and gloom prophecies.

Whatever the reason, we have a bounce in our step and a twinkle in our eyes.  The new year looks very promising.  I think I’ll stick a bottle of champagne under the seat of my truck.  After my last property showing tomorrow afternoon, I think I’ll break out the bubbly and toast the good times ahead.  Wanna join me?

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

I’ve had a cell phone for 10 years, and now 85% of Americans do too, according to statistics.  Judging from my older friends, I think I personally know many of the 15% who don’t.

I bought my first computer in 1993, just months before launching my own weekly all-sports newspaper.  I didn’t know how to do much, other than type articles into Microsoft Word that I would later cut and paste.  By cut and paste, I mean scissors and wax onto camera-ready full newspaper-size sheets.

I got my first email address in 1999, just prior to opening the main office of Jewell Real Estate Agency.  A year later we purchased three more computers for our new branch office, run by my broker wife Joyce.  While my wife jumped into the computer age with vigor, I still hung around on the outskirts.  She was busy inputting data on our website, local MLS, and many other websites used to sell real estate.  I stuck to writing material and articles into Word, then letting her cut and paste them (yes, computer cut and paste this time) into our various advertising venues.

Now as the “ought decade” comes to a close, I write a blog regularly and I do my research on many topics on the Internet.  Wikipedia is great, and I can read online the newspapers from the many places I’ve lived.  I’ve even abandoned the Weather Channel on TV for Weather Underground on the Internet.  And I can get instant sports scores.  Yee-haa!

But that’s where I draw the line.

I don’t even know what a BlackBerry is, nor an iPod.  I don’t own a DVD player or DVR, and in fact don’t know the difference, if there is one.  I don’t Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or Wii.  Heck, the last video game I played was Pacman on a Commodore 64, circa 1984.

And don’t even think of sending me a text message.  I don’t know how to read one or write one.  The only thing I can do is delete the one you sent me, unopened.  If you have something important to tell me, pick up the phone.  I do answer the phone.

I don’t have a GPS.  I’m a guy.  I use a map, or else I’ll Mapquest first and compare it to my real live map.  Okay, I do have a radar detector in my vehicle.  That baby has saved me a lot of bucks, not to mention points on my license.

While I’m ranting, I don’t have tattoos and I think they’re degrading (spelled S-T-U-P-I-D).  Same with piercings.  I don’t watch reality shows – never.  My TV is never tuned to ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.  I watch nature shows, movies, and occasionally college sports.  Don’t even think I’d watch the Simpsons or Beavis & Butthead.  I don’t do Pay-Per-View and I don’t download movies or music. 

Also, I’ve never been in a Starbucks.  I don’t have (or need) a life coach.  I think cougars are desperate.  And what’s this thing all the “under 30s” are doing with holding up different fingers?  Does that mean something?

One last thing.  You’ll never see me going around with one of those Mr. Spock things in my ear.  What’s with that?  I own three businesses and I’m a successful author, yet I hardly think I’m so important as to walk around needing 24/7 instant access to my phone. 

Okay, I’m done.  I feel better now. 

You can perhaps see why they call me the Mountain Man.

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

But should their job be iffy, it’s better to sit this one out.  Why buy a vacation home if in the next year it becomes too much of a financial burden and they end up in foreclosure.  Not only will their credit be ruined, but their shore experience will leave a lasting negative impression and they may never enter the second home market again, even in good times.

Their are currently 15.4 million unemployed Americans and the jobless rate is hovering around 10%.  As always, these numbers do not include folks who have literally given up on ever getting a job and dropped out of the work force.  A record 5.9 million Americans have been out of work at least a half year as 7 million jobs have disappeared since the recession began.

The normal unemployment rate is about 5.5%.  Experts expect that the rate won’t return to that range until 2015 or so.  Job creation is the key.  In the last 10 years, from 1999 to 2009, the net gain in jobs is only about a half million, thanks to the loss of those 7 million jobs.  The previous 10 years, 1989 to 1999, saw 21 million jobs created.

Another factor in the job market is that many Baby Boomers are not retiring, but instead are staying in the work force in order to afford to live more comfortably.  This leaves the younger and less-skilled workers on the short end of the stick.

So what to do? 

The federal government needs to create jobs.  The recent infusion of money into infrastructure, mostly highways, really didn’t employ that many people.  Material costs – asphalt, concrete, steel, heavy equipment, etc. – ate up much of that cash infusion. 

Roosevelt had his Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which pulled many through the depression by creating labor-intensive jobs (meaning more people than machines).  Why not get something like that rolling, where people of all skill levels can clean up roadsides, do much-needed maintenance work at state and national parks, thin underbrush in the forest fire-prone West.

Let’s prioritize solar, wind, and water power, offering generous subsidies and tax breaks to companies that manufacture and install these alternative power sources.  And let’s clean up urban blight, by demolishing abandoned buildings and clearing vacant lots.  That could be followed by building urban housing – but not “housing projects” – that would not only create jobs but upgrade people’s living standards.

When the government coordinates with private enterprises to create jobs, our economy will turn around in a heartbeat.  It’s that simple.  Are we asking for too much?

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com