Marty Millner

Archive for August, 2009

Yardley, Newtown, Upper Makefield Township, Lower Makefield Township, Buckingham Township, Bucks County Tax Appeals

Previously, I have posted several articles about the process of appealing proerty taxes, in Bucks County.  I expect that this will be the last post on the topic, for a while.  The deadline for filing for next year, was August 3rd.

I saw an interesting article in the Bucks County Courrier Times, the other day, that described the huge increase in the number of people filing appeals.  In Buckingham Township alone, the number of residential appeals went from 25 in 2007, to 267  last year, to 1077  this year!

in Lower Makefield Township, there were 253 appeals filed, which was an increase of 182% over last year. 

There was a drastic increase in the number of appeals filed, in virtually every municipality in Bucks County, according to statistics from the Bucks County Board of Assessment appeals.

In Bucks County there is a three member board of assessment appeals, who are appointmed by commissioners.  The panel must hear all appeals by October 31st.  Hearings are scheduled from 9 to 5, 2 days a week.

If you did file an appeal, it is imperative that you do appear at your designated hearing appointment time.

Are realtors doing business in Yardley, Newtown, Lower Makefield Township, Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County?

Thought it might be interesting to give everyone a brief overview of how my business has gone, over the past few weeks.  We all know that our market, for sellers has been pretty tough.

I currently have houses on the market that are priced from the low 200,000’s to over 5 million!

I have houses on the market in both Bucks County and Mercer County.  Over the past couple of weeks,  we have accepted offers on the following properties:

• 3 Eaton Court, in Newtown.
• 4 Highfield Court, in Lawrence Township, NJ.
• 615 Lauren Circle, in Lower Makefield Township.
• 1784 Jockey’s Way, in Lower Makefield Township.
• 16 Glen Stewart, in Ewing Township, NJ.

The asking price of the above properties, ranges from the low 200,000’s to 845,000.  Please note, that although offers have been accepted, we are still waiting for all of the above homes to actually go to settlement.

On the buyer side, I represented buyers who are purchasing a home in Upper Makefield Township, Solebury Township and my son and his girlfriend, who are first time home-buyers, buying in W. Bradford Township. 

In general, from a personal perspective, it does appear as though things are getting a bit more active.  The majority of my listings are seeing more traffic, and more serious interest.  It is actually unusual, for August. 

If you have questions about the market, or are curious about the value of your home, please contact me for a market snapshot report, that is available at no cost, by email.  The report will detail, everything that is active, pending and sold, within about a 5 mile radious of your house.

What is happening with the real estate market in Newtown, Bucks County, 18940?

Almost wherever I go, I am asked the question, “how is the real estate market?”  I have many tools at my disposal, to help answer that question. 

The first answer I always give, is that it depends.  It depends on whether you are a buyer or seller.  Depends on whether you are a first time home buyer.  If you are a seller, it depends on where your house is located, and it depends on where your house falls, price wise, relative to other houses on the market, in the same area.

I did a brief examination of the statistics in Lower Makefield/Yardley, in a previous post, using a comprehensive statistical analysis that I share on my blog.  I will do the same in this post, for Newtown and the 18940 zip code. 

The chart to the right, tracks the median price of single family houses in Newtown, vs. the days on the market. As you can see, since September of 2008, the median price has consistantly been dropping.  For all single family houses, you can see that the average days on the market is currently around 220.  That is a sobering statistic, if your goal is to get your house sold.  Basically, average days on the market, for all single family homes in Newtown, is now over 7 months!

Lets look at what happens when we look at the same data, for the upper quartile of homes currently on the market.

The next chart, shows the same information, but this time we are looking at only the upper quartile of houses, based on median price. 

First, looking at the next chart, you can see that the median price in the upper quartile, has been dropping consistantly.  Now the days on the market, has remained level, for the past couple of months.  However, these more expensive homes, are now averaging over 9 months on the market.  Again, please keep in mind that this is an average.  You can see that it is challenging to get expensive homes sold.

Just as a comparison, lets look at one last chart.  The next chart shows the same date, but for the lowest quartile priced homes. 

Again, you can see that the lowest quartile pricing has declined as above.  You will note that as expected, the lower priced houses are taking less time to sell.  In fact, clearly, as the price decreases, the average days on the market also decreases.

All 3 of these charts show very clearly, that expensive houses are taking a long time to sell.  For sellers, it has never been more important to price your house correctly. 

You should be able to see why, when asked how the market is, I always answer, “it depends”.  If you are trying to sell an expensive house, if it is not priced aggresively, it will be on the market for a long, long time.

I can email all sorts of statistical evaluations of any market in which I work.  If you are interested, please contact me.  I can also provide you with a very sophisticated, market overview, that will show you houses that are active, pending and sold, within about a 5 mile radius of any address in areas that I serve.  These reports are emailed automatically, monthly, and are a great way to really stay on top of what the market is doing.  If you are interested, just email me.