In Their Backyards, Real Estate Values Hold Up
September 15th 2007 06:29 pm
Jeffrey G. Otteau, president of the Otteau Appraisal Group in East Brunswick, N.J., picked out the pattern while analyzing the unsold housing inventory in towns on and around the commuter rail lines into New Jersey. Communities directly on the rail lines and fairly close to the city, like Maplewood, Montclair and Chatham, tend to have less than six months’ worth of inventory, a level more characteristic of a rising market than a falling one. Some towns still on rail lines but farther out have slightly higher levels, and those off the rail lines altogether, including Caldwell, Belleville and Harding, more consistently show 6 to 12 months of inventory, an indicator of a downward market.