Weekly News (April 5, 2017)

1. Let’s keep Hudson-Bergen Light Rail project in right track

17 years ago, this light rail began to operate in Jersey City
NJ Transit’s light rail system → One of most successful in the nation (50,000 daily passengers at 24 stations)
Expectation: 24,740 passengers will board at 7 new stations → NJ is corridor state
Need to make sure the state representatives on Capital Hills redouble their efforts to secure federal funds for HBLR and new Gateway Rail Tunnels projects
HBLR is expected to get $300 Million ~ $500 Million from New Starts program (Total cost about $1 Billion)
Hope this extension is so successful → could extend further north to Bergen County
Public hearing on 04/24 in Englewood, NJ

2. ‘Avora’ Phase II released on Weehawken waterfront

3. NYC is tough on short term rent ( less than 30days)

$60,000 fine issued to a Manhattan building owner (A hotel owner at 103^rd St on Broadway, advertised a short term rent for a single room at Hotwire.com, Booking.com)
NYC law prohibits to advertise on Airbnb, web site, newspaper, radio, flyer, e mail for less than 30 days rent
1^st offence: $1,000, 2^nd offence:$5,000, 3^rd offence: $7,500

4. Manhattan commercial buildings increases seller concession

Vacancy rate goes up → induce more concession
New trend to give concession to retail store owner(tenant) → Landlord pays facility/utility cost or renovation cost
In the past, rent increase too much → 49^th ~ 60^th St & 5^th Ave : $ 3,213 / sf (50% increase for 5years)
Vacancy rate: 10.1% in 4^th QT 2015 → 15.9% in 4^th QT 2016

5. Bergen County Executive James Tedesco unveiled 2017 budget $522 Million

$8 increase on the average assessed at $466,000 (Tax levy: $413 Million: increased by 1.89%)
After departmental 20 hearings, board will approve → sent to the State to formally adopt
$126 Million → Employee health benefits/Statutory charges
$99 Million → Departmental operations
$89.2 Million → Capital improvement (Repair bridges, Resurface roads, Buy snow plows, Vehicles, New computers, Improve parks, golf courses etc.)
$61 Million → Education fund(Bergen Community College)
$31 Million → Prosecutor’s office
2016: $32 increase / 2015: $13 increase

6. Trump’s Tax Reform → benefit to rich people?

If tax reform approved, top class get tax decrease → 1/3 of middle class pay more tax
AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) over $1Million → $113,560 Tax saving
AGI over $500K will get 63.4% of benefit of tax reduction plan → Only 2% of tax payers
AGI between $50K ~ $250K middle class: 1/3 of them will pay more tax
Reason: Current 7 classes → only 3 classes (12, 25 and 33%)
AGI between $25K ~ $50K → 21,4% will pay more tax
AGI between $50K ~ $100K → 33% will pay more tax
AGI between $100K ~ $250K → 39,5% will pay more tax
AGI between $500K ~ $1Million → Only 4.2% will pay more tax
The analysis was based on NYC 365,000 residents.

7. ‘KidZania’ will come to ADM (American Dream Meadowland) in 2019

80,000 sf ‘Mini-City’ layout for the aged 4 ~ 14 children to experience real life of more than 100 professions, including baker, doctor, truck driver, or board member
KidZania founded in 1999 by Mexican entrepreneur Xavier Lopez Ancona
Sponsors help to provide each role playing(Coca Cola, Honda, John & Johnson, Sony and Kellogg’s etc.)
Current operation in London, Cairo, Singapore and Tokyo
Future target area → Dallas, Chicago, Paris and Johannesburg (ADM in East Rutherford)
ADM is being developed by Triple Five (Canadian Co) since 2010, including 638,000 indoor water and amusement park, indoor snow park, Observation wheel (like London Eye), art performing center, ice skating rink, and 1Million sf retail spaces
In 2003, NJ Sports and Exposition Authority chose the Mills Corp/Mack-Cali Xanadu project

8. Jan. Home prices Up, highest in 2.5 years

Tight supply of properties → triggers buyer bidding wars
Case-Shiller 20-city home price index up by 5.7% in Jan, the most since July 2014
S&P/Dow Jones say higher IR won’t slow sales until later this year
Biggest gain → Seattle, Portland and Denver
1.75 Million homes listed in Feb → 6.4% lower than a year ago, near the lowest level since
NAR began tracking the data in 1999

9. Construction Spending rises to nearly 11 year high

US developers ramped up construction spending in Feb: increased by 0.8% → highest level since April 2006
More building of homes, highways, schools
Builder rapidly putting up more homes in response to strong demand that pushed up prices for existing homes → Still not enough to relieve shortage of homes for sale.

10. Paul Yoon (Lawyer) run for Fort Lee city council member

Democrat, President of Fort Lee Korean association since 2015
Defeated last time in 2014 (with more than 1,000 votes)
Graduated from University of Pennsylvania / used to be a prosecutor in Essex county

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