Weekly News (August 15, 2018)

1. School districts joining plan might affect Northern Bergen County schools

Tenafly operates elementary, middle, high schools
Closter, Demarest, Old Tappan have only elementary and middle schools. High school go to NVRH
Stephen Sweeney (President of NJ Senate) proposed the plan that those towns with elementary and middle will be joined/merged→ 600 schools become 278, including Korean populated towns (Possible 10 towns where Korean students are over 10%)
Motives: high tax (NJ averag tax: $8670), may small schools less than 250 students→ less teachers, less operating expenses
Administrator: average $122,500 / teacher: average $74,000)
Possible joining towns: Allendale, Alpine, Closter, Demarest, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, Harrington Park, Hillsdale, Norwood, Oradell, River Edge

2. H Mart will open it’s store at NYU Alumni Hall

3. House price is soaring for consecutive 14 months

According to Core Logic, as of June, 6.8% up from last year→ fastest pace since May 2014 considering yearly rate
14 consecutive month raise→ not cooling down, but ever more rising
This phenomena might intimidate younger people→ might shrink entire RE market
Housing price increasing is more than 2 times faster than income increasing
Core Logic forecasted 5.1% increase for next 12 months
According to Case-Shiller big 20 city index, 6.6% up in April→ 5% up at the end of May
According to Zillow, house of which median price over $1M→ twice for last 5 years (total 197 towns and 33 joined last year)→ Zillow forecasted 23 towns will be added to the list for next 12 months

4. 1 out of 10 houses with mortgage in US are underwater

According to Atom Data Solution, 24.5%(13.6M) of mortgaged houses have fair equity (fair equity means mortgage balance is under 50% of the current market price)
5% (5.5M) of mortgaged house are underwater
In California, 43.5% have fair equity. Hawaii:38.3%. NY:33.2% OR:32.8%
San Jose: 71.9%, San Francisco: 60.8%, LA:47.9%, Seattle:41.1%, San Diego:40%
House price increase→ home equity increase→ underwater house decreased→ more houses pay mortgage

5. Household debt is being increased under economic boom

Many household are not able to pay credit card debt and increasing debt, or default
BOA and Chase’s defaulted credit card balance is up by 10%, 9% respectively from last year (subprime people’s debt increased by 26%)
According to Lendingtree.com, revolving debt→ $16.25B in May→ highest since 1995
Total debt including home mortgage→ $3.86T → will become $4T this year

6. Town name might reveal that the town is rich town or not

Research work done→ ending with “hills” are most rich towns
Houses on Mountain hills, top of hills, ocean view, lake view are most expensive
Likewise, “island”, “oaks” “acres” “beach” “Harbor” are selected for rich towns
Also “highland” “canyon” “forest” “bay” are rich towns
Towns with hills→ income: $89,976
The other hand, “Los” at the end→ income: $29,757
“University” “Springs” “Las” “White” “Little”→ average income: $42,000
“Red” “Vista” “Union” “City”→ $40,000 range
May not absolute, but some indication to refer

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