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 

• 39 3rd Ave. (on 3rd Ave. between 9th Ave. and 10th Ave.)
• Size: 3800sf→ 3rd store in Manhattan
• 1st store : in K town / 2nd store at 2828 Broadway

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