by stephenlee - Fighting to save homes in Leonia against condemnation
- The town Leonia initiated re-development study to be conducted along Fort Lee road, Grand Ave and Schor Avenue and sent out the letter to residents
- Light rail station in Leonia might be connected to this study, which a part of long-awaited Bergen-Hudson Light Rail extension
- No time line for the construction for the extension project, but NJ Transit agency says that they are waiting for approval form FTA to publish the final environmental impact study
- Fort Lee public parking garage, New landmark, is built by Korean American
- Tim Hasse construction company specialized in parking garage has built about 2000 top level parking garages in US
- It will open in March: 4 story parking deck with 352 spaces inside and 273 outside spaces
- CEO, HyungRok Ha is an elite graduated from University of Pennsylvania (U Pen) and Christian business man. Recently he became a pastor and he built a church next to company building in Philadelphia
- Palisades Park, NJ opposes the budget for new education fund
- Education committee is preparing $56 M budget increase for school renovation
- The committee proposed that 40% of the budget will be supported by the State and the rest will be imposed to residents tax, which will raise reputation and property values
- Palisades Park voters associations suggested to perform investigation of the current systems and analysis prior to decision on the huge budget increase
- The association claims that new officers promised first transparent administration, finding wrong expenses which leads to lower tax
- “Hudson Yard” in Manhattan becomes famous new dinning district
- Hudson Yard officially opens on 3/15/2019
- About 20 high quality restaurants will open with well-known chefs: Thomas Keller, David Chang, Michael Lomonaco and Mercado Little Spain district
- Hudson Yard development cost was $25 B total located between 30th and 34th street and between 10th and 12th
- It is rare that all top quality restaurants are all in one location in Manhattan
- Disadvantage is 1) transportation is not easy in west side and 2) average price for food is $75.00/person
- Mixed Use building in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, NY sold at $4.05M
- 557-559 17th street, Brooklyn : 2 buildings built in 1931
- Total 7866 sf(4617+3249 sf) building consists of 8 apartment, retail stores and garage
- Sold at $514/sf Buyer is an individual investment company
- In US, San Francisco is with the highest rent price
- According to Zumper.com, New York is #2 even though it shows decrease from last year
- 1 bedroom rent in NYC is $2,780 dropped by 3% from last year
- 1 bedroom rent in San Francisco is $3,580 increased by 5% from last year
- San Jose is #3 at $2,530 increased by 3% from last year
- Boston ($2,420 increased by 5%) is #4, Los Angeles ($2,400 increased by 8%) is #5, Oakland ($2,370 increased by 1.3%) is #6
- Only NYC and Washington DC ($2,130 dropped by 7%) rent dropped in 2018
- Foreign born college graduates are more than US born
- After 2000, foreign born college graduates is 38.8 of total college graduates while US born is 35.2%
- Foreign born was 31.1% in 1990’s, increased by 7.5%
- As of 2018, for Asian between 25-29, 7 out of 10 (69.5%) are college graduates while it was 59% in 20013, increased by 20%
- Mortgage IR going down for 3 weeks continually
- Freddie Mac announced 4.35% (30 year fixed) dropped by 0.02% from last week/dropped by 0.05% from the last year (4.40%)
- 5 year ARM is $3.84%, dropped by 0.04% from last week
- Sam Carter, chief economist at Freddie Mac, mentioned that 1) income is increased at the same of house price increase 2)inventory is being increased 3)expectation of housing market is recovered from a few month slow-down
- Federal Reserve will contemplate future monetary policy more cautiously
- Chair Powell’s key word for this year is “Patience”
- Powell mentioned that US economy looks strong in general, but shown bit of reverse or conflict sign during last a few months
- Current Ref IR will stay at 2.25 – 2.5% for awhile
