Those of you that know me are aware that my lease on my current apartment expires at the end of May and that I am NOT looking to renew it. For the first time in three years I’m going to have to get up and move to a new location. The problem is that this “new location” has been extremely difficult to find!
I should state that I am NOT looking to rent another apartment or get involved in a long-term lease again. There are a bunch of places for rent in the Monmouth County area, especially where I’m looking, but many of these places have a history of crime that I’m just not interested in getting involved with. I mean who wants to take all of their worldly possessions and put them in an apartment complex where there is a good chance that some crack whore is going to steal all of it? Certainly not me…
Over the last few weeks I’ve been searching for a new home, but the problem with the Monmouth County real estate market is that while the rest of the real estate market has crashed, the home owners in this area just refuse to believe it. And it’s blatantly apparent from just taking a drive around the Long Branch/Ocean Township/West Long Branch area. Everywhere you go – on every single street – you see “for sale” signs posted on front lawns. Many of these signs have been there for months and a few have been there for at least a year. Now that I’m searching for a home, I know why they’ve been there for so long – the owners are insane!
Part of me feels bad for these investor-owners because they probably bought these home (as investment properties) during the hey day of the real estate boom a few years back and are now looking to sell for the return that they were promised. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. You cannot sell a home that sold for $325 thousand in 2003 for $1.2 million in 2007 (yes, I did see such a ridiculous price on a house). The real estate market in Monmouth County does NOT support a 400% increase in value – even in the nicer areas of Long Branch and West Long Branch!
The saddest part of all of this is that there is a group of realtors in the Monmouth County area who all refuse to tell these owners the truth – their property is NOT worth what they thought it would be when they bought it. So what is the end result? You have a bunch of property owners living in Brooklyn, New York who think that they own a piece of heaven down in West Long Branch, New Jersey when in reality all they have are vacant properties with “for sale” signs in the front lawn.
And then you have people like me – who are content just to buy a condo or town house. What do I have to work with? A bunch of condos a few towns over from where I’d like to live that are moderately priced, but still out of my price range. Well, I shouldn’t say that…there are a few condos that I could afford where I’m looking. However, these are the condos that aren’t as lavishly appointed as the ones that you’d REALLY want to live in and these are the condos where you can hear your neighbor’s television as you’re watching your own.
Looks like for a short time I’ll be putting my stuff into storage and commuting to work from my parents’ house. That’s right – my 2 hour daily commute will now be a 3 hour daily commute and I’ll be a bundle of joy!
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