Millburn-Short Hills Real Estate Market Stays Strong

While early indications showed real estate prices throughout the state could drop significantly, the market stayed strong for Millburn and Short Hills in 2008.

In Millburn and Short Hills last year the average selling price dropped just less than 6 percent.  The overall New Jersey price drop was expected to be at around 12 percent, so our township seems to have fared much better than the early reports for New Jersey on the whole. In 2008 the average selling price was around $1,216,000 as compared to $1,293,000 in 2007, according to figures from Garden State Multiple Listing Service (GSMLS).

In contrast to other parts of New Jersey and the U.S., the inventory of unsold homes on the market here has stayed very low and even fallen at some points during the year.  The year ended with only 69 homes being listed on the GSMLS.  This is much lower than in previous years. The low inventory has helped keep the selling prices somewhat more stable than elsewhere. 

The overall number of homes that traded in Millburn and Short Hills in 2008 showed a 15 percent decline over the previous year. In 2007, 307 homes were sold, and 260 homes sold in 2008.  As might be expected, homes with an asking price under $1 million were the ones that continued to sell at the best rate.  A nearly equal number of homes sold in that range over this period with 149 selling in 2007 and 141 selling in 2008.

In the $1-$2 million dollar range the number of homes sold dropped from 110 to 85.  The most expensive homes, those over $2 million, showed the largest decline dropping from 50 in 2007 to 36 last year.  The most expensive home in 2007 was 180 Highland Ave., which sold for $5.6 million. In 2008 a slightly pricier home was the most expensive one traded, 71 Hillside at $6.1 million. 

The good news for sellers is that most homes are actually taking less time on the market to sell than they did a year ago. In 2008 the average number of days that a home was on the market was 52, whereas in 2007 it generally took 62 days for a house to sell.

This is most likely due to the fact that the inventory of available homes is low.  When a motivated buyer comes along, they have less selection to choose from therefore it takes less time to house hunt. Buyers do seem to be taking more liberties in negotiating as they managed to secure sales prices at 96.7 percent of the asking price in 2008, down a little from 97.9 percent in 2007.