New Jersey Home Prices Set to Increase in 2013X

New Jersey has seen its highs and lows in the housing market. But since 2005, the NJ real estate market has been plagued with a severe recession and natural emergencies that has thrown the market into a downward cycle.  But lately recent real estate reports are showing a nice cross between housing becoming more affordable according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) affordability index as well as reports which indicate that New Jersey homes are a good investment as they “…appreciate better than the nation as a whole,” notes NAR officials.  They also report that “…the seven year appreciation rate (2002-2009) for New Jersey homeowners is 37.1 percent, more than five times the national rate of 7.1 percent.

Even with home prices reaching low points across the country, New Jersey’s unique advantages still make it a smart place to invest in real estate, said NAR officals.

The Housing Predictor website reported that after a record long lull in the housing market, “…New Jersey’s home prices are poised to increase in 2013.  In a recent study by Housing Predictor, “New Jersey appraiser Jeffrey Otteau said he expects prices to rise gradually, taking until 2020 to return to 2005 levels.”

The Housing Indicator also reported, “…that after dropping roughly 27 percent since the peak of the housing boom in the mid-2000s, New Jersey’s median home prices will increase about 3 percent in 2013, owing in large part to heightened demand.”

Median home prices in New Jersey in the first quarter of 2013 are now at $262,300 which is still above the national median home prices of the same period:  $176,000.