Archive for the 'Suburban Living' Category

If you are reading this, you are probably one of the 90% of buyers who searched for a home online this year.  According to the National Association of Realtors only 37% performed this activity 10 years ago.  Here are 7 stats that have changed – or not changed over the past decade:

1. 1999: 37% of buyers searched for a home online. 2009: 90% of buyers searched for a home online.
2. 1999: median home value is $137,600. 2009: median home value is $172,600
3. 1999: 82% of buyers purchased detached, single family homes. 2009: 78% of buyers purchased detached, single family homes.
4. 1999: 46% of buyers choose suburban neighborhoods. 2009: 54% of buyers choose suburban neighborhoods.
5. 1999: 68% of buyers were married couples. 2009: 60% of buyers are married couples.
6. 1999 and 2009: the median age for buyers was 39.
7. 1999 and 2009: “neighborhood quality, affordability, and convenience to work and school have consistently been top priorities.”

I bought my Montclair home just over a decade ago –11 years to be exact– and it has doubled in value, current market conditions notwithstanding.  Happy to be living here in Essex County, NJ and not where the median home value has increased by a mere 25% (see #2, above).

(Lani Rosales, December 31, 2009, Agent Genius Blog)

Anthropologie—the big retailer with modern urban style clothing and home goods–has opened its doors in Montclair in time for the holiday shopping season.  I’m sure there is some grumbling as people roll their eyes at $200 corduroy pants and worry that chain stores will threaten the character of our very indie town.  Me, I welcome Anthroplogie here.  I think ultimately we need a few William Sonomas and Gaps to anchor the smaller retail offerings of our town and keep it vibrant and walkable.  Unlike mom and pop shops, the big chain stores have national funding to stay open seven days a week and later in to the evening.  Anthropologie is open late–until 9 pm at night—my own preferred shopping time.

There’s a positive ripple effect.  With longer store hours people walk in the streets until later, and they’re more likely to go get some dinner or a coffee on Church Street after they’ve browsed (or shopped in the store).    Anthropologie gives outsiders another reason to bypass the mall and come visit Montclair, and maybe pop into Semplice or the Montclair Book Center.

What’s interesting is that more and more big retail stores want to be located in a walkable downtown like ours.  For the first time in forty years, the trend is shifting away from malls.  People want to shop locally.  They don’t want to get on a highway to buy a pair of jeans or that perfect gift.

This holiday season you’ll find me at the sale rack sometime around 8:30 pm.  Anthropologie is located at the corner of Church Street and Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair.

I’m not a big mall person.  The whole ordeal of driving 20 minutes only to look for parking for another 20 minutes has turned me off.  These days I’m shopping locally in Montclair, and starting today, Oct 15th, 50 plus stores will keep their doors open until at least 8 pm.  Some of my personal favorites are: Terra for their fair trade merchandise and homemade goodies, semplice for their hip take on home furnishings and the new Anthropologie for their inspiring retro-handmade combinations.

Here’s a list of all the stores that are extending their hours this holiday season:

Accents With Flowers

Afro-Brazilian Cultural Center of NJ

Alicia’s

Amanti Vino

American Sampler

Anthropologie

Artistic Illuminations of Montclair

Aunt Jean’s Toys & Treats

Blu Lotus

Bobbi Brown Studio

Buds For You

Catcom

Chez Renee

Cisco Station

ColorStoryHome

Creative Endeavors

Culture Couture

Dobbs

Dulce Candy Boutique

Euro Glass Art

Essex Fine Arts Gallery

Fleet Feet

Four Eyes & Ears

Gallery 51

Gallery Loupe

Go Lightly

Glenridge Taekwon-do

Hampton House

HipNotique

Irish & More

Jerry’s Antiques

Johari

Little Cricket

Makeready Press

Modern Yarn

Montclair Antique Center

Montclair Art Museum

Montclair Pet & Feed

Nest & Company

O Soleil

Parlor Hair Salon

People Store

Phil Cantor Photography

Ruby

Sahana Spa

Salon Organic

semplice

Stix-n-Stitches

Terra

Tory Janes

Urban Outfitters

The Woodhouse Spa

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When I walk to Watchung Plaza from my Montclair home, I take a short route  through an interconnected grid of streets and through a small park.  I wave to my neighbor on the way.  I stop for a brief minute in the park to chat with a friend who’s on her way home from work (she’s just gotten off the 5:31 train from Manhattan).  It’s social.  It’s interactive.  It’s exercise.  It’s green.

On the other hand, it’s very difficult to walk to the train station, or the corner store to get milk in a town that is laid out in a branching street pattern with a series of dead-ends -aka cul-de-sacs- feeding in to a main artery. In these configurations, you can be a stone’s throw from your destination, but have to travel a mile to get there.  This may be a satisfactory layout for the car but not for the pedestrian or bike rider.

Watch this very clever video from the Congress for New Urbanism and you’ll see what I mean…

Last week I received my 2008 Homestead Rebate Application.  While I dutifully filled out the worksheet, I remembered my rebate from last year as being very minor, but better than nothing.  Lot and block number? Check.  Filing status number? Check. NJ Homeowner as of Oct 1, 2008? Check.  Only upon reading the fine print did I realize that I am no longer eligible.  As it turns out, one of the casualties of NJ’s 29 Billion dollar budget is the homestead rebate check for New Jersey homeowners making more than $75,000/year.  NJ residents who are elderly or disabled have a household income threshold of $150,000.

The deadline for filing an application for the 2008 NJ Homestead rebate is September 1 of 2009.  Worksheet packets were mailed to non-senior and non-disabled residents during the last week of July. If you did not receive your application call the Homestead Rebate Hotline at 1-888-238-1233 or on the web at www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation.

“The Homestead Rebate program provides rebates for homeowners and tenants who occupied their principal residence in New Jersey on Oct 1st, paid property taxes on that dwelling either directly or through rent, and whose gross income for the entire year does not exceed certain limits”