According to Multiple Listing Service data provided by the Prudential New Jersey Properties in Verona and analyzed by MyVeronaNJ.com, 168 single family homes and condos went under contract in 2012, up from 131 in 2011.
In 2012, 66 of the sales–or 39%–were for condominiums, many of which were in the two large Claridge towers on Verona’s eastern ridge. There were only 38 condo sales in 2011, accounting for 29% of the total sales that year.
In all $55,381,003 in real estate changed hands last year, which again sounds like good news. But only 36 of the 168 properties went to contract at or above their original listing price. Had everything that sold actually sold at the original price, we would have been looking at more than $59 million in sales. The properties sold also skewed toward the lower end of Verona’s market: 36 properties went for $200,000 or less, all but one a one-bedroom condominium.
One of the most historic properties in Verona finally sold in 2012. When 14 Manor Road came on the market in August 2010, it was a property that maybe only an old house lover could love. The house, built in 1880 for the man who donated the land for Verona Park, was a Carpenter Gothic in serious need of a carpenter. It found one last year in Lenny Shriber, a Prudential New Jersey Properties realtor who has made a specialty of buying and restoring homes in Verona.
And what about this year? “We’re extremely optimistic about the market going into 2013,” says Steve Janett, the chief operating officer of Prudential New Jersey Properties and a lifelong Verona resident. “I truly believe all the economics that are playing out now, the reasonable prices and low interest rates, will make people say in a few years ‘I’m so thankful I bought a house now’.”
