Weekly News (August 7, 2019)

This week’s Interest Rate

     30 Y Rate: 3.500%/  15 Year Rate:3.150%/ 10 Y Treasury: 1.716%/  Prime Rate:5.25%

Ref IR: 2.00- 2.25%

 

“Daiso” Japan opened its super store in Edgewater, NJ

(The Korea Daily  8/6)

  • Daiso store(7000sf) location is next door to Mitsuwa Market Place in Edgewater: 595 River Rd, Edgewater, NJ. 1st store opened at Skyview Center in Queens, NY  on March last year.  Open house event attracted huge crowd including Asian and American.  The store will have Home appliances, Stationary, Gift items, Cards, Electronics, Accessory, Snack, etc. (7000 items in US and 70,000 items in the world)
  • There are 2800 stores in Japan and 600 in the world outside Japan.  There are 60 stores in US and Daiso is growing with fast pace in US: 10-20 new stores every month.
  • Daiso will open 3 more stores this year in Tri-state area.
  • daisoglobal.com

 

Tenafly residents pay 2nd highest education tax in New Jersey

(The Korean  Daily  7/30)

  • Tenafly pays average $13,477 education tax which is 65% of total property tax.  Tenafly is 2nd highest and the highest town is Mountain Lake in Morris county.  Demarest pays $13,140 which is 66.3% of property tax. Ridgewood pays $11,753 which is 65.4% of property tax.
  • Palisades Park pays $4,769 and Fort Lee pays $4,642, Leonia pays $7,618, Englewood Cliffs pays $5,105 as education tax respectively.

 

Palisades Park (NJ) Parking meters are under repair

(The Korea Daily  8/7)

  • Meters are not working about a month.  Some meters has no electric power provided due to new payment work.  Customers do not need to pay parking fee on the non-operating meters for a while.  Town government says they will complete the repair work including re-connecting power system by 3rd week of August.
  • Many customers are concerned about the town parking situation and try to go to other town to eat and shop.
  • Town is reviewing the contract with the current parking meter contractor as well.

 

Palisades Park Police Chief will resign

 (The Korea Times  8/1)

  • On 7/31, according to town officials, Police chief Mark Jackson, a 35 year veteran said he will to accept the request on resignation.  While police chief absence, town police committee said two police captains will serve as acting police chief.
  • Recently provisionary officer William Duarte was arrested in Fort Lee and charged for drunken driving early this month, but palisade Park police department did not report and did not issue any disciplinary action.

 

Arguing on Englewood Cliffs Apartment construction project will go to a trial

(The Korea Daily  8/1)

  • Town council meeting has decided to move forward to a trial instead of pre-bargain negotiation. (The development company Normandy has sued the town for their proposed apartment complex contraction project).  A council member mentioned that there is some risk for a trial, but town council decided according to will of residents.
  • The Normandy’s proposal is to build 80 low-income units and 320 commercial/rental units.  Hired real estate professionals mentioned that the court judge might demand more low-income units that the current proposal.  However, most of residents who participated in the project presentation meeting do not agree with those professionals, and they said they will need to replace those real estate professionals.
  • Meantime, the application for recall for Gloria Oh and Edward Aversa has been completed on 7/30/2019 after some glitch on the application process. If quorum has been met, then they will move to resident vote in next election period.

 

Hudson Yard units have highest number of units which can use swimming pool

 (The Korea Times 8/3 )

  • In NYC apartment/condo complex, Hudson Yard complex have the highest number of unit one can use swimming pool.  According to localize.com reported that 73% of residents in Hudson Yard could use swimming pool in July, which is #1 in NYC.
  • Hudson Yard project budget is $25B which is the biggest development project by individual investors in NY.  Median listing price of Hudson Yard residential is $875,000.
  • #2 place for swimming pool access is Brooklyn downtown and 50% of residents could use swimming pool.  Median listing price in this area is $1.48M.
  • #3 place is Battery Park( Median listing price is $1.57M) and 41% of residents could access swimming pool.

 

Retail condos in Harlem, Manhattan sold at $19.5M ($590/sf)

(The NYT  8/7)

  • This 33,047 sf set of retail condos at 1325 & 1330 Fifth Ave between W 111th and 112th Street, one block from north of Central Park sold at $590/sf.  The property was built in 1989, and has 13 occupied units including Maxwell’s central park restaurant, Harlem Academy and Birch Coffee.

 

Federal Reserve Bank lowered 0.25% Ref IR to 2.00 – 2.25% on 7/31/2019.

(The Korea Times/Daily  8/1)

  • The decision lowering Ref IR is the first time in 10 year and 7 month since Dec 2008.  On 7/31 FOMC meeting has decided to lower FRR(Federal Reference Rate) by 0.25% from 2.25-2.5% to 2.00-2.25%.  FRB has decided to lower due to worry for global economy downturn even though low un-employment rate, strong employment, household expense recovery, etc.
  • FRB reported that still there are concerns about global economy, slow down of corporate expenditure, and inflation rate is still under 2%.
  • President Trump has pushed FRB to lower much more than 0.25%.

 

Extending of Loosening DTI limit is under consideration by CFPB

(The Korea Daily  8/1)

  • CFPB is considering extending loosening mortgage process standards: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac QM standards till Jan 2021.  Major item of QM is to limit DTI under 43%.  The opposing side expressed their opinion that it will trigger more house price increase.
  • CFPB mentioned that it will make market atmosphere to protect consumers by adjusting process standards.
  • In March, Urban Institute reported that 19% (3.3M loans) of mortgage loans issued during 2014 – 2018 were possible default loans.

 

Other/Tech News : Amazon’s robot will deliver the goods in Irvine, Cal.

(The Record 8/7)

  • Blue color Six-wheeled robots, about the size of cooler, with Amazon smile logo will deliver the goods to doorsteps during only daytime.  The name of robot is “Scott”

Join The Discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Compare listings

Compare