From Realtors to Contractors: The Landscape of the Local Real Estate Market

Since the stock market crash of 2008, America’s economy has been working continuously to stabilize itself.  One area that continues to see its share of losses and gains is real estate, and the signs of the market's ups and downs are visible locally.

During a Planning Board meeting held at the Manalapan Township Municipal Building last Thursday, civil engineer John Ploskonka and property owner Alan Weiss went in front of nine board members to request a second one-year statutory extension for five homes that will be built on Iron Ore Road.

Ploskonka explained that these houses could not be built on the two-acre properties yet because “you just can’t sell them.”

When asked how the construction business has been over the past few years, his response, “It’s been pretty lousy,” came as no surprise.  “Talk to any real estate broker and they will tell you how bad the real estate market is.”

Although realtors cannot deny the poor quality of the seller’s market, several of them share in some optimism.

“We’ve improved year-to-date over the last year to date,” said Alice Schoemann, Coldwell Banker branch vice-president.  “That to me is very positive.”

However, one agent who has been working for a major real estate company for 32 years gave a slightly more blunt response when asked how the market has been.

“When someone asks a realtor how the market is, ‘Wonderful!’ They don’t want to tell people that the market is really very bad, which it is.  Because then they are just perpetuating the problem.”

The realtor went on to explain that “houses are going, but they’re going well below where people really are comfortable selling them.”

Still, she feels that when looking at the bigger picture, not all of these transactions are as miserable as they sound.

“Sellers have to be realistic and understand that even though they’re selling their houses way below what they thought they were going to, they’re also going to buy a new house well below what they thought they would pay.”

She believes it is not even the sellers, but the builders who are being hurt the most.  The anonymous agent observed that over the years a lot of contractors are becoming handymen.

Rather than new homes, such as the ones Ploskonka is involved in, most of today’s sales come from houses that were lived in, foreclosures, and short sales when the payments are fine, but the house is not longer worth what the mortgage amount is. The bank allows the owner to sell instead of putting it under foreclosure.

However, this agent believes that some of the power in changing the market lies within the community’s hands.

She feels that if enough people begin to understand that they will be not only selling a house for less than what they originally thought, but buying for less, “then the market will increase, it will improve, because there will be more activity going on.”