New Jersey blueberries and strawberries are in the last week of June.   Recession proof New Jersey peaches, corn and tomatoes are in the first two weeks of July.  Visit Matarazzo Farms, 216 Mountain Avenue, North Caldwell, open seven days a week.  For directions call (973) 226-3289.  Serving New Jersey since 1921, the last working farm closest to NYC.

One of the nicest townhouses I’ve seen condition wise in years.  This unit is immaculate and impeccable.  The townhouse features a new kitchen with new cabinets, countertops, appliances, tiled floors, updated baths, cathedral ceiling living room with gas fireplace, new carpet and freshly painted throughout.   Very clean unit even the air ducts have been professionally cleaned.  Priced $489,000.   For an appointment contact:  James R. Matarazzo Jr., Realtor Associate, John Young Realty/GMAC, (973) 885-2190,  Featured Listings:  http://www.JamesMatarazzoJr.com

Beautiful setting with overly large eleven room split level house for sale in the green gem town of North Caldwell.   Nestled in a private location this house features three floors of living space with an authentic in-law suite on top floor with private ingress and egress.   The house has four bedrooms, four full baths, living room with fireplace, family room with skylight, a large den with fireplace, and an oversized two car garage.  The backyard is beautiful with in-ground heated pool, large open space, and patio with gas grill.   This house is a great value for a large family or in-suite need.  Priced below market value at $875,000.   Contact James R. Matarazzo Jr., Realtor Associate, John Young Realty/GMAC for an appointment.   Visit other featured listings at http://www.JamesMatarazzoJr.com

1.   Unrealistic Home Sellers.  These relics of another time and market missed the cocktail party chat and water cooler angst by the transitional sellers of 2007.   Cautions included:  pricing their home right, consider home-sale contingencies, and offer closing cost givebacks.  Hear-n0-evil-sellers were overlooked by buyers who pined for reality minded ones.

 2.  McMansions:  Size doesn’t matter if it’s not well finished.  A large voluminous home whose best attribute is the square-footage is waning.  Home buyers are looking for quality not quantity in 2008.   After all, who has the money to replace the faux-hardwood floors, builder grade carpet and fiberglass bathtubs?

 3.  “Order-Taking” Real Estate Agents:  The hive during the boom years was real estate, and multitudes of the dot-com-busted became the worker-bees of real estate sales.  Everyone and anyone got licensed and into the frenzy.   Litte did they know that seasoned, full-time professional agents possessed ready, willing and able buyers, knew how to sooth seller’s anexieties, and produced the fifth highest year in real estate sales, in 2007.

4.   Empty for Sale Homes:   Buyers thought people “lived” in houses, but after seeing one-quarter of the homes they viewed empty, they wondered.  Even though staging was the buzzword, getting the right was prickly in 2007.  Those leftover silk flowers, the left behind mis-matched furniture, and the one-off design-show decorating scheme were buyer no-no’s. 

5.  Option Arms (Adjustable Rate Mortgages)  Buyers have heard that these loans usually have only one option; foreclosure.  Used by the rich for short-term financing, they were re-packaged to buyers who wanted to qualify for the highest loan amount.  Negative amortization is the harsh reality of Option Arms.

What’s In for Essex Suburbs Real Estate in 2008

1.  Home Buyers-With swelling inventories, buyers rule in 2008, and know it.  Buyers are looking for newly updated kitchens and baths, prestine conditions, and a perception of value.

2.  Short Sales-Homeowners who have over-extended themselves financially are increasingly looking to their mortgage holder to accept less than is owed on the property.  Some mortgagees will accept less than is owed through a short sale, in place of taking ownership of a home back through foreclosure.

 3.   Down Payments-Sexy home mortgages are out.  Those who underwrite home loans are looking for substance from potential home buyers.  Substance equates into disciplined savings and credit scores.

 4.  Monitoring and Controlling with hand-held devices.  Forgot to turn off the coffee maker, want to close/open the blinds and turn the heat down or the air conditioning up?  The  latest technology utilizes hand-held devices to open or close blinds, turn on or off the lights, or let fido out the electric pet door.

 5.  Off-Grid Homes.   Solar panels, windmills and inverters are here to stay, in a big way.  With brown-outs and power line-damaging storms on the increase, buyers in 2008 will ask for hybrid home-energy options, even being partially off-grid beats getting expensive power from coal-fired utilities, to these eco-energy users.

6.   Destination Bathrooms.  The master bath has evolved into the home getaway with multiple task areas.  Freestanding or “throne” bathtubs (bath thrones) in the center of a soaking room, multiple flat screen TVs and wireless Internet ensure you don’t miss anything as you move from bathing to grooming to lounging.

Buying a new construction home?  These are seven of the biggest mistakes in today’s current buyer’s market:

 1.  Choosing upgrades with the lowest Return on Investment or too many upgrades.

 2.  Not examining your lot choice thoroughly enough.

 3.  Finding communities first, vitals second.

 4.  Overlooking the “inspection” clause in contracts.

 5.  Not using a licensed real estate buyer agent on your behalf.

 6.  Using the builder endorsed financing company out of convenience.

 7.  Believing everything you read in advertisements.

Many of the above points, can be utilized in all types of real estate purchases.  I would be glad to assist you in finding your dream home, first purchase or home of choice as your buyer’s agent representative.   Feel free to contact me to discuss your real estate needs.

 James R. Matarazzo Jr., Realtor Associate

Claire Rosen

“Dolls in the Attic” & “Me Myself & I”, two collections of images created by Claire Rosen, documents a moment that many of us experience when faced with having to turn our backs to the dreamlike splendor that enveloped us while growing up in a place like Montclair and to go to find our place in the real world.

If you don’t know the atmospheres of Montclair, the views of Manhattan at a safe distance and the splendid manor houses, it is not easy to understand that one leaves to  begin to climb the ladder of adult life with a tinge of nostalgia.

The mosaics of the Roman Empire at Villa del Casale in Sicily remind me of this emotion. Most memorable is the mosaic portrait of the villa owner’s son. Although all that is surrounding is magnificent…. splendid, there is a remarkable sadness in his eyes, as if he understands that soon times will change due to the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of a harder adult life.

….well apparently Claire Rosen takes this transition in her life MUCH better than the Roman Emperor’s son. She refuses to be put in a velveteen box in the attic; instead, she rolls up her stain gown’s sleeves, poises herself in front of a camera and gets to work! Rosen presents herself to society as an artist and professional photographer. Differing from Wegman’s dogs, or Arbus’s monsters or even Glenridge’s Cindy Sherman who portrays herself as other characters, Claire Rosen portrays herself and the beautiful atmospheres that are in reality her natural habitat as if to exclaim…here I am…I’m ready…lets go!    Frank Gerard Godlewski c April 7, 2008

The former Edison battery factory on Main street is part of a 21-acre property along Main Street, West Orange.  A redevelopment project estimated at 230 million dollars will begin its first phase of Edison Village.   The factory part will be renovated and rebuilt with 28 two-bedroom penthouses with dens, glassed-in terraces and patio space.  316 condos will be created for the first phase of building.  The style of units will range from condo studios at 700 square feet to 2,300 square feet penthouses with an anticipated occupancy date of fall of 2009.  Historic regulations requires that original window demensions and framing will be precisely reproducted.  The projected entire project will consist of 620 residential units, stores and a parking garage.  This renaissance project will be a major economic boost for the township of West Orange, its main thoroughfair, Main Street, and adjacent historic Llewellyn Park.

Llewellyn Park was one of the first planned residential communities in America.  The gated community boasts over 425 acres and 175 homes of park like equisite estates with rambling lawns, wooded country living, tranquil settings, privacy and security.  A number of Llewellyn’s Park’s homes were designed by prominent American architects including Alexander Jackson Davis, Calvert Vaux, Charles McKim, Stanford White and Robert A.M. Stern.

Architect Alexander Jackson Davis is particulary important to the development of the park as well as the Essex suburbs for he created the style of “Americana Revival Mansion”, in which grand estate summer homes were built for the New York Elite with side parlours and rap around porches for the use of wicker furnature during summer months.  The side parlour rooms on the first floors were utilized to entertain during the summer months and the winter months to store the outdoor wicker furniture.  The Americana Revival Mansion style can be found in the Essex County suburb towns of Montclair-South Mountain Avenue, North Mountain Avenue, Upper Mountain Avenue (check out James’ blog title-”Montclair Preservation-Americana Revival Mansion saved from destruction”), Gates Avenue, Lloyd Road, Glen Ridge’s Ridgewood Avenue, South Orange-Montrose section, and Orange-Seven Oaks section.  Alexander Jackson Davis, was Llewellyn Solomon Haskell’s cheif architect who helped him design the park.   Alexander Jackson Davis is particularily notorious as New York City’s best architect of his time, but significant to New Jersey with the creation of the ”Romantic Landscape” in which he and Mr. Haskell believed that no streets should be a linear line or end in cul-de-sacs.  Llewellyn Haskell, a New York businessman, purchased hundreds of acres in the 1850’s and resold them to executives who could afford countryside villas.   Some scholars believe that Llewellyn Haskell, can be noted for bringing the pharmaceutical industry from New York to New Jersey.

Llewellyn Park has been known for its underground railroad movement, as well as the National Registered home, “Glenmont”, Thomas Edison’s home, which is open daily to the public for tours.

For Llewellyn Park real estate needs contact:  James R. Matarazzo Jr., Realtor Associate, John Young Realty/GMAC Luxury Estates Division (973) 885-2190.  He specializes in historic and grand estates.