As schools head into their last weeks this is the time when more and more sellers decide to put their home on the market. May continues to hover around 50 pending residential home sales each week. This third week had 49 homes make it under contract in 8 Northern New Jersey towns. West Orange led the pack with 9 and Livingston fell behind with 3, but Livingston really is doing okay when you realize it had only 135 residential homes on the market as of May 22 while West Orange had 388.

Below are the number of homes that went under contract between May 16 - May 22, 2010; open the document to the right to see the addresses:
Livingston = 3
Maplewood = 6
Millburn/Short Hills = 6
Montclair = 8
Nutley = 6
South Orange = 7
Verona = 4
West Orange = 9

Knowing the price a home was listed it when it went under contract gives you an indication of the price point that brings in a buyer ready to purchase. It doesn't tell you exactly what the home sold for, but it gives you a recent view of the market. Your real estate agent can check with the listing agent to see if there were multiple offers or other useful information. The buyer is happy that he found a home worthy of purchasing and the seller is happy she received an acceptable offer. Now the goal is to actually get both parties successfully through home inspection and the mortgage to make it to the closing table.

Most of the towns continue to have relatively the same amount of single-family homes on the market this week, compared to last week. Here is the list of residential homes for sale in each town as of May 22:
Livingston = 135
Maplewood = 160
Millburn/Short Hills = 116
Montclair = 170
Nutley = 147
South Orange = 136
Verona = 86
West Orange = 388

This information is brought to you by Bev and Bob Meaux, your source for everything real estate in and around Maplewood, Millburn/Short Hills, West Orange and South Orange, New Jersey and your short sales resource. Work with a team who will get you across the finish line, watching your back every step of the way -- Bev and Bob Meaux.