Exclusive | NJs suburbs are in a full-blown bidding war frenzy with houses going 33% above asking
New Jersey’s suburban gold rush has no ceiling in sight, and buyers are paying whatever it takes.Forty-two Euclid Ave in Maplewood hit the market at $1,795,000.It sold for $2,279,000, a staggering 27% above ask.
Down the road in South Orange, 376 Melrose Pl listed for $998,999 and closed at $1,332,200, a 33% premium. These aren’t outliers.They’re the new normal across a stretch of Essex and Union County suburbs where inventory has all but evaporated and buyers are throwing caution, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the wind.Maplewood, South Orange and Montclair are leading the charge, with homes across the region averaging double digit percentages over asking price and spending under two weeks on the market before going under contract.The numbers, according to weekly market data compiled by Mark Slade of Keller Williams Midtown Direct Realty, tell the story clearly. Maplewood’s average sale price sits at $1.34 million as of late June, with buyers paying 15.6% over ask.
South Orange isn’t far behind at 16.2% over asking with an average sale price topping $1.27 million.Montclair, meanwhile, is running the hottest of the bunch, with buyers paying nearly 25% over list.Slade, who has tracked these markets since becoming a realtor in 2009, says the upward march has been remarkably steady. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a down-trending year in Maplewood, South Orange or Montclair,” he told The Post, adding that the last several years in particular have brought “dramatic changes in the performance of the market.”The pandemic supercharged an existing trend, according to Slade, who traces the appeal of these towns back to 1997, two years after Midtown Direct train service began running straight into Penn Station without a transfer in Hoboken. “That’s when we started to see some movement, some significant movement and attraction to the area,” he said.Slade has a name for what’s happening now.
He calls it “value convergence equilibri...