Hello from NJ, Looking to Invest in Irvington

[Chaim Kay]

Hello Everyone my name is Chaim Kay and I very excited to be joining this site.

I browsed for a while and finally decided to introduce myself.

Currently I am looking at Irvington NJ area since the prices look very attractive for a first time investor. I see a lot of one and two family houses on the market that are priced under $100K. Checked some data and it seems that some of them were bought in 2005 -2006 at about the triple current price.Tax values and zillow estimates are way above asking prices. Hence the question, were they overpriced at the time? Are they hard/impossible to rent so the current owners are trying to cash them out at such loss? Has the area deteriorated tremendously? I really appreciate any input.

[Ibrahim Hughes]

Welcome Chaim - Be careful with Irvington. It's a nice town with very high taxes and some real sketchy areas you'll probably want to stay away from unless you're buying dirt cheap (and some might say that you can never buy cheap enough in Irvington - I don't hold that opinion, btw).

The taxes are sky high and the cost of doing business here (i.e. $600 for a CO for a 3 unit residential property) aint cheap. As a result, depending on WHERE in Irvington you buy, the resale values aren't very high.

Geographically, like many areas in NJ, the best neighborhoods border the best towns. And the worse neighborhoods border.....you know the rest). Having said that, you'll find lower prices and higher crime on the East side (often referred to as the 'South side' ) of Irvington which borders Newark. While the more desirable 'Upper Irvington' section borders Union and Maplewood. There's also a decent section that borders Hillside.

To answer your question about the properties that were purchased in 2005-2006. Many of these properties going to foreclosure today or listed as short sales were purchased between 2004-2007. The market was overpriced during the tail end of that period (right before the bubble), musical chairs were played by buyers who didn't know any better, and many folks got left out when the music stopped. These properties would have already been taken by the banks by now if it wasn't for the 'robo-signing fiasco' which effectively restarted many of these foreclosures.

So there you have it on 'Ghosttown' (nickname for Irvington by some of the young locals). There's money to be made there but you have to be very careful what and where you buy.