First Time Home Buyer - Union City NJ

[Steven C.]

Let me preface by saying that I wish I found this really awesome forum 6 months ago! I closed on a condo in February'22 and would have loved to hear your opinions on it beforehand. Alas, I still would appreciate the insights of local NJ investors here on the place we purchased.

The condo is a 3 bed, 2 bath, shade under 1.4k square feet on 19th Street in Union City (on the block between West and Bergenline). One parking garage space and a fire escape that also includes city views and we spruced it up a bit as a pseudo-deck. My fiancé and I were able to lock in a rate of 2.875% on a 30 yr and we put 20% down on a $520k sales price. The entire building is a new construction, in 2016, and there are two units below us. Each bedroom, the kitchen, and living room have mid-town Manhattan views. The HOA is low as it is self-managed between us and the other two units. We absolutely love it so far as we are true city people and enjoy having many of these conveniences near us in walking distance and also frequent Hoboken, JC, and Manhattan on a regular basis.

I would love to here your opinions on this neighborhood over a 5-7 year horizon (likely time frame where we would sell and move) from an investment perspective. Good opportunity for appreciation? Does Union City's UEZ deal with NJ expiring in 2026 affect investment in the city (though I figure it may be renewed)? Will proliferation of WFH and its potential impact on NYC affect the strong development in Hudson County that we saw pre-COVID?

Any and all opinions are welcome. I know that this is after the fact, but perhaps your refreshed opinions on Union City and this neighborhood in particular might be of use to others like me who browse the forum.

[Steve Schulman]

@Steven C. When I was prospecting two years ago, for my first 2Fam house-hack, I was renting in the Jersey City Heights neighborhood, looking for best “value” if you will. Simply put, it came down to Bayonne and Union City. settled on Bayonne however Union City was a close second. I see you recently purchased (congrats to you, keep buying); I am not sure how long you’ve been on the market. Union City going back the last few years post-Covid has been way more affordable, relatively speaking, compared to surrounding neighborhoods. And at the time when I was buying, everyone was running from UC.. I saw, at the time at least, UC was not a landlords friend. The rent control stipulations, the lack of permits driving growth, the City at the time at least being less pro-development (relative to surrounding neighborhoods at least) over tenant-friendly laws, etc. All of this causes priced to lag, and in most investors eyes deterred the city’s potential and growth. Yet at the time (and still today) I was all in. It’s all relative in RE… I was buying for the long term, and I knew it was the time to get in a market like this. Think Warren Buffets value-adding philosophy. Then apply it to RE investing. Union City was lagging for the obvious reasons— the municipal & city sucks, the mayor & people in office were too political blah blah blah… Whoever or whatever the reason was, at that moment they were going through growing pains; which we fixable, and can/will change in the future.. It was inevitable. The location is too good, you have to assume prices eventually will catchup to neighboring City’s. Fast forward today, I am seeing it all slowly come to fruition. I’m all in on Bayonne; the Communipaw neighborhood in Bergen Lafayette section of JC; small Weehawken section near downtown UC- Shippen St, Oak St & Highpoint Ave (these are my 3 favorite streets in Weehawken); the Heights either downtown walking distance to JSQ or uptown close to Washington Park and Congress St/Palisades; & last but not least that downtown UC (old “West Hoboken”) neighborhood- close Palisade Ave / 3rd st up to 29th St. It’s the real estate wave... The Heights is booming and look at the neighborhood and tangible RE itself—it’s nothing like the Hoboken or your Jersey City brownstones in Bergen Lafayette/Communipaw or Downtown, JC/Van Vorst + Hamilton Park. It’s the proximity to it all that is driving demand—Bergen County and GW Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel & Holland Tunnel, Congress Station & Hoboken, etc.. It’s in the center of it all relative to NJ— and of course NYC, which is the global international market us RE investors in Hudson County can thank, for the opportunity to make money in RE. Every market has it’s niche—even on the other end of the spectrum you have Bayonne w. that ‘suburban’ neighborhood ‘live close to the city but not right in it’ feel, which is different from most of Hudson County. Find that special “niche” market to invest in for the long term and its game over my friend.