America’s armpit, New Jersey

[Rief Hodzic]

Is anywhere in New Jersey worth investing in anymore? With Phil Murphy introducing new taxes within 6 months of being in office and the mass exodus happening Id like to reinvest here but I might have to take my money and run. Any suggestions or thoughts? I’d like to sell my office building and start buying section 8 but there’s section 8 everywhere.

[Robert S.]

Rief Hodzic The mass exodus in New Jersey you speak of, how does it happen? Do people pack up their belongings, stop paying their mortgage, leave their homes behind and then start living in another state? That’s a pretty crazy phenomenon. For an exodus to take place, especially in a place like NJ(Top 3 in per capita income), people would be in a situation where they couldn’t even sell their homes. Unfortunately, the majority who sell their home with the intent of leaving of the state, from Ocean County up to Bergen County, sell it to someone either trading up or someone entering the state, usually from NYC. People love reading about the hysteria of people leaving NJ, however, those same articles fail to mention the amount of people coming in.
The real issues facing landlords in NJ aren’t a “mass exodus”, or high taxes. The real issues are unbalanced landlord tenant laws and drawn out foreclosure processes.