New Jersey Home Sales Outperform Peer Markets in 3Q

---

New Jersey's housing market seems to be doing better than other northeastern markets when it comes to third quarter home sales.

New Jersey Association of Realtors (NJAR) CEO Jarrod C. Grasso tells the World Property Channel, "For the third quarter of 2011, New Jersey existing home sales outperformed sales in the northeast.  The resiliency of Garden State infrastructure and industry, plus our location between the New York City and Philadelphia markets, places us in a strong position for employment and stability.

Grasso further commented, "Compared to New Jersey's other metro areas, one particular bright spot that displayed a slight median home price increase from the third quarter of 2010 was Newark, N.J.  With a revived commercial real estate market, this shows the correlation that improving accessibility to employment can help preserve property values.

"General economic concerns still continue to affect consumer confidence, which is in turn affecting home sales.  Tight lending restrictions are also keeping creditworthy buyers from capitalizing on the current opportunity to purchase a home" concluded Grasso.

---