While your address and phone exchange may be confusing if you live in Hunterdon County, your home values shouldn't be, say local Realtors.

"In Hunterdon County, you live in one of 26 municipalities - 14 townships, 10 boroughs, one town (Clinton, not to be confused with Clinton Township) and one city (Lambertville)," says Realtor Walter Lim. "Your post office address or telephone exchange may be different from your municipality. For instance, a Flemington address or phone number may be in Flemington but could be in Raritan Township or another nearby municipality. A Clinton Township resident might have a Lebanon post office address and a Clinton phone number. A Lambertville address or phone may really be in West Amwell Township."

Lim explains, "The townships are bigger geographically than boroughs in Hunterdon, and in some cases a borough is surrounded by a township - Lebanon by Clinton Township, Flemington by Raritan Township, Stockton by Delaware Township. A municipality is an officially incorporated place where an elected governing body and its appointees run the police department (if there is one), maintain streets (except county roads and state highways), make local laws, regulate building and zoning, determine tax assessments on real estate and collect property taxes.Each municipality has its own grade school district, except Flemington and Raritan, which are combined in a regional K-8 district. Although Glen Gardner has its own school district, it has no schools; borough children attend Clinton Public School.

"Local governments and schools depend largely on local property taxes for their support," he continues. "The property tax rate is calculated as so many dollars per $100 of assessed value of real property, both land and permanent improvements.Meetings of school boards and governing bodies are generally open to the public. A closed "executive" session may be called under limited circumstances specified by New Jersey's "Sunshine Law," but must be announced in advance.Municipalities may also have boards and commissions that deal with planning, zoning, health, welfare, recreation and the environment. Municipal offices can provide information about them. Population figures are estimates from the Hunterdon County Planning Board, updating figures from the 1990 Census."

Lim says that in his experience, he is finding that the current real estate market is "balanced." "Within the last quarter there appears to be resistance to price increases after experiencing several years of double-digit home price appreciation," notes Lim. "We are currently experiencing longer days on the market and price reductions. We are back to a 60-90 day marketing period before a property is placed under contract as opposed to the previous hot market in which homes were selling in less than 30 days. As in any market, the key to selling a home quickly is to have it in good marketable condition and having it priced correctly. I am of the opinion that prices will remain stable, and appreciation of home prices will be tied to inflation which is currently running at about 2 percent per year."

"This beautiful area has not been damaged by the over-development and commercialization that has caused over-crowding in other areas," says Realtor Gregg Casey. "With the township maintaining a careful eye on the minimum acres for any newly built home, Readington Township is sure to stay as beautiful as it has been. My home in the township is surrounded by farms, and yet, is less than a couple of miles of two grocery stores, a four-star restaurant, Merck's World Headquarters, Chubb, Round Valley State Park and many other wonderful places! I could even walk to downtown Whitehouse station! We're also only 15 minutes from Bridgewater Mall, Home Depot, Wegmans and Somerville.

"Right now according to the Otteau Report, Readington is in a buyers market," says Casey. "In some areas there are many homes on the market in a given price range. In other areas there are few. So we really have a mixed market right now. For example, Tewksbury has more inventory for its customer base than Readington. Therefore, a home is likely to take longer to find a buyer. And the homes may have to compete on price to win the buyers coming to Tewksbury."

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Published: May 20, 2003

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