I have touched on this topic before, but I decided to start a thread on the same. Recently, we have had three seperate real estate agents evaluate our home here in RT on Meriden Road. We had a benchmark on its value from about a year ago. It has universally been dropped in value by several hundred K$ by all the agents. Furthermore, when we ask the real estate agents if it will be possible to purchase another home in Morris County for the same price as the sale price of our present home, the answer is a loud and distinct NO! They kinda laugh at us. When we ask why our home is worth so little on a comparitive basis, (it is a large, in perfect shape, relatively new and on a 3+ acre lot) we are told simply that "it is located in RT." When we ask what does that mean, they just say the same thing - - - homes in RT are not worth as much as homes in other towns in Morris. Why have we been looking into this? Well, if this thing goes through and we live in RT on Meriden Road, we will be "locked into our houses" on Sundays because this is the alternate route to this awful club that Ireland wants to construct. Do not take our word for this. I encourage the rest of you to check your real estate situation out for yourself. It is probably your biggest investment. Now, if you do not want to go through the trouble of having your home assessed, go to gsmls.com. This site has all the ML real estate listings in the State. Goto Morris county. Get a pencil and paper. Search each town in Morris and write down the inventory number for each town. (I use the maximum allowable pricing range for my searches which I think was 125 K to 2 Megs.) You will see that the township that has the most Inventory is (and has been for at least a few months now- - - I have been following it) is Rockaway Township. I wonder why? Well, I think that we all know why. Better to be informed than blind sided. Do not shoot me, I am just the messenger.
If you want to see the effect 5,000 outside people can have on a community, you need to go to those people's own community and take a look around.
Consider that this is the way they treat their own community, where they live their lives. It's unrealistic to think that they will have a greater respect for a community they don't live in.
Our area has obviously seen "human sprawl" to some degree already. The urban-style graffiti on stop signs, the boom cars thumping through White Meadow Lake, and the Eminem-wannabes hanging out at Quik Check.
Go for a visit to Split Rock reservoir and you can see signs of many who obviously don't live in the area, scattered in the middle of the street and all along the trails.
When are we as residents going to be empowered to defend the way of life that many of us grew up with--and some of us (myself and family included) moved here to enjoy in peace?
Just another messenger--maybe you don't like the message but you know it's true.
I wouldn't worry about real estate values. If CC gets in, we can name our selling price to their members who will be totally disgusted with traffic and commuting time. (had to add a little humor to an unhumorous situation).
