Archive for the 'Millburn-Short Hills' Category

Hey suburbia-phobic New Yorkers- we have great FREE schools in New Jersey!

Just released : the 2009 New Jersey School report card  

http://tr.im/NwwE   Our local NJ schools continue to be strongly ranked - Millburn, Livingston, Chatham, Madison, Summit, Berkeley Heights, New Providence and others are among the top ranked New Jersey public  schools.   So listen up all you suburbia-phobic New Yorkers – come in for the town tours, and visit our great schools….. OK, ”free” may be arguable since you’re paying for it in your taxes,  however, it’s still less expensive than New York private schools, and only a 25 to 45 minute direct train into midtown Manhattan.

Sue Adler To Have Her Own Signature Sandwich at Millburn Deli

Last night my husband and I attended the Millburn-Short Hills Newcomers Club Winter Gala at the beautiful Beacon Hill Club in Summit. There was an amazing turnout and I got to see so many of my clients -so it was alot of fun for me. There was a silent auction, and the first item, which quickly caught my eye, was  “Create your own signature sandwich at the Millburn Deli. Your sandwich will appear on the sandwich board for six months.” I instantly got excited  – I mean how amazing would this be for marketing? – seriously!  

Well, I  put in a bid. A few hours later I noticed that I was outbid and the auction was nearing the end, so I stood by the table, feeling really competitive ( I cant help it, I’m just that way when I really want something) and made sure my bid was the highest.  So, yes, YAY, I won my own signature sandwich!!!! So here’s where I need your help.

What should I name my Millburn Deli sandwich? And what should be IN this signature sandwich?

At first I thought “The Sassy Sue Adler” – roast beef with melted provolone with sassy horseradish sauce. But it’s too much like another griller they have.

Then in the middle of the night I thought…. how bout “The SueAdler.combo”? ( SueAdler DOT combo -  Get it? ) But what to put in the combo?  Between appointments today I built my ideal sandwich in my mind… Turkey, avocado, sun dried tomatos, cucumbers, and goat cheese on a whole grain roll or a whole grain something or other. 

Please be creative and share your ideas and do NOT be shy. And if you had to name your own deli signature sandwich, what would you name it and what would you put in it? Feel free to share your ideas here or on my facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/sueadlerteam .   And if I like your idea better than mine, I’ll buy you deli sandwich!

Yours to count on,

Sue

Millburn/Short Hills, NJ Neighborhood and Town Video tour

Considering a move to Millburn/ Short Hills ? Sue Adler and local residents take you on a video tour of  Milburn and Short Hlls neighborhoods, including the Glenwood, South Mountain, Wyoming, Old Short Hills, Hartshorn, and Deerfield Sections. You’ll see Millburn’s Blue Ribbon Schools, Downtown Millburn Ave boutique shops and restaurants, Taylor Park, Paper Mill Playhouse, etc… and hear from local residents about what it’s like to live here.

Not only is Millburn/Short Hills one of the Midtown Direct  Trainline Towns and an easy commute to New York City, but the  Millburn School District is known as one of the top school districts in the country. It is always winning awards for its academic excellence. Click Here for a free school report Read the rest of this entry »

Wanna be in pictures? Shooting town tours of my 8 New Jersey towns next week, and I need your input!

Dear Friends,

This past Wednesday  I held my 4th annual Client Mix and Mingle Party, which I hold every year so that my clients who have just moved to the area can meet new friends.  Thanks to  the 60 people who attended!   Pictures are up on  facebook   http://www.facebook.com/sueadler  so feel free to check them out!

I’m really grateful for the friends I’ve made through my business and I probably don’t express that enough.  

  Referrals from my clients  now account for 70% of my business and my team is currently #2 in the entire MLS YTD for dollar volume production, and #1 in the midtown direct towns for units! THANK YOU!! 
So…since I do so much relocation, I’ve got this great idea for relocation buyers that I’m finally putting into action. Could use your input…..  I’ve hired a professional videographer to shoot town videos of Millburn, Short Hills, Maplewood, South Orange, Summit, Livingston and Chatham.
I’ve hired a radio host to interview locals and capture your stories about living here on video ( he’s very conversational and puts people at ease right away! ) We’re also interviewing shop and restaurant owners and filming homes that would be typical for the community.  Read the rest of this entry »

Manhattan Bagel to open in Summit NJ

When I moved from the Philly burbs, where we had great bagels from places like Hymies and Murrays, I just expected that living  ”outside of NYC” the bagels could all be bought fresh out of the oven with a crusty exterior with the soft inside. mmmm.  They’re fine, so I’m not really complaining, but they just dont exceed my expectations either. So the news of Akram Kwaik opening up a Manhattan Bagel in Summit is music to my ears, that is, if the bagels actually taste like  New York bagels .  Is anyone out there familiar with them? That brings me to my next question… where are your favorite places to get great bagels around here?  Would you vote for  Livingston Bagel , Bagel Chateau, or Bagels 4 You in Short Hills? Any others?

Bicycle, Bicycle…I want to ride my Bicycle. Ode to Freddie Mercury.

Week 3 of my “Greener Evolution”.

I was stopped at a light at the corner of Morris Tpke. and Millburn Ave. when four teenage girls, say 14 or 15 years old, nearly gave the “MOM”in me a heart attack. Two of the girls dangerously ignored the cross signal and road their bikes across the busy street narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic. The other two waited until it was slightly safer to ride across, but if any of their mothers had been there..OY!

In our area the number of residents who are thinking along the same lines seems to be hitting a critical mass. On July 21st a vote on this issue is scheduled at the Millburn Township Committee Meeting. If passed, it will provide bike lanes and safer bike travel around a portion of South Mountain Reservation from Brookside Drive to Ridgewood Road. The project is supposed to include striping along Glen Avenue, road markers with the bicycle symbol, and kiosks with information about the path and signs. In addition to running along Glen Avenue, the path would link to downtown Millburn on Lackawanna Place. Now this is something everyone (especially all of us Greenies) would love to see happen! Read the rest of this entry »

Summit NJ Wine and Food Festival- Not to be missed!

Save these dates and get your tickets now! July 24, 25, 26th at the Grand Summit Hotel 

courtesy of www.summitwineandfood.com 

Get your tickets for The Summit Wine and Food Festival here.

 Friday July 24th is opening night featuring 15 world-renowned chefs preparing their signature dishes. There will be 15 leading wineries providing the accompanied wines. The cost of the opening night reception is $195.  Afterwards, there is an Invitation Only after hours party for mingling with the winemakers, chefs and sommeliers at the Hunt Club Restaurant.

Saturday morning  from 10-12 the Rubicon Estate’s Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn will lead you through a vertical tasting of the legendary wines of this vineyard. Read the rest of this entry »

Trader Joes approved for old Whole Foods location in Millburn!

Millburn NJ’s Planning Board unanimously approved the application for Trader Joes and Pet Smart to take over the 187 Millburn Ave location previously occupied by Whole Foods.

Courtesy of www.carlsfinefilms.com

 

Millburn residents are thrilled!  Trader Joes  is a specialty grocery store with really great coffee, I might add. Now we no longer have to shlep to East Hanover!

Pet Smart’s original application was opposed because their application had included a pet hotel, so they reapplied as a retail store with grooming. cat adoption, and dog training services . They will occupy 15,000 square feet and Trader Joes will occupy approximately 13,000 square feet of the WholeFoods building.

Millburn/Short Hills residents- what do you think?  Will you go to Trader Joes over Whole Foods in Vaux Hall? I personally think that the new Whole foods is too big, and even though its only 5 minutes further, its no longer our “neighborhood” grocery store. Your thoughts?

In the NJ Midtown Direct Trainline Towns, 95 Homes Have Gone Under Contract In Past Two Weeks!

Over the past two weeks,  did you notice how many homes in our NJ Midtown Direct Trainline Towns are selling????  

 

I just went into GSMLS and searched all homes in  Millburn, Short Hills, Summit, Chatham, Madison, Maplewood, South Orange and Livingston, and found that 95 homes have gone under contract in the past two weeks. This does not include all of the ones that are in attorney review! 

Compare This To the last 2 weeks of  March, where only 45 homes went under contract in these towns, and the last 2 weeks of February where there were only 18 homes to go under contract.

Why now??

Move up Buyers finally are selling their existiing homes and there is finally enough inventory for them to want to make the upward move.

MORE  NJ Sellers are pricing right, staging their homes and listing with Realtors who are creating a sense of urgency for them  ( yes, shameless plug) , so those 95 homes are selling, while others remain sitting. 

The RATES-  I just refinanced at 4.625%.  How long do you think they’ll stay below 5%?

Its Spring!  The clock is ticking to get in for the school year – beats the 30k per year private school tuition.  The 3rd baby has been born and the 1 bedroom apartment won’t work anymore, etc… life goes on.. you get the picture.

 

So you need to commute to NYC and you can’t spend $1Million on a house??? Check out these GREAT New Jeresy neighborhoods – in these midtown direct “walk to train” locations!

What a day! 3 open houses on our three new listings – Two are getting at least one offer, and we had 27-30 people at each one.  All three of these homes are priced in the $500’s.  My team was also booked all weekend with buyers. What does all of this mean?

1. There has been so much pent up demand for great AFFORDABLE homes that  the nice ones that are priced right  are flying off the market.

2. The entry level market has now come down to a level where buyers can jump into the market. Of course the low interest rates have added the cherry on the top.

3. Even in a “buyer’s market”, you will always be able to re-sell a well priced home with close proximity to trains to NYC. This is what most buyers moving out from NYC are looking for.

4. Has this segment of the market hit bottom?

So where can you find these more affordable homes? Below are neighborhoods in each of the midtown direct trainline towns that are under a mile to the train.

• South Orange – South of South Orange Ave, there are two neighborhoods that are easily walkable and you can find housing that won’t break the bank. The area between Walton Rd and Wyoming Ave is one ( Conway Ct, Rynda, West End Rd, Lenox Ave to name a few streets) and the streets surrounding Seton Hall University are the other. North of South Orange Ave there are the Hart Dr ranch homes, and further north you can occasionally find a smaller home nestled amongst the larger ones off of Wyoming Ave.  The same would be true of the Montrose Section.

• Maplewood- Much of Maplewood fits the bill and that’s why so many buyers move here from Park Slope, Brooklyn, and NYC.  East of Valley Rd, across from Memorial Park, is  very popular among the “walk to train” crowd. Here are two examples:  www.sueadler.com/35Kensington and www.sueadler.com/36Madison Houses within a few blocks of Maplewood Village may be in the $500k-700k range, but they don’t seem to come on the market very often. There are homes on Jefferson Ave and some of the surrounding streets such as Brookside Rd, have sold in the $500k’s and 600’s as well.

• Millburn- The South Mountain Section and Wyoming Sections are the two largest neighborhoods that are “walk to  train,  town, Taylor Park, Wyoming Elem or South Mountain Elem, middle and high school ”. There are also many small streets off of Millburn Ave that are close by as well.Homes range from the $400k’s to the 800k’s with a few exceptions in the South Mountain Section.In the Wyoming Section you can easily find homes in this range, but there are also more expensive homes over $1Million.

• Short Hills - The Glenwood Section ( where I live!) is the perfect place to be – walk to Glenwood Elem and top rated Millburn HS, Short Hills train station, and Millburn Ave restaurants and shops. Most homes range from the 600k’s to the $1Million range, but certain streets wth larger homes and properties such as Pine Terrace East  command much more. www.sueadler.com/11PineTerraceEast Generally speaking, the Glenwood Section runs between the Short Hills Train Station and Millburn Ave. The main roads running through are Woodland Rd, Baltusrol Way, and Short Hills Ave, with many small charming treelined streets in between. The Knollwood Section, behind the Millburn Middle School, is also similar in price to Glenwood. This neighborhood  comes in between Hobart Avenue and Old Short Hills Rd – Whitney Dr, Midhurst Dr, Haddonfield Drive are a few of the streets you find in this storybook enclave of charming colonials and tudors.

• Summit Most of the areas surrounding the Summit Train Station tend to be a bit pricier however there are certain streets close to the train station that do turn out homes for under $900,000. To name a few, Mountain Ave and Ashland Rd- south of the Summit Train station, and Waldron Ave, and DeBary Place- north of the station. I do need to mention a neighborhood that is just over a mile, but with comparable homes to the Glenwood and South Mountain homes in Millburn/Short Hills. Its the Memorial Field area by Brayton Elementary School. Don’t overlook this neighborhood if you’re looking for an awesome neighborhood in a great school district.

• Chatham Boro – The nice thing about Chatham Boro is that almost all of it is within a mile of the Chatham Train Station. The Station is located just off Fairmount Dr and Main Street so its central location and stellar school system, makes it a sought after town. The majority of homes in the Boro are in the “affordable” range and are close to Main Street shops and restaurants, and elementary schools as well.

• Madison -The Madison Train Station is situated between Waverly Rd and Greenwood Rd, just south of Main Street. On the northern side of Main Street in Madison you can easily find 3 to 4 bedroom homes starting in the $400’s, and ranging up to over $1M. Because Madison is home to Drew University, Main Street feels much like a college town with a jazz bar, trendy shops and a wide variety of restaurants.

So, there you have it! If you want to see your options in person, just give me a call (973)464-9129.

Yours to count on,

Sue Adler