Where can I find a free web site with a House Price Index for Morris
County, NJ? This would be similar to the US index at
www.census.gov/const/price_indexes.pdf or the MSA (Metropolitan
Statistical Areas) at www.ofheo.gov/download.asp. (I don?t want the
data for CBSA Code 35620 Div Code 35084 which is the MSA data for
Morris County COMBINED with some other New Jersey Counties. I just
want Morris County.) I only need the data for the last few years:
From around 2000 to 2005 (or late 2004). It can be a monthly or
quarterly index. It can even be in a series of articles with
consistent economic data for these periods.

I'm thinking a realtor might know where to get this type of info.

It must be a site which I, a regular person, can access for free.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Mar 2005 15:46 PST

pjrhere-ga,

You can certainly find a lot of statistics on housing prices in Morris
County, but the precise value of the HPI may not be available.  The
HPI is created by OFHEO, and from what I can tell, they only do it at
a fairly broad level, without providing county-specific data.

As a possible alternative, take a look at the Census Bureau data for
housing in Morris County:


http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_DP4&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_lang=en&-_sse=on&-geo_id=05000US34027


Note, especially, the Value and Mortgage data towards the end of the table.  

Is any of this of interest to you...?  Let me know.  

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by pjrhere-ga on 19 Mar 2005 16:54 PST

Thanks pafalafa. But I need more current data, and I need it over a
period of time (monthly or quarterly) up to the present (or there
abouts). The census data is from the year 2000 at a point in time.
(Although the data shown looks like it could be used if there were
futher data for each month or quarter.)

Please note that I used the term Housing Pricing Index (HPI) in a
general sense. The data need not come from the OFHEO. (Indeed, it
can't since the OFHEO does not compile Morris County data uniquely.)

However, I do believe the data is out there because I recall
periodically reading in the general press that "housing prices in
Morris County increased/decreased blah blah blah." Where did the
reporter get that information? It must be from some real estate
information or ecomomic reporting source.

You mentioned that "you can certainly find a lot of statistics on
housing prices in Morris County." What about some monthly or quarterly
real estate journal that simply reported the increase or decrease each
issue? If all the issues were available, I could cull the data needed
from each issue and produce my data set. BTW, thanks for your quick
response!

pjrhere-ga,

Thanks for clarifying what you need.  Turns out you're in luck!

The New Jersey Association of Realtors regularly publishes summaries
of house price statistics based on reporting from the National
Association of Realtors' private MLS listing database -- this is the
listing information that professionals use, and that is not routinely
available to the general public.


The New Jersey reports can be found here:



http://www.njar.com/pressroom_statspub.shtml
Housing Statistics


Quarterly reports are available from 2001 through 4th Quarter of 2004.
The two most recent reports are these:


http://www.njar.com/2004Q4.pdf


http://www.njar.com/2004Q3.pdf


and the data for Morris County is in Table 10:

Table 10:
Median Sales Price and Number of Existing Single-Family Homes Sold for
Areas in New Jersey



2004 and 2003 4th Quarter Prices and Units Sold in Morris County:


$437,100 -- $390,300 -- 12% year-to-year increase
1,159    --  1,175   -- 1.4% decrease in units


2004 and 2003 3rd Quarter Prices and Units Sold in Morris County:

$483,700 -- $426,500 -- 13.4% increase
1,664    --  1,663   --  0.1% increase in units


If I'm reading the numbers correctly (and I think I am), the prices
have actually dropped somewhat in the most recent quarter, from
$483,700 in Q3, to $437,100 in Q4.


By accessing each quarterly report, you can readily construct the
price trends in the county for the past four years.  You may want to
contact NJAR to find out when 2005 data will be made available:



Amanda J. Sacco
NJAR Director of Communications
Phone: 732-494-4705
Fax: 732-494-4723
E-mail: asacco@njar.com




I trust this information fully answers your question.  However, please
don't rate this answer until you have everything you need.  If you
would like any additional information, just post a Request for
Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further, and I'm at
your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 19 Mar 2005 17:33 PST

Forgot to post my search strategy, which was a number of Google
searches on fairly obvious terms like [ house price appreciation
statistics ] and things like that.  The search that finally worked for
me, though was { nj association realtors ] which led me to the NJAR
site, where I poked around and found their reports.

Wow!!! How do you do it? My colleagues are always awed at my Google
search results. I am truly humbled. I spent hours trying to get to
that data. I am compelled to add a small token of my appreciation.