By Mark Abromaitis and Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

In the face of a softening real estate market, recent reports show that many sellers can still make significant profits today. And as spring and the selling season roll around, the prospects for 2008 are looking up.

It just depends on when you bought your house.

Significant return on investment
“People who have owned their homes for longer than five years are seeing significant returns on their investment,” says Karen Cotenoff, retirement counselor at Seabrook in Tinton Falls.

“If you bought your home in the last three years—during the boom—you won’t see that much of a profit. But if you bought your home 20, 30, or 40 years ago, like most of the people moving to our community, you should make a significant profit on the sale of your house,” adds Seabrook Retirement Counselor Ruth Phillips.

Reports from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Association of Realtors support these claims. Statistics show that median home values in New Jersey have more than tripled in the past 40 to 50 years. In 1960 the median purchase price in the state was $76,900. Today it’s around $273,000—which means homeowners would see a whopping 255% return on their investment (see accompanying graph).

Cotenoff says that most people who are moving to Seabrook—people who bought their houses well before the boom—may  have made a win in 2005, but they will still make a significant gain in 2008.

On the front line
Penny Noval, a Realtor for Coldwell Banker, agrees that most homeowners would be hard-pressed to find as good an  investment as their home, but many don’t realize it. 

“What people need to focus on is not the past 18 to 24 months, but on what they paid 30 years ago and what they can get for it today.  When they consider that logic, they’ll see that they’re still making a significant gain,” she says.