Bella Ro
Posted by: Hoboken411 at 10:30 am on January 25, 2010
12/21/2007:
New ladies clothing store Bella Ro has taken the place of the previous Platinum Real Estate location. What? A realtor left town? I had to check my watch and my personal GPS unit to make sure it’s 2007, and I’m actually still in Hoboken.
Description: Trendy and affordable ladies clothing. Dresses, blouses, sweaters, shirts, handbags, accessories and eventually shoes.
Location: 521 Washington St., Hoboken, NJ 07030
Phone: 201-222-6833
Web: www.bella-ro.com
33 Responses to ** Bella Ro **
December 21st, 2007 |
Always like that building. The balconies are cool.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
The great Hoboken real estate agent contraction is just beginning. We are over-realtored (if that is a word) and with the prices falling people who jumped into the game for the easy money on the way up may be pushed out on the way down.
Better to have a new clothing shop take the space than another nail salon. Best of luck to Bella Ro.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
Prices are falling? Not in the good buildings. Three units in my building sold within 3 weeks of going on the market since November, all of them at higher prices then the same units would have fetched a year ago.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
To be more specific, a two bed unit in my building sold for $560 last spring with a realtor. Last week, the EXACT same unit, same floor even, same kitchen appliances, etc….sold for $590 FSBO. There may have been a flight to quality as they say in the real estate market locally, but there are still buildings which are appreciating.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
Which building? Or if you don’t feel comfortable disclosing that what area of town?
Might buy late ’08 or in 09 and I’m trying to get a sense of the market.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
Over a half million for a 2 br. So there are still suckers out there. That same unit would have been under 400 in 2002.
Real Estate (TM) appreciation since 2002 is a flat out fantasy fueled by loose lending. Maybe 10% of the appreciation is justified. The rest is being written down in waves by every bank on the block. Yet, “Hoboken is still appreciating”.
So let the suckers buy. NYC will correct, and when it does, so will Hoboken.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
I live in a newer building near Shoprite.
rag246- those were the smallest 2 bed units in my building- and that was during the worse time of the year to sell arguably. There are plenty of 700-900K two beds in Hoboken by the river. Isolating the price alone will get you nowhere. You sound like one of the those bitter people that wished you bought 4-5 years ago and just desperately want to see the market crash. While I expect the prices nationally to continue their downward trend for maybe a year, the worst I see for NYC area is prices remainiing steady for a while. But all I can tell you for sure is what I know- which is that an apartment is worth EXACTLY what someone is willing to pay for it- and there were 4 bids on the 2 bed in my building which just sold for 590. The people with subprime loans who shouldn’t be buying are don’t forget a very small percentage of home buyers nationwide. Sometimes that gets lost in the rush to celebrate real estate market shadenfreude.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
Bin – I didn’t have the money then, and didn’t want to borrow 100%. Maybe I should have.
I do have the money now, but something about the 100+% jump in the past three years is sketchy. Salaries are flat. Population is flat. As far as I can tell, the only market condition that changed in was the money supply in that market. That money has been drying up since August. It’s not just subprime – it’s Alt-A and Option ARMS, due to peak resetting in 2010. Inflation and risk is real; just look at LIBOR when the ECB isn’t dumping A HALF TRILLION USD into the short term liquidity pool. Point being: when those puppies reset, they’ll not be cheap.
You provided a singular anecdote in a local market. I’m looking at the broader picture, which I’ve been doing for years.
I’m an idiot in many ways, but I’m feeling pretty confident that there will be a correction in NYC. The valuation isn’t justified by any method you choose besides appreciation. And they teach you in Equities 101 that cash flows, not appreciation, is how to value any instrument.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
Rag, while I agree that prices in Hoboken will come down a little bit further, I think that if you’re planning to sit around and wait it out you really won’t benefit too much… Now is really the time to buy – interest rates are low, and the prices have come down significantly from last years highs…
That being said, we’re already beginning to see the natural course of events that keeps too many new units from being sold where the developers are making units rentals instead of selling them and then waiting for prices to go back up in the future..
It’s a normal cycle… Not to mention there really isn’t much more buildable land in Hoboken… Assuming our city hall gets swept clean so that money actually gets spent on things that could use it and the town only improves, it’ll only become more desireable over time…
And no, I’m not a realtor or speculator or whatever (as I’m sure people will scream)… I do invest in real estate, but I do it very cautiously and over longer periods of time, so whatever happens doesn’t really affect me adversely..
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
rappard – yup, in the long term it’s of little consequence. But I’m trying to stretch our down payment into 2 or 3 properties. If prices have come down from last year, I see no reason why there shouldn’t come down a bit more (for reasons mentioned above). They will not take off again, unless Hank Paulson just completely socializes large swathes of housing market…in which case I might as well move to Singapore.
So it is not hurting me to wait, especially since I am renting a nicer place than I could buy for the same burn rate. Higher interest rates and tighter lending standards will only exert downward pressure on prices.
Don’t even get started on City Hall. That situation alone should warrant a 20% discount. Out of towners don’t know, so they don’t ask for it.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
In response to rag246 who said:
You obviously are market savvy. I’ll just say this, the sales from the buildings such as my own are a bit more than anecdotal. 3 units selling at good prices (relative to a year ago all of them were 5-10% up) in a building with fewer than 100 units in November and December is indicative that the market among well sought after buildings is now pretty healthy. 2 of those three had multiple bids, all sold quickly. Either I live in the luckiest building in Hudson county, or there are still plenty of well qualified buyers looking for good units in Hoboken.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
In response to rag246 who said:
One other thing that I forgot to add – assuming the cutoff for a jumbo loan is increased in the very near future (as I think it will be), that would also raise the floor of prices in this area…
That being said, my prediction is that the days of the $800k 2 bedroom condo are gone (with a few exceptions), and we’ll probably see the decent, newer stuff fall to a $450-550 range… You’re already able to find 2 bedroom units in decent shape (might be smallish at 800-900 sq ft) for $400k these days, which you never would have seen a year ago…
And there are a few dozen condos for sale with list prices under $300k now, again something you wouldn’t have seen a year ago…
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
The days of the $800K 2 bedroom will go nowhere while that equivilent 2 bedroom in Manhattan is 1.3-1.5MM.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
In response to rapperd who said:
Where can you get a decent 2 bedroom for 450? Or even 500? You can get glorified one beds in walk ups sure… I can’t square this with your statement that its a good time to buy, because you seem to be saying 2 beds are going to drop an average of $100K.
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
In response to thebinatwork2 who said:
bin, look on mls – you’ll see what I’m talking about… My definition of ‘decent’ and yours might be far apart… your idea of decent might be spacious new construction, to me it is a place that can clean up nice into a liveable home… Not talking about roach motels or anything, just not necessarily brand new…
I never said they were going to drop to 100k – try re-reading my post….
And as for the comment on the 2 bedrooms – mark my words on that one… Take a look through recent sales, and see how many 2 bed units actually sold above $700k, that don’t include massive concessions (ie, sellers giving cash at closing)… I bet that other than maxwell place or the tea building, you won’t find too many for the entire year… Add to that the fact that a lot of the small condo conversions that are listed for $799 or whatever have been languishing on the market for more than 6 months…
Login or Register to reply
December 21st, 2007 |
I was assuming the 800K units were all on the river then and that those apartments are still worth about the same as a year ago. I don’t think 800K 2 beds were ever a sizable portion of the market, but I don’t see that they have become a much smaller portion either. I am not claiming to be an expert on the Hoboken market, I can just tell you the stock in my building still moves quickly and is up on the trailing 12 month period. So I would say if you are looking to buy, best bet might be to really sort out the so so buildings from the highly desirable ones. That’s not rocket science, just the flight to quality that happens in times like these.
Login or Register to reply
December 22nd, 2007 |
I just wanted to read about Bella Ro. Enough with the market, buying, not buying, stocks, corrections, etc. We’re talking women’s clothing here.
Login or Register to reply
December 22nd, 2007 |
I didn’t know Bella Ro was a condo.
Login or Register to reply
December 23rd, 2007 |
In response to Friedupright who said:
What exciting things do you have to contribute then about this clothes boutique, usually such a wealth of interesting debate? Please, go ahead….
Login or Register to reply
December 23rd, 2007 |
First Platinum was owned by Eugene and Carol Valentino. Eugene passed away and Carol for whatever reason did not keep up the business by herself, but went over to Liberty. I saw a for sale sign recently saying to contact her at Liberty.
So the close of this agency cannot be attributed to anything in market forces.
I would love to see a clothing store in Hoboken offering fashions for the, um, larger middle-aged woman. And I mean fashions, not a place where pants prices are in the single digits. Bella Ro seems to have the same old mini dresses and skinny jeans in the window. I just wouldn’t go in there — once I went into a now-defunct dress shop on Washington Street and the woman there literally stuck her nose up in the air and sniffed when I asked her if she had anything in a size 14.
Login or Register to reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.