Hoboken Mom Condo Living
Planning the long-term & juggling the everyday

I stocked up on winter clothes at end-of-season sales, and then filled in the gaps a couple of weeks ago with pre-season sales. Stacked in-store discounts with clearance and coupon mailers to assemble a really decent preschool wardrobe for my daughter. Details in my newest column at http://patch.com/A-5GQ

A few weeks ago, two Hertz Connect cars appeared on a street corner near my home. They were impossible to miss since they have orange traffic markers in front of them and bright green paint outlining the spots they occupy. I pass by them almost every day, and was mightily intrigued. My husband and I have toyed with the idea of buying a second car down the road, but parking and acquisition costs are daunting obstacles. Having a low-cost backup car readily available is extremely appealing, so when I found a coupon code giving me a free 2-year membership and $75 driving credit, I signed up for it.

After a couple of weeks and some gentle reminders from Hertz (”We have noticed you haven’t taken advantage of your Connect by Hertz membership lately”) I decided to test drive the the Connect Smart car on a grocery run to keep the drive short and easy. I also have been dying to try out a Smart Car ever since I was in Italy a few years ago and saw them everywhere.

Your membership card is key to the whole experience. You swipe it across a windshield sensor to unlock and lock the car, and also to start the ignition (each swipe expires after two minutes). My card unlocked the driver and passenger doors, but not the trunk, which kept causing problems for me since the whole point of this trip was to buy groceries. The on-call assistant was pretty adamant that I should use only my card to unlock or lock the vehicle, but I got desperate after several attempts failed and use the manual unlock button. I also had issues with restarting the car after each stop (note: when the Hertz computer asks if you would like to end your reservation, answer NO).

I also had issues with getting the car to actually drive. When I started the ignition and shifted from park to reverse or drive, the car kept getting stuck in neutral. It took me three or four attempts to get the car to actually drive. I also couldn’t find the gas tank release switch (good thing the tank was almost full!)

I don’t know what percentage of the complications were caused by user error (full disclosure: I am a NYC native, so I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 28) and what proportion was caused by Hertz system issues or Smart Car design flaws. I do know it took me much longer to get familiar with the setup than I expected, so the entire trip took two hours rather than one (the reservation computer allows you to extend your reservation end time, which I wound up having to do twice), for a total trip cost of $15.99. I also had difficulty getting the car to lock (it took three or four attempts) and when the next reservation-holder showed up, he couldn’t unlock the car with his card and had to call for assistance. Oops, sorry about that!

If I didn’t have kids or own a car, I would be tempted to rely on the Connect cars, especially since one or both of the vehicles outside my home are usually available. I once figured out that between parking, insurance and acquisition expense, it costs me $60/day to own my car. However, we no longer plan on getting a second car down the road when my kids start driving (groan). If my husband attends a local fencing tournament, he can take a Connect car to the event (they start at the crack of dawn) and then I can bring the kids down at a more sane hour. When relatives come to town, they can rent a Connect car and follow us on outings around the area. Between the Connect program and the newly expanded Hop that runs past all the public elementary schools, Hoboken is really improving life for families.

Living in Hoboken is noisy. It’s a fact of life with urban living, especially when you have 40,000 people crammed into one square mile. And that’s without counting all the out-of-towners who descend on the Hoboken bar scene on weekends.

You have basically three types of noise: street, horizontal, and vertical. The closer you are to Washington Street, the more street noise you have to contend with. It also depends on where your property faces (rooms facing the street hear a lot more).  Horizontal noise comes from shared walls and hallways. My current four-bedroom has no shared walls thanks to ingenious courtyard cutouts in the exterior walls, so I hear nothing on a horizontal level unless I am sitting right next to one of the exterior doors (pretty infrequent in a 2,000 square foot apartment). Vertical noise depends on building construction and your neighbors. Steel/concrete construction helps diminish but not entirely eliminate vertical noise.

And the obvious answer, living on the top floor, is also fraught with peril because while you may not have neighbors above you, you do have the roof overhead. Roofs are notorious for leaking, especially in new construction.

People always seem to think there is some magical noise-free solution out there, and there isn’t. I grew up in a detached house on a quiet, leafy street, and I often slept with my pillow over my head. I could hear the garbage pickup in the middle of the night, jackhammers working on interminable street repairs (seriously, I have never seen such frequent street repairs anywhere outside of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn), neighbors fighting two doors down, crickets and birds chirping, gas-powered leaf blowers. Not to mention my kid brother jumping off his bed in his room right above the kitchen where I was trying to do homework.

When it comes to noise, you have to pick your poison. There is no ideal solution unless you plan on spending massive amounts on soundproofing, and even then there is no guarantee that you will never hear anything. Owner-occupied buildings tend to be quieter than rentals. As long as you have considerate neighbors, you will be all right re. noise.

The NYTimes recently reported that the Manhattan rental market is considerably stronger than it was six months ago, with rents up as much as 20% in prime buildings. Most landlords are no longer offering rent concessions or paying broker fees. Hoboken real estate tends to move in lockstep with Manhattan, so how is the stronger market playing out across the Hudson River?

The SW Hoboken rental market is noticeably stronger, and I imagine that also applies to the more desirable NE and SE areas. A 2BR in my old building recently rented for $2,500 within one month, a 1BR in my current building also rented quickly for over $2k/month, and the tenant paid a broker’s fee. A 2BR+den developer unit rented within three weeks at the full asking price of $3k/month, by three young professionals with top-notch credit who will each take one of the smallish bedrooms. Most young singles don’t initially want to be so far from Washington Street, but the much bigger spaces, nice finishes and included PARKING help them make the decision to rent in SW Hoboken.

The volatility of the rental market was a huge factor in my decision to upsize last year from a 2BR to a 4BR. In the eight years I have lived in Hoboken, rent increases and a tight rental market have been the norm. The only time the rental market has been weak was from October 2008-March 2010. My husband and I tend to stay put, which rewards homeowners, and we also wanted the higher quality of life that goes along with homeownership. There is no way I would be able to afford to rent my current 4BR condo, and even if I did, I would have to deal with the constant threat of the landlord selling the place. Yes, I am locking up my down payment, but with the current stock market performance, I doubt I would have been able to earn much income from investing it.

I hesitate to announce a return to real estate appreciation, but the much stronger rental market coupled with looser mortgage lending indicates that property values have stabilized. There are micro ups and downs in terms of consumer confidence (the NJ sale market was brisk from January-April this year, and has tanked since then, but overall the sense that the world is ending is gone. Looks like my real estate gamble has paid off.

There are starting to be a lot of three-bedroom units coming on line in southwest Hoboken, which is great for me to see since it means more families can stay in town. Many of them are located 1-2 blocks from the Second Street Light Rail station, and are similar in terms of square footage (1,700+), amenities and finishes. So how do you differentiate between them?

The NYTimes recently published an article on the difference between brand-new and almost-new construction. Almost-new condos are 3-5 years old and have the same amenities as brand-new. They are accounting for a rising number of sales for the following reasons:

• 100% sold, which means that banks look favorably on them for mortgages (less risky in terms of vacancy and investors).
• The inevitable  construction kinks are already worked out.
• >10% of their annual budget in reserves (mortgage requirement).
• Buyer peace of mind that the building will be completed, because it is already complete.
• Price. Almost-new units tend to be cheaper per square foot than new ones.
• No transfer taxes (buyer pays transfer tax for new construction, seller for resales).

Other benefits including knowing who your neighbors are going to be, and thus what kind of atmosphere you are going into. Are there a bunch of investor units? In a youthful town like Hoboken, that usually means young singles live there, so their lifestyle is going to be very different from a family-oriented building. Even though the primary tenants are usually law-abiding, the inevitable party guests often are not. I have seen broken light fixtures, fast food wrappers in the elevators and lobby, and my favorite, the fire alarm pulled in the middle of the night.

The # of units in a building is also key. The smaller the building, the greater the impact each individual unit has on the overall health of the facility. I prefer to stick to midsize buildings (30-80 units) to spread the risk of financial insolvency. It is a lot easier to absorb one owner who stops paying homeowners association fees in largish buildings. However, I don’t like to live in truly large complexes like the Sky Club because of the impersonal nature that develops when you don’t recognize any of your neighbors. Hoboken is a transient town by nature; living in a building with hundreds of units can be like living in an airport.

Realtors cannot legally tell you about resident ethnicity or family makeup, so if you are interested in a building, knock on some doors or post an inquiry on a message board. Or wait in front of the building and talk to people walking in or out. It’s worth investing some time to make sure this is the kind of building you want to be in.

We’ve all been there; on a nice walk around town when our kid has a diaper blowout or an adult desperately needs a restroom. I keep a mental list of Hoboken public restrooms and also of stores where I can pick up fruit/vegetables to make dinner. Here is my list!

Restroom List

Near Pier A
Lackawanna Train Station: Observer Highway & Sinatra Drive. Open 7 days a week, you have to walk past all the fast food options to the main waiting area across from all the NJ Transit trains. Restrooms are located on the wall opposite the entrance doors, pretty clean and with multiple stalls.

Citibank: 1st & River. Open during branch hours (Mon-Fri 9-5, Thurs until 6, Sat 9-3). Walk past the tellers all the way to the far wall, the bathroom is to the right. Single bathroom is kept unlocked, large enough to bring stroller inside & very clean.

Near Church Square Park
Hoboken Public Library: Across from Church Square Park, the bathroom is located on the first floor all the way at the back. Very large, nice & clean, not easy stroller access since there are stairs in the front and the elevator is around the corner. Weekend hours vary but basically open Monday-Saturday.

Near Maxwell/Elysian Parks
Starbucks: 12th & Hudson, restroom is located to the left of the entrance. Open 7 days a week.

Fresh Produce

Farmers Market: Pricey but very fresh. The two markets run July-October and are located on Washington & Newark and Hudson & 12th St.

New Hoboken Farm: Basic produce selection but great prices, about half what I have seen elsewhere.

Garden of Eden: Priced a bit higher than average but incredible selection & quality.

According to the Washington Post, healthcare reform will not change one thing in my life. My insurance coverage and taxes will remain exactly the same. Aside from the immediate goodies in the reform bill, how is this affecting my household budgeting?

For starters, I am slowly letting go of the mentality that the other shoe is about to drop. I am a member of Generation X, a tiny generation sandwiched between the vast bulk of boomers and Gen Y. Too young to benefit from pensions, too old to experience helicopter parenting, many of my friends and classmates were latchkey kids scarred by the divorce rate that took off when we were growing up in the 1970s and 80s. A lot of them don’t have kids yet or are becoming parents for the first time in their late 30s and early 40s. It’s a very strange generation to be a part of, and yet I embrace it because I understand it.

So, my generation does not have a sense of entitlement. Quite the contrary, we expect to get screwed over when it comes to retirement via scaled back or non-existent Social Security and Medicare benefits. Basically, we expect to have to contribute to the system our entire working lives and simultaneously save for retirement via individual 401k accounts. That is a large part of my long-term financial planning; to cover all eventualities.

My household management has already helped us achieve one of our life goals; buying a lifetime home. By most people’s standards, we are in fantastic financial shape. We have no debt aside from our mortgage, substantial assets, and good earning prospects. So how could one healthcare bill make such a difference in our lives?

Because it has given me peace of mind. I have a great track record at saving to meet large long-term goals, but how do you deal with catastrophe? The next ten years are going to be extremely vulnerable ones for our family of four. Most people buy term life insurance because it is inexpensive and provides large payouts for a limited time period (usually 20 years), which is really all you need to get children into a safety zone where they are old enough to fend for themselves (hmm, maybe life insurance term limits should be 30 years). But what about disability coverage?

Picture this scenario: my husband is walking to work tomorrow and gets hit by a car (could happen with the way people drive around here). He is injured badly enough that it takes him months to recover. In that time, he loses his job and we have to pay for Cobra ($1000/month?) We instantly lose all our income tax deductions because, hey, you have to have income in order to take deductions. So we are looking at $4k/month out of pocket for household maintenance, plus let’s say another $2k in living expenses. Add in medical bills because no health insurer automatically pays for 100% of every bill they get handed; another $10k/month? Oh, and let’s assume the car that hit my husband was piloted by an uninsured motorist, so we don’t get a dime from them. All this adds up to $17k/month, all with little/no income coming in because disability payments don’t kick in for 60 days and only replace about half of your income. And let’s not forget that I suddenly have an infirm husband and a household with two toddlers to care for 24/7 by myself. Plus the $10k/month for medical bills is probably too low. My friend’s mom spent $500k out of pocket a couple of years ago to treat stomach cancer, and she is a retired state employee so has decent health insurance.

So we go in one instant from thrifty, secure living to serious bankruptcy risk. I am sorry, I don’t care how good you are at money management, nobody can plan for a medical catastrophe. The only way it works is if you have serious cash in the bank, like $500k-$1MM, and my husband and I just haven’t had the time to build up savings like that because we have only been in the workforce for about 12 years (and let’s be real, I am only marginally in the workforce).

I know very well that the healthcare reform bill isn’t a panacea. I know it will decimate Medicare and raise overall healthcare costs. But I would a million times rather pay a few more thousand dollars a year as part of deep risk pool than not pay it and gamble that nobody in my family will ever get seriously sick or injured. Because a lifetime is a very long time, and nobody is immune from bad luck.

From now until the end of Jan, you can download free e-books (Pride & Prejudice!!!!) on Amazon. You have to download Kindle for PC or ipod to read them. http://bit.ly/8XvvI4

You can see the books’ list price as $0.00, I found them by searching for “Pride and Prejudice.” Awesome, I love Amazon!

Debuting along with the launch of Hoboken Patch newspaper! My column currently has front page billing on the top spot, pretty cool.

http://bit.ly/momjuggle

It’s been almost a year since I started this blog, and what a journey this has been! A 2BR sale and 4BR purchase, a Twitter feed, branching out into healthcare and household posts. This blog is now not really accurately named since, unfortunately, what I found was that I cannot actually help Hoboken Moms sell their condos. Of the four moms I helped to market their 2BRs, only one has sold, and that was after she listed her unit on the MLS. As such, going forward this blog will be more aptly named “Hoboken Mom Condo Living.”

The NYTimes recently wrote an excellent article on the increasing number of FSBO sales (it’s about one in five nationally); the gist of it was that you need time, inclination and technical expertise to sell their own house. I think that is the key. None of the moms I worked with were particularly techie, and I found that when I responded to ads on their behalf, it weirded out buyers who were expecting to deal directly with an owner and didn’t know what to make of me. I have had a great deal of success working with a local developer and helping him market his properties, but the key seems to be that I have to be very hands-on in order to facilitate the sale. I am not a realtor and make sure everyone involved knows that, but I am very good at responding quickly to buyer questions and having all the property information at my fingertips, like the # of units in a building, the year it was built, the physical condition of the exterior, and the amount it has in reserves (way more information than your typical realtor has at his or her fingertips). But since I am only working with one or two properties at a time, it is relatively easy for me to learn all the details about them.

I have maintained my goal for a while now of posting twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, but the new year will bring lineup changes. I will be consolidating my posts into one weekly post on Fridays, with more emphasis on household savings and management. Looking forward to many fun and thought-provoking discussions in the new year!