Available for rent, 5-35 Island View Way, is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath condo in Island Way, Sea Bright. There is an eat-in kitchen, one-car garage, and ocean views from the master bedroom balcony! Don’t miss out on this great rental!

What does this mean for home buyers?
A home buyer purchasing a $200,000 home using a $193,000 FHA mortgage before October 4 would pay an insurance premium of $88.46 per month. If the same home buyer waits until after October 4, the insurance premium would jump to $148.01.

“In this example, the home buyer would lose $59.55 per month, or $7,146 over a ten year timeframe,” Nicholas said. “Although the upfront mortgage insurance premium is going down after October 4, the real impact to the home buyer is actually a net increase in their out of pocket costs because the monthly premium is going up by 63%. Remember, sellers can pay the upfront premium or it can be financed into the loan amount, so home buyers rarely pay the upfront premium out of pocket. On the other hand, the increase in the monthly premiums will be paid right out of the home buyer’s pocket with their mortgage payment each month.”

Ironically, home buyers who plan to be in the mortgage for less than three years and decide to pay the upfront fee themselves (instead of having the seller pay it for them), may actually save money by waiting until after October 4 to apply for an FHA loan. “Home buyers with a short term time horizon may actually benefit from this change because the upfront premium will be reduced to 1% from 2.25%,” Nicholas said. This change will impact over 30% of the home buyers in today’s market who use FHA-insured financing. Home buyers considering an FHA loan should find and contact a CMPS professional in their area to discuss their options and what this means for their situation. Also, you can follow CMPS Institute on Twitter to stay updated on these and other mortgage and housing industry developments.
 http://rismedia.com/2010-09-01/fha-gives…

I would like to talk about a new small business in Red Bank. The Good Karma Cafe has opened on Front Street. The owners, Gail Doherty and Tiffany Betts, two veterans of the Hip City alternative and natural food scene, are running an all-vegan cafe. Gail Doherty once co-owned Down to Earth vegan restaurant on Broad Street and Tiffany Betts worked for Doherty almost the entire time the restaurant was open.

Red Bank has attracted and retained a large community of creative and alternative types and the natural foods sector plays an important role for progressive communities. Good Karma Cafe is now in a highly visible location on Front Street in Red Bank, a very accessible locale!

Good Karma Cafe will be open Monday through Saturday from 12-9pm. The menu consists of lunch and dinner selections and will be available at all times. You can enjoy your all-vegan meal in the cafe or take it out, while accompanying it with fresh juices and smoothies. The menu is 90 percent organic, 100% vegan, and you can view the menu at www.goodkarmacafenj.com.

“We live the life so it’s very important to us that we don’t make food that we wouldn’t eat,” Doherty says. “We’re basically creating a place for people to eat natural foods, and build a community. I feel we had our own community of like-minded people at Down to Earth. But now people have become even more educated so we believe the demand will be here.”

As for opening a business in the worst economy in 70 years. Betts says, “I don’t really care. I’m not afraid. I think people want to eat good food.” Betts also states that she likes Red Bank. “You can walk around the streets at ngiht. You feel safe here… And, it has a lot of creative people. There is also some money here which helps support the economy. Asbury Park or Red Bank to me are the only places that really feel like a city where I’d want to do something like this, and where it would go over. And, we are close enough to Asbury Park and Long Branch and other creative places where everyone just kind of melds together.”

Asbury Park has come back as one of the most progressive and open-minded small cities in the country! Asbury Park has maybe even surpassed the “competition” such as Burlington, Vermont and it is being seen that the artsy and hipster types (20, early 30-something types) are relocating from Brooklyn!

The triCity News reports that if Asbury Park is left to prosper without the expectation to conform to the likes of other suburban Monmouth and Ocean County towns, then Asbury will continue to build up an alternatibe and urban-centric community of those who love diveristy of a progressive city. Asbury Park has worked hard against suburban conformity. “The suburban population in New Jersey certainly did not get Asbury Park back to where it is now. In fact, they held the city down for decades as the readership of the Asbury Park Press rejected Asbury Park, and harshly trashed it. That same narrow-mindedness could now destroy all that’s been achieved,” reports the triCity News.

Asbury Park is seeing creative young people (from Brooklyn specifically) loking for hte next big AFFORDABLE thing, just like when everyone started to leave Manhattan for Brooklyn 20 years ago. They are starting to move in and other friends from Brooklyn are coming down to visit. The consensus is that this could trigger something big. If Asbury catches on as the affordable alternative to Brooklyn, it’s all over… That population is a bigger pool of people willing to live here and visit than those from the suburbs of Monmouth and Ocean County. This young demographic can easily take over large swaths of Asbury, just like they did in sections of Brooklyn.

Local realtors, such as myself, are seeing an influx with renters and first-time homebuyers from Brooklyn who are about 30 years old. We are seeing musicians, artists, and teachers relocating and it is basic economics driving the trend. Asbury Park is cheaper than Brooklyn, and it doesn’t hurt that Asbury has it own unique cool dynamic as it emerges in a new form. Realtors are running out of rental inventory for the Brooklynites even!

According to the triCity News, Bond Street Bar just opened a couple of months ago and it’s become a center for the alternative and creative community. It’s the perfect place to spot the Brooklyn trend. They are starting to call it Little Brooklyn. At Bond Street, there are so many people coming from there. That is all they are seeing on their IDs. And, the age range is 21-30. “The young crown will keep coming back. They’re not scared to jump on a train and travel down just for the day or for the weekend. What they spend here in a weekend, they’re spending in a half a day in Brooklyn. It will be interesting to see this trend rise!

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• Elementary {11}
• Middle {6}
• High {1}

Middle Schools in old bridge, NJ

6 Middle Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Middlesex County Academy Phone: (732) 360-4433 John Glenn School, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	7-12	42	11
Carl Sandburg Middle School Phone: (732) 360-0505 3439 Route 516, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	6-8	1359	12
Jonas Salk Middle School Phone: (732) 360-4519 155 W Greystone Road, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	6-8	1035	11
St Thomas the Apostle School Phone: (732) 251-4812 333 Rte 18, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Private	K-8	404	17
St Ambrose School Phone: (732) 679-4700 81 Throckmorton Lane, Old Bridge, NJ 08857 www.stambroseschool.net	Private	PK, K-8	436	14
Calvary Christian School Phone: (732) 479-0700 123 White Oak Lane, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Private	PK, K-7	191	12

High Schools in old bridge, NJ

1 High Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Middlesex County Academy Phone: (732) 360-4433 John Glenn School, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	7-12	42	11

Elementary Schools in old bridge, NJ

11 Elementary Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Alan B Shepard Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4499 33 Bushnell Rd, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	329	16
James MC Divitt Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4512 1 Manny Martin Way, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	514	14
M Scott Carpenter Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4452 1 Par Avenue, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	296	20
Raymond E Voorhees Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4544 11 Liberty Street, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	434	16
Southwood Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4539 64 Southwood Dr, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	316	17
Virgil Grissom Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4481 1 Sims Avenue, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	230	19
Walter Schirra Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4495 1 Awn St, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	373	16
William A Miller Elementary School Phone: (732) 360-4589 2 Old Matawan Road, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Public	K-5	391	16
St Thomas the Apostle School Phone: (732) 251-4812 333 Rte 18, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Private	K-8	404	17
St Ambrose School Phone: (732) 679-4700 81 Throckmorton Lane, Old Bridge, NJ 08857 www.stambroseschool.net	Private	PK, K-8	436	14
Calvary Christian School Phone: (732) 479-0700 123 White Oak Lane, Old Bridge, NJ 08857	Private	PK, K-7	191	12

A little History of Old Bridge, NJ:

Initially, Old Bridge Township was made up of farms and the population grew slowly.  In 1880, the population was 1,662 and in 1950 it had reached only 7,365.  Then the building boom started and farms gave way to developments. In 1960, the population was 22,772 and that was only the beginning. The 1980 census sited 51,406 people and even that was questioned because areas of the Township have post offices bearing the names of other communities in the area.  Today, the Township population is estimated to be 60,000 and continued growth is forecasted.  Of the Township’s 38.3 square miles, approximately one third is developed.

Hundreds of Thousands of people flock to the Jersey Shore each summer. The shore is a healthy, happy and pleasant place to be during the hot and humid weather.  From an historical perspective it is evident that the Old Bridge waterfront has been a site of considerable commercial and recreational activity ever since the area was first inhabited by the Lenni Lenape. Much of this activity was directly attributed to the flora and fauna, natural bathing beaches, and access to the major navigational routes. A combination of the detrimental effects of water pollution on existing bayshore flora and fauna, storm damage and resultant beach erosion and building destruction, unsightly filling of the water’s edge in some locations, and a general neglect of this valuable asset has led to a deterioration of the bayfront area.

During the past decade, the Township of Old Bridge initiated efforts to reverse this trend. Forty-seven acres of waterfront land were acquired and the first phase of the Laurence Harbor Park was developed. Additional plans for groins, erosion control and recreational facilities were also initiated. Hopefully, future historians will be able to look back with satisfaction and pride to the 1980’s as a decade of renaissance for the Old Bridge waterfront. Significantly, the State of New Jersey had established a policy of upgrading and enhancing the State’s waterways in the 1980’s. This policy evolved through continued efforts in planning and regulating development in the coastal area which culminated in a Presidential directive that 1980 be designated as “The Year of the Coast”.

In 1995, as part of the Shore Protection Beach revitalization project, two new groins (jetties) were built off the Laurence Harbor beachfront and the entire beach was replenished with new sand. A New Jersey Shore Protection grant of $2,100,000 was provided for the project.  In 1998, the Middlesex County Park Commission leased the shorefront from the Township and planned the development of a major waterfront park.  In March 1999, the State Department of Environmental Protection awarded the Township with a $300,000 grant to repair the Laurence Harbor Beach groin (jetty). The award was presented to the Township through the office of the DEP Administrator, Bernard Moore, longtime Chief of the Bureau of Coastal Engineering. Since the old groin was already included in the County’s plan for improvements, the $300,000 grant will be used for additional site work and recreational amenities.

For more information on this listing, please go to http://www.seetheproperty.com/63208

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Tinton Falls has a history as intriguing and important as many of Monmouth County’s more prominent historic areas. Water power was the key to the early settlement of Tinton Falls, and the backbone of its economic activity for the better part of three centuries. The village was established early in Monmouth County’s history, and thrived by taking advantage of its distinctive natural features. The Borough acted to safeguard its rich history by creating the Historic Preservation Commission in 1990. With appropriate protection, on-going documentation, and increased public awareness, the heritage of the borough will continue to be a source of pride for generations to come. Tinton Falls is centrally located in Monmouth County and provides easy access to the Jersey Shore, Manhattan, and many more attractions and destinations. 

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• Elementary {5}
• Middle {5}
• High {4}

High Schools in tinton falls, NJ

4 High Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Monmouth Reg High School Phone: (732) 542-1170 One Norman J. Field Way, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Public	9-12	1147	9
Regional Alternative School Phone: (732) 389-5555 100 Tornello Way, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Alt.	7-12	53	13
Ranney School Phone: (732) 542-4777 235 Hope Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private	PK, K-12	793	8
Oakwood School Phone: (732) 747-8746 62 Hance Ave, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private, Special Education	8-12	86	8

Middle Schools in tinton falls, NJ

5 Middle Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Regional Alternative School Phone: (732) 389-5555 100 Tornello Way, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Alt.	7-12	53	13
Tinton Falls Middle School Phone: (732) 542-0775 674 Tinton Avenue, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Public	6-8	477	9
Ranney School Phone: (732) 542-4777 235 Hope Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private	PK, K-12	793	8
Oakwood School Phone: (732) 747-8746 62 Hance Ave, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private, Special Education	8-12	86	8
Collingwood Park Sda School Phone: (732) 922-4286 276 Shark River Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07753	Private	PK, K-8	42	16

Elementary Schools in tinton falls, NJ

5 Elementary Schools found in the area.

School	Type	Grade Level	Enrollment	Students per Teacher
Mahala F Atchison Elementary School Phone: (732) 542-2500 961 Sycamore Avenue, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Public	K-3	664	11
Swimming River Elementary School Phone: (732) 460-2416 220 Hance Avenue, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Public	4-5	328	8
Ranney School Phone: (732) 542-4777 235 Hope Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private	PK, K-12	793	8
Winding Brook School Phone: (732) 542-0575 1044 Sycamore Ave, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724	Private, Special Program Emphasis	PK, K-1	54	10
Collingwood Park Sda School Phone: (732) 922-4286 276 Shark River Rd, Tinton Falls, NJ 07753	Private	PK, K-8	42	16

“If you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, have we got a trip for you.

Even if your reaction to that famous salutation is “Hi!” “Hey!” or “Huh?” the folks in Asbury Park will be equally happy to meet you.

This seaside community, indelibly linked to Springsteen’s 1973 debut album, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.,” has plenty to offer – whether you’re among the fans making pilgrimages or just want to have fun, relax and enjoy the beach.

Just ask the E Street Band’s Clarence Clemons.

“It’s the most beautiful beach and the most beautiful boardwalk,” Clemons said in a recent interview.

Jersey Shore author-historian Stan Goldstein says the boardwalk is the “best it’s been in more than 30 years.”

Goldstein remembers the giant Exxon sign that brought this city its light and the now-razed Flamingo motel, whose name may have inspired the fictitious Flamingo Lane of Springsteen’s song “Jungleland.”

Clemons fondly recalls a carousel with handcrafted horses and driving around an informal route known as “the circuit,” referred to in Springsteen’s “Night” and “4th of July, Asbury Park.”

That was before Asbury Park became a city of ruins.

Race riots in 1970 “sucked all the life right out of Asbury Park,” says Clemons. Its swan song “was really, really sad.”

“For at least 20 years, it was a ghost town,” says Goldstein.

The city has undergone a recent renaissance. Upscale development has snowballed.

“It’s all coming back now; that’s exciting,” says Clemons, though he impishly denounces the city’s recent rejection of a topless beach proposal.

The pristine sand, trendy but relaxed bars and cafes, the Silverball pinball museum (1000 Ocean Ave.) and an adorable boardwalk water park for kids are hallmarks of the resurrection.

Springsteen recently appeared at the Stone Pony (913 Ocean Ave.) with Alejandro Escovedo. The Paramount and Convention Hall (both at 1300 Ocean Ave.) are also thriving.

The former Upstage Club (702 Cookman Ave.) is now in the hands of a music lover who wants to bring it to life again. Memorabilia is stuck, shrine-like, over its storefront glass. The oasis nurtured a long-haired, scrawny young Springsteen as well as E Streeters Steven Van Zandt, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, David Sancious and Garry Tallent.

The former Student Prince (911 Kingsley St.) recently reopened as a gay bar named Swell.

Clemons’ book, “Big Man,” recounts how he dropped by the Student Prince during a break from his appearance at the Wonder Bar (still lively, at Fifth and Ocean). As he strode in and asked to play with Springsteen for the very first time, a wind gust blew the door off.

There’s a song, historical or photographic tie-in at every turn.

For total immersion, make an appointment to see the public library’s Springsteen Special Collection. It contains “more stuff on myself and the band than every place except my mother’s basement,” Springsteen once said.

Or just hit some haunts:

The Palace, an indoor amusement park mentioned in Springsteen lyrics, is gone but not forgotten. Located at Kingsley Street, between Lake and Cookman avenues, its exterior bore the words “Skooter” and “Tunnel of Love.”

“The boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers along the shore, chasin’ all them silly New York girls…” The casino’s art-adorned passageway links Asbury’s southern boardwalk to Ocean Grove. That’s the hometown of Southside Johnny Lyon, who still whips fans into a frenzy with his Asbury Jukes.

“Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore,” a book by Goldstein and Jean Mikle ($23), describes a jillion sights all over the area, including Springsteen’s original hometown, Freehold, 18 miles inland.

Tourists also flock about six miles south to Belmar, posing for photos at a worn, white cement street marker for “E St.” Sancious, the original keyboard player, lived in the neighborhood when the E Street Band got its name.

Even without a confirmed sighting in the area, Springsteen is omnipresent. (He definitely drops by, though maybe not quite as often as eager-to-please locals might claim.)

Springsteen, with and without E Street, has performed many times at the Convention Hall and its smaller sibling, the Paramount.

The theaters – connected by a charming, indoor retail and restaurant promenade – are just steps away from the cute shack where a relative of the late Madam Marie holds court. (“Well the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do,” as Bruce’s lyrics put it.)”

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/08…

“We’re creating a cultural brand, and it’s going to rebrand the state,” said Ms. Lipson, the wife of a parking garage developer, who came from humble beginnings and discovered a love of contemporary art only in the last few years.

Ms. Lipson has not yet raised any of the $5 million it is projected that she will need to open the museum, nor does she have a lock on the boardwalk real estate she covets, or a team of slick consultants armed with surveys and statistics. But she is a bona fide expert at using charm, guileless candor, boundless energy and terms of endearment to bring home what she wants: a new museum on the Jersey Shore devoted to emerging artists.

“I’m blessed with this life right now,” she said recently. “And I have a choice,” she went on. “I could go to lunch and go shopping and, you know, do those things, or I can do something that might make somebody else’s life a little richer.”

New museums are not born every day, and when they are, they are usually founded either by major art patrons — Whitneys, Guggenheims, de Menils — or, as in the case of the New Museum, by a visionary curator. Ms. Lipson is neither. But she does have the support of wealthy friends with a major art collection: Michael and Susan Hort. The Horts, who appear annually on ARTnews’s list of the world’s 200 top collectors, host a popular art party, a brunch at their Tribeca loft, during the annual Armory Show.

Ms. Lipson also has a dozen young artists, curators, event planners and others who are part of her dream. These volunteers have done everything from build a Web site, njmoca.org, to plan an inaugural exhibition and gala on Oct. 23.

“It’s just so different,” Haley Mellin, a painter who is organizing the inaugural exhibition, said of Ms. Lipson’s ideas for the museum, including pop-up exhibits around the state. “I was really attracted to that vision.”

The building of her dreams is a 1920s power plant, designed by Warren & Wetmore, whose work includes Grand Central Terminal. Abandoned for 30 years, the plant is owned by the development company Madison Marquette, which owns much of the property on the boardwalk here.

Ms. Lipson tried to get a meeting with Madison Marquette’s president, Gary Mottola, for weeks to make her pitch. She finally got it on a recent morning in a sunbaked conference room. Ms. Lipson was in a black skirt and sleeveless top and big sunglasses, Mr. Mottola in a Stone PonyT-shirt; a reporter attended.

Ms. Lipson noted that while New Jersey had many regional museums, it had nothing that drew international tourism.

“Except Madam Marie,” Mr. Mottola interjected, referring to the stand of a former boardwalk fortuneteller made famous by Bruce Springsteen in his “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”

Ms. Lipson said the museum would be an economic catalyst in the way that Mass MoCA, a contemporary art museum that opened in 1999, has been in North Adams, Mass. “It was blighted; there was a high crime rate,” she said.

Mr. Mottola appeared to take umbrage. Asbury Park, he said, was “the biggest music destination in the world.” The D.J. Tiësto had recently played at the Convention Center. And celebrity glamour? What about the New Jersey Hall of Fame, which has Jack Nicholson’s second-grade report card and Susan Sarandon’s cheerleading jacket in its temporary space on the boardwalk?

He might be interested in having an art museum, he said, but “not in the context of ‘We’re blighted, this is going to make us unblighted,’ ” he said. “We’re already way past that.”

She was able to interest Mr. Mottola in hosting the inaugural gala in another one of the company’s buildings, the Paramount Theater, and she saw that as progress.

“I just have to bring him into our world,” she said.

The museum will depend on loans rather than having a collection, allowing it to operate more efficiently and avoid “the crunch situations that major museums get into,” Ms. Lipson said. As for the Horts’ collection, “If a curator comes and wants access to the collection, they can have it,” she said.

The Horts, who have a home in Monmouth Beach, are planning to support the museum, and say they feel others will too. They haven’t previously been major donors to existing museums. For Ms. Lipson, who keeps in daily touch with her young volunteers by phone, e-mail and Facebook, the museum is already bearing fruit as a community-builder.

“I’m so enriched by meeting everybody, and I’m having so much fun with this,” she said, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “I’m loving it.”

Information provided by Kate Taylor of the New York Times.

Want to see more, visit my open house here, Sunday, August 29, 1-4 pm! Come and discuss with me, how I can assist you with all your real estate needs and provide “committed, invested, responsive, and trusted” service! 

75 Nassau Street; Clark, NJ 07066

Open House
Sunday, August 29
1-4pm 

Virtual Tour: http://www.seetheproperty.com/presentation_v2/presentation.php?order_id=65392&mode=branded&ws=1 

Here is a link to all of my listings with Better Homes Realty 

http://www.seetheproperty.com/featured_listings.php?agid=13689

I would like to take a moment or should I say, take a blog, to announce that I am now with Better Homes Realty in Keyport. I decided to make the switch to Better Homes for a number of reasons. One being that Tradition, Distinction, and Innovation have distinguished Better Homes Realty as a leading real estate company, and these values continue to drive the service you will receive from my agency and me by innovative thinking, creative marketing and leadership. Another factor in making my decision to switch has to do with the fact that while Better Homes Realty remains a locally owned and operated company -a rarity in the real estate world – we nonetheless have a global reach, introducing home to buyers throughout the world.

And, most importantly, all of Better Homes’ services are conducted in-house with the Better Homes Realty professionalism that is known and recognized around the world. Whatever your needs, whatever your lifestyle, Better Homes Realty is the better way to buy or sell your home!

As a way to kickoff my career with Better Homes Realty, I am having an open house this weekend at 4 Tradewinds Lane in Seabright, NJ. This home is stunning and the views are exquisite! Stop by this home Sunday, between 1-4 and experience Jersey Shore living at its finest, and while you are there, grab my new card!!

Sunday, Aug. 15
1-4pm
4 Tradewinds Lane, Seabright
Directions: Highway 36E (Ocean Avenue) to Left on Tradewinds