Dear Readers,
As we all are aware, affordable housing locally has become, well, unaffordable. Especially for first timers who need a place to live and don’t want to spend the rest of their lives paying someone else’s mortgage when they can accrue their own equity.
Once upon a time, the great attraction of Lakewood, NJ, a small, unremarkable town near the New Jersey shore, was the great yeshiva established by the incredible Reb Aharon Kotler Zatzal.
But today, the attraction of Lakewood has become its hub of Yiddishe convenience. Stores, restaurants, kosher accommodation, schools, minyanim and everything necessary for frum life has made it the bustling Warsaw of America for the Litvishe world. And it has now even expanded beyond Litvish and yeshivish-chassidim. Lakewood is home to full neighborhoods and shtetlach of chassidim, Baruch HaShem!
True, there are many reasons to live here. But let’s face it. The intimate Lakewood of yesterday does not exist on so many levels. And housing is simply not affordable. Period.
So I often wonder. Are there trailblazers who would be willing to start frum communities in towns within driving distance to Lakewood that are far enough to sport affordable housing?
Why is this not happening? Are people afraid of change? Where are the natural pioneers, why are they not emerging?
There are really two options. There are some more affordable communities that already have a religious presence, but just may not be on the same frumkeit standards as a typical Lakewood family may want. Communities such as Marlboro/Manalapan, Twin Rivers and others are only 30 or so minutes away and already have some infrastructure to house frum families. These communities are even close enough for families to transport their children to Lakewood schools (since the schools have plenty of room!!) until they can establish their own. Indeed, though, these areas are more comparable in home pricing to Lakewood and still may not be that affordable.
The other, more courageous option, is to start a community from scratch an hour or so out of Lakewood. Areas south-west closer to Philadelphia and Delaware river often have very affordable housing, often priced between $300,000-400,000, even significantly less for a starter home. These areas are simpler and more humble, rendering them appropriate for younger families who want to live responsibly within their means. Let’s face it, once upon a time people spent what they had and lived with lower expectations until they had more.
With a commitment of 15-20 families who get together to create a new opportunity housing can become affordable again. There are so many young entrepreneurs who can begin to offer services such as mini markets while these towns grow with little overhead and eventually grow them into significant businesses as the towns grow.
While I understand that many people may not want to be the trailblazer without knowing there is a formal group, I offer here to have anyone potentially interested in joining such a group to email me at: rebmoshe@juno.com to see if we can “Make Housing Affordable Again!”
TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to letters@thelakewoodscoop.com
I think most people would want a community that’s between Lakewood and NY. Going towards philly/Baltimore doesn’t entice most people.
Good try enjoy emunah believe in hashem enough people in this down that doesn’t make sense how they live or marry off children but it works when you have a caring father but you gotta trust him Reb Avigdor Miller has a great pirush on shar bitochen
Um…
Um….
Bitachon or Laziness….
Great article and ideas! In my opinion, the majority of the affordable housing crises can be attributed to; 1. investors who are outbiding the average Lakewood family. 2. Causing an over inflation of pricing and demand for every house on the market. 3. Creating a greatly imbalanced increased amount of buyer’s vs. the amount of sellers.
There are other reasons as well, however this above I believe is the greatest of them all.
You entirely missed the key factors and your second and third factors are just descriptions of market conditions, not actual causes.
The key factors that affected prices are population growth outpacing infrastructure and housing construction (not to mention an overly healthy NIMBY movement), non locals moving in (this includes chasidim from Brooklyn and transplants who came to BMG as students), and general housing inflation (housing prices have skyrocketed across the country)
Investors do play a role in the housing inflation but I don’t believe it affects more than 10% of the market.
The effects of these factors (I’m sure someone can point out what other factors I’m missing), are your second and third points regarding an imbalanced market and over inflated pricing.
These are not simple problems to solve, but some of the suggestions in the letter may help.
Realistically speaking, we need an additional 20,000+ housing units within the next 5-10 years to keep pace.
The OP idea is the simple solution to fix the issue. But as A Pashuta Yid mentioned, if the group includes investors, OR if investors decide on their own to jump into these areas, it’ll quickly ruin the entire idea.
the chassidim do this all the time.
lets go litvaks
Would love to see such a community where mothers are back in the home raising their kids and living simpler and within one’s means is the standard.
And it is doable as long as home schooling or pod learning will be accepted.
All we need is more development.
Lots of it.
Supply and demand is quite simple.
Have you ever been in lakewood? More development where??
Where will the cars go?
What good is it to live in lakewood if it takes the same amount of time to travel across town as traveling to New York?
100% agree with this letter writer. My family was driving on chol hamoed past miles and miles of farmland half hr away from Lakewood. I don’t get why developments can’t be built etc. Thankfully I bought in Jackson 8 yrs ago when it was affordable. I make a very nice living now but no way would I be able to afford a mortgage with the rates now and prices of homes, plus a $200k down payment.
I would 100% encourage others to be open minded and reach out to Reb Moshe.
Go for it!
Rip up more farmland? Ruin more of the environment? Water depleted, animals displaced or out right killed. What type of world are you leaving for ALL children, not just your own. And the roads that already can’t handle the traffic…how much worse will they become? Maybe another state other than Jersey needs to answer your needs.
I am the author of this letter. Its intention is to start a revolution and get groups together to create a viable solution to affordable housing. One in which until a community is fully established, those living there can make use of Lakewood’s boundless resources.
If we can collect a significant group we can try to make it happen.
The idea here is not to harp on the problem, rather to work toward solving it.
Beautiful.
Yirbu Kmosecha, we need more people like you who dont stay in the peanut gallery, but raise their hands and do the work they need to do.
Thank you, Boruch. The naysayers will only miss out on this excellent opportunity…
Don’t sacrifice your childs chinuch for financial reasons.
2 issues.
1. As the saying goes, “Pioneers get slaughtered, Settlers prosper.”
Being the 1st comes with a slew of problems & issues that are often difficult to overcome. The smart ones will wait until the community is up & running & stable before moving there. Of course we are all “Smart” so what type of people will be the “Pioneers” & will they create a community others are interested in settling in?
2. As the saying goes in real estate “Location, Location, Location”
Lakewood is at the farther edges but still part of New York. Living in Lakewood & working in Manhattan or attending a wedding in Brooklyn is a shlep but doable.
Adding an extra 30-45 minutes to the commute & it’s a real pain.
There’s a reason hundreds live in Lakewood & commute to work in Manhattan while there’s not a single person (I’ve heard of) that lives in Baltimore & commutes daily to Manhattan.
It’s simple to long of a commute.
Building a new community south-west of Lakewood will be undesirable for those with strong connections to NY.
U can have a community near Phi/PA border of NJ thats equidistant to NYC to commute.
Hamilton, Ewing, Willingboro
I think this is a great point.
I also agree that most people do not travel to NYC for work. The next, upcoming generation, who are getting married now, are predominantly children of Lakewood families. I recently met a 17-year-old who told me he was NEVER in Brooklyn!
These young adults have little reason to be near NYC and an extra 20 minutes of travelling for the annual trip they may take is both palatable and will wither as NY becomes less relevant.
As you said “hundreds”. Lakewood(and surrounding areas) is a town with hundreds of thousand, where from what I’ve heard, people I know commute from Brooklyn for business and far more for weddings. Now I’m not commenting on moving another 45 min out, but to say that we all live here for NYC, is a real stretch. Maybe that’s how it used to be, but today it’s a very small percentage, so that small percentage won’t be “rebmoshe’s” crowd.
Well written
Bensalem is an hour from lakewood and has a small community with a kollel and mikva.
Perhaps Bensalem is a perfect example.
How long has it been around? Why hasn’t it grown into another large Jewish community?
A quick search shows the Bensalem community ran an ad on TLS 4 years ago.
Communities that are attractive in their own right don’t need to pay for advertising.
Bensalem is a wonderful place to live.
Speaking from experience.
Bensalem is another illustration of a community that has potential. But what are the costs of SFHs and RE there?
And I think if we can’t keep within 30-35 minutes of Lakewood we lose the benefit of Lakewood amenities.
So far, a number of people have reached out to me. Who else is willing to go along with this so that you can purchase a home at an affordable price and still be within reasonable distance?
What do you consider a reasonable price?
I live in Tom’s River, in an up and coming community which is still struggling for a weekly minyan. You can get a house for under 500. We have all the Lakewood benefits, and many new additions to Toms River in terms of restaurants, grocery, etc
Redfin:, the average price of a house in Bensalem is 390k
This was tried years ago (Egg Harbor and I believe the other place was Browns Mills, wherever that is) but nothing came out of it.
Lakehurst is 15 minutes away.
Browns Mills 25 minutes.
Great. Nothing came out of it means nothing to me!
Good luck but if (moderated) real estate heats of this it won’t take long for them to drive up the prices just like they did in Lakewood
All in a day’s work. The early bird catches the worm.
East side of Cherry Hill who’s in?
Another possible solution is for 2 families to get together & try to buy a house to share & also share in expenses
Please. This has to happen. I encourage anyone who doesn’t own property in Lakewood to take this brave move while your family is still young. Live a slower pace, don’t read ads encouraging u to have more things. Be the hero of your community, stand out for your talents and strengths. Amazing. How sweet it is.
Yup this idea can change Klal Yisrael!
I have been working on trying to make this work and already have a group of yungerliet and a BIG Rov in town who has agreed to come with. But during my initial research i ran into two problems. 1 There aren’t any areas that have even 10 houses for sale in reasonable walking distance let alone same couple of blocks so the kids can play. 2 The median home value in NJ is $547,100 and the median listing is $574,900 and looking around at those locations within a 30 min drive there isn’t anything that cheap and this is before we start buying but once we do the prices will skyrocket. If anyone has any ideas or would like to work together I can be reached at lakewoodhousingcrisis@gmail.com
I agree with the problem that it is difficult to find 10 houses near each other. We can problem-solve that through enthusiastic RE agents.
Regarding prices, I am referring to areas that contain low-cost, smaller homes with potential to extend when the family is ready
One of my ideas here would be to find investors who may own a block of homes in a given area and have them agree to rent/sell them to these families.
There are 10ns of thousands of acres of undeveloped land in Jackson, Manchester, & Howell.
The above Townships don’t want us moving in so they designated this land as preserved farmland or forest.
With time, maybe the political landscape will change & beautiful neighborhoods will be built there.
Instead of yearly forest fires smoking up this region from unmanaged dry forests, young families will have affordable homes to live in.
We need political activism locally to open up unused public lands for sensible residential developement.
If people want to stay in lakewood, how about getting 10 or 15 families to “turn over” the places that are small town house developments-similar style to coventry that are still decently priced. Good for starter homes. People could live there instead of buying for investment and renting out. Living in a home you buy is also investment…..
Another nice idea. But that can be a new thread and needn’t contradict this post that is seeking to afford people the opportunity to buy SFHs
I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to contradict. Just wanted to suggest another idea.
Excuse my ignorance but what does SFHs stand for?
SFH=Single Family Homes
I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to contradict. Just suggested another idea.
Excuse my ignorance but what is SFHs?
Yes, do this as well!
100% am for it.
Like someone mentioned, chasidim have been doing this for the past decade; Staten Island, Union, Linden, Bloomingburg, Chester just to name a few. It’s time the yeshivishe oilem (hate using term litvak, because our whole derech has zero shaiches to the Lita) does the same.
Chassidim have done it. But this idea encourages people to simply create another new neighborhood, just as Jackson and Howell did, that utilizes Lakewood’s amenities.
We need more development in lakewood so prices fall
The only place to build in Lakewood is up 🙂
It’s interesting that people are willing to go much further away when we still have options here. Deeper in Manchester. Deeper in toms river. These place are way bigger than lakewood. There are houses gm for 650 700 still available. Yes u will walk 15 min to shul ahabbos. But not fir long. People are reluctant to go Deeper. Jackson and Howell don’t have as much options agreed. Hashem should help everyone get their own house quickly!
As someone who used to live in Lakewood and now lives out of town, I can tell you with certainty that while there are advantages of living out of town (i.e. simpler lifestyle , feeling like you count etc.), the schools in Lakewood are way more advanced and much more equipped to deal with today’s children than out of town schools. (Competition actually makes better outcomes.) I’m not saying it’s a perfect system. However, remember to put chinuch in the equation.
As someone who used to live in Lakewood and now lives out of town, I can tell you with certainty that while there are advantages of living out of town (i.e. simpler lifestyle , feeling like you count etc.), the schools in Lakewood are way more experienced, advanced and much more equipped to deal with today’s children than out of town schools. (Competition actually makes better outcomes.) I’m not saying it’s a perfect system. However, remember to put chinuch in the equation.
Everyone keeps mentioning chasidim but we are forgetting one major difference that they all have there own chasidus that they belong to which bonds them together and allows them to work more cohesively but litvaks don’t. Just imagine how many schools you would have to open for everyone’s different shade and I don’t mean that disparagingly we just aren’t all one shade like chasidim are within there own chasidus. The only litvish towns that have opened in recent history and became a mainstream community opened around Torah/kollel because that bonds everyone together. Just something to think about. Again anyone with a good plan or interested in joining together to make something like this can reach me at lakewoodhousingcrisis@gmail.com
To huh? And other respondents, pardon me but it’s very small minded to say that Bensalem advertised without huge results so it’s not a worthwhile community
I have no allegiance to Bensalem, but haven’t we all become a little narrow and small to think that we have to stay within the confines of lkwd- it’s unthinkable that we’ll go into hock to stay in one specific town; the social pressure is frankly ludicrous and traffic is oppressive. The author is trying to present potential benefits of moving out of the inner circle. Let’s explore . .
You make a good point about the results.
But that was not my point. My point was a city advertising itself is usually small & lacking the infrastructure many are used too (even if they’re ok with it on a smaller scale).
Just as an example, I have yet to see Baltimore advertising in Lakewood & NY, “Move to Baltimore. A growing Frum community. Be a part of our growth. Affordable housing & a small town feel.”
Unlike Bensalem, Baltimore doesn’t need to advertise because the city sells itself.
This conversation need not exclude Bensalem. It is to include other, closer areas.
A real solution can be is to buy a property a few thousand acres somewhere in US
And have the ability to build tens of thousands of houses
If we go to an existing community prices can go up very fast.
The idea is to basically create another Lakewood with designated locations for Yeshivas and Shuls.
And space to keep building for many years so prices stay low
While these are great ideas, let’s not forget that there have been plenty of pioneers in the past few years. I remember when a friend of mine moved to Hampshire Hills in Jackson for $429,000 7 years ago he had a 35 minute walk to Shul. Now those houses are $1,200,000.
There is no market in the country where a house TRIPLED IN VALUE in 7 years. We are in a death spiral of everyone outbidding each other.
Same will happen wherever you start another community.
Well, the early bird catches the worm. Whoever buys in to the idea today will inevitably have early-bird advantage. What comes afterwards is not in our control
Bad tzushtel Mr. Fink, Hampshire Hills is part of Lakewood a totally new community is a whole different story
Moshe B, this is a nice idea but a massive undertaking. The idea of this article is to have couples, especially those with ties to Lakewood (due to BMG or family) utilize Lakewood’s existing amenities while establishing a sort of “new neighborhood” close by
BMG used to send yungeleit to kollelim out of town. The goal wasn’t to bottleneck in lakewood as is happening now. It helped other communities flourish and helped lakewood as well.
These days, BMG is focused on keeping its members local. We dont think moving out of lakewood is an option, which gives lakewood a monopoly. We are willing to pay almost anything to stay here, whether or not we can afford it.
A commenter said you can get decent priced houses in Manchester/Jackson for 650-700. Since when is a 5k monthly mortgage affordable for a kollel family with basically one income and several kids? Lakewood is not affordable for its inhabitants.
I purchased my house in a new far out neighborhood 2 years ago for 570. Today my zestimate is close to 750. Who could afford that? And the neighborhood is still sparsely populated. Once people hear of a new area, investors (including young families who plan on moving in within 5 years) jump in and outbid each other until normal home-seekers are priced out.
We need to start thinking outside of Ocean County.
How about Utah, Montana, Idaho.. the US is vast! Buy land and then build the homes and schools you want. Please don’t act like locust to already existing community.