Category Archives: Economy

File photo of Hovnanian's Red Bank HQ, as seen from the foot of Maple Avenue. Amid a widespread credit shutdown, Hovnanian Enterprises said its fourth-quarter net loss quadrupled over year-ago results. The Red Bank-based homebuilding company yesterday reported a net...

Today's New York Post features a Q&A with Rumsonian Mickey Gooch, who among other things is a Wall Street billionaire, head New Jersey fundraiser for GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani and co-owner, with his wife Diane, of the Red Bank-based...

An ebb tide of property values and glut of 'for sale' signs has Middletown officials thinking this might not be he best time for a revaluation, today's Asbury Park Press reports. Township officials have hired a taxation law expert to...

A customer tries on a bracelet at an opening-night reception at Tiffany & Co.'s Broad Street store earlier this month. The Asbury Park Press today pops in on store owners in downtown Red Bank to gauge their feelings about the...

Love it or loathe it, Tiffany & Co. arrives in Red Bank tomorrow with the opening of a 6,000-square-foot emporium of luxury that caps the downtown's 17-year sprint from economic backwater to one of the most admired in all of...

Hovnanian's Red Bank HQ, as seen from the foot of Maple Avenue in sunnier days. Red Bank-based Hovnanian Enterprises, one of America's largest publicly traded homebuilders, got walloped again in its latest fiscal quarter. Continuing a slide that company official...

Its signs, and tiny cars, may have seemed ubiquitous. And the basic idea — transacting home sales at commission rates lower than those typically offered by real estate brokers — seemed like a winner. But local upstart Foxtons is sputtering...

Slashing sticker prices and throwing in extra amenities, Hovnanian Enterprises reports that its weekend sales push on new housing units nationwide exceeded expectations. Wall Street cheered the report, boosting the battered homebuilder's stock price yesterday. From a report on Bloomberg.com:...

Today's Star-Ledger reports that Red Bank-based homebuilding giant Hovnanian Enterprises is cutting prices and offering incentives worth up to $240,000 on unsold new homes, discounts that industry experts call unprecedented. From the story, by business reporter Joe Perone: Just a...

It is perhaps the single most contentious issue in Red Bank: whether the downtown needs a parking garage. Merchants, in general, say yes. They complain that a shortage of street and lot parking is choking their businesses and undermining broader...

Already struggling against a tide of falling real estate values, Red Bank-based homebuilding giant Hovnanian Enterprises is now, like others in its industry, fighting a rip current brought on by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The company reported...

Tax bills reflecting the yet-to-be finalized 2007 municipal rate are landing in Red Bank mailboxes, and the annual rite of collective frustration they bring was amplified at last night's council session by the impact of this year's property revaluations. Things...

Linda Clark makes the case for a town center. The idea of creating a community center at a Red Bank-owned building on the West Side is one that "needs plenty more discussion," children's activist David Prown told a crowded Borough...

The big money stayed home. Once again, Red Bank's efforts to auction off a borough-owned building at the corner of Drs. Parker Boulevard and Bridge Avenue have failed. At a scheduled auction this afternoon, nobody bid. The same thing happened...

Zuhdi Karagjozi, the Rumson man who founded Kara Homes, claims in court papers that the bankrupt homebuilder's chief restructuring officer and "his henchmen" are poised to cheat him, according to a story on the Asbury Park Press website. From the...

Tom Labetti and Eileen (nee Weller) Labetti of Elm Place got married recently at St. James Church on Broad Street. The red-haired bride beamed magnificently, the wedding party looked youthful and happy, and the newlyweds headed off for their reception...

The median price of all new single-family homes built in Monmouth County last year was $810,000, more than 3.5 times the national median of $230,000, according to a new report from the county Planning Board. Typical size: 3,875 square feet,...

Fourteen-year-old Little Silver resident Robert Hale, who made it to the fourth round of the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee before tripping up yesterday, is a bit relieved to now have that dictionary off his back, today's Asbury Park Press...

By LINDA G. RASTELLI When you’re redoing a downtown, as rookie Fair Haven Mayor Mike Halfacre is discovering, you can’t please everyone. Exhibit A: the borough’s streetscape plan, which calls for the sidewalks from Memorial Park to Oak Place to...

New Jersey Treasurer Bradley Abelow is scheduled to lead a forum at Red Bank Borough Hall Wednesday night in which he'll discuss the impact of the proposed $33.3 billion state budget for fiscal '08 on municipalities. In announcing the event...