Town By Town: Woodbury bounces back, with affordable options

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities.

If you've been thinking about buying a home and Woodbury is on your list, next Saturday would be a good day to visit the Gloucester County seat.

There will be a fall festival along Broad Street from morning to night - the 65th fall festival, to be exact. Residents of this city of 10,000-plus will be celebrating Woodbury's history, which spans the 331 years since Henry Wood of Bury, England, settled here in 1683.

Wood + Bury = well, you know.

There will be a fund-raising duck race at Rotary Park, a chicken barbecue, a 5K race, the Merchant Association's antiques fair, and a parade that will feature entries with historical themes.

Fun and food aside, it will be a good day to house-hunt as well, since Woodbury, a city since 1854, which prospered as a hub of the patent-medicine industry, is a treasure trove of diverse housing stock, much of it in the affordable-for-first-time-buyers range.

"Two of my most recent sales were to first-time buyers," said Ron Bruce, of BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors in Mullica Hill, who has been selling in Woodbury for 20 years. "Prices here are reasonable, and you get more house for the money than in most towns around here."

"I actually like Woodbury," says David Marcantuno, an agent with Keller Williams Realty in Washington Township.

"There are tree-lined streets with really nice old Victorians and on nicely sized lots," he said. "There are also plenty of inexpensive options for young or first-time buyers."

Because Woodbury is the county seat, many large and small houses in close proximity to government buildings have been converted to offices for lawyers, title companies, and appraisal firms who need to do business there.

"But there are still plenty around," Marcantuno said, and "they're pretty affordable, too."

For example, "you can find really nice 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot Victorians for under $300,000," Marcantuno said.

As with most South Jersey communities, "admittedly, the taxes are a little high, but that may hold the selling prices down a little and help keep Woodbury housing more affordable overall," he said.

For instance, a single-family detached three-bedroom, one-bath house in the city's west end, which is for sale for $172,000, has an annual tax bill of $4,291, Trend Multiple Listing Service data show.

"The feedback I get is that taxes are generally a little higher than elsewhere," said Mark Honabach, an agent at Weichert Realtors' Washington Township office.

"Yet the higher taxes are a wash when you look at what you are getting for the price," he said.

Bruce said taxable property is limited by county buildings and tax-exempt ones such as churches.

"I sold a church six years ago to a funeral home, and it meant $17,000 a year in tax revenue," he said.

"Like every town around here, Woodbury took a hit in the downturn," Bruce said, "but sales are up 18 percent in the last 12 months over the previous 12, and prices rose about 4.5 percent."

In the last 12 months, 83 houses have sold in Woodbury, and there are 110 active listings, with 16 under contract, Honabach said.

Listings range from $18,000 - "a house to be sold as is," Honabach says - to $549,000 for "a big, old stone Georgian-style home of 5,800 square feet and with taxes of $20,000."

Of the 63 sales this year, the highest was a 4,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, 31/2-bath, for $383,000 - "a pretty nice house with annual taxes of $15,000," Honabach said.

Bruce hasn't seen many distressed sales in Woodbury, observing that there are more in the surrounding communities, where houses are newer and more expensive.

"We see the short-sales, and bank-owned, lower-priced options get bought up by the investors," Marcantuno said. "This is followed by rentals - and there has been a pretty brisk rental market in Woodbury."

"Then we hope the normal, or average-priced, homes in the town start moving again . . . ," Marcantuno added.

Many of Woodbury's houses are older - newer construction abounds in the surrounding townships - and are often in need of some updating.

Although history isn't a big seller in today's housing market, and buyers tend to favor updated homes in move-in condition, there have been long-standing efforts to restore and maintain historic buildings in the city.

Since 1977, the Woodbury Olde-City Restoration Committee has been involved in restoration projects such as the train station and rescuing the Congress building from being razed for a parking lot.

Woodbury is close to the Deptford Mall, but Marcantuno points out that Woodbury has a downtown with "some nice shops, restaurants, Pep Boys, even a car dealer."

There have been plenty of vacancies recently, he said, but even the downtown seems to be turning the corner, thanks to the continued efforts of Main Street Woodbury, the nonprofit, urban revitalization organization. Some new stores have opened, Marcantuno added.

"A lot of businesses have been struggling, and this can affect buyers' perceptions of Woodbury."

Still, "things are on the upswing," he says.

"I think Woodbury is a solid option for investments," Marcantuno says, adding, "I believe property values will come back and go up in the near future."

Population: 10,085 (2012).

Median income:

$53,574 (2012).

Area: 2.06 square miles.

Settlements in the last three months: 21.

Homes for sale: 110.

Average days on market: 181.

Median price: $137,000.

Housing stock: 4,400 units, mostly older, from small Cape Cods to large Victorians.

School district: Woodbury.

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; City-Data.com; Mark Honabach, Weichert Realtors; BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors HomExpert

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