Smart buyers kept home sales strong through the usually quiet month of August, locking in their mortgages at the current low rates. If you’ve been waiting to "time the market", you might want to move quickly to avoid rate increases and to capitalize on a rare gift from the Federal Government: you can now borrow up to $729,750 without tipping into the more expensive “jumbo” category. In January, that maximum is scheduled to fall back to $417,000. This is a great time to buy! We’re on our way back up from a market bottom that had far less impact on our area than it did nationally. Why? We’re a local market where people buy houses to live in them. That spared us the sharp value falloff of speculative markets where investors bought homes to flip them and got caught holding the bag in the downturn. For more information about the following communities, please visit www.maggeemiggins.com • Belleville • Bloomfield • Chatham • Livingston • Madison • Maplewood • Millburn/Short Hills • Montclair • Mountainside - New! • Scotch Plains - New! • South Orange • Springfield • Summit • Westfield • West Orange