Home prices have taken a hit everywhere. The prices from 2 years ago were over inflated and are now prices more representative of market value. As for property taxes, they never go down in any significant way. The best you can hope for is they hold steady.
I do land surveying, mostly in Mercer, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester counties and we were seeing houses sell for incredible amounts, now those same houses and/or neighborhoods are down by 30%-40%. The actual numbers are on a different scale, but the %'s are pretty close. Any idea what the taxes for that house you looked at are?
I'd say 60% of the title/mortgage surveys we have done over the past 8 months have been forclosures or short sales. We show up and the house is empty, yard is overgrown, stickers on the windows "Home is Winterized", no realty "For Sale" signs out front just an empty house that looks like someone left in a hurry or was forced out. Kinda sad really, but these are likely the same people that foolishly put their name on a mortgage for 250,000 when the house was truly only worth 180,000-200,00 and they only make 40,0000 and those economics don't work.
Over the last month business has picked back and the housing market is starting to move again. Prices aren't jumping, but homes sales seems to be ticking up ever so slightly. We are putting out bids on small construction jobs too, so maybe this economy has finally started the slow steady climb out of the cellar.
Good Luck on the search. If your credit is good and you are in a cash strong position, now is pretty good time to buy and you'll have the leverage. Do everything you can to put 20% down (or as much as possible), banks like this as it shows a strong commitment. Look into splitting the mortgage payment and paying half every 2 weeks, you end up knocking years off the mortgage and saving oodles of cash in interest. I don't know Bergen County very well, but look out if you are near a body of water, Flood Insurance isn't cheap and Flood Elevation Certs are another cost (in addition to the survery) if needed. Watch out for underground fuel tanks, these can get very costly if a problem arises and most home owners policies require a separate rider to cover them. Get all your inspections done well in advance of closing, this way if anything pops up you can use this to negotiate with. Getting the inspection reports a day before closing makes it more difficult to deal if major items pop up. Get everything in writing, there are no handshakes, nobody's word is worth a dime and take lots of pics of the house inside and out when you first look at it and on the final walk through the morning of settlement. You'd be surprised the kind of stunts people pull. Switching out expensive ceiling fans/lights for junk ones, switching out the nice new appliances for older ones. Damages to walls and floors from moving. The window AC units they said they'd leave behind are no where to be found? The vinyl shed they said they were leaving is suddenly not there? And make sure you use an attorney for the transaction, not your buddy who does medical malpractice or handles divorces, but a real estate attorney. This home will likely be your biggest investment, so do the homework.
Chris