Why so many Cranbury Greene homes for sale?

[Guest]

I noticed that there are about 8 homes in Cranbury Greene for sale now. All of them located in the south of Old Trenton Rd., and none in the north of Old Trenton Rd. Why?

[observer]

Apparently because school for that part is merged with East Windsor and the other side of Old Trenton stays in Cranbury school.

[concerned]

Do you have any proof? Or is it only your guess?

[Guest]

Either this poster is honestly misinformed or trying to create a rumor.

Either way, it is not true. There's not even a kernal of truth in it...

[google]

Position of Cranbury is really shaky right now, after the recent school law passed Cranbury became a candy for surrounding townships.
That's why people are fleeing Cranbury Green to a more stable areas like West Windsor.
Anyone has other explanation?

[J]

Facts would be useful here instead of conjecture...

1) The law that passed is MANY steps removed from making Cranbury "candy" for the surrounding townships. It allows -- but does not even require -- a new county-wide superintendent, who has yet to even be appointed, to commission a TWO YEAR study to determine if a given Township would benefit from consolidation of school services. Then, even if the study was commissioned and completed, not sooner than 2009, the voters of the affected township have to approve it. What are the odds of that? It’s a bogus law cynically passed because after a whole lot of noise from the legislature and the governor about doing something to help property taxes, all the serious proposals were rendered off limits by various unions and powerful NJ interest groups so they desperately looked for anything that didn’t have major organized opposition and sounded good. But then they gave it no teeth as not to later raise the ire of affected voters, knowing the news reports would gloss over that level of detail. It was all for show.

2) Even if they ever asked for study for Cranbury, it would prove further consolidation wouldn’t be effective in our case. The law is general to all of New Jersey and was not targeted for Cranbury specifically. In our case, we already have, according to state records, a very cost effective district and we are already consolidated at the high school level via our relationship with Princeton. The language of the law specifically indicates that it was meant to encourage that kind of sharing relationship in districts that are small and don’t currently do this. We already are – we are effectively a model for what they proposed already.

3) The entire premise of the law is fundamentally flawed and the cynical lawmakers knew it but counted that the public wouldn’t because it sounds logical absent the facts. The premise is a larger, consolidated school district would be more cost effective to run because it would have a greater economy of scale – i.e. less cost per student for administration and services – and therefore lead to lower property taxes. On the fact of it the State’s own publicly available statistics, which most people don’t review, contradict this. The way it works is every local municipality collects property taxes, gives some of it to their township and local schools and some of it to the State. The State then sends some of what they collect back to the local schools. What the facts show is that Cranbury almost entirely covers its school budget through direct local taxes and receives 4% from the State – FAR LESS than what its tax payers sent the State. By comparison, the State average is to provide over 50% of the school’s budget. In other words, we are so efficient that we are subsidizing other school districts. And according to the State’s public records, which districts require the most subsidizing? The largest districts. Directly contrary to the premise of the legislation.

4) Even ignoring all of the above, there is nothing in the legislation that allows for a township to be carved into pieces. So the premise that part of Cranbury Greene would go to East Windsor and the rest would not is totally made up.

5) No other explanation is required because there is no adoration to explain. The premise is that there is a huge, disproportionate exodus from Cranbury Greene, but the premise has not been established. First of all, there have been more houses at any given time for sale in Cranbury Greene that the rest of the township every year recently, and always concentrated between the Spring and Fall. Why do people, most of whom probably bought in this season, always forget that? People predominately buy here for the schools. They buy in this season because of the school season. It’s a common, documented phenomenon all over this area. And, other than Shadow Oaks, the Greene is the largest community of housing in Cranbury so no big surprise where the concentration is. And there are a bunch of houses that have been for sale in Shadow Oaks too. Also, even if you were able to establish a pattern that says, oh gee, that there are 3 more houses for sale this year in the Greene than the comparable time last year, given the larger market forces that wouldn’t be surprising. I just looked, and there are also WAY more houses for sale in West Windsor – the supposedly more stable township – than last year. So how does that compute for your argument? The reality is the housing market is in a major flux that started about 18 months ago. Many people are reacting to it, eager to seel because of uncertainty about the future direction of the market. That is a much bigger issue than Cranbury and we are just seeing our fair share.

6) We used to be in the West Windsor district. We paid a premium to move from there to here because of the schools. So I wouldn’t look to them as some better example… Also, they would hardly be more stable by the definition of the recently passed legislation, which emphasizes country-based control. West Windsor currently shares with Plainsboro, but they are in different counties. Under this legislation, the new superintendents of either county could push for them to be split up to instead consolidate with another township in their own county.

Rumor mongrel all you want, but facts speak louder than hysteria…

[me]

Rumor monger, not mongrel.
That was funny!

[Guest]

[Joe]