PARIS L. GRAY/Courier-Post Development partners Paul Andrews and Jurgen Weberbauer, the owners of Aspen Falls LLC, look over plans for homes they are building off Tom Brown Road

by RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff

The average residential assessment here, according to township assessor Dennis Bianchini, is $201,000.

But that figure is deceiving, Bianchini says, noting that the ratio of assessed value to market value homes and property is now 76 percent.

The average sale price of homes in Moorestown, in other words, is running closer to $260,000 than $200,000.

And new homes run considerably higher than that, following a pattern of development begun last decade.

"New homes pretty much start at around $400,000," Bianchini said, referring to four- and five-

bedroom, single family homes that are still going up in some parts of town.

The new home choices in general range from big 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, with price tags from $400,000 to $600,000 to even bigger: Mansions with 6,000 to 7,000 feet of floor space and price tags hovering around $900,000 or $1 million mark.

Paul Andrews, a local Realtor and developer, has just begun building a group of mansions off Tom Brown Road that will "begin in the high 800s $895,000, really," Andrews says. The development will be custom designed, he points out, and patterned after the stately fieldstone mansions of Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs.

That is not to say that people of more modest means cannot find homes in Moorestown.

Existing housing is more diverse, starting at about $100,000 and going to $400,000 and up, Bianchini says.

"You can still get a home for $100,000 here," Andrews agrees, arguing that "that's what makes Moorestown different from other wealthy towns. There is a range of housing."

He recently sold a bungalow for $150,000 and he is building seven new homes in the Lenola section of the township with prices ranging from $229,000 to $289,000.

While there is still diversity in the township's housing stock, the trend is clearly toward the upper end.

None of the other new houses rivals the 45,000-square-foot mega-mansion being built in Moorestown by Commerce Bank chairman Vernon Hill. But precious few of Moorestown new houses could be called "starter" homes either.

"I don't know where all this money is coming from," Bianchini said. "But in the last year and a half we've seen a big upturn in the cost of the houses being built here."

At the lower end of the scale, MEND, the church-sponsored, non-profit group that has been building and rehabilitating housing units for low-income people since the early 1970s, has added about 300 affordable housing units to the township, mostly through rehabilitation.

It suffered a major setback three years ago, however, when the township decided to overhaul its affordable housing plan and to spend money helping other towns provide affordable housing units rather than provide them in Moorestown.

The township has entered into Regional Contribution Agreements with Beverly and Mount Holly to help those communities provide 272 housing units.

"MEND is still in the hunt," says Boyce Adams, one of the founding members of the group.

But he was keenly disappointed in the township's decision to send part of its housing resources out of a town in which he feels there is a crying need.

"I've always felt that there is a need to provide safe and decent places with good schools to people of all income levels," Adams says.

"It's one key to breaking the chain of poverty," he says.

While he is not against preserving open space, Adams says, he thinks there should be a reason for it beyond keeping more people out of town.

The township's interest in open space is driving up the price of land and housing, making MEND's job just that much more difficult.

"Moorestown has always had economic diversity," says Mary Frinter, who moved here with her family about 15 years ago.

"The loss of that diversity is not a good thing."