Is it cheaper to rent or buy in NJ? 🔑💰 & Home of Time and Life magazines founder for sale

Happy Tuesday North Jersey!

I hope you all enjoyed what great weather we were granted with during the day on Saturday, and found a way to make the most of the rest of the weekend despite the clouds and rain.

I was able to attend a Minor League Baseball for the Somerset Patriots Saturday night, which was a super fun experience. I even took home a Jersey Diners hat, which is based off of the team's temporary "Jersey Diners" jerseys that they'll play in for three games this season.

And, I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some tacos and margaritas. So, overall it was a great weekend.

Let's get into this week's real estate updates:

New business openings

Let's start with some recent business openings in North Jersey:

• Minuteman Press opened last week in Englewood. The full-service printing and marketing design company offers an array of services, including advertising, printing and direct mail ranging from brochures, postcards, business cards, forms and flyers.
• At the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, Miniso opened last week. The Sanrio-inspired store by the company known for brands like Hello Kitty, Kuromi, Pompompurin, My Melody and Keroppi, the business carries household goods, food, toys, health and beauty supplies, and daily life products.
• In Ridgewood, Spice & Tea Exchange recently opened. The store provides a variety of spices, hand-mixed spice blends, loose-leaf teas, naturally-flavored sugars, salts, gourmet gifts and accessories.
• Professional Physical Therapy opened in Glen Rock, a specialized health care provider offering customized pain management, recovery and rehabilitation services like physical therapy, hand and occupational therapy, spine and back therapy, athletic and sports injury prevention.
• In Parsippany-Troy Hills, Namkeen Hot Chicken is set to open at the end of August. The restaurant is slated to offer halal hot chicken and Pakistani flavors.

Are you opening a new business in North Jersey, or know of one in your town? Or, know of a business closing in your area? Send your information and photos to business reporter Daniel Munoz at munozd@northjersey.com so we can include them in our next roundup.

Home built for founder of Time and Life magazines listed for $5.8 million

For this week's historic home for sale, David Zimmer brings us the 50-acre estate listed for $5.8 million at 1901 Route 206 in Chester Township , which was developed by 20th-century media mogul Henry R. Luce.

Luce was founder of Time, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated Magazines. He purchased the property in June 1933, a few weeks after arriving in the area to summer with his wife of 10 years, born Lile Ross Hotz. While the home was intended to be Luce's grand summer home, he married writer Clare Booth, former managing editor of Vanity Fair and a future U.S. ambassador to Italy, shortly after the mansion's 1935 completion. It was then passed on to his former wife, Hotz, who used the property as a weekend retreat.

The 10-bedroom, nine-bathroom stone mansion offers 13,820-square-feet of living space and features oversized rooms, vaulted and beamed ceilings and arched French doors.

Tudor colonial in historic Cheelcroft section of Ho-Ho-Kus listed for $1.575 million

If you're looking for a home with authentic Tudor architecture in a quiet neighborhood within walking distances of public transportation and other amenities, the home at 40 Sutton Drive in Ho-Ho-Kus could be for you.

Currently listed for $1.575 million, the circa-1936 Tudor colonial-style home features five bedrooms and four bathrooms in the historic Cheelcroft section of Ho-Ho-Kus.

The neighborhood, which now spans more than 100 acres to the west of Route 17, dates back to the Great Depression. Harold W. Cheel — who attended Ridgewood High School and Yale University before serving in the United States Air Force during World War I — began a career in real estate in 1923. By the early 1950s, Cheelcroft went on to build 450 homes throughout Ho-Ho-Kus, including 215 in the Cheelcroft neighborhood. Each home was built on its lot, and Cheel featured a variety of architectural styles, including Cape Cod, Dutch colonial, English Tudor, Georgian, ranch and modern traditional.

"The homes were built to be very functional, and they were thoughtful of things that, in the 1920s, they were just ahead of their time and included things that work perfectly for you right now," Stokes said. "There's no wasted space. Everything kind of makes sense, and having things like a home office included during the 1920s shows they thought of everything."

Is it cheaper to rent or buy in North Jersey? And, the most popular towns for renters

Is it cheaper to buy or rent in North Jersey? Because of the current state of our real estate market, that's a question that has seemingly popped into everyone's mind at some point or another.

According to a recent report from Bankrate, it is actually cheaper to rent than buy in every one of the country's 50 largest metropolitan areas. In the New York metropolitan area, it is approximately 49.7% more expensive to buy a property than it is to rent. While a typical monthly mortgage payment here is about $4,775, typical monthly rent is just $3,189.

But, if you're someone who is looking to stay in North Jersey's rental market longer because of this, you'll want to be careful of where you look. According to RentCafe's March Rental Activity Report, Newark and Jersey City were the third and 10th most sought after locations , respectively, for renters in the Northeast. This means that you can likely expect to see more competition for rentals in these cities than you would elsewhere in our area.

Other popular rental cities in the Northeast include Queens, New York (No. 1), which ranked as the fourth most sought after city in the country in March; Philadelphia (No. 2); Buffalo, New York (No. 4); Providence, Rhode Island (No. 5); Manhattan, New York (No. 6); Boston (No. 7); Pittsburgh (No. 8); and Rochester, New York (No. 9).

Gallery of the week

This week's gallery goes along with one of my recent stories, which focuses on five North Jersey municipalities that are booming with redevelopment .

One of those municipalities was Hackensack, which has seen tons of revitalization, especially in its downtown area, in recent years. While there are several factors involved, the biggest credit goes to the Hackensack Main Street Business Alliance , which has helped increase traffic in the city's downtown area and supported the diverse mix of restaurants, shops and arts. The organization has big plans for this year, and so this week's gallery is meant to celebrate their dedication to a North Jersey community.

Check out some more work from myself and others below. But for now, that's what's up in North Jersey. See you next time!

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay , on X @maddiemcgayy , and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett .

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Is it cheaper to rent or buy in NJ? 🔑💰 & Home of Time and Life magazines founder for sale