Somerset County / South Bound Brook

This collection consists of over 30,000 unbound real estate listings, 1976-1991, prepared by the Somerset County Multiple Listing Service. These records describe residential properties and building lots offered for sale in Somerset County, New Jersey (except for Bridgewater Township and Somerville), and in neighboring Middlesex County, New Jersey (for Middlesex Borough and Piscataway Township only). The listings are presented one per sheet and usually include a halftone illustration of a house or condominium.

Each listing for a house and lot states the listing number, street address, traveling directions, municipal location (including a tax map reference), asking price, age or approximate age, lot size, design style, number of stories, type of basement, type of heat, number of rooms and their size, distinguishing features, taxes (for the previous year), additional remarks, date available, listing period, listing realtor (and phone number), size of commission (to selling realtor), instructions on how to gain access and name of owner or owners (sometimes with an address or phone number).

The collection consists of a set of the listings that was accumulated by a real estate office located in Somerville, New Jersey, which stored them in three-ring binders. Annotations on each sheet include at least the date a property sold and the name of the selling agency. Additional handwritten notes on most sheets indicate the selling price and other data (e.g., closing date and surname of buyer?).

The listing sheets in the collection are grouped together by county first and thereunder by name of municipality. Within the section for each municipality, the sheets are filed in folders that are arranged alphabetically by street names or route numbers; however, the sheets that describe building lots for sale in a municipality (in folders labeled "Acreage") are always filed in front of the alphabetical street name sequences. Note that within this filing scheme folders for the same street sometimes appear in more than one location, filed under the names of adjacent municipalities.

While many properties appear only once in the collection, some are represented by two or more listings, with each sheet representing a different time that the house and its lot appeared on the market.