Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY

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Foreclosure properties sold during 2012 decreased by 6% from 2011 and down 11% from 2010, RealtyTrac said in its fourth quarter and year-end 2012 foreclosure and short sales report. Based in Irvine, Calif., RealtyTrac is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties. “Although foreclosure-related sales represent a shrinking share of total sales, primarily because of fewer bank-owned purchases, distressed sales are still a disproportionately high portion of the overall housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.  Pre-foreclosure sales increased 6% from 2011, returning just 1% below the 2010 total of pre-foreclosure sales. Since RealtyTrac began tracking in 2005, 2010 held the highest annual total. Pre-foreclosure homes took an average of 336 days to sell after starting the foreclosure process, and properties sold for an average price of $190,031. Even though REO sales fell in the nationwide total, numbers still increased in 26 states. 498

Foreclosure activity plummeted 17.8% year-over-year in January with only 61,000 foreclosures completed last month, down from 75,000 a year earlier, CoreLogic reported. The Irvine, Calif.-based real estate analytics firm also noted that foreclosures from December to January did mange to edge up 10.5% from 56,000 in December. Both months are still well above the normal foreclosure rate of 21,000 foreclosures per month, an average established in the six-year period running from 2000 through 2006. The U.S. currently has 1.2 million homes in some stage of foreclosure, down from 1.5 million in January of 2012. "The backlog of distressed assets continues to fade as the foreclosure inventory has fallen to a level not seen since mid-2009, with less than 3% of all mortgages in foreclosure," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The improvement is widespread as only six states and 13 of the largest 100 metro areas had an increase in the foreclosure rate year

As part of a three-year commitment to U.S. small businesses, Citi today announced that the bank surpassed its $8 billion lending goal in 2012 by more than $1.6 billion. Citi loaned a total of $9.6 billion to small businesses in 2012, a 21 percent increase from 2011, when Citi loaned $7.9 billion. Citi has substantially increased its small business lending in recent years, from $4.5 billion in 2009 and $6.0 billion in 2010. via housingwire.com

After showing little change, fixed-mortgage rates recently started to decline, Freddie Mac said in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.  Falling from 3.56% a week ago, the 30-year, fixed-mortgage rate reached 3.51% for the week ending Feb. 28, a decline from 3.90% a year ago. The 15-year, FRM averaged 2.76%, down just a little from 2.77%, but significantly down from 3.17% a year earlier. Also decreasing, the 5-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.61%, down from 2.64% last week and from 2.83% a year earlier. Following suit, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.64%, down 1% from 2.65% a week ago, but down 2.72% from a year ago. "Mortgage rates eased somewhat as the consumer price index in February held steady for the second month in a row. House price indicators, however, showed gains in 2012. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index rose 7.3% last year, reflecting the largest four-quarter growth since the third quarter of 2006," sai

Time and time again, the housing recovery has been deemed a reflector of overall U.S. economic health. And right now, both seem to showing fairly modest growth. In the week ending Feb. 23, seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims dropped to 344,000. This is 22,000 fewer than the previous week’s revised total of 366,000 filings, according to the United States Department of Labor . However, according to analysts at Econoday , this is nothing to get too excited about, as this drop follows an upwardly revised spike of 24,000 one-week prior. "What may be signaling improvement are continuing claims which for the Feb. 16 fell a sizable 91,000 to 3.074 million with the four-week average down 36,000 to a recovery low of 3.155 million," said Econoday. Also at a recovery low is the unemployment rate for insured workers, which is at 2.4%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point. "Initial jobless claims have been more or less stable throughout  February and other survey measu

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The low inventory of for-sale homes is creating a seller’s market throughout the country. "Buyers and agents are literally waiting for the next house," says Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage for the San Francisco Bay Area. The supply of existing homes for sale reached nearly an eight-year low in January, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Nationwide, there is a 4.2-month supply of existing homes for sale.  A more balanced market with a six-month supply will occur when home prices rise another 20 percent, says John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Such an increase would then lure sellers to match demand coming in from renters and investors, and the rise in prices will also lead to more home building, Burns says.  Still, a return to healthy inventory levels could be years off, some say. “Many home owners can't afford to sell because they don't have enough equity to put into buying another house — or

The across-the-board budget cuts enacted into law in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit take effect Friday, March 1, absent additional action by the  government. Some $85 billion, split between defense and domestic discretionary  programs, is scheduled to be cut over the balance of 2013. In all, about $1.2 trillion is to be cut over the next 10 years.   Not counting the economic impact on housing demand, the cuts are expected to have minimal impact on federally backed mortgage finance programs because the sequester applies to program dollars, not loan guaranty authority. For that reason, loans backed by the FHA, the VA, and the Rural Housing Service are expected to remain at current levels.   The two secondary mortgage market companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which remain under federal conservatorship, will also likely see little impact from the sequester.   Two additional budget deadlines are ahead. The deadline for extending a continuing resolution that’s in plac

Many people enjoy the capturing of life with photos and videos. For some it is the reminder of people met and experiences that shouldn’t be forgotten. Some are moments of fun and ecstasy, others are sad and tragic. Modern photo technology now embedded in smart phones allows us to take photos and view them instantly without waiting for the local Kodak corner store to develop the film. This evolution has been fatal for this global brand. Now you can not only click and view, you can also tweet, Facebook and email that photo to friends and family all around the world in seconds. A trigger happy friend of mine uses Instagram to take those snapshots of a moment in time.  When her smart phone battery died the other you could see the loss of her time freezing machine was not good for her health. Life in One Second Videos A movie director Cesar Kurimaya has decided that he didn’t want to forget special moments. Instead of Instagram photos or still images, he is capturing his life

2012 Median Prices Up Mount Kisco      12% Chappaqua          2% via trulia.com

2012 Median Prices Dow Katonah          12% Bedford Hills   12% Bedford NY    12% North Salem      8% South Salem      3% Pound Ridge    10% Armonk             2% via trulia.com

Sales of new single-family homes in January rose to its fastest pace since 2008, leading to more confirmation that the recovery in the new-home sector is charging forward.  New-home sales rose 15.6 percent in January to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000 units, HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau reports.  "The surge in demand for new homes this January is an excellent sign that the housing recovery is gaining steam and helping put more people back to work," says Rick Judson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. "While we can't expect to see double-digit sales growth every month, consumers are definitely coming off the fence as prices start to rise, and builders in some cases are having a tough time keeping up. Challenges related to credit availability, poor appraisals, dwindling lot supplies, spot shortages of skilled labor and rising materials costs are all weighing on the recovery process."  Regionally, new-home sales incre

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The major national home price reports agree on trends but never agree on numbers because their data comes from different places and are manipulated differently to create the most accurate results. Yesterday S&P Case-Shiller announced 20012’s gain was 7.3 percent. The federal government’s index showed a 5.5 percent gain. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI) reported prices rose 1.4 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter and rose 5.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the fourth quarter of 2012. The three S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices’ headline composites ended the year with strong gains. The national composite posted an increase of 7.3 percent for 2012. In addition to the three composites, nineteen of the 20 MSAs posted positive year-over-year growth - only New York fell. “Home prices ended 2012 with solid gains,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of t

All three home price indices maintained by S&P/Case-Shiller finished 2012 with strong gains, but showed signs of losing momentum in the final three months of the year. Case-Shiller's National Home Price Index was up 7.3 percent from a year ago in the fourth quarter. The 20-City and 10-City Composite indices saw annual gains in December of 7.3 percent, 6.8 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. It was the seventh month in a row that the 20-City Composite posted an annual gain, with every market in the index except New York up for the year. The National Home Price Index, after strong second and third quarters, slipped 0.3 percent from the third quarter to the fourth on a non seasonally-adjusted basis. When adjusted for seasonal factors, the national composite posted a 2 percent gain from the third quarter to the fourth. The 20-City and 10-City composites were essentially flat from November to December, each growing by 0.2 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. If adjusted

One of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the country now allows borrowers to submit their own loan applications online and receive approval in as little as 15 minutes, according to an announcement  from Guaranteed Rate. Borrowers can use Guaranteed Rate's website to choose and customize a loan, receive free credit reports with scores from the three major credit bureaus, submit a secure application to the lender's automated underwriting service, and receive an approval letter to purchase a home within minutes of submitting the application. "Historically, the mortgage process is manual and puts the burden to complete the loan application on the customer and the loan officer, with many handoffs between the two. With Guaranteed Rate's online process, customers have the same access to tools as loan officers, and now they can apply for their loan and receive approval themselves," the lender said. Listing portals Zillow , Trulia and Realtor.com offer consumers

Sales of new single-family homes rose 28.9 percent on an annual basis in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today . That represents a 15.6 percent increase from December, and was the fastest pace of new-home sales for a January since 2008, blogger Bill McBride pointed out on Calculated Risk . It was, however, the ninth weakest January in records going back to 1973, McBride noted. Nearly three times as many new homes sold in January 2005.  The median sales price of new homes sold in January was $226,400, up 2.1 percent from a year ago, but down 9.4 percent from December. The Census Bureau estimated that 150,000 new homes were on the market at the end of December, representing a 4.1-month supply. Less than six months' supply is considered normal, McBride said. via inman.com

DEAR BARRY: We are in the process of buying a house and were informed that the sellers installed a radon remediation system last year. Radon levels before the system was installed were about 7 picocuries per liter. What should we do about this situation, and what are the effects of radon exposure to occupants? --Ananda DEAR ANANDA: If the mitigation system that was installed in the home has effectively reduced the radon level below 4 picocuries per liter, there is no need to worry. Ask the sellers for radon test results taken after the system was installed. If a follow-up test was not done, or if they do not have documentary results of the test, you should request that a test be done as a condition of the purchase. Radon is a radioactive gas that is produced by the decay of uranium in the soil or in ground water. It is particularly common in areas where the soil contains granite or shale. Radon is regarded as the second-highest cause of lung cancer (next to smoking) and

While prices of normal foreclosures and short sales have been rising, damaged distressed properties are actually becoming less expensive, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Prices for REO properties in need of repair - the type banks look to unload after a foreclosure - have not been rising along with prices for non-distressed properties. They have been moving in the opposite direction. According to HousingPulse results, the average price for a damaged REO property sold in January was just $88,100. That was not only 17.1 percent below the average damaged REO price recorded a year ago - $106,300 - but also the lowest level ever recorded by HousingPulse in its four-year history. One reason for the decline in damaged REO prices is the fact that owner occupant buyers have become less interested in foreclosure fixer-uppers over the better part of a year. HousingPulse results for January show current home

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" A dwindling supply of homes for sale is helping prices. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index for December shows home prices posted the biggest year-over-year increase last year in six years. Boosted by decreasing inventory and increasing demand, the 20-city index shows prices rose 6.8% in 2012 compared to the year before with price hikes in 19 of 20 major cities tracked, according to the report released Tuesday. Only New York fell, down 0.5%. On a monthly basis, the 20-city index gained 0.2% in December. Nine cities posted positive monthly gains in December. The Case-Shiller national composite index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, posted a 7.3% gain in the fourth quarter over a year earlier" http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/26/case-shiller-home-pri... via trulia.com

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Your Web site should be working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, capturing leads and marketing your brand. Your site should be helping consumers search for homes, find local market data, and get answers to some of their burning questions. And all of this can be handled on your Web site’s home page. Yes, really. I’ve come up with a few best practices to consider for the home page of your real estate Web site, which will provide potential clients with a better overall online experience while boosting your credibility as a go-to resource in your market. 1. A full IDX search that is front and center Make no mistake, consumers come to your Web site to search for listings. And they want to search all the listings — not just your or your office’s listings. Give them a full IDX search or don’t bother having a Web site. Keep your search obvious, as it should be the first thing the consumer sees on your home page. Offering a school district search, short sale a

Recreation Newsletter       February 25, 2013  Dear Robert,   The North Castle Recreation 2013 Spring Summer Brochure is now on the Town's website.  You can  view and print your own copy here . The tri-fold pamphlet which simply lists the programs in spring and summer has been mailed to all Town residents.  For a peak at the tri-fold  click here .   Mail-in registration  for all spring and summer programs, including Town day camps,  begins  Monday, March 11 .   Walk-in registration begins Monday, March 18.   Do not delay in registering as programs can get filled or cancelled.  Please call us if y ou have any questions, 273-3325. Egg Hunt Eggstravaganza   Boys and girls, Pre-K through Grade 5, can participate in this fun and exciting springtime classic event.  Wear boots and bring a bag to collect your goodies!  Parents, please note that some toys are not recommended for children under 3 years old.    Date:   Saturday, March 16 (rain date 3/23)   Times:        10:30 AM sharp at Com

Armonk, Bedford Lead in Largest Average Size | RobReportBlog Square Feet Katonah 3,464 Pound Ridge 4,029 South Salem 2,775 Mt Kisco 3,265 Chappaqua 4,270 North Salem 3,861 Armonk 5,324 Bedford 4,415 via trulia.com

North Salem, Katonah Lead in Highest Ave. Price per Foot | RobReportBlog           Price per foot Katonah $418.00 Pound Ridge $348.00 South Salem $278.00 Mt Kisco $332.00 Chappaqua $366.00 North Salem $440.00 Armonk $384.00 Bedford $387.00 via trulia.com

Singapore plans to raise taxes for luxury homeowners and investment properties, widening a four- year campaign to curb speculation after prices in Asia’s second- most expensive housing market rose to a record. The higher tax will apply to the top 1 percent of homeowners who live in their own residences, or 12,000 properties, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech yesterday, without giving a definition of what constitutes a high-end home. The government will also raise tax rates for vacant investment properties or those that are rented out, he said. Singapore joins Hong Kong in extending anti-speculation measures as low interest rates and capital inflows drive up demand and make housing unaffordable. Residential prices in Singapore climbed to a record in the fourth quarter as an increase in the number of millionaires drove up demand. “The graduated property tax on luxury properties may impact investors, particularly corporates and

Today marks the one-month anniversary of the new mobile app  Vine . Since its release, it has received a lot of buzz as well as dealt with a variety of issues. Businesses did not hesitate to jump onto the app for marketing purposes, while amateur users haven’t been shy about testing it out for…other reasons. Introduced to the world by Twitter, Vine is a simple video capturing application that allows users to film quick 6-second looping videos by holding their thumb on the capture-frame. The looping quality of the Vines results in something very similar to a GIF, while the ability to capture and share moments on Twitter or Facebook makes the app very similar to Instagram. In fact, Vine is considered to be to Twitter what Instagram is to Facebook. And as such, the snappy in-one-ear-out-the-other characteristic of tweets has been transferred into video form with Vine. The quick-snippet format is a great tool to have for stories that can be summarized simply in 6 seconds, but s

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The world is changing rapidly, and people all over the world are struggling to keep up. As technology grows more and more advanced every year, new solutions to old problems are continually presenting themselves. Data backup has come a long way from the traditional methods to which many businesses have become accustomed. Many businesses are now taking their backup needs into the cloud for remote storage, and there are many great reasons to make this jump. Optimal Security Security is a primary concern for businesses everywhere, especially when it comes to data storage. Loads of important information are traditionally stored on backup tapes on-site, which has worked for many years. Lots of businesses are skeptical of the security that cloud backup companies can offer. However, all of your backed up data in the cloud is encrypted and channeled through secure servers, making it safer than traditional storage methods. Using a cloud backup service is, in many cases, more secure