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

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Case-Shiller: Seasonal bump in Q2 home prices All 20 tracked metros see year-over-year declines Home prices rose in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, but fell on a year-over-year basis, according to the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price Indices report released today. The quarterly national index rose 3.6 percent in the second quarter to 130.1, after a reported "double dip" in the first quarter. That's a 5.9 percent decline compared to second-quarter 2010, taking home prices back to what they were in early 2003. The 20-city composite index rose 1.1 percent on a monthly, nonseasonally adjusted basis in June, to 141.3. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the composite remained essentially flat at -0.1 percent. The composite fell 4.5 percent year over year. None of the 20 cities in the composite posted monthly declines in June, and 19 of 20 posted increases. Minneapolis and Chicago saw the largest monthly increases,...

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Without power, schools won't be able to open on time. But local school officials are hoping that's not the case. "Safety is our biggest concern," said Jere Hochman, Bedford Superintdendent of Schools, on Tuesday afternoon. "We have sports activities running today outside and we plan to have new teacher orientation tomorrow. But we are exploring all of our options and if we don't have power on campus by Friday, it's a possibility that we could delay opening day." Hochman said he planned to send out an official message to district parents sometime on Tuesday. Katonah-Lewisboro Superintendent of Schools, Paul Kreutzer, released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying that the district planned to open as scheduled. Lewisboro and Meadow Pond Elementary Schools and the middle and high school have no power. "On a more positive note, Katonah Elementary School and Increase Miller Elementary School, along with the District Offices, are operati...

Update, 4:30 p.m. Aug. 30 Power is restored to the Katonah pool, and it will re-open to the public Aug. 31 at noon. The pool house is available Tuesday from 4 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. for residents to take showers. For the remainder of the week, pool house facilities are open: Wednesday, August 31st Thursday, September 1st Friday, September 2nd 9am to 12pm– Open for Showers 12pm to 7pm– Pool open for swimming 7pm to 7:45pm– Open for showers If residents have questions, they may call the recreation office at: 666-7004 Bedford Hills and Bedford Village pools remain closed due to lack of power.  First Story, 2 p.m. If you stopped by Panera Bread in Bedford Hills Tuesday, you know an outlet is hard to come by. But now locals have another option—and you don't need an iced coffee to keep your table. Town Hall, at 321 Bedford Road in Bedford is now open to residents who want to charge up their computers and phones. Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts sent an e...

The lights started coming on in Bedford Village Tuesday morning. Dina Clayson and her staff were putting the merchandise back into window displays at Consider the Cook—they had taken it out before the hurricane to save new product from potentially being damaged in the storm. The store survived the storm, unscathed. "We only lost one day of business, on Monday, but I don't know how many people will be coming in today," said Clayson, the shop's owner. "We sold a lot of french presses before the storm though!" Across the street at Bedford Gourmet, where the power had not yet returned, they weren't so lucky. "We lost thousands of dollars in food—just threw it all out," said Debbie Franzese, co-ower of the shop. She and her partner Alex Walsh, opened up the store on Monday wihtout power, offering coffee and pastries al fresco. "We became a real meet and greet place for the village," said Franzese. "People were so apprec...

Source: Forbes At first glance it appears to be a typo; Paul Allen’s private island is called … Allan Island? Someone must have messed up. However, according to The Seattle Times , the private plot of land off Anacortes, WA , was not named for the tech billionaire, but a Navy hero. Allen recently listed his private isle in the San Juans for $13.5 million. Allen co-founded Microsoft alongside another Seattle billionaire, Bill Gates. Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1982 and during treatment, left the company. Although he no longer is an active member of the board, he still serves as an adviser to Microsoft and owns a reported 138 million shares. His net worth, according to Forbes , is $13 billion. In addition to owning several sports teams — the Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers, and part of the Seattle Sounders — plus one of the world’s largest yachts, Allen also holds a plethora of expensive real estate. He owns a huge compound...

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5 reasons real estate hasn't recovered What's happening with jobs, shadow inventory? The housing bubble of 2006 burst in large part due to lax lending practices that led up to the housing recession. The collateral damage from these practices hammered personal fortunes through foreclosures and investment losses. The devaluation of mortgage-backed securities tied to nonperforming mortgages kick-started the falling dominoes in this global financial crisis. Now the mortgage lending industry is making up for their slipshod business practices by tightening credit standards to an extreme level. This has partly to do with regulations recently put in place that make one wonder if anyone consulted real estate professionals and economists before they were enacted. It's commonly agreed that the easy-money lending practices that were in vogue before the downturn in 2006-07 should be left behind. Then, buyers didn't need to qualify to get a stated-income mortgage. Unrea...

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Updated, 11:00 a.m. With 75 percent of Bedford and 99 percent of Lewisboro still with no power, residents need food, water and ice. Power has mostly been restored to Katonah, Bedford Hills and the Route 117 corridor. However, power is not restored to businesses in Bedford Village and most storefronts are closed there. And just as Lewisboro residents celebrated the opening of DeCicco's in its town hub , the Cross River Plaza, again residents will have to travel for provisions—at least for a day or more. Most of the supermarkets and delis that are open have reported they are out of ice. Dry ice is being distributed at locations in and around Bedford today, click here for details. Here's what we know is open: Food The Shop Rite Plaza in Bedford Hills, including Panera Bread and the supermarket Table Local Market in Bedford Hills A & P in Katonah at 123 Bedford Road A & P in Mt. Kisco at 195 N. Bedford Road. Other loc...

Picking up the pieces after a natural disaster can be difficult – especially if your property’s had heavy damage. Even if your home has been properly insured , there are still steps that need to be taken to ensure a timely response from your insurance company. Here’s some advice from the New York Insurance Department : The first thing you should do is notify your insurance company of the loss. Although you can do this by telephone, the New York Insurance Department recommends following up in writing to create a paper trail. Remember to notify your insurer, not the broker who sold you the policy. If you do notify your broker, it’s still your responsibility to make sure he follows up with the insurer. Protect your property. Board up broken windows to protect your home from further damage, burglary or vandalism. The out-of-pocket expense you incur for this should be covered by your policy, and would be reimbursed. The New York Insurance Department advises against m...

If you're running out of water for bathing and flushing toilets, no problem. But if you want a flashlight to find your way around the house tonight in the dark, you're out of luck. Though Shop Rite in Bedford Hills and Target in Mount Kisco had sold out of bottled water, more will be delivered Tuesday. And the A&P in Katonah has a plentiful supply of water, according to a spokesperson. In many local shops, flashlights and battery supplies are nearly wiped out. "We've sold out of almost every battery, and that's the most requested item," said David Vasquez, who works at Katonah Paint and Hardware. "We have also sold out of three-and-five-gallon gas cans and propane, which people have been using for portable cook stoves. Like they're camping out." The store had one dehumidifier left as of 4 p.m. on Monday. Vasquez said that Lewisboro Hardware was open Monday, though the store, located in the Cross River Plaza, had no power. Th...

Ever wonder why you hear some hurricane names again? Or why some names disappear? Here's the scoop on hurricane names, straight from NOAA: For Atlantic hurricanes, there is actually one list for each of six years. In other words, one list is repeated every seventh year. The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity. If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it. There is an exception to the retirement rule, however. Before 1979, when the first permanent six-year storm name list began, some storm names were simply not used anymore. For example, in 1966, "Fern" was substituted for "Frieda," and no reason was cited. Below is a list of retired names, in alphabetical o...

In a statement released Monday night, NYSEG stated that "while some customers will have power restored in the next few days...it is likely that many customers will be without power at least into next week." As of 6 a.m. Tuesday, NYSEG reported that out of its 6,629 customers in Bedford, 2,632 were without power, down from a peak of 4,865 customers without power at 6 a.m. Monday. There is no restoration estimate at this time. In nearby Lewisboro, almost the entire town was without power on Monday; as of Tuesday morning, 4,189 customers out of 5,454 were down. Con Edison serves 1,018 customers in Bedford; as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, 575 were still without power. Restorations are estimated for Sept. 1 by noon. Local fire departments, the police department and town hall have all been bombarded with questions about when power will be restored. People want to know why it's taking so long. So I called and spoke to NYSEG spokesperson Clay Ellis. The...

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Top presale real estate inspection to-do's REThink Real Estate Q: As a seller in this tough market, I asked our agent about doing our own inspection that we could present to the buyer. Our home is 60 years old; we know there are issues; have fixed what we can afford; and adjusted the price to reflect what we can't afford to change. Our agent is completely against it. Our contract with him is almost up, so should we go ahead and do this before we sign a new contract? We're not trying to hide anything but think it would be a plus to be able to present a buyer with complete information from the beginning. --Kris H. A: There are certainly widely varying opinions within the agent community on the issue of presale inspections, by the seller, to be disclosed in advance to prospective buyers. I, personally, am a big fan -- here's why: If your home is old, as yours is, and there are things that are wrong with it, as with yours, buyers are likely to see or suspect...

Student housing ripe for investment Private sector eyes profits as government budgets shrink About a decade ago, when looking for a real estate investment trust (REIT) to put into my stock portfolio, I chose American Campus Communities Inc., an Austin, Texas-based company that specialized in developing and managing student housing. I enjoyed the REIT dividend and was pleased that the stock held its own through the heart of the recession when the rest of the market tumbled over a cliff like a long line of lemmings. Otherwise, I really didn't pay much attention to the student housing sector; then over the past year a couple of items caught my eye. First, toward the end of 2010, Campus Crest Communities Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., a student housing REIT unknown to me at the time, went public, generating net proceeds of $350.6 million. Then I stumbled upon an interview with a REIT analyst, who, when asked by the interviewer about his favorite companies in the apartment sec...

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Friday, August 26th, 2011, 11:51 am Standard & Poor's is likely to report a 4.3% decline in June home prices year-over-year and a 1.2% increase from the previous month when it releases its June Case-Shiller Home Price Indices study next Tuesday, Zillow said Friday. Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, released its forecast of the S&P Case-Shiller results on Friday, saying the S&P 10-City Composite Home Price Index for June could drop as much as 3.5% year-over-year while still increasing 1.2% from May. Zillow's second-quarter home price report was released earlier this month, showing a 6.2% drop in 2Q from a year earlier and a slight 0.4% gain from the first quarter. Declining home prices remain a consistent drag on the nation's overall economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday. In a much-anticipated report from Jackson, Wyo., Bernanke noted volatile home prices are disrupting consumer spending. "For example, the shar...

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People always ask, “Is it a good time to buy real estate?” The answer is always, “Yes, but it depends.” In order to make that determination for you, we first must understand the three most important words in real estate: Long-Term Ownership We buy property, whether a personal residence or for investment, in hopes that we are financially better off down the road than we are today. The chance of that occurring is very low if one does not own real estate for at least five or more years. The reason is that transaction costs, repairs, monthly ownership costs higher than comparable rent, and ownership hassles dictate that it is better to invest your money elsewhere and stay as a renter if you are not sure you will own long term. Therefore, since you are going to be a long-term holder (the longer the better) you really should not be that concerned with short-term current market price fluctuations because ten years from now the home’s value will be more than it is today. ...

While you may have been home shopping for a while— either perusing neighborhoods, looking at real estate web sites or perhaps using a real estate app — before you jump fully into the home buying process there are two important things to do before you choose your agent : First— Speak to a Lender Even before you choose your real estate agent , you should touch base with a lender and discuss your mortgage options. You want to ensure that your payments are affordable and that you will feel comfortable with the home-buying process. Additionally, most agents, if not all, want their clients to speak to a lender to verify the price range they can afford. This makes it so agents can focus their time showing their clients homes that actually fit within their price range. Get pre-approved When you speak to a lender, ask to get pre-approved.  Getting pre-approved is important so you can demonstrate to real estate agents and sellers that you are a credible buyer. It means you are: ...

Welcome to Zillow’s Rental of the Week. Our site is filled with information on homes for sale and apartments for rent, plus we have data on more than 100 million homes in the U.S., so lots of homes catch our eye. Forget freshly sharpened pencils and polished red apples, the best ode to autumn is this home for rent : a remodeled 1920s school house in Suffield, CT . This week’s rental: Restored schoolhouse For rent: $3,500/month Location: Suffield, CT Details: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2,823 square feet Once upon a time, the South Street Schoolhouse was a local school but today it’s a single-family residence Suffield rental . Besides a metal plaque hanging outside the home, there’s little evidence that the home was once a school. A cook’s kitchen features built-in appliances, granite counter tops and an open floor plan. The home itself boasts lots of character; little details like hardwood floors, a curved entranc...

Source: The Hollywood Reporter Longtime NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol made his career shaping the coverage of the Olympics, recently resigning from his position in May 2011. Ebersol’s Telluride home just hit the high-end Mountain Village real estate market for $13 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter . Ebersol was named Chairman of NBC Sports & Olympics in 1989 then secured the rights for the ’96 Olympics, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012 Olympics. During the 1995-96 season, for the only time in history, the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Summer Olympics were all telecast by one network—NBC. Although his name may not have the same household status as Derek Jeter or Michael Phelps, Ebersol was, for several years, one of the most powerful men in sports and sports coverage. Ebersol and his wife Susan St. James purchased the impressive 12,962-square-foot home in 2004 for $10.4 million. Built in 2001, the stone estate sits on a 1.7-acre lot s...

With Hurricane Irene almost certain to batter the Hudson Valley this weekend, the need for up-to-the minute info is even more important. At Patch, we will be working around-the-clock to cover the storm, but as with all our reporting, the more interaction we get from users the more comprehensive our coverage will be. Here’s how you can use Patch to help paint the local picture of the event. 1. Get the news.  When we know about storm-related news, so will you. From important town and village announcements, damages, power outages and floods, we’ll have all the news covered 24-7. Refresh the homepage often, we move fast. 2. Comment.  If you have relevant information to add to an article, jump in and make a comment. We’ll follow up and likely add it to the article. These storm stories will continue to evolve as we speak to more officials and locals. You can be a real-time source by commenting. 3. Connect with the local editor.  Click your local editor's name at the top...

Each week, Bedford-Katonah Patch will introduce you to two vendors from local markets serving the area: Gossett's Farmer's Market and the John Jay Homestead Farmer's Market . This week we introduce you to Healing Home Foods and The Gluten-Free Dessert Kitchen. Gossett's Farmer's Market is held at Gossett Brother's Nursery in South Salem every Saturday year-round, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and the John Jay Homestead Farmer's Market, held at the Homestead in Katonah runs Saturdays 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. through October. Healing Home Foods Vendors: Sandra Lena, Shelley Schultz Items sold: Organic raw granola, organic herb crackers, bean-free hummus Location:  Pound Ridge, NY Website: n/a Phone: (914) 764-0969 The Gluten-Free Dessert Kitchen Vendors: Ellen Nicholas is the baker for her company The Gluten Free Dessert Kitchen of Harmony Hill . Items sold: Two-layer cakes with fruit fillings and fresh frostings, including dairy free frostings. Almond, Blueberry o...