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

  December 17, 2014                                                                    PROGRAMS: Advanced Registration is required for all programs. Unless noted, all programs meet in the Nature Center and are $7 per person or FREE for  members . Please register by calling  (914) 762-2912 ext. 110 .  Christmas Bird Count Saturday, December 20 8 am   Celebrate nature this holiday season by helping Teatown educators in this important census to count wintering birds. The information gathered is compiled and sent to National Audubon which uses the information to monitor trends in populations and other conservation issues that impact avian health. Free.  Dress for the weather, bring binoculars and wear hiking boots. V...

Location:  Urbana, Illinois Price:  $296,000 The Skinny:  Thanks to the glass walls surrounding the courtyard of this late-'60s dwelling, you can peer from the entryway all the way through the wall of glass in back, out onto the fairway of the Urbana Country Club's 18-hole golf course. Which isn't quite nature unspoiled, but the view is still a beautiful one. Champaign-area architect  John Replinger  designed the three-bedroom home, which was bought in 2009 for  $252K  and beautifully rehabbed by and artist and an architect. According to  the listing,  the landscaping of the yard was inspired by the work of modernist landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. There's also a vegetable garden to the side, and the makings of a good rock garden in the courtyard. Part of the restoration included refinishing the hardwood floors, and blessedly, did not include gutting the kitchen and bringing in a granite countertop, as they often seem to with ...

When the housing bubble popped, it trapped more than 16 million homeowners in homes worth less than the balance on their mortgage. Two years after the peak of that crisis, Zillow found that nearly half those people have escaped from negative equity. Nationally, the number of upside-down homeowners is down 40 percent since 2012, according to Zillow’s Q3 Negative Equity Report. To get out of negative equity, some homeowners went through foreclosure or a short sale. Others just hung on, making mortgage payments while property values improved. At any rate, millions of them are now free to sell their homes, offering energy to the recovering housing market. Across the country, the hardest-hit cities saw the greatest relief. Of homeowners with a mortgage in Atlanta, for example, 55 percent were upside down in early 2012. Now, only 23 percent are. Phoenix peaked with 58 percent of mortgaged homeowners in negative equity in 2011, but now, that number has dropped to less than 20 percent. ...

I was meeting with a client the other day for an interior paint color consultation, and at one point we found ourselves sitting on the stairs just outside of her powder room trying to figure out the exact shade of blue she wanted for an accent wall in the room. We couldn’t find the color in the paint fan deck I had with me, but then she suddenly pointed to my ponytail elastic and said, “That’s the blue I want!” I’d describe it as a bold electric blue that has the teensiest touch of green in it. That very afternoon I saw the announcement of Blue Paisley as PPG Pittsburgh Paints’ Color of the Year for 2015 and realized it was the exact hue my client wanted for her powder room wall. And now I am suddenly seeing this color popping up everywhere, from accent walls to winter clothing to decorative accessories. One in a series: See more featured colors of the year Jennifer Ott Design Blue Paisley was chosen for the 2015 Color of the Year by PPG Pittsburgh Paints because ...

Should you rent in a newer or older apartment building? New data shows  older rentals — especially those in buildings with fewer than 10 units — tend to have lower rents. But cost isn’t the only factor for today’s renters. Jessica’s newer, larger building Near Boston’s South End, One Back Bay embodies the luxury apartment experience with a 24-hour concierge and valet service. A studio apartment in the 2009-built building is available for $3,390 per month . Jessica Lau, 24, was initially concerned with location and safety. As a dental student at Boston University, proximity to school was at the top of her apartment wish list. Then she started talking to locals. “At first, I didn’t care about the age of the building where I lived,” she said. “But after I talked to them, I changed my mind and looked for something modern and new.” Turns out, Lau’s friends who live in older Boston apartment buildings and brownstones have battled a ...

After slowly winding down over the summer months, the third and fourth quarter data now being released shows that price appreciation is no longer slowing.  It is now within inches of a total screeching halt that could presage a shift in the recovery’s momentum as real estate markets don their pajamas for the winter hibernation. The September 2014 index data for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released yesterday showed that home prices continue to decelerate. The 10-City Composite gained 4.8% year-over-year, down from 5.5% in August. The 20-City Composite gained 4.9% year-over-year, compared to 5.6% in August. The National and Composite Indices were both slightly negative in September. Both the 10 and 20-City Composites reported a slight downturn while the National Index posted a -0.1% change for the month. Charlotte and Miami led all cities in September with increases of 0.6%. Atlanta and Washington D.C. offset those gains by reporting decreases of 0.3% and 0.4%. ...

China's housing prices fell on a monthly basis for the seventh straight month in November, a survey showed Sunday, with the market yet to feel the full impact of an interest rate cut. The average price of a new home in China's 100 major cities was 10,589 yuan ($1,736) per square metre in November, down 0.38 percent from October, the independent China Index Academy said in a statement. The fall was a slight improvement from the 0.40 percent month-on-month drop in October, previous figures showed. "We expect the interest rate cut to kick in next year," Bai Yanjun, research director for the China Index Academy, told AFP. "We still believe the market is under downward pressure for the rest of 2014 because the current home inventory levels in first-tier and major second-tier cities are still high," he said. China cut both lending and deposit rates just over a week ago, and analysts said home mortgage buyers would be among the biggest beneficiaries. ...

You can see it in your mind’s eye: that perfect house, a snug cabin nestled in the woods alongside a pond shimmering in the sun’s slanting rays. You’ve held that image in your head since you were a teenager, and now you’re finally ready to build it. You’d love to build it all by yourself, but you’re not sure you have the necessary skills. Or perhaps you know that you have the skills, but the time and effort of finding all of the materials seems daunting. Maybe a kit house is the answer. Kit houses can be grand or tiny, sophisticated or rustic, traditional or ultra-modern. Kit homes can offer efficiency in construction as well as in energy use after the house has been built, and many kit home companies offer state-of-the-art green and renewable energy options. In short, if you’d like to build an affordable custom home (or cabin), a kit house may be a solution. One of your first decisions will be how big to build. Census statistics show that the average home size in the United States ...

Despite a recent push from the Federal Housing Finance Agency  and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  to expand the credit box, a Bloomberg article explains that times are still tough for borrowers, especially those using a part-time job to help boost their income. As the economy produces an increasing number of part-time jobs, that trend is colliding with rules that limit their value for homebuyers. The restriction, enacted after the housing crash, makes it more difficult for lenders to consider secondary income, resulting in a growing pile of loan denials, said Susan Wachter, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The article explained that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Ability to Repay rule states that part-time wages can be included by banks in determining the ability to repay a mortgage if an employer verifies that the borrower has worked at the job for two years and will continue to d...

In Pipe Creek, TX, turkeys trot across a prime building site at Latigo Ranch. In Plainview, IL, they can be hunted in the yard of a tasteful 3-bedroom, 3-bath home. Forget the deer and the antelope. Thousands of listings on Zillow mention roaming turkeys as a countryside amenity. In this season of Thanksgiving tradition, Zillow researchers wanted to see what role turkeys were playing in the housing market. The answer surprised us. About 14,000 listings have made mention of turkeys since 2012, including homes on Turkey Street, Turkey Creek and other place-names. About 10,000 of those listings are apparently making reference to actual birds, which roam wild in every state except Alaska. In raw numbers, the top turkey towns are in the Midwest. In Springfield, MO, 137 listings mentioned turkeys; 122 Kansas City, MO listings mentioned turkeys. Many of the listings are lots for sale, where buyers can build a home from which to watch the turkeys gobble-gobble. Urban turkeys made ap...

Rates on a thirty-year fixed rate mortgage will hit 5 percent by the end of next year, according to the latest forecast from Freddie Mac’s economists.   Expect to see interest rates climb throughout 2015, with yields on the 10-year Treasury averaging about 2.9 percentage points, up from about 2.6 percentage points in 2014, and rates on the 30-year fixed mortgage gradually climbing, averaging 4.6 percent and rising to 5.0 percent by the end of next year, said Freddie’s November Outlook. Meanwhile price increases will slow from 9.3 percent in 2013, to 4.5 percent in 2014 and 3.0 percent in 2015. Continued house price appreciation and rising mortgage rates will dampen homebuyer affordability. “Historically speaking, that’s moving from very high levels of affordability to high levels of affordability,” said the Outlook. Total housing starts in 2015 will increase by 20 percent and total home sales will increase by about 5 percent over that time period to the best sales pace in eig...

When cold weather approaches, it's time to give your home's exterior a once-over to make sure water won't find its way indoors. There are ways to spot the problem areas on your home's exterior before a drip from the ceiling or a flooded basement alerts you. You just need to learn to think like water. Habitations Residential Design Group Save Photo Gutters If you do nothing else in fall to get ready for winter, clean your gutters. A lot of products purport to save you the need to perform this possibly dangerous and at least tedious task. I have seen many of them fail when sediment builds up. They may buy you some time, but there are advantages to giving your house a periodic once-over, and the roof and gutters aren't spots you're likely to keep an eye on otherwise. So whether you hire someone or clean them yourself, I recommend using old-fashioned gutters and keeping them clean. Most homes have gutters attached to the edge of the roofline....

Everyone loves the holidays – the smells, the food, the presents, the time with friends and family. Most people have started making their wish lists, and some have gone so far as to start shopping. Here’s a present for you and your family: the gift of avoiding holiday-related insurance claims. When it comes to the holidays, insurance concerns are usually an afterthought. But many enjoyable aspects of the holidays can also pose dangers. Consider the following elements of the holidays — and their potential for trouble. Hunger pains Who doesn’t love holiday food? Turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas ham and New Year’s Day black-eyed peas and greens are a big part of the season’s fun. So what’s the problem? Cooking is the leading cause of residential fires in the U.S., according to the National Fire Protection Association. And the average home fire claim costs $34,306, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). What’s the worst that could hap...