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

Just when the stumbling U.S. housing market could use a boost, it’s entering the slowest period of the year. Online home searches, an indicator of demand, peak from March through August, according to Trulia, a real estate information firm that studied three years of its search activity. By September, as summer ends and children start school, searches fall below the annual average and decline further until December. The seasonal slowdown means a turnaround in the housing market is unlikely for the rest of this year. After a robust 2013, new and existing home sales are down from a year ago even with inventories up and mortgage rates holding close to record lows. The pace of new-home purchases fell to the slowest in four months in July as rising prices and tight credit kept buyers at bay and forced economists to lower forecasts. “The first half of the year has definitely been disappointing,” said Joel Kan, director of economic forecasting at the Mortgage Bankers Association . “The...

It appears Vince Vaughn has moved on from crashing weddings to buying newlyweds’ homes. Actress Kate Bosworth, who had a country wedding this spring, listed her Hollywood Hills home for $2.499 million in April. Property records confirm Vaughn just scooped up the property for $2.375 million. ( Click here or on a photo for a slideshow. ) With 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths in about 3,000 square feet, the house is smaller than Vaughn’s La Cañada Flintridge colonial , which Variety aptly called a “Beaver Cleaver-worthy five bedroom.” Vaughn and wife Kyla Weber purchased the home last year to make way for baby No. 2. Vince Vaughn, shown in November 2013, paid a little under $2.4 million. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage) Their new place, by contrast, has an unassuming exterior tucked behind a row of trees. Inside, the 1955 midcentury has been updated with exposed beams, a chef’s kitchen and rich, espresso-stained hardwoods. Other highlights include a spa-like master bath with a jett...

July was not a strong month for the California housing market as the state continued to underperform. California pending homes sales dropped in July, with the pending home sales index falling 2.3% from 107 in June to 104.5 in July, based on signed contracts, according to the  California Association of Realtors. However, the month-to-month drop was consistent with seasonal trends. This is also down 9.2% from 115.1 in July 2013. “Pending sales have been down year to year since October 2012, but the pace appears to be decelerating as the decrease in July was smaller than the average in the last six months. Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market,” CAR said. As noted in the 3 facts crippling California’s housing recovery , the combined share of all distressed property sales continued to decrease in July, dropping from 9.7% in June to 9.4% in July. On the other side, the share...

Mortgage rates are the lifeblood of the housing market. This is why the Fed began quantitative easing (or QE) in the first place. Lower rates allow homeowners to refinance. Refinancing increases homeowners’ disposable income. It also helps stimulate economic growth. Lower rates let first-time homebuyers move out of an apartment and into a house. This means higher consumption and benefits for home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s. Consumption accounts for ~70% of the U.S. economy. Mortgage rates are flat as bonds give back last Friday’s rally and then go nowhere The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stayed flat to close at 4.28%. The ten-year yield rose six basis points, but mortgage rates didn’t react to last Friday’s big move in bond rates. To-be-announced securities (or TBAs) moved higher.           read more....         http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-mortgage-r...

With fall approaching, those imagining a change of scenery may be inspired to seek out a new home. It is no secret that housing markets vary across the United States. The types of homes offered at a specific price can vastly differ between neighborhoods, counties, states and regions. Curious how much house you can get for your money in other parts of the country? Here’s what $300,000 can buy in cities across the United States. read more... http://realestate.msn.com/what-you-can-buy-for-300-000-or-less

A slew of shockingly good housing data shook U.S. markets last week, especially lumber. Reports showed that construction of new homes is rising from the post-recession doldrums and that sales of existing homes increased for the fourth straight month. Lumber, which is closely tied to the construction industry, has been rising with the restrengthening housing market, reaching a five-month high Friday at $355 per thousand board feet. Though still down drastically from the 2004 peak price of $460, lumber has been gaining due to better U.S. housing data and ongoing demand from developing countries, especially China. Although the Chinese import most of their lumber from Russia and Canada, China’s impact on the global market raises local U.S. lumber prices as well.   Alongside lumber’s rally, copper prices gained as well, climbing to a 10-day high Friday at $3.21...

Sales of previously-owned homes in July rose for the fourth straight month, hitting their highest pace in 2014, according to data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors. Sales of existing-homes–which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops–climbed 2.4% to an annual (seasonally adjusted) pace of 5.15 million in July. That tops June’s downwardly revised annual (seasonally adjusted) pace of 5.03 million and is the highest rate in nine months. read more... http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2014/08/21/july-existing-home-sales-hit-highest-pace-of-2014/

Although he considered his villainous roles his best (such as Walter Neff, the murder-minded insurance salesman in Double Indemnity ), to his fans Fred MacMurray was synonymous with his more charming characters, such as the all-American television dad Steve Douglas on My Three Sons. According to his daughter Kate MacMurray, the latter character was closest to the real man. The actor was known to millions for his work in more than 100 movies and many popular television shows, but what most admirers don’t realize is that he created a life for himself far from Hollywood on a ranch outside of Healdsburg, California. Save Photo He bought the Sonoma County spread, now called MacMurray Estate Vineyards, in 1941 and remodeled the existing farmhouse in a charming period style that has endured for more than 70 years. Today the property is owned by the Gallo family and produces lush pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay wines, but the house remains much as it did when MacMurr...

Here's a 15,000 square foot mansion that is sadly going a little Grey Gardens on the inside, which leaves the realtor writing the sales text in a tough spot. Positioning an over-priced dilapidated mess (the owner wants $800,000) is a real challenge. One might just freak out and decide to write a little fiction instead of deal with reality. Like this: Potentially THE best home in the city for entertaining. Oh dear God. Did they mean for entertaining mice? It looks like the dining room wasn't cleaned after the last party and the library has what looks like several inches of hastily pushed aside dust. The highest sales price in this neighborhood from the last several years was $485,000 for a 9,300 square foot mansion (bought by the President of Shinola). At 15,000 square feet this is a lot more house, but also a lot more mess. Whoever is it selling only paid $410,000 for the crazy estate in 2012, according to Zillow, which makes this one of the wildest attempted flips...

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages remained fairly stable this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgages at 4.06 percent, down from 4.08 percent at this same time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered around 4.08 percent for the majority of the week, falling to 3.97 percent on Friday before returning to the current rate. “Mortgage rates dropped mid-week to their lowest level in two months on weak U.S. economic data and geopolitical concerns over the escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia,” said Erin Lantz , vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “This week, we expect rates to inch back up unless international turmoil continues to lead the news.” Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.12 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs , the rate was 2.79 percent. read more... https://homes.yahoo.com/news/30-fixed-mortgage-rates-hold-steady-185235422.html

34 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/08/12/chesterfield-missouri-real-estate-ralph-fournier.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/53e9a7aef92ea17cfa01a8a4/l25b4d844-m0o.jpg" width="500" height="375"></a><br /><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/08/12/chesterfield-missouri-real-estate-ralph-fournier.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> Photos by TripleRPhotography Location: Chesterfield, Mo. Price: $2,000,000 The Skinny: For every starchitect who ascends to a certain level of critical approbation there are plenty who toil away on the regional level, shaping entire cities, even states, while remaining relatively unknown outside of a small coterie of architectural historians. Missouri's Ralph Fournier is one of these regional stars, an a...

The Small Town Theatre Company Presents Summer Concerts at Wampus Brook Park If you're having trouble seeing this e-mail, you may view it online . Welcome Summer Enjoy some 1930's - 1940's jazz and swing goodies by world-famous bandleaders Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. On Saturday, August 23rd, at 8 pm, the Swingaroos will bring you jive and hot swing with Hollywood class and a Vaudeville spirit. Free Admission Wampus Brook Park · Armonk, NY ...

Freddie Mac ( OTCQB : FMCC ) released today its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August showing the country getting back to a more normalized economy, and therefore expecting to see housing driven once again by fundamentals. The complete August 2014 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook and forecast table are available here . Outlook Highlights After several years of weakness we are starting to see the labor market pick up steam having added 230,000 net new jobs on average for the first seven months of this year. The Census Bureau reported that over the past four quarters, net household formations totaled only 458,000, compared with long-term projections by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of 1.2 to 1.3 million per year. The number of persons per household has increased by 2.6 percent since 2005, going from 2.69 to 2.76 persons per household. If the persons per household had held steady over that period there would be an additional 3 milli...

For many people, renting instead of buying proves to be a cost-effective way to put a roof over their heads. Renting certainly has its potential benefits. For some people, the lower cost of renting allows them to save up to buy a home. In other cases, renters have no choice but to rent. And even for others, renting allows them to flexibility to move from place to place without the pain of buying and selling a home. Sometimes it's a combination of many factors. The truth remains, for many Americans, paying the rent is an unavoidable reality in their monthly life cycle. These days, being a renter means facing a cyclical reality of maybe never owning a home. That's because it becoming increasingly more difficult for renters to save any money to buy a place of their own because their rent continues to rise. read more.... http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/30992-rising-rent-squeezes-middle-america

What is a credit score? Imagine that a friend asks to borrow money from you. Assuming you had the money to loan, you might then ask yourself, “Did he pay me back the last time he borrowed money? Did he pay me back the full amount? On time?” When you approach banks and lenders for a loan, they go through a similar analysis, but since they don’t know you personally, they use your credit history to determine whether you will be a responsible borrower. Lenders learn about your credit history by looking at your credit report. You can get a free Credit Report Card that includes your free credit score right now! Credit reports are developed by three separate credit agencies. These agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) gather information about your credit history, and, using a formula developed by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), each assigns you a credit score. You will end up with three slightly different credit scores, each from one of the three agencies. Lenders typically look a...

Millennials are being dissected more intensely than a frog in a high school biology class. The reasons behind why they move, where they move to and what is stopping them from moving is analyzed, picked through and then reported on to the industry to help cater to what they want. But as one of two millennials in our editorial department — the other being Ben Lane — it's clear that our lives are drastically different. As Ben's recent blog on the topic stated: It’s the group that everyone can’t seem to stop talking about. Millennials this. Millennials that. Millennials have taken over. And the worst offender of all seems to be CNBC. First and foremost, all millennials are not alike, no matter how many times CNBC tells me they are. Look, I understand why millennials are important and why they get talked about. Heck, I’m a millennial myself, although just barely…on the upper end of the scale, I should say. And we are not the only two in the industry who don’t fit into the...

Welcome to the million-dollar mansion that might just be one of America's most unsellable homes. In the Marengo, Illinois, mansion, there's an eagle painted on the ceiling. There's a dragon painted on the bedroom wall, and in the living room, a life-sized ostrich statue. Real estate agent Elka Roberts said she'd been trying to sell the property outside of Chicago for more than two years - and is still looking for that elusive buyer. Unlike the houses in the neighborhood, the mansion has a custom drawbridge, its own tower and a massive pool. But without any takers, the asking price has dropped by more than $200,000 to $ $1,099,000, Roberts said. According to the National Association of Realtors, 2.3 million existing homes are currently on the market, the highest number in almost two years. So, if you're looking to sell your home, Barbara Corcoran, a New York real estate guru who appears on ABC's "Shark Tank," says to keep some cardinal rul...

Family, a job and friends have always been a reason to relocate, but one reason is starting to take up a larger portion of the pie: housing affordability. Per The NewYork Times : Rising rents and the inabiilty to secure a mortgage has started to push people inland, the article explained. But of those who moved more than 500 miles, the share who said they were chiefly motivated by housing has risen to 18 percent in 2014, from 8 percent in 2007, the earliest year such data is available, according to the Census Bureau. The desire for a new, better or cheaper home and the opportunity to buy instead of rent were among the housing-related reasons people cited. Source: NYT