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

The downsizing craze has spread to real estate, creating huge interest in petite homes all across the country. This week’s episode of “Portlandia” lampoons the fad. The “ Microhouse ” clip features Kangablue, one of the units in a tiny-homes hotel called Caravan. (Owners Deb Delman and Kol Peterson live in a 690-square-foot home next door that’s “teeny but not tiny,”  Delman says .) If the show’s parody doesn’t put you off small living altogether, here are homes to feed the frenzy. They measure 500 square feet or smaller, from old-fashioned cabins with beautiful natural surroundings to a pint-sized 2-bedroom, single-family home in New York City. Saltese, MT 7759 Forest Service Road, Saltese, MT For sale: $295,000 Size: 380 square feet This property includes more than 200 acres and is surrounded on all sides by U.S. Forest Service land. It’s for a true outdoorsperson, with a loft bedroom and a log-cabin outhouse. Shop for more  pro...

Sales of new single-family houses in January 2015 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 0.2 percent (±22.2%)* below the revised December rate of 482,000, but is 5.3 percent (±22.1%)* above the January 2014 estimate of 457,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2015 was $294,300; the average sales price was $348,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 218,000. This represents a supply of 5.4 months at the current sales rate

The so-called Dom’Up is an innovative treehouse, which is easy to install, and has virtually no impact on the trees used to support it. It was created by Holland-based arborculturist Bruno de Grunne and architect Nicolas d’Ursel from the organization Trees and People. The treehouse can be used as an alternative to the classic treehouse, for glamping, or even as a treetop office, resort or even a cool restaurant. The Dom’Up is a lightweight, UV-resistant canvas tent shelter that stretches over a 172 square foot (16 sq m) octagonal platform. The treehouse is suspended using Trees and People’s No Trace arboreal fixing system, which was designed with the idea of utilizing space between trees, rather than a single tree, since the former offers more space. Using more that one tree to support the structure also means the weight can be distributed more equally and therefore having very little negative impact on them. The Dom’Up also features protective roofing, which is made from du...

The owners of this beautiful heritage home had a vision to restore it to its former glory, and enlisted Terri Shannon from Bloom Interior Design & Decoration to help them turn their dream into reality. Shannon describes the home’s style as contemporary classic with a mix of formal rooms and comfortable, inviting spaces. The front of the 1880s home features formal living and dining rooms, while the back contains a relaxed open-plan space. The kitchen and informal living room are the home’s main social spaces, where the kids can play and the family can catch up or entertain around the spacious island. Bloom Interior Design Photos by Armelle Habib Houzz at a Glance Who lives here:  Amanda and Brett McMillian and their 2 young daughters Location:  Melbourne Size:  4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms The homeowners were immediately drawn to this bayside-area home with a picture-perfect white picket fence. The historic home is situated along the tree-lined streets of sout...

Shop Houzz: Small-Space Living

Photo by Amanda Lucidon courtesy of  White House Photo After six years in the White House,  Michelle Obama  has finally embarked on a major  redecorating project  for the late 18th-century neoclassical mansion on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The First Lady decided to set a striking, contemporary tone for the Old Family Dining Room, a small room for private events that is adjacent to the official State Dining Room. The room, which was previously furnished with Kennedy-era antiques and painted yellow, now has gray walls hung with bold modern artworks by Robert Rauschenberg, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, and Alma Thomas, whose 1966 painting "Resurrection" is the first work by an African-American woman to be incorporated into the White House's permanent collection. Ms. Obama also added burgundy window treatments and bronze sconces. Ms. Obama has mixed these newer items with a selection of fine antiques, including a mahogany table dating to 1800, when construction on...

You’re in love. And, after careful consideration and heartfelt discussions, you and your significant other have decided to take a leap of faith and move in together. After all, your dogs already get along, and  the apartment you’re renting  is big enough for two and closer to your partner’s work. What could possibly go wrong? Sorry to burst your bubble, but the answer is: a lot. While deciding to cohabitate may seem like nothing more than making a little extra space in your sock drawer, there are serious considerations to discuss. Here are five reasons why ironing out the details beforehand and drafting a cohabitation agreement is the savviest way to protect you and your partner if things begin to unravel. 1. Avoid breaching your lease A  lease agreement  is a type of contract allowing either party the opportunity to seek damages (i.e., money) if its terms are not followed. If you are renting on your own, your lease agreement is between  you and your...

This could be the year that the housing economy works for both first-time buyers and the millions of families that want to move up to a new home. Sustained price growth in entry level starter homes is good news for first-time homebuyers. Just as encouraging, the number of potential move-up buyers, who were once locked into underwater mortgages, has been steadily decreasing    Buyers finally get the right combination of good markets to sell their existing homes and buy a new one to meet their needs. In its February market report, Clear Capital finds that move up buyers may also benefit from a slowdown price increases among higher priced homes.  The top tier’s quarterly growth rate fell to 0.3% in the fourth quarter, where it had been holding steady at around 1% through the first three quarters of 2014. Year-over-year, this tier experienced the lowest price growth rate of 3.6% among the three national tiers. Higher prices for lower tier homes and a price freeze ...

Millennials are not budging from their parents' basements, even though the job market is on the mend. One really big reason? Student loans.  Last year, the rate of 25- to 34-year-olds living at home  rose  to 17.7 percent among men and 11.7 percent for women, Census data showed last week. That is a record high for both genders. Rising co-residence rates are correlated more closely with student debt than with factors like economic conditions and the housing market, according to a  staff report  in November from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The regional bank  wrote  about the trend today in its blog called "Liberty Street Economics." "State-cohort groups who were more heavily reliant on student debt while in school are significantly and substantially more likely to move home to parents when living independently, and are significantly and substantially less likely to move away from parents when living at home," t...