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

The fact that “Generation Rent” — 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. — isn’t getting off the fence when it comes to buying homes has been well documented. Even with near record-low interest rates, just 38% of this cohort — also known as millennials — owned homes in 2012, according to CoreLogic, compared with nearly 52% of the same age group in 1980, when mortgage rates were in the double digits. So, what’s one more survey, right? Except this one is a little different. Carrington Mortgage Services, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based mortgage lender and servicer, surveyed millennials about home ownership and then did something unique: it sorted the responses by category, and then broke them out by region in the United States. What they discovered should make real estate agents and loan officers pay attention, because what’s keeping millennials from buying a home in one part of the country isn’t true in another. In the 12 western-most states (ranging from Montana down to New Mexico and Wash...

I am the North Castle Supervisor, but I write to you as a resident who will live in this Town for many more years than I will serve on our Town Board.  In a small Town like ours (pop. 11,841), the ward system is a solution in search of a problem.  I am opposed to the Ward System and I urge you to vote “No”  on both Ward propositions, as it will invite divisiveness between neighborhoods, fiscal irresponsibility, horse trading, and larger government. Our Town Board has always worked collaboratively based on the needs of both the entire town and specific areas, despite differences of opinion or where they lived, Recent decisions - the Banksville Avenue zoning solution (Banksville), sewers in Quarry Heights (North White Plains), the DeCicco’s shopping center (Armonk) – were all possible because of Town Boards that were elected by, and responsible to, the entire town and not just to a specific neighborhood.  In a Ward system, solutions like these may not be possi...

  October 6, 2014 M att Trainor - M.S., C.P.R.P. Superintendent of Recreation & Parks North Castle Recreation's Spook-Tacular at the North Castle Community Center!! Dear Robert, Halloween is almost here!  Please join us for a night of Spooky Fun at the North Castle Community Center!   WHEN:  Friday, October 24 from 7 - 9pm WHERE:  the North Castle Community Center 10 Clove Road North White Plains, NY 1060. FOR:  Ghosts and Goblins from Kindergarten through 5th Grade! Come dressed in Costume!  This is a FREE event; music, prizes, dancing, snacks and more! Click HERE for an event flier! Our Goal here at the North Castle Recreation and Parks Department is to serve you better. Better programming, better customer service, and going the "extra mile" is what we aim to do. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas - please don't hesitate to stop in and let us know.  We a...

Two-and-a-half years into the U.S. housing recovery, the real-estate industry is rolling out new ways for individuals to invest in the property market. Brokers, property managers and others are helping buyers purchase houses in distant cities and manage them as rentals for a fee. Publicly traded trusts that collect rental income are selling shares to investors. And crowdfunding startups are matching buyers with willing lenders. The latest pitches generally aim to eliminate the day-to-day headaches of being a landlord, and the potential payoff can make the concept worth considering. Investors can buy in for the price of a single-family home or a single share of stock. But the plunge in U.S. home prices in the financial crisis should be a fresh reminder that bets on housing can sour in a hurry. The latest deals often don’t depend on home values going up, which sets them apart from the house-flipping strategies that cost many home buyers dearly when the market collapsed. Yet inve...

8 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://seattle.curbed.com/archives/2014/09/seattles-pricey-shorts-15m-1909-mansion.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/540e224ef92ea17373016ee2/1_689448_0_1409618413_636x435.jpg" width="500" height="334"></a><br /><a href="http://seattle.curbed.com/archives/2014/09/seattles-pricey-shorts-15m-1909-mansion.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> A mansion built in 1909 is now up for a short sale 105 years later . Must be time for a rebirth in spirit only because it certainly doesn't look like it needs a remodel or renovation. $1,500,000 buys a brick classi...

The former L.A. home of actress Agnes Moorehead , who played Endora on Bewitched , has been relisted after a short hiatus from its $18.99M ask, and Curbed LA notes that it once bore the mark of late great artist and designer Tony Duquette . According to Just Call Me Aggie, a blog dedicated to the late actress, Moorehead enlisted the celebrated maximalist to help her decorate the place, but the interior of the gated Spanish-style estate has since been altered from the way Moorehead had it when she passed in the mid-'70s. The antique doors have been stripped of their black paint, the wood, which she had painted white, has been restored to its natural color, and the black-and-white marble floor of the rumpus room has been covered with carpet. The "outrageous chandeliers" that Morehead and Duquette had installed in the living room have been replaced with period-style chandeliers reminiscent of the '20s, when the home was built, and the bedroom no longer sports the ...

Advocating Good Government Concerned Citizens of North Castle Established 2004 You are Cordially Invited To An Open Discussion of Property Tax Trends and Issues in Westchester County Featuring: Mary Beth Murphy Executive Director Westchester County Tax Commission Thursday, April 24 th at 7:00 pm at the American Legion Hall 35 Bedford Road, Armonk, NY 10504 Come and meet your neighbors, enjoy some wine and cheese, discuss the future of property taxes in Westchester County and the Town of North Castle, and how they affect your home values now and in the future. The Concerned Citizens of North Castle, Inc.* was established in 2004 as a non-partisan, not for profit community organization. Its mission is to help North Castle residents learn about, and objectively discuss, all sides of critical issues impacting the Town. This meeting is the first of a series of ...

You are Cordially Invited To An Open Discussion of Property Tax Trends and Issues in Weschester County Featuring: Mary Beth Murphy Executive Director Westchester County Tax Commission Thursday, April 24 th at 7:00 pm at the American Legion Hall 35 Bedford Road, Armonk, NY 10504 Come and meet your neighbors, enjoy some wine and cheese, discuss the future of property taxes in Westchester County and the Town of North Castle, and how they affect your home values now and in the future.

Reversing four weeks of straight declines , mortgage applications climbed 4.3% from last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association ’s weekly survey of mortgage activity for the week ending April 11, 2014. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 4.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. The Refinance Index increased 7% from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1% from one week earlier. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 52% of total applications from 51% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity remained unchanged at 8% of total applications. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 4.47% from 4.56%, with points decreasing to 0.32 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio loans. The effective rate decreased from last ...

Only about 17% of the 350 metro markets in America have seen a return to or growth beyond their last normal levels of housing activity, according to the National Association of Home Builders /First American Leading Markets Index. Exactly 59 metros can be said to have fully recovered. This represents a net gain of 11 metros year over year. Notably, a large number of the most recovered metros are in and around renewed petroleum activity – places in West Texas and North Dakota. The index’s nationwide score ticked up to .88 from a March reading of .87. This means that based on current permit, price and employment data, the nationwide average is running at 88% of normal economic and housing activity. For single-family permits and home prices, 2000-2003 is used as the last normal period, and for employment, 2007 is the base comparison. A little more than a quarter of metros saw their score rise this month and 83% have shown an improvement over the past year, the report says. ...

The bloom may be officially off the boom in investment sales as they declined in 2013 for a second straight year after soaring in 2011 at the height of the large foreclosure inventories. Investor purchases declined 15.9 percent last year from the 1.23 million sales peak set in 2011. Investment-home sales fell 8.5 percent to an estimated 1.10 million in 2013 from 1.21 million in 2012. By comparison, owner-occupied purchases rose 13.1 percent to 3.70 million last year from 3.27 million in 2012. The sales estimates are based on responses from households and exclude institutional investment activity according to NAR’s 2014 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said the pullback in investment activity is understandable. “Investment buyers slowed their purchasing in 2013 because prices were rising quickly along with a declining availability of discounted foreclosures over the course of the year,” he said. “In 2011 and 2012, investment property was...

22 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/21/chateau-in-the-shadow-of-the-biltmore-estate-asks-1075m.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/532bbd05f92ea11ee3058756/548005-1.jpg" width="500" height="375"></a><br /><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/21/chateau-in-the-shadow-of-the-biltmore-estate-asks-1075m.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> Location: Asheville, N.C. Price: $10,750,000 The Skinny: Not far from the world famous Biltmore Estate is this somewhat less renowned chateau nestled along the back nine of the Biltmore Forest County Club in Asheville, N.C. Its three-foot-thick limestone walls contain a virtual circumnavigation of the globe, with a variety of themed rooms depicting life around the world as imagined by people who can a...

Last month, the Canadian government announced the termination of the Immigrant Investor and Federal Entrepreneur programs. This canceled the applications of approximately 65,000 individuals who were on the waiting list backlog for these two programs. Given that 70 percent of these applicants were from mainland China, and given the importance of Chinese investors to the Vancouver property market (especially in the high end), many analysts have predicted that this change in government policy will have a significantly negative effect on Vancouver-area real estate values. Before assessing what the true impact will be, let’s consider how these programs functioned, and where they had the most impact. The Canadian government introduced the Immigrant Investor Program in the mid-1980s in order to promote immigration by business people and their families. Quebec subsequently negotiated with the federal government to have its own, parallel program. The programs enabled qualified investo...

10 homes on wheels | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Armonk NY Weekly Real Estate Report 2/28/2014 Homes for sale 63 Median Ask Price $1,829,000.00 Low Price $699,000.00 High Price $24,900,000.00 Average Size 5612 Average Price/foot $457.00 Average DOM 153 Average Ask Price $2,864,881.00

Bedford resident Kerry Kennedy took the stand Wednesday to testify in her drugged-driving trial at the Westchester County Court in White Plains. Kennedy is facing one charge of driving while ability impaired by drugs, stemming from a July 2012 accident in North Castle. Toxicology reports showed that she had a sleep medication in her system. She has pleaded not guilty, saying she accidentally took the pill instead of her thyroid medication. During her testimony, Kennedy talked about her father, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, mentioning that he was the U.S. attorney general during the civil rights movement and that he was killed while running for president when she 8 years old. When questioned by her attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, Kennedy said that she did not realize at the time that she had taken the wrong medication and that she was impaired. "No, if I realized I was impaired I would have pulled over. I wouldn't drive if I was impaired," she said. She said her memory of ...

Freddie Mac   today released the results of its fourth quarter 2013 quarterly refinance analysis, showing that borrowers are continuing to take advantage of near record low mortgage rates to lower their monthly payments, shorten their loan terms and overwhelmingly choosing the safety of long-term fixed-rate mortgages as they closed out 2013. Borrowers who refinanced in 2013 will save on net approximately $21 billion in interest over the next 12 months. This release of the report also contains annual statistics on refinances for the 10 largest metropolitan areas and four Census regions of the U.S. News Facts Of borrowers who refinanced during the fourth quarter of 2013, 39 percent shortened their loan term, up 2 percent from the previous quarter and the highest since 1992. Further, 42 percent of those who refinanced outside of HARP took out a shorter-term loan, while 35 percent of HARP borrowers shortened their term. Borrowers who kept the same term as the loan that they had pa...

North Castle Administrator Goldberg Returns Shortly After Abrupt Firing | Armonk Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Toshiko Mori’s Glassy, Stilted ‘West Wind’ Asks $9.9M – House of the Day | Armonk Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Freddie Mac ( OTCQB : FMCC ) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS ® ), showing average fixed mortgage rates little changed amid a week of light economic reports. News Facts 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.51 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 9, 2014 , down from last week when it averaged 4.53 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.40 percent. 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.56 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.55 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.66 percent. 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.15 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.05 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.67 percent. 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.56 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the ...