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

Joel Weber said he's determined to incur less college debt by living in the tiny, 145-square-foot house he built, rather than struggling to pay higher rent in his college town of Austin, Texas. "I wanted a place to call home," Weber told ABC News. "I wanted it to be affordable so I could be debt-free and let it be an investment to give back to the community — not just dumped into rent that I wouldn't get any return on." Weber, who will begin his junior year at the University of Texas at Austin, said it can cost upwards of $800 a month to live in the area near his school. In a bid to save himself from further debt, the 25-year-old said it was summer 2014 when he decided that he'd build his own home, rather than stressing over higher costs for an apartment, or on-campus dormitories. The dwelling, Weber said, took one year to complete and cost an estimated $20,000. "I saved up quite a bit and what I didn’t have, family, friends,...

U.S. home building surged in April to the highest level since before the recession officially began, a sign of thaw in the housing market during the crucial spring selling season. U.S. housing starts rose 20.2% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.135 million in April, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was the highest reading since November 2007, and the biggest percentage increase since February 1991. New applications for building permits, a bellwether for construction in coming months, increased 10.1%. Home-construction figures are volatile and often revised, and housing data have been mixed over the past several months. But economists have been cautiously optimistic despite the uneven readings and many said Tuesday's report offered reassurance the housing market is rebounding after a dismal first quarter. "It is hard to know where the underlying trends in the starts and permits data are because of the recent big changes in the...

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

Another year is upon us — I can tell because just yesterday I had half a dozen plant catalogs in my mailbox (and probably another half-dozen in my email). Dreaming up garden plans for the growing season is what I value most about winter. In no other season can I take the time to carefully strategize and rethink what works and what doesn’t for my landscape. Will I finally tear out the gangly plant that annoys me even though it’s healthy? What can I do for that problem area of dry shade in the corner? What are some fundamental ways in which I can garden in healthier ways for myself and wildlife? Well, here’s what I’ve been thinking and that I hope helps you this year. Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens Let it go to see what we can learn.  This doesn’t mean I’m advocating “messy” design; instead, see what the garden has to teach you. Gardens aren’t static, and neither are we. If you let a portion of the garden be itself for the entire year, what happens? If weeds move in an...

KimYe via Getty Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who are America's sweethearts whether America likes it or not, have reportedly put an $11M price tag on the half-renovated L.A. home they bought in 2013 and have since abandoned. Now that they've moved out of Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner's home in Calabasas, into a $20M home nearby with, among other notable amenities, three whole kitchen islands, there's not need to keep outfitting this odd Tuscan-inspired McMansion-y thing with gold-plated toilets and Swarovski-encrusted appliances.                         No, really, that's what the Daily Mail alleged they were filling the home with (along with six $200K special-edition Savoir Royal State Beds, which take "hundreds of hours to create from a unique combination of cashmere, carded Virgin lamb's wool and Mongolian horse hair laid over hand tied, star-lashed springs")...

A guide to cultural and recreational events in the Hudson Valley. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to westweek@nytimes.com .   Comedy ROSENDALE Rosendale Theater The Gang Show, variety. July 12 at 9:30 p.m. $5. Rosendale Theater, 408 Main Street. (845) 658-8989; rosendaletheatre.org . TARRYTOWN Tarrytown Music Hall Sinbad. July 12 at 8 p.m. $35 to $48. Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main Street. tarrytownmusichall.org ; (877) 840-0457. WEST NYACK Levity Live John Moses, Mark DeMayo, Meghan Hanley, Derek Gaines and Jon Fisch. July 3, 5 and 6. $20. Greg Stone. July 9 at 7:30 p.m. $15. Steve Trevino. July 10 through 13. $17 and $20. Levity Live, 4210 Palisades Center Drive. (845) 353-5400; levitylive.com . Film ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College “Schubert and the Long 19th Century,” film series. Through Aug. 3. $8 and $10 per screening. The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Perf...

The Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Bank presidents released its updated economic projections for changes in real GDP, unemployment rate and PCE inflation. In addition, it updated policymakers’ assessments of the appropriate path for the Federal Open Market Committee’s target federal funds rate. These five charts give an inside look into what the FOMC forecasts for the U.S. economy. The source for all the charts is the Federal Reserve (click mage for larger view). The three charts show actual values and projections based on FOMC’s participants’ individual assessments of appropriate monetary policy. To understand the following three charts: -Lightly shaded areas represent the rages of the projections of policymakers. The bottom of the range for each variable is the lowest of all of the projections for that year or period. Likewise, the top of the range is the highest of all of the projections for that year or period. -Dark shaded areas represent the central ten...

2014 does not stand a chance against the record-breaking housing numbers -- such as housing starts and originations -- witnessed in 2013 but that does not mean it is all bad news for this year. Despite a freezing winter and a slow start to the spring homebuying season, there are still bright spots in the economy. This week provided some good tidbits for housing, with mortgage applications rising and record traffic for online real estate sites. So here are a few shining gems for the housing market in 2014. 1. Record breaking online real estate site traffic At least people are looking to buy homes. Trulia ( TRLA ) and Zillow ( Z ) are watching their unique visitor count rise month over month, continuously breaking the prior record. Trulia consumer traffic accelerated to a new high and experienced more than 51 million unique visitors using the site in May. “Trulia’s consumer audience is at an all-time high, which is a good indicator of a strong housing market heading ...

61 Middle Road 9 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/02/palm-beach-estate-with-jimmy-buffet-links-sells-for-429m.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/526951adf92ea142d8026cbe/20130927172926246715000000-o.jpg" width="500" height="349"></a><br /><a href="http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/02/palm-beach-estate-with-jimmy-buffet-links-sells-for-429m.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> The Palm Beach oceanfront compound where Jimmy Buffett long lived has been sold by Buffet's old neighbor Jon L. Stryker for $42.9 million to "seasonal Palm Beacher" and "English businessman" Peter Wood. Buffett lived in his 1920s Federal Style Marion Sims Wyeth designed house "for at least a decade" before selling...

Single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,253,464 in March, an increase of 0.4% from February and up 8% from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac’s March and Q1 2014 Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report. This report includes all sales, not just new home sales , which took a beating in March, dropping 14.5% for the month and 13.3% year-over-year. “The housing market showed signs of coming out of hibernation in March after a sluggish fall and winter,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Median home prices increased on a monthly basis following six consecutive months where they were flat or declining, and increased on an annual basis by the biggest percentage since hitting bottom in March 2012. The median sales price of U.S. residential properties — including both distressed and non-distressed sales — was $164,500 in March, up 1% from February and up 10% from March 2013. March was the 24th consecutive month wher...

  You could literally be washing soap (and money) down the drain. Suspicious that you've been using too much soap in your laundry? Follow these guidelines to get it right every time.   1. Choose the detergent that works with your machine. Today, many detergents are formulated for both regular and high-efficiency machines, but some brands, like Tide and Gain, still offer separate product lines. Pick the wrong one, and you may end up with too many suds in your clothes. 2. Make sure you're measuring. The instructions on your detergent's packaging are accurate guidelines -- it's when you ignore them that errors occur. "Don't pour in your detergent without measuring," says Carolyn Forte, the director of the Home Appliances and Cleaning Products department in the Good Housekeeping Research Institute. "Eyeballing the correct amount is more difficult than you think. You'll get it wrong." If measuring into your detergent'...

While the housing market is feeling some wobbles right now, leading economists say there is no cause for concern that, one, the market is in a bubble and, two, there is a chance of that bubble popping soon. The reason for this conclusion is primary due to doubts that there is even a bubble in the first place. More than 4 million residential property owners regained lost equity in 2013, primarily due to home price gains, but as a result, the market is starting to talk of a bubble, CoreLogic ( CLGX ) most recent MarketPulse report said. However, rising home prices are not the only angle to look at the housing market. “Because most homeowners use their income to pay for a home mortgage, there is an established relationship between income levels and home prices,” Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic, said. “In the long run, home price growth cannot be sustained above income growth because housing would become unaffordable, demand would decline and home price growth woul...

Can home prices record 23 months of increases? | Katonah NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

The Katonah-Lewisboro school board will vote Thursday night at John Jay High School on whether or not to close Lewisboro Elementary School for the fall 2014. A parent-led petition opposing the closure has hit 1,059 signatures. There have been five public hearings held since September, many drawing crowds of more than 100 parents concerned about how closing Lewisboro Elementary would impact their child. If the school board votes to close the school Thursday, 214 Lewisboro Elementary students would be moved to Increase Miller Elementary, and the remaining 136 would be moved to Meadow Pond, under a tentative redistricting scenario that may still be tweaked. In order to even out class sections under this scenario, 94 Increase Miller Elementary students would be moved to Katonah. http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/news/lewisboro-elementary-school-closure-vote-thursday

Real Housewives, Tour Boats Made Rosie O’Donnell Sell Her Star Island House | Katonah Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Katonah-Lewisboro Parents Propose New School Redistricting Option | Katonah NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Down to Earth Farmers Market | Katonah NY Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Housing Prices Rise at Brisk Pace in Britain | Katonah NY Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

In 2014, I’ll be watching a couple of new technologies that could bring about some big changes in the way our industry works. I’m particularly interested in Google Glass, set for a still undisclosed but imminent public release, and iBeacon, which is already out there, but not yet comprehensively implemented. Google Glass , of course, is a computer you wear like glasses, with an optical display, a smartphone-type interface and voice commands. IBeacon is a Bluetooth Low Energy system that allows small transmitters to send push notifications to iOS or Android devices, such as Google Glass, in their vicinity. We have some basic awareness of these new gizmos, but we’re just not quite sure how they’re going to emerge, whether they’ll catch on, and what differences they’ll make. But when you think about pairing the two of these in an information-sharing environment, very powerful capabilities emerge, and the potential is enormous. As a minor example from our little part of the pictur...

Floored’s interactive 3-D experiences may represent future of virtual home tours | Katonah NY Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor