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

The March BuildFax Remodeling Index, which is based on building permit data, increased for the seventeenth straight month on a year-over-year basis as the residential remodeling industry continued to strengthen and more homeowners opted to stay where they are and remodel rather than move. The index rose 14 percent year-over-year - and for the seventeenth straight month - to 98.0, the highest March number in the index aside from March 2006. Residential remodels in March were up month-over-month 2.9 points (3 percent) from the February value of 95.1, and up year-over-year 12.0 points from the March 2010 value of 86.0. All regions except the Midwest posted year-over-year and month-over-month gains. The West posted the largest gains, up 18.5 points (22 percent) year-over-year and up 5.4 points (6 pecent) month-over-month. The Midwest saw significant drops, down 15.3 points (20 percent) year-over-year and 3.3 points (5 percent) month-over-month, perhaps due to a colder...

SATURDAY, JAN. 29 Target Picture Story Saturday, 10:30 to 11:30,  Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay St., Katonah. Children of all ages and family members are invited to listen to stories followed by a hands-on art activity with local pediatrician Dr. Kathy Purvis. 232-9555. Katonahmuseum.org. Winter Wolves, 11 a.m., Wolf Conservation Center, 7 Buck Run, South Salem. Visit Ambassador wolves Kaila and Atka and learn about the mythology, biology and ecology of wolves in North America. Also a visit with the critically endangered red wolves and Mexican gray wolves. Best program for first time visitors. Enjoy hot beverages. Dress for cold weather. Space limited. $15/adults; $12/children under 12. Pre-registration required. 763-2373. NYWolf.org. SUNDAY, JAN. 30 BAS Excursion to Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, 8-noon, Carpool from Bylane Farm, 35 Todd Rd., Katonah. Join Adam Zorn and Birder Peter Becker at Pelham Bay Park which features an impressive number of waterfowl, landbirds, monk parakeets ...

MORTGAGE rates in 2010 were the lowest in six decades, but a recent and sustained increase may indicate that consumers can expect to pay more in the new year to buy or refinance a home. After hitting rock bottom in mid-November, fixed rates for 30-year mortgages, the most common type of home loan , have steadily risen. With this year’s historically low rates, “there is a good chance that we have peaked, give or take a few basis points,” said HSH Associates , an independent publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information, in its most recent trends forecast. (One basis point is 0.01 percent.) According to Christopher J. Mayer, a senior vice dean and a professor of real estate, finance and economics at the Columbia University Business School, “The window of low rates could have left us.” By Dec. 16, rates for a 30-year fixed loan rose for the fifth consecutive week, to 4.83 percent, up from 4.17 percent on Nov. 11, according to Freddie Mac , the g...

Lewisboro Real Estate Bounces Back in 2010 RobReportBlog Lewisboro NY Real Estate Lewisboro NY Homes Lewisboro Luxury Homes

Taking a look at the Katonah-Lewisboro school district real estate prices over the last ten years we found median prices were rising until their peak in 2007.  In 2008 and 2009 prices dropped.  In 2010 the median price for a Katonah-Lewisboro school district home rose again.   2000          $502,000 2001          $595,000 2002          $647,500 2003          $675,000 2004          $750,000 2005          $749,500 2006          $790,000 2007          $815,000 2008          $730,000 2009          $617,500 2...

  The recovery of housing prices will take at least four more years, according to a monthly survey of 110 leading economists and real estate experts, significantly longer than previously estimated. Housing prices will rise only 7.2 percent by 2014 and the aggregate value of U.S. single-family homes four years from now will be roughly $1 trillion less than the economists projected in May, said Terry Loeb of MacroMarkets, the firm conducting the survey, which is based upon the projected path of the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index over the coming five years.  ”For the first time, in this month’s survey, our panelists provided their expectations through 2015. Less than 3% of the panel expects negative change in 2015, and at +3.7 percent, the average of the forecasts for that year is slightly higher than the average annual rate of national home price appreciation that prevailed in the decade prior to the historic bubble.  Yet, at +7.2%,...