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

The estate that Al Pacino’s violent Tony Montana called home in “Scarface” has just been deeply discounted to $17.9 million. That’s 49 percent below the $35-million asking price when it hit the market one year ago. The  10-plus acre property  is in Santa Barbara, not in Tony Montana’s decadent — and fictional — corner of Miami. The remodeled 1906 home measures 9,816 square feet and has 4 bedrooms, 5 full baths and 4 partial baths. The home is classically designed, with ornate moldings and gold-leaf ceiling details. Many rooms open to the outdoors, including onto patios, balconies and decks. The grounds are as elaborate as the interior, with lush landscaping and multiple pools and fountains. read more... http://www.zillow.com/blog/

Wells Fargo is once again setting sail on subprime mortgage waters, despite how choppy they were several years ago. The bank will consider mortgage applicants with credit scores as low as 600, announced Franklin Codel, a Wells Fargo mortgage executive. Previously, the minimum was 640, and this change applies to purchase mortgages to be guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.    Lenders routinely re-evaluate their standards as consumer credit trends shift, and Wells Fargo considered applicants with credit scores in the low 600s as recently as the fourth quarter of 2011, said Tom Goyda, a Wells Fargo spokesman. In fact, that threshold was 500 in January 2011. The 640 benchmark had been in place since about November 2012, before the change to 600 last year.   There are dozens of credit scoring models, but most lenders use the 301 to 850 range , and anything in the 600 to 649 bracket is considered poor, or subprime. Consumers in the next highest cr...

Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » Late Summer Sales Keep September Prices Hot | Lewisboro NY Real Estate

State and county officials had what appeared to be the first confrontation with a utility to speed up the restoration of power after the storm following Gov. Andrew Cuomo's warning to companies to act fast. State Director of Operations Howard Glaser said the response by New York State Electric and Gas Corp. to its customers without power in northern Westchester County was "silence, darkness and an utter lack of any NYSEG presence whatsoever." Glaser then proposed a new motto for NYSEG: "Lights out, Nobody's Home," according to an email he sent to NYSEG President Mark Lynch that was obtained by The Associated Press. "Any objective assessment is that NYSEG is by far the poorest performing utility in this situation in the state," Glaser wrote. An NYSEG spokesman said the utility was slowed by the number of trees downed during the superstorm, but more crews were coming in to help with its restoration efforts. Cuomo and Westchester County Executi...

Lewisboro Wolves Benefit Hosted by Richard Gere Lewisboro NY Homes Lewisboro NY Homes Lewisboro Luxury Homes

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

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%,...