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

One of eleven prefab homes in existence designed by Prairie School poobah, progenitor, and high priest Frank Lloyd Wright has hit the market for the first time ever at $795K . If the fact that Wright designed prefabs comes as a surprise, it's probably because of prefabricated construction's strong associations with retro-futuristic bubble houses , easy-assembly "glamping" shacks , artsy party barges , and other such flights of fancy, but Wright did in fact do a bit of prefab dabbling with developer Marshall Erdman, the Lithuanian-American builder that commissioned the First Unitarian Society of Madison from him in 1946. Wright discovered that Erdman was selling prefabs, and offered to design him a few models that could be offered for $15K, which was about half the price that Erdman was charging for some of his own. By spring of 1956, Wright had finalized plans for a trio of Usonian - style homes to be built exclusively by Marshall Erdman and Associates. This ...

A three-bedroom, fully-customized townhouse has set a new record for rentals in Astoria, Queens, The Real Deal has learned. The listing at 30-56 35th Street, between 30th and 31st avenues, rented for $5,000, a spokesperson for brokerage Douglas Elliman confirmed. Justin Kinslow had the exclusive listing. “The apartment is amazing, an impressive gut renovation of a pre-war building,” Kinslow said in a release from the brokerage. “There is no other renovation that comes close to this in all of Astoria.” The owner, from Geneva, Switzerland, brought European-style finishes to the unit, including state-of-the-art technology and large, stylized windows, Kinslow said through a spokesperson.  The home also boasts exposed brick, white cedar floors and recessed lighting with dimmers, as well as a Subzero wine refrigerator, black granite countertops and a Miele touchtronic washing machine and dryer. The walls are acoustically isolated, according to the listing, while the floors have...

The median price of homes for sale on realtor.com held steady at $199,900 in August from July, but were up 6.39 percent from August 2012, according to a monthly real estate trends report from realtor.com. Inventory stood at 1.98 million in August, a 2.5 percent dip from a year ago and a 0.93 percent increase from July’s number, realtor.com data showed. Homes were on the market for a median of 92 days in August, down 8 percent from a year ago, but up 8.24 percent from July. “Where we have seen significant volatility in many markets, including double-digit declines in inventory as well as increases in median price for both yearly and monthly views, we are now looking at a housing market that much more closely resembles ‘normal,’ ” said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of realtor.com operator Move Inc., in a statement. Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » Home prices hold steady in August | Mt Kisco Real Estate

Despite financial confidence and an overall optimistic outlook, debt remains a top concern for many Hispanic investors, according to a recent survey. Twenty-five percent of Hispanics surveyed are more concern about losing their home, compared to 12% for the overall population,  Wells Fargo   ($41.25  0% )  said in its latest survey. While Hispanic investors appear to be taking steps towards saving, there is still anxiety about having enough for retirement. “Hispanic investors are facing tremendous challenges when it comes to saving for retirement. We are seeing immediate financial concerns like covering household bills and mortgage payments are interfering with their ability to put money away toward retirement,” said David Roda, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. He added, “These are complex challenges where one size doesn’t fit all in terms of a possible course of actions, but we would certainly encourage all investors to double...

The “wealth effect” is a term coined by economists to describe consumers’ tendency to spend more when their wealth has increased. It spurred the U.S. economy forward for decades as the market value of homes rose. It was easy for Americans to take out new mortgages and pocket the proceeds for trips to the mall or a second car. The equity extracted through these mortgages, known as cash-out refinancings, rose from $26 billion in 2000 to $321 billion in 2006. Home-equity loans, which do not require a new mortgage, also fueled the frenzy. Economists figured that every dollar increase in housing wealth produced an extra 3¢ to 5¢ in spending. Home prices are rising again, but the wealth effect “is much smaller,” says Amir Sufi, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Sufi reckons that each dollar gain in housing wealth today may yield as little as 1¢ in extra spending. U.S. Department of Commerce data show that consumer spending has grown a...

via online.wsj.com  

2012 Median Prices Up Mount Kisco     12% Chappaqua         2% via trulia.com

  Hubzu, the online marketplace and auction platform of real estate owned properties (REO), will open up its service for licensed brokers and agents and non-REO properties in early February, the company announced today. Last fall, Hubzu completed its name change from "GoHoming.com" and announced that it would expand its user base and begin to deal with non-REO properties. The 3-year-old site is operated by publicly traded Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A., a provider of services to mortgage lenders, loan servicers, investors, mortgage bankers, credit unions, financial services companies and hedge funds. Traditionally, all of the listings on Hubzu -- about 4,000 active currently -- are lender-owned. Most listings come from another Altisource-held company, Hubzu general manager Scott Wielar told Inman News last fall. Hubzu's new "Direct-to-Broker" channel will allow brokers and agents to list properties, both REO and traditional, on the site for a ...

via zillow.com  

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. ‒ A Westchester law enforcement organization said it will hold  The Journal News responsible for any crimes against its members stemming from publication of the names of gun permit-holders in Westchester and Putnam counties The newspaper put active and retired law enforcement officers and their families in "grave and immediate danger," along with the others on the list, the Affiliated Police Association said in a news release Friday. The group is an umbrella organization for 53 law enforcement groups in the region. On Dec. 24, The Journal News published an interactive map showing both names and addresses of gun permit-holders in the two counties. The Affiliated Police Association says it will ask the newspaper to remove the interactive map from its website and stop any efforts to obtain the names of legal gun owners in other counties. “The Affiliated Police Association is putting The Journal News on notice that we will hold them account...

Thinking of listing your home? Of course, you’ll want to get the best possible price. Before you call a major renovation squad for a TV-style home makeover, try these cheap and easy fixes to increase your home’s appeal. Declutter Start with the easiest fix of all. Pack up and hide or store some of your possessions. Stash your collections of porcelain dolls or “Star Wars” figurines; the less of your stuff potential buyers see, the more likely they will be to envision themselves — and their stuff — in the home. Add curb appeal Next, take a look at your home from the street. Could it benefit from a little landscaping? Clear away any dead plants, trim back limbs and bushes, and check out your local home improvement store’s garden section. Small flowering plants and other foliage is very affordable and easily adds instant charm. Deep clean The next easy fix is to clean. No, really clean. Pressure wash the driveway, and have your tile and carpets professionally cle...

If the years leading up to the U.S. housing bust were rife with lax underwriting, the opposite problem has occurred in its aftermath: Excessively tight credit is making it impossible for many borrowers to obtain mortgages. Enter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which this week unveiled a much-awaited rule intended to strengthen mortgage standards and provide more legal protection to lenders. In requiring that lenders verify the ability of borrowers to repay their loans, the CFPB aims to safeguard consumers against deceptive practices and provide legal protection to banks, which have been wary of lending, fearful that borrowers would eventually default and sue. The CFPB’s qualified-mortgage rule, which goes into effect next year and was required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, gets many things right: It requires lenders to consider specific factors in determining whether a borrower can repay a loan, including income, overall debt, employment status and credit ...

via findandconvert.com

Mt Kisco 2012 sales Up 41% - Prices Up 11.75%  |  RobReportBlog Mount Kisco NY Sales 2012 2011 78 Sales 55 41.80% UP $580,000.00 Median Price $519,000.00 11.75% UP $262,500.00 Low Price $270,000.00 $3,950,000.00 High Price $1,655,000.00 2907 Ave. Size 2468 $256.00 Ave. Price/foot $272.00 175 Ave. DOM 167 94.91% Ave. Sold/Ask 95.25% $781,510.00 Ave. Sold Price $657,490.00 via trulia.com

What are the correlates of "new agent" success? Two studies from the Texas Association of Realtors reveal intriguing results for both new agents and those who hire, manage and train them. On Aug. 28, 2012, the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) sent a Zoomerang Web survey to 13,000 of its broker/manager members with the purpose of identifying how to improve the quality of the homebuying and selling experience for Texas homeowners. A second purpose was to assist TAR in identifying the factors that contribute to sales success of new agents, as well as those factors that result in agents leaving the business. A total of 277 brokers/managers participated in the study: 265 in the online survey and 12 in the one-on-one interviews. Office size The large majority of offices (70 percent) had 10 or fewer agents. Another 16 percent had offices with 11-25 agents. In other words, 86 percent of all offices had 25 or fewer agents. This matched a seconda...

via zillow.com

Recent news of oil spills, climate change, and drinking water shortages reminds us of the great environmental challenges that our children will face as adults. Teatown’s teachers are shaping the next generation to meet these challenges with both knowledge and optimism. We reach nearly 10,000 children each year with our placed-based programs and with our staff’s model enthusiasm to build a sustainable, healthy world. Teatown’s environmental education programs bring our children into direct contact with nature. This kind of in-your-face experience is not  provided in school classrooms, by watching television, or surfing the Internet. Immersed in the relative wildness of Teatown, all of the children’s senses are awakened as they explore and discover the natural world. We make sure that our students not only learn the traditional skill of recognizing local plants and animals, but they see first hand the connections between and among species, the web of life. Most important, howev...

via businessinsider.com

via socialmediaexaminer.com

A newspaper's publication of the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two New York counties has sparked online discussions — and a healthy dose of outrage. The Journal News, a Gannett Co. newspaper covering three counties in the Hudson Valley north of New York City and operating the website lohud.com, posted a story Sunday detailing a public-records request it filed to obtain the information. The 1,800-word story headlined, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," said the information was sought after the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., about 50 miles northeast of the paper's headquarters in White Plains. A gunman killed his mother, drove to an elementary school and massacred 20 first-graders and six adults, then shot himself. All the weapons used were legally owned by his mother. The Journal News story includes comments from both sides of the gun-rights debate and presents the data as answ...