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

Home prices increases may be leveling out, according to one closely-followed real estate report. In 20 major American cities, home prices this May were about 4.9% higher than May of last year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released Tuesday. That’s the same pace of growth as April, and surprised economists when it fell short of expected growth. Economists predicted a 5.6% year-over-year increase, according to an Econoday survey. Price increases of single-family homes have settled at a steady pace of 4-5% this year, said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He said he expects price increases to slow over the next two years, as wages rise to catch up with housing costs. “First time homebuyers are the weak spot in the market,” said Blitzer, citing research that high down-payments may be putting off first-time home purchases. “Without a boost in f...

Finding ways to cozy up the utilitarian elements of the kitchen can be challenging. While paint, window coverings and accessories begin to warm up the most popular room in the house, the right seating can take the space to the next level. A variety of seating options can create an interesting and inviting kitchen in your home. Freestanding banquette Full of design style, a freestanding banquette creates ample seating and allows your inner designer to come out. You can upholster a banquette in any fabric, so the options for sophisticated or durable choices are endless. Tuft the back and bring on the curves for a tailored and traditional feel, or keep things straight and streamlined for a more modern look. The beauty of a freestanding banquette is that it can be repositioned into another space if you change your mind about your kitchen’s design. Source:  Ryan McKinney Built-in banquette A built-in version of a banquette brings a bonus: sec...

There are few things scarier than looking for a place to live in the city, which seems to explain the thematic importance of real estate to so many New York-based horror films . Whether it's satanists skulking around The Dakota or a virologist living on Washington Square Park in a post-apocalyptic world , New York apartments and homes—and the invasion of these spaces by the otherworldly—tend to figure prominently in Hollywood's version of creepy. With that in mind, we're listing some of the weirdest, most iconic apartments to have been featured in movies set in New York that are perfect to watch on Halloween. Not all of these are strictly horror films, with thriller, fantasy, and adventure bleeding through the porous boundaries of genre. They range in quality from "genuine classic" to "utter crap," but all of them are worth watching in their own ways, if only to see how New York finds its way onto the silver screen. Check out the list this way >...

These days the kitchen is the most important room in the house. We’re constantly calling it our main hub, where we cook fresh meals, entertain guests, do homework, post messages and, yes, every now and then watch TV. But with the increased focus on function comes a lot of stuff that needs fixing, replacing, tweaking, cleaning and organizing. For that you’ll need to arm yourself with some kitchen knowledge so you can stay on top of what’s most important. Here are 19 projects good for every home dweller to know about.   ExpressDecor Save Photo 1. Choose a new kitchen sink. Is there anything in your kitchen that gets used as much as your sink? Doubtful. That’s why it’s important to choose the right one — size, width, style — for your space.       read more....         http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/31516989?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u643&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery2  

Freddie Mac ( OTCQB : FMCC ) released today its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August showing the country getting back to a more normalized economy, and therefore expecting to see housing driven once again by fundamentals. The complete August 2014 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook and forecast table are available here . Outlook Highlights After several years of weakness we are starting to see the labor market pick up steam having added 230,000 net new jobs on average for the first seven months of this year. The Census Bureau reported that over the past four quarters, net household formations totaled only 458,000, compared with long-term projections by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of 1.2 to 1.3 million per year. The number of persons per household has increased by 2.6 percent since 2005, going from 2.69 to 2.76 persons per household. If the persons per household had held steady over that period there would be an additional 3 milli...

Q: Is it true that the New York State Thruway Authority is catching speeders with E-ZPass? Please let me know so I can get rid of the damn thing. —Bill Marcella, New Rochelle A: Not only can they track your speed, give you a ticket, and fine you, the system also has a way to determine if you’re a registered Republican, in which case the current administration will have you detained and most probably waterboarded. Kidding, kidding. The theory behind this fear is that the E-ZPass system can determine how fast a car on the Thruway outfitted with its device has traveled by measuring the distance and time it took to get from its point of entry to its point of exit. The E-ZPass system could do the calculation and bust your speeding butt without having to pull you over and listen to your weak sob story—Big Brother at its finest. Some folks even claim they’ve received such tickets from E-ZPass in the mail. Well, Illuminati fans, I’m sorry to report that the Thruway Authority as Orwel...

Renderings by Archpartners 9 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/21/longawaited_30_park_place_reveals_condo_interiors.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/537cca6cf92ea10cd101a23f/30-Park-Place-duplex-penthouse.jpg" width="500" height="313"></a><br /><a href="http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/21/longawaited_30_park_place_reveals_condo_interiors.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> First came the floorplans , now come the renderings. Behold, the first look inside the future condos of 30 Park Place , currently rising in Downtown Manhattan (h/t BuzzBuzz Home ). The 82-story, Robert A.M. Stern-designed tower will hold 157 condos on its top floors, and new renderings show what those condos will look like: very white, with very big windows...

hen it came to designing a contemporary second home for a Chicago-area family, architect Bill Bickford looked to an old barn on their 200-acre working farm in Wisconsin. The farm has been in the family for more than 25 years, and they had forged a strong connection to the property. “When you look out to the surroundings, you see beautiful old oaks, barns and silos dotting the landscape,” he says. Bickford designed a home that’s both contemporary and technologically advanced, and also fits the rural context and the family’s desire for wide-open spaces, family gatherings and relaxing weekends. Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: This is a second home of a family with young children. Location: The countryside west of Madison, Wisconsin Size: 4,500 square feet (418 square meters); 3 bedrooms plus bunk room, 3 ½ bathrooms Photography by Werner Straube Photography Northworks Architects and Planners Save to Ideabook Email Photo The old barn, near the top of one of the rollin...

The Mount Kisco Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing on Monday, April 7, at 7 p.m. in Village Hall to consider the adoption of the 2014-15 proposed budget. The complete proposed budget can be downloaded by clicking here. Mount Kisco Village Hall is at 104 Main St. http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/mount-kisco-hold-public-hearing-village-budget

Home prices rose more slowly in January, extending a trend of moderating gains. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city Index rose 13.2% from a year ago, 0.1% less than December's year-over-year change. The pace of annual gains has slowed for three straight months and January's increase was below the 13.4% for all of 2013. All 20 cities showed higher prices than in January 2013. But compared with December, prices fell in 12. The decliners were led by Chicago, which was down 1.2%. "The housing recovery may have taken a breather due to the cold weather," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. The cities with the five highest monthly gains were all in the Sun Belt. Las Vegas, up 1.1%, was tops among gainers.The other four were Miami, up 0.7%; San Diego, 0.6%; San Francisco, 0.5%; and Tampa, 0.1%. Among other cities in the 20-city index, New York and Washington D.C. saw their highest year-over-year returns s...

Is Homeownership A Smart Investment Again? | Mt Kisco Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

More sellers are now putting their homes on the market than at this time last year, according to the latest National Housing Trend Report from realtor.com®. Inventories of homes for sale rose 10% year-over-year to 1.744 million units, indicating increasing seller optimism and a strong, early beginning to the spring home-buying season, according to the report’s February data.    The median list price of $199,000 was 7.6% higher than it was during the same month last year, while the median age of inventory increased 6.5% above last year’s figures, to 114 days. “Overall, these figures indicate a continued reinforcement of steady gains and market stabilization that we’ve been watching since late last summer,” said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move Inc., the parent company of realtor.com®. “Seller confidence is the factor to watch as we head into the spring home-buying season, and these are very encouraging indicators—not only are more homes coming onto the market, but typically ...

Mortgage rates ticked up, but homebuilders should be okay | Mt Kisco Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Do you blog regularly? Are you looking for tools to make the process easier? Blogging is hard work and it takes a lot of time to do it well. Wouldn’t it be great if you could streamline parts of that process? In this article, you’ll find a list of tools, apps and advice you can use to find your groove and take care of blogging business . #1: Brainstorm Blogging Ideas When you need inspiration for your next blog post, where do you go? You can avoid blogger’s block by trying out these idea-generators to quickly get your creative juices flowing. How to Use Quora to Cook Up Great Content : Adrienne Erin writes a pretty inspiring post about scanning Quora to find popular conversations and using those topics to create blog content. Don’t Know What to Write About? Get Ideas From the Blog Topic Generator [Free Tool] : Ginny Soskey introduces HubSpot’s handy new topic generator. You simply put in three terms (nouns) you’d like to blog about and the tool spits out several topics . Of ...

Tracy's Credit Tip of the Month Wells Fargo gears towards the subprime mortgage market. What does that mean for home buyers, realtors, bankers, and other finance professionals? With the refinance boom coming to an end and banks looking to find new ways to increase profits subprime loans are becoming a new focus. Wells Fargo, the mortgage leader, will now embrace subprime loans, which means other banks are sure to follow. In the past Wells Fargo would not even entertain a loan if the FICO score was less than 640 but now they are looking at scores of 600 and up. Due to a loss in profits of the dwindling refinance market banks are beginning to lean towards business lending and subprime loans. How will this impact those looking to purchase real estate? There are many individuals who have not been able to qualify for a loan in the past 3 or more years due to a loss of income and poor credit scores. Most mortgage banks were not interested in working with these indiv...

Leaving a settled job for a freelance (or consultant) career is one of the toughest decisions for anyone. On one hand you have a guaranteed paycheck at the end of every month along with a number of other fringe benefits. While on the other hand, you can go completely freelance and enjoy the freedom of working on your favorite projects on your own terms. The problem with freelancing, however, is the sheer number of people doing it. Clients have an almost unending list of freelancers at their disposal due to which the market is dominated by low paying gigs and cheap projects. Freelancing portals like Elance, oDesk, Guru etc. are prime examples of this scenario. It’s very hard to stand out from the crowd and earn what you actually deserve. Especially if you’re a nobody who’s just starting out. There is, however, one way to not only stand out from the crowd , enhance your brand image and be counted as an expert, but also to command much higher rates for your work. And tha...

"(The) single-family rental market is becoming a new asset class. Blackstone , Colony , Deutschebank are all investing billions," said moderator Sharif Mahdavian, managing director for Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. "So how is it affecting the mortgage environment?" "It looks to us like a viable business," said Joseph Buonanno, a partner with Hunton & Williams. "Whether this is cyclical or temporary, or the new new thing, I think it’s probably too early to say we will change decades of history and change to a rental society." Steven Abrahams, head of securitization and mortgage-backed securities research at Deutsche Bank Securities , says he sees this trend as an anomaly. He says the flood of capital to the rental side just reflects the withdrawal of capital from the mortgage side. "As the population grows and rates of household formation rebound to normal, we will see a return of owner occupant capital," Abr...

Colorado agent launches marijuana-friendly marketing campaign | Mt Kisco Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Advocates of immigration reform argue it will build housing demand and invigorate home prices, but the jury is still out as to just how much of an impact increased Immigration will have on future housing demand. A recent blog post by Jessica Dill, senior economic research analyst in the Atlanta Fed’s research department, explores new research on how immigration affects housing demand. According to a September 2010 working paper by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, an increase of between 11.8 million and 13.8 million households, depending on whether you use low- or high-immigration assumptions, is projected between 2010 and 2020, she wrote. Likewise, Dowell Myers and John Pitkin prepared a report earlier this year for the Research Institute for Housing America projecting an increase of 12.8 million households between 2010 and 2020, of which immigrants account for 4.12 million, or 32.2 percent. Looking back to previous decades, Myers and Pitkin note that the 4.03 mil...

Migrants buying after Spanish real estate market bottoms out | Mt Kisco Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor