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North   Salem NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013 6 months ending 8/7 2012 29 Sales 26 $548,000.00 median sold price $477,500.00 $200,000.00 low sold price $215,000.00 $8,900,000.00 high sold price $2,600,000.00 2946 average size 2667 $258.00 ave. price per foot $239.00 206 ave days on market 226 $889,137.00 average sold price $656,150.00 95.31% ave sold to ask 93.09% Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » North Salem sales up 11% – Median price up 14% | RobReportBlog

Pictures are worth a thousand words…and quite a few shares. If you really want your listings to go viral and reach more potential buyers, you need to have 8 or more high-quality photos that catch buyers’ eyes, Trulia  writes. When you’re out shooting online property photos, remember how we started this chat – that  compelling  content is king. That means you need to look for the quirky, special, and high-value add ons that separate your listings from the rest, according to Trulia  ($30.74  0.14% ) . Read more tips on how to make your listings go viral  here . Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » How to make your real estate listing go viral | North Salem Real Estate

Hard Water Water with high levels of dissolved calcium and/or  magnesium  is considered hard water. Hard water is not considered a threat to human health but is not good for plumbing. A water softener can be used to treat this issue. It should be installed at the water's point of entry into a building. Iron and Manganese Iron and manganese occur naturally in well water. High levels of these elements will cause the water to have a bad taste and could stain pipes or clothing.  Water softeners , aeration, chlorination and carbon filters are best used to treat this type of water. These units should be installed at the point of entry. Nitrogen Nitrogen gets into well water naturally through the atmosphere. Elevated levels can be caused by farm byproducts, sewage or landfill runoff. Elevated nitrates are a health risk and are particularly toxic to infants. The source of the contamination should be addressed before water is treated. Reverse o...

When David Pendery, a corporate public relations specialist, decided to move his family from Colorado to Illinois this year for work, his biggest worry was whether he would be able to sell his home quickly. It took just three days. "We certainly thought selling our house would take longer," said Pendery, who started in February at Kerry Ingredients, a flavoring provider for the food and beverage industries. Pendery's experience may be on the extreme side, but his case may be a sign of a revival in one of the historical advantages of the U.S. job market: the ability of workers to go where the jobs are. For much of the past five years, falling house prices effectively locked people in their homes, since many were "underwater" - owing more on their mortgages than they could raise by selling. At the same time, double-digit unemployment across much of the nation meant there were few jobs to move for anyway. That may be changing. While far from the...

BOSTON -- Prices for single-family homes increased in 89 percent of U.S. cities in the first quarter as the housing market extends a recovery from a five-year slump. The median sales price rose from a year earlier in 133 of 150 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report Thursday. A year earlier, 74 areas had gains. Buyers returning to the housing market are bidding up prices for a tight supply of listings. The national median price for an existing single-family home was $176,600 in the first quarter, up 11.3 percent from the same period last year. That was the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Realtors group. House prices increase in 89 percent of cities as recovery expands | HeraldNet.com - Work

This is a followup to my post  Dissecting the Fed-Sponsored Housing Bubble; HPI-CPI Revisited; Real Housing Prices; Price Inflation Higher than Fed Admits . Data for the following charts is courtesy of Lender Processing Services (LPS), Specifically the  LPS Home Price Index (HPI) . The charts were produced by Doug Short at  Advisor Perspectives . Anecdotes on the charts in light blue are by me. Background The CPI does not track home prices per se, rather the CPI uses a concept called " Owners' Equivalent Rent " (OER) as a proxy for home prices. The BLS determines OER from a measure of actual rental prices and also by asking homeowners the question “ If someone were to rent your home today, how much do you think it would rent for monthly, unfurnished and without utilities? ” If you find that preposterous, I am sure you are not the only one. Regardless, rental prices are simply not a valid measure of home prices. OER Weighting in CPI Mish Shedlock ...

If you live in Brentwood Circle, there’s a good chance Reese Witherspoon is the girl next door. With two existing homes in the neighborhood, the Oscar-winning actress has purchased another for $3 million. The ranch-style home is described by the listing agent as an “enchanted cottage” that’s “warm and inviting.” With a glass art studio and hillside gardens, the home offers a retreat from downtown L.A. It isn’t surprising Witherspoon would choose a getaway outside the city center — her  Ojai ranch  provided the feeling of being in the country while only an hour removed from Los Angeles. And, with a recent  trip to jail on a disorderly conduct  charge, the actress is likely looking to steer clear of the paparazzi. It also isn’t surprising Witherspoon bought a few houses down from her existing property; celebs have a track record for hopping around the same neighborhood or owning several properties within the same ZIP code. Actress Kate Hudson is known for buyin...

This return to normalcy also implies an improvement in residential construction employment. But many are wondering how many jobs will come out of this homebuilding rebound. In its latest edition of  Housing Insights , Fannie Mae studies the historical relationship between housing starts and residential construction employment coupled with Economic and Strategic Research’s housing starts forecast, to project future homebuilding employment. If housing starts keep up with expectations and return to normal levels in 2016, it is predicted that residential construction employment will rise to nearly 2.5 million jobs. Fannie Mae predicts housing construction will recover to a “normal” level of about 1.6 million units in 2016. But what does this mean for homebuilding employment? Fannie’s forecast predicts that residential construction employment will increase by 412,000 jobs between 2012 and 2016. This 20% rise in homebuilding employment will nearly triple the forecasted pace of ...

U.S. home prices rose 9.3 percent in February compared with a year ago, the most in nearly seven years. The gains were driven by a growing number of buyers who bid on a limited supply of homes. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased from an 8.1 percent year-over-year gain in January. And annual prices rose in February in all 20 cities for the second month in a row. Phoenix led all cities with an annual gain of 23 percent in February. Prices jumped nearly 19 percent in San Francisco. In Las Vegas, home prices increased 17.6 percent and in Atlanta they rose 16.5 percent. Eleven of the 20 cities reported price gains in February compared with January. Those monthly numbers are not seasonally adjusted and reflect the slower winter buying period. The index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The February figures are the latest available US home price...

Single-family home rental image via Shutterstock. Rents on single-family homes flattened in March, suggesting that the more than four million homes that were converted to rentals following the housing bust have reached a supply level that has finally caught up with consumer demand, according to a report released today by real estate search and marketing site Trulia. via inman.com

The U.S.   Department of Housing and Urban Development is threatening to take back $7.4 million in grants from Westchester County, N.Y.  The county has been teetering on the edge with HUD and will lose the money if it fails to  submit a report analyzing whether zoning in Westchester County perpetuates segregation, news source lohud.com reports. "In light of the fact that the county has been on notice about these deficiencies now for years, HUD cannot at this point simply accept general promises of future performance but rather expects that the county will substantively comply with the requirements HUD has set forth," said Vincent Hom, director of Community Planning and Development. via housingwire.com

Make sure that you have attractive, consistent visual branding across all of your social media platforms. Visual marketing is a breakout trend on social media sites. Companies need to “show” instead of “tell”, and social networks are tapping into our desire for beautiful imagery and design. While content is a huge driver of  awareness, dazzling visual depictions create awareness and differentiation on a more visceral level. Whether you’re just getting started with social media marketing or you’re a veteran, setting up profiles on all of the various social media sites can be a daunting process. It requires good planning and execution to ensure that your brand has a consistent visual voice on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. A huge part of the process is working with the various images you want to use across all of your channels in order to stand out from the crowd, increase engagement, and inspire viral marketing and sharing. The problem is...

Campaign marketing starts with a mind warping process that often involves the creatives drinking shots of bourbon, taking long lunches and looking for inspiration at a movie. That is if you believe the 1960′s TV series Mad Men depiction of an ad agency. The reality is often much more boring than that and can involve research on competitors, identifying the target market and clarifying the goals that need to be achieved for the campaign. Then add some seasoned experience of what works and what doesn’t to the mix gained through the cauldron of success and failures over the years. Those of you with an interest in online promotion will undoubtedly have heard about the importance of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. However, you may not have any idea how to leverage these kinds of platforms for the maximum business benefit. What Exactly Is A Campaign? A campaign is defined in the Oxford dictionary as “ The process of working in an organized and ...

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