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Mortgage applications for new home purchases plunged 9% in August from the July level, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey. This comes a day after the MBA reported mortgage applications for the week ending Sept. 5 plummeted 7.2% . By product type, conventional loans composed 68.9% of loan applications, Federal Housing Administration loans composed 15.7%, RHS/USDA loans composed 1.0% and Veteran’s Administration loans composed 14.3%.  The average loan size of new homes increased from $297,253 in July to $300,443 in August. The data are not seasonally adjusted. The MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 424,000 units in August 2014, based on data from the BAS.  The new home sales estimate is derived using mortgage application information from the BAS, as well as assumptions regarding market coverage and other factors. The seasonally adjusted estimate for August is a decrease ...

Earlier this morning we saw that housing starts unexpectedly plunged 9.3% to an annualized rate of 893,000. On the face of it, the report was ugly, considering all the talk about the recent housing snapback. It's important to note that the miss was entire due to one region: the South. Housing starts plunged 29.6% in the South, driven by weakness in single family units. "All the hit is in the south, where starts plunged by 29.6%, the biggest ever monthly drop, despite gains in each other region," wrote Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Starts were actually up in the rest of the country. In the Northeast, housing starts were up 14.1%, driven mostly by multi-family starts. In the Midwest they were up 28%, and in the West they were up 2.6%. It wasn't immediately clear what was behind the sudden plunge in the south. "But homebuilders are being constrained by a shortage of labour and lots," Paul Diggle at Capital Economics. "...

Anyone who’s spent long hours working in the garden knows the pleasure that comes from a job well done. And there’s no better vantage point than a garden nook: a small, secluded spot in which to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. It can be under a big tree, in a corner under an arbor or even in a flower bed, where you can be surrounded by blooms (as well as their fragrance). Seating can be as simple as a rustic wooden bench or as nap inducing as a chaise with plump pillows. For dining al fresco, consider adding a bistro table and chairs. It’s not a big project, as these nooks tend to be small and simple — so there’s still time to make a move before the cold weather comes. Here are some idyllic spots to inspire you to carve out your own garden hideaway. Candace Mallette Landscape & Garden Design Save to Ideabook Email Photo In a small backyard in Ottawa, Ontario, a simple seating area is surrounded by a sea of yellow flowering sedum . Two stained-wood Adir...

Another characteristically cuboidal, Mayan-inspired Los Angeles home by Lloyd Wright , son of Prairie School prelate Frank Lloyd Wright, has been put up for sale, this one a 2,518-square-foot Hollywood abode with historic-cultural monument status. What immediately sets the 1923 Henry O. Bollman Residence apart from the last few Lloyd Wright offerings is some gold-colored interior stonework which only increases the temple-like vibe that the listing describes as "dramatic" and "intimate." Not all the Curbed LA commenters are big fans of the flashiness ("Gold is never a wise color choice for teeth or Lloyd Wright houses," declares one), but one reader claims that it was a recreation of the original hue. Whether a restoration or a glamming up, it was part of a suite of renovations undertaken by interior designer Mimi London , who acquired the place back in 1990 for somewhere around $230K. With London's renovations, which the listing claims too...

12 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/06/what_3600month_can_rent_you_around_san_francisco.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/5368fb24f92ea10aba00d527/rich1.jpg" width="500" height="334"></a><br /><a href="http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/06/what_3600month_can_rent_you_around_san_francisco.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> ↑ In the Outer Richmond , this 2-bedroom house is asking $3,600/month. It's got a large floor plan that includes a lower-level den with a vintage fireplace and wood paneling. There's a full bath on the main level and a half-bath downstairs. There's also a backyard, deck, and two-car garage. No pets and tenant pays all utilities. More apartments >> 11 image...

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Bullish consumers, rising home prices brighten U.S. growth picture | Reuters

North Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report 2/28/2014 Homes for sale 43 Median Ask Price $699,000.00 Low Price $235,000.00 High Price $18,500,000.00 Average Size 3615 Average Price/foot $424.00 Average DOM 213 Average Ask Price $1,832,119.00

A new report from RealtyTrac sheds light on a rapid increase in the cost of owning home, which means that if you've been waiting to make a purchase, it might be best to make a move right now. Before the collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2008, the conventional advice for a first-time homebuyer was to save up money for a down payment and purchase a home "as soon as you can squeak by." That changed during and after the housing crisis, as mortgage loan interest rates dropped and purchase prices in many parts of the country went down by over 50%.   But now the market is changing again. For one thing, long-term interest rates rose during the second half of 2013, although rates have pulled back a bit so far this year, and are still quite low on a historical basis. But the Federal Reserve will likely finish winding down its "QE3" bond purchases this year, which should put significant upward pressure on long-term rates, and home prices are continuing to ris...

What does Mel Watt mean for housing finance in 2014? | North Salem NY Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Somebody Just Bought Annie Leibovitz’s Compound for $28.5M | North Salem Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

US mortgage applications fall as refinance hits 5-year low: MBA | North Salem NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Kinetic architecture, which moves or changes to adapt to seasonal, functional or daylight requirements — or just for the heck of it — has roots dating back to medieval times. A castle’s drawbridge served as a multifunctional kinetic wall, door and footbridge. The futurists and constructivists of the Russian art movement of the early 20th century explored kinetics by infusing their proposals with notions of highly mechanized, sleek, modern, industrial construction. Today architects are afforded the freedom to explore kinetics even further because of advances in materials coupled with interesting uses of both old and new technologies. Planted living walls, windows that change aperture based on the amount of light they receive and single doors the size of an aircraft are just a few examples. But while these differ in their execution, they share in the truly stunning spatial effects they create. And it’s easy to fawn over the bespoke nature of some of these constructions. The ones that per...

Are you looking for tips on how to use Pinterest strategically? Is your business benefiting from Pinterest? Pinterest is an effective tool for businesses of all sizes and sectors. From B2B to B2C, there are a number of goals you can pursue—from driving web and foot traffic to increasing visibility with influencers and consumers. In this article, you’ll find 26 tips, an A-Z guide for making Pinterest work for your business . #1: Add an On Hover Pin It Button to Your Images To drive referral traffic from Pinterest , your blog images have to make it to Pinterest. The on hover Pin It button appears over images on your blog when a user mouses over them. In the image below, you can see the on hover Pin It button on Social Media Examiner. Pin It Hover buttons are effective calls to action. The button is easy to activate and Pinterest provides detailed directions for how to do it. Note : Pinterest cautions that there’s no hover interaction on touchscreens, so if you’re most...

The Los Angeles city attorney sued Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Thursday, alleging the companies engaged in mortgage discrimination that led to a wave of foreclosures in minority communities during the housing crash. The twin lawsuits, filed in federal court, are the latest fallout from the 2008 collapse of the subprime mortgage industry, which sparked a string of actions against various lenders by federal agencies and city governments. The city attorney's suits allege a "continuing pattern of discriminatory mortgage lending practices" in Los Angeles that violate the federal Fair Housing Act. They claim Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. at first refused to grant mortgages in minority neighborhoods — a practice known as redlining — and later targeted black and Hispanic neighborhoods for predatory loans, known as reverse redlining. Wells Fargo and Citigroup both said the suits are meritless. http://www.startribune.com/housing/234697691.html

Real estate transactions can be quite cumbersome – they are riddled with legal content and require a lot of documentation – so you can imagine that there are plenty of areas where something could go wrong. It is estimated that nearly one-third of all real estate contracts never make it to the closing table. That means after a buyer and seller have already agreed upon the terms of the sale, (which is difficult in its own right), something happens to sour the deal. What causes these deals to crumble? Here are five reasons your deal may fall apart as a home buyer. Financing Securing a home mortgage has become a lot tougher in the wake of 2008′s recession and housing crisis. Lenders have tightened their restrictions considerably and as a result, more buyers are losing real estate deals because of their inability to secure financing. As a home buyer it helps to get preapproved for a loan , but a preapproval is not a guarantee that you will be able to get the loan you need. Once the actu...

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. has resolved the last obstacles to a record $13 billion settlement of civil state and U.S. probes over the sale of mortgage bonds, clearing the way for a deal today after months of negotiations, two people briefed on the matter said. The accord includes a previously disclosed $4 billion settlement to end a 2011 Federal Housing Finance Agency lawsuit, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. While the deal would mark the largest amount paid by a financial firm in a settlement with the U.S., the Justice Department is still probing JPMorgan’s recruiting practices in Asia, energy trading and its relationship with Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff . The New York-based bank has tapped $8 billion of $28 billion in reserves set aside since 2010 to cover legal costs. “It’s good they’re getting this done, but it’s a fairly narrow band of cases they are settling,” said Jacob Frenkel , a former Securities and ...

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