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

Everyone loves the holidays – the smells, the food, the presents, the time with friends and family. Most people have started making their wish lists, and some have gone so far as to start shopping. Here’s a present for you and your family: the gift of avoiding holiday-related insurance claims. When it comes to the holidays, insurance concerns are usually an afterthought. But many enjoyable aspects of the holidays can also pose dangers. Consider the following elements of the holidays — and their potential for trouble. Hunger pains Who doesn’t love holiday food? Turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas ham and New Year’s Day black-eyed peas and greens are a big part of the season’s fun. So what’s the problem? Cooking is the leading cause of residential fires in the U.S., according to the National Fire Protection Association. And the average home fire claim costs $34,306, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). What’s the worst that could hap...

In the home price race, Chicago is pulling up the rear, but it's one step ahead of New York. An index of Chicago-area single-family home values rose 3.9 percent per year from June 2011 through June of this year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. That was the ninth-smallest increase among the 10 U.S. metro areas in Case-Shiller's 10-city composite index. San Francisco had the biggest three-year annualized gain, 13.1 percent, followed by Las Vegas, 12.2 percent, and Miami, 10.2 percent. While modest growth may irritate homeowners in the Chicago area, where the Case-Shiller index is still 23 percent below its September 2006 peak, it isn't such a bad thing if you're not a seller. “If you want to sell your house and move to the Sun Belt, you're probably frustrated,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. On the other hand, “you're not pricing people out of housing as fa...

Welcome to the million-dollar mansion that might just be one of America's most unsellable homes. In the Marengo, Illinois, mansion, there's an eagle painted on the ceiling. There's a dragon painted on the bedroom wall, and in the living room, a life-sized ostrich statue. Real estate agent Elka Roberts said she'd been trying to sell the property outside of Chicago for more than two years - and is still looking for that elusive buyer. Unlike the houses in the neighborhood, the mansion has a custom drawbridge, its own tower and a massive pool. But without any takers, the asking price has dropped by more than $200,000 to $ $1,099,000, Roberts said. According to the National Association of Realtors, 2.3 million existing homes are currently on the market, the highest number in almost two years. So, if you're looking to sell your home, Barbara Corcoran, a New York real estate guru who appears on ABC's "Shark Tank," says to keep some cardinal rul...

New Rochelle's Down to Earth Farmers Market is back And today is Opening Day, 8:30 am-2:30 pm! North Avenue, at Huguenot Park, in front of New Rochelle High School To celebrate the season, join us for great music by the band, John Whoever and Who Are They, Etc. from 11:30 am-1:30 pm . Vendors for 2014 Season: Alex's Tomato Farm: Father and son lead up this family-owned farm. They'll have strawberries, summer squash, kohlrabi, beets, hot house tomatoes, starter plants for the garden, and much more. Brookside Farm - Pasture-raised meat, poultry, and eggs. Dagele Brothers Produce : Seasonal vegetables from the renowned "Black Dirt" region of Orange County, NY. **NEW VENDOR ** - e-Desserts : Scones, cakes, and bars featuring what's in season from local farms. e-Desserts is named after the owner's two children who inspired her to ...

Freddie Mac ( OTCQB : FMCC ) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS ® ), showing average fixed mortgage rates largely flat compared to the previous week amid light economic reports. News Facts 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.14 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending June 5, 2014 , up from last week when it averaged 4.12 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.91 percent. 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.23 percent with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.21 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.03 percent. 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.93 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.96 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.74 percent. 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.40 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged...

Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week with the spring home-buying season beginning. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate for the 30-year loan rose to 4.33 percent from 4.27 percent last week. The average for the 15-year mortgage increased to 3.39 percent from 3.33 percent.   Mortgage rates have risen almost a full percentage point since hitting record lows about a year ago. Warmer weather has yet to boost home-buying as it normally does. Rising prices and higher rates have made affordability a problem for would-be buyers. Sales of new homes fell 14.5 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Purchases of existing homes also declined last month, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. read more.... http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/24/average-us-rate-on-30-year-mortgage-rises-to-433-pct-15-year-loan-increases-to/

Photo via Design Boom Japanese architect Junya Ishigami —apparently known as "a brash upstart with a flair for the controversial" —has just released plans for a private residence commissioned by an art collector, to be sited on a secret location in Chile. Clearly ready to on one-up the other precarious, teetering structures of the world, the one-story, disk-like dwelling will be positioned to face the South Pacific from a point between two rock formations, hovering above the ground. From the inside, the home resembles a shallow bowl with curving, windowless walls and (probably glass-covered?) circular cut-outs in the floor to provide both a source of light, and that impending fear of falling through the floor that homeowners love so much. Above, a totally flat roof "devoid of any boundaries or walls" offers unobstructed views of the surrounding landscape. Enter a tiny world, this way. >> So how does one get to this odd and slightly dangerous locale? S...

South Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report 2/24/2013 Homes for sale 50 Median Ask Price $732,500.00 Low Price $199,900.00 High Price $12,200,000.00 Average Size 3086 Average Price/foot $368.00 Average DOM 223 Average Ask Price $1,213,764.00

Flipping Moves on Up as Profits Rise 19 Percent | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Consumer confidence, led by high hopes for the housing markets, has recovered from its doubts in the wake of the government shutdown last fall and is starting the new year on a tear. Two weeks ago economists at the Conference Board forecasted that for the year as a whole growth will accelerate markedly to 2.9% in 2014 from the subdued 1.9% pace in 2013. “The robust gains in household net worth, fueled by the 29% gain in equity prices and 16% rise in median home prices, boosted consumer spending to a robust 4% pace in Q4 2013,” they wrote and set a goal of 1.11million housing starts this year, up from .92 million in 1013. “On the labor front, we look for companies to continue to add to their payroll count at a sustained and healthy pace of around 200,000 per month. This along with the ongoing retirement of baby boomers from the workforce should allow the unemployment rate to continue falling at a rapid clip,” they wrote. The first returns of the new year support their predictions...

Just as walking through a kitchen doesn’t make you a chef, living in a neighborhood doesn’t make an agent a “neighborhood expert.”The information age is firmly ensconced in the real estate word. Long gone are the days when agents were the gatekeepers of the data. The days of multiple listing service books printed quarterly and carried around like bags of gold, only to be viewed by those with “access,” are a bad memory. For the most part, the public has as much or more information available for use as Joe Agent. And that is a very good thing. The real estate industry excels at public relations. Was there ever a time when any real estate organization, now or in the past, didn’t trumpet that “it’s a great time to buy”? Even during the crash and years of bottom scraping, that shrill message remained. - See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/01/31/the-fallacy-of-the-agent-as-neighborhood-expert/?utm_source=20140131&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.KhDB...

Purchase apps down 20 percent from a year ago | South Salem Realtor | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

  <style> img.lazy-img, img.very-lazy-img { display: none; } </style>   MarketWatch Slide Shows Retirement • 10 best big cities to retire happily in • 10 best places to retire abroad • 10 essentials for your retirement plan • 10 best states to retire in • The 10 worst states for retirees Real Estate Shutterstock • States with the most 'zombie' homes • The 10 best places to live in the U.S. • The 10 best U.S. suburbs to live in • The 10 most dangerous cities in America • 10 most expensive cities for expats • 5 U.S. cities with the happiest workers • 10 U.S. cities with the lowest taxes Technology • 5 sites teens flock to instead of Facebook • 10 apps that could save your li...

[Approximate location of the proposed arena] New York's newest Major League Soccer team is reportedly very close to finding a permanent home. Capital New York got their hands on the details of a deal that would have the New York City Football Club , a franchise co-owned by the Yankees and Manchester City owner and Abu Dhabi royalty Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, build a new stadium near Yankee Stadium . The 10-acre site includes three bankrupt parking facilities, a portion of 153rd Street, and a commercial building that holds a 400-person elevator company. The club would likely pay $25 million to the Bronx Parking Development, which defaulted on a $237 million loan, and they are in talks to buy out the elevator parts company and relocate it. Negotiations are still underway and no one would comment on the possible deal.   The $350 million development would be financed with city-issued tax-exempt bonds, and the club would get $21.5 million in tax waivers. A 99-year lea...

Brenda Clarke, a single mother of three on Long Island , New York , said looters at the foreclosed home next door stoked her deepest fears about getting evicted. Scavengers grabbed clothing, toys and furniture that were tossed to the curb by the sheriff’s department last month while the neighbors living in the home were at work. Clarke, who’s been fighting to keep her Islip home for the past five years, begged them to stop. “I felt like I was defending my own house,” she said.“They’re coming here too. It’s just a matter of time.” Long Island, the 118-mile-long (190-kilometer) stretch east of New York City that’s home to middle-class commuters, blue-collar workers and Hamptons socialites, is facing a foreclosure crisis as delinquent homeowners such as Clarke wait in limbo while courts work through a record backlog of cases. Abandoned properties dot neighborhoods in towns such as Brookhaven, Islip and Hempstead, holding back a housing rebound as prices surge across the rest of t...

A high-performance mobile home that will use a fraction of the energy of standard manufactured housing and rival the energy efficiency and quality of advanced stick-built homes has made its public debut in Vermont. The first of 10 mobile homes to be produced under the Manufactured Housing Innovation Project was unveiled Oct. 23 in White River Junction, Vermont. The "single-wide" mobile homes, roughly 14 ft. wide and either 66 ft. or 70 ft. long, have features common for high-performance houses but virtually unheard of in manufactured housing: double stud walls, triple-glazed windows, and more than a foot of blown-in insulation in the roof. The project to develop this new type of mobile home is a response to Tropical Storm Irene, which brought widespread damage to Vermont in 2011. Although mobile homes make up just 7% of the state's housing stock, they represented 15% of the homes damaged in the storm, according to the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB)....

Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » August Values Rose in Fewer Local Markets | South Salem NY Homes

Chicago home sales have increased 25% from August 2012 to August 2013. This number according to a report on realtytrac.com gives an important reflection on how far the Chicago real estate market has improved. Peoples Home Equity , a lender based in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook Terrance, highlights the improving areas in an around the city based on the report to gives its prospective mortgage applicants perspective. The intriguing data that The Peoples Home Equity found begins with the suburban town of Brookfield. Brookfield has experienced a 190% rise in year over year home sales since August 2012. With such a high increase of home sales in the area, the competition has been fierce causing the median home price of 193,000 in Brookfield actually declined by 3.5% since August 2012. With the number of home sales in this area, homebuyers may want to investigate opportunity of buying a foreclosed home which has a median home price of $124,000. Meanwhile, another subu...

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