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

Consumers ages 18-29 with a student loan in repayment generally are able to gain access to new loans and perform as well or better on those new loans as similarly aged consumers without student loans, according to a new study by TransUnion.  . Furthermore, the study found that in only three to six years, student-loan consumers in their 20s have been observed to pass similarly aged consumers without a student loan in overall loan participation rates on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. “Going to school impacts young consumers’ access to credit; while in school, students may be less likely to have a job and generate the income necessary for loan approval. However, most catch up once they leave school-and their ability to catch up has not changed over the past decade,” said Steve Chaouki, executive vice president and the head of TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “Our study demonstrates that consumers in their 20s with student loans in repayment-that is, once they...

Many homebuyers are drawn to the lure of the fixer-upper. And with good reason, at least on paper. But the “buy low, sell high” ethos of fixer-uppers isn’t exactly a guarantee. There are plenty of people who snagged the worst house in a great neighborhood and turned it into their dream home. You’re just as likely to find overworked and overspent homeowners ready to run from their money pits . Committing to a fixer-upper is a big decision, one that can impact your financial picture for years to come. Before you start swinging a hammer, you’ll first need to find a way to finance your purchase. You may need a specialized mortgage product to buy a fixer-upper. Some lenders and loan types want properties in “move-in ready” condition, which can obviously pose a problem. Here are a few options to consider. FHA 203k The Federal Housing Administration offers a government-backed rehab loan that allows buyers to finance renovations based on the property’s projected value. There...

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...

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 ...

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/

Mortgage foreclosures are at a six-year low, according to data from Back Night (formerly Lending Processing Services), and that is helping boost the vast majority of local housing markets to their best showing since 2010. Separate data from Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac says 96% of 410 U.S. counties are "better off than they were four years ago," when foreclosures were at historic highs. (The 410 counties in the survey represent about 63% of the U.S. population.) There is still a downside, and a fairly substantial one: RealtyTrac reports that just 8% of county markets are "better off" than in 2006, just before the housing sector went bust in a big way.   Apparently, the housing market is in the second year of an upward trend after six years of downside price activity. RealtyTrac says the real estate market hit bottom in 2012 in terms of median residential home prices, and 80% of homeowners are better off than they were in 2012, the firm says.   To cal...

29 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/24/miami-beach-manse-sets-its-sail-headway-for-225m.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/532ffa27f92ea1490a025605/imagereader.jpg" width="500" height="375"></a><br /><a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/24/miami-beach-manse-sets-its-sail-headway-for-225m.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> Location: Miami Beach, Fla. Price: $22,500,000 The Skinny: New to market in Miami Beach is this slightly bizarro compound on guard-gated Hibiscus Island, which is asking $22.5M for six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and hundreds of square feet of sailcloth. The home, which Curbed has covered before but deems worth another shout-out as House of the Day sheerly for its strangeness, has 13,000 square feet of living ...

The Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB) has released its residential sales statistics for the Montréal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), based on the real estate brokers' Centris ® provincial database. In total, 36,522 residential sales were concluded in 2013, which represents a 9 per cent decrease compared to 2012. This was the third consecutive annual decrease in sales, and the first time since 2006 that the level of sales fell below 40,000 units. In the Montréal CMA, the start of 2013 continued from where the second half of 2012 left off, with a 19 per cent decrease in sales in the first quarter and a 10 per cent decrease in the second quarter. The Montréal area real estate market then stabilized in the second half of the year, with a slight 2 per cent increase in sales in the third quarter and a small decrease of 2 per cent in the last quarter. "The effects of the more restrictive mortgage rules that came into effect in July 2012 continued to be felt in 2013,...

Zig-zagging left and right through a maze of dark, narrow corridors in a high-rise's basement, 35-year-old kitchen worker Hu has joined the many thousands of Chinese fleeing fast-rising property prices by heading down - down underground. Hu lives here beneath an affluent downtown apartment building, in a windowless, 4 square-meter (43 square-foot) apartment with his wife. For 400 yuan ($65.85) a month in rent, there's no air-conditioning, the only suggestion of heat is a pipe snaking through to deliver gas to the apartments above and the bathroom is a fetid, shared toilet down the hall. "I can't afford to rent a house," said Hu as he showed off his meager appointments. Living in basement apartments isn't illegal in China , but like anywhere else it is nothing to brag about and Hu, who guts fish for 2,500 yuan a month at a popular Sichuanese hotpot restaurant on the street above, declined to provide his given name. "If I weren't try...

Real Estate: Avoid these common mortgage scams | South Salem NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

The latest figures come from Pew Research Center’s Internet Project. Unsurprisingly, Facebook continues to lead the pack: What may be surprising to some, however, is that more Americans who are online use Facebook than the next three most popular social networks. While Facebook has a 71 percent penetration rate, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter combined add up to just 61 percent. http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/30/73-us-online-adults-use-social-networks-71-use-facebook-linkedin-pinterest-twitter-combined/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily#!qZT5H

Existing home sales decline 4.3% in November | South Salem NY Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

7 Housing Trends for 2013 | South Salem NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Twitter is reportedly working on an ‘Edit’ feature to let you make “slight changes” to tweets | South Salem NY Realtor | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

10 Hot US Housing Markets To Watch In 2014 | South Salem NY Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Foreclosure filings plummet in November | Cross River Homes | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

Beginning next year, homeowners with Federal Housing Administration loans will no longer be able to qualify for the $729,750 high-cost area loan limit. Instead, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is implementing a rule passed a few years back that moves the agency's standard loan limit for high-cost areas down to $625,500 for all FHA loans. The standard loan limit for areas where housing costs are low is expected to remain at $271,050, while the ceiling for FHA-insured reverse mortgages will stay at $625,500, HUD added. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 technically changed the ceiling for high-cost areas, but the financial crisis and slow-moving recovery prompted Congress to delay the standard's implementation. "As the housing market continues its recovery, it is important for FHA to evaluate the role we need to play," said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante. "Implementing lower loan limits is an important and appropriate step as ...

An 127-acre equestrian estate in Colts Neck, N.J. , has hit the market for $35 million – the priciest listing for a single-family home in the state at the moment, according to a spokesperson for brokerage Coldwell Banker. The four-story home’s seller is its developer, Morris Flancbaum of Colts Neck Associates, who currently lives in the Monmouth County home. Coldwell Banker Previews International’s Pamela Molloy is exclusively marketing the 20,000-square-foot house, located at 7 Yearling Path. The nine-bedroom, 10-bathroom house also features a 22,000-square-foot patio space and a 18,000-square-foot parking area. Not to speak of a six-acre stream-fed lake, gym, theater and an elevator with a chandelier in it, a release said.       http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/12/05/new-jersey-equestrian-estates-35m-ask-is-priciest-in-state/

Material selection during the design process strongly determines architectural character, defining the overall look and feel of the composition and space. Architects draw upon many devices when developing a material palette. Selections can reference the site or adjacent structures, or can be drawn from local building conventions, the climate and weathering concerns, or the building form itself. Sometimes the selections are a result of a specific client directive or are a creative solution to the project’s budgetary constraints. Other considerations are the quality of light a material might render or its tactile quality and color. Then there are those material and color combinations that just belong together, contrasting and complementing in perfect harmony. Let’s take a look at a few of those pairings. the construction zone, ltd. Save to Ideabook Email Photo Concrete + Wood Cool gray punctuated by a warm wood: This combination of engineered and natural materials holds ...

Eight months after taking office, China's new government is still struggling to bring housing prices under control. Despite a series of measures since March, prices have kept up their relentless climb, frustrating first-time buyers and the government's urbanization drive. In October, 65 of 70 surveyed cities reported higher new home prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The increases in China's four largest cities were the biggest since January 2011, Bloomberg News said. Price hikes from a year earlier ranged from 16 to 21 percent in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the NBS reported. In November, prices rose again in 69 out of 100 cities in a China Index Academy survey, Shanghai Daily said. Sharing economic benefits The price issue is critical for the government on several levels. The first is public demand that economic benefits be shared more evenly. Property costs have been spurred by speculation and investment among the well-to-do in ...