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

The latest real estate results look impressive for seven-figure homes but the story is not as dramatic once you factor out Canada's two most expensive cities and look at three months of falling sales. Prices across the country rose 10.4 per cent in December from a year ago to an average of $389,119, according to the Ottawa-based Canadian Real Estate Association. Once you hack out Toronto and Vancouver, the increase drops to 4.6 per cent. "The 10 per cent number, unless you are a millionaire living in Vancouver, this is not your number," said Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist with CIBC World Markets. Tal says prices are up nationally only 6.5 per cent from a year ago if you create a weighted average that limits the impact of Vancouver and Toronto by factoring out a massive surge in the sale of high-end homes. A year ago, sales were way down, making activity today look that much stronger and allowing expensive markets to skew the national results even more. But h...

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...

Lenders determine risk appetite | Bedford Hills Real Estate | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

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

6 images <div class="gallery loaded"><a href="http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/12/tall-thin-tower-proposed-for-big-fish-on-miami-river.php"><img src="http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/52aa0795f92ea12aed00ecab/Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 1.36.33 PM.png" width="500" height="411"></a><br /><a href="http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/12/tall-thin-tower-proposed-for-big-fish-on-miami-river.php" style="font-size: 9px; text-align: center;">Click here to view the full photogallery.</a></div> An extremely tall and incredibly narrow condo designed by architect Luis Revuelta has been proposed for a sliver of land on the Miami River known as the Big Fish after the seafood restaurant that was once there. Although the project is called The Edge On Brickell, if the tower, which is going through the approval process, is built, we think the name Big Fish might stick....

Applications for purchase loans increased a seasonally adjusted 1 percent for the week ending Dec. 6 compared to a week earlier but were down 10 percent on an annual basis, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. During the same period, refinance applications increased 2 percent. The slight rise in mortgage applications came as interest rates climbed to their highest level since September, with the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a balance of $417,000 or less rising to 4.61 percent, up from 4.51 percent a week earlier. http://www.inman.com/wire/purchase-loan-applications-inch-up/?utm_source=20131211&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm

Social media catapults an entrepreneur on the world stage | Armonk NY Realtor | Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor

From left: Robin Quivers and 200 West End Avenue Radio host Howard Stern’s right-hand woman Robin Quivers has sold her two-bedroom Lincoln Square condominium for $2.95 million, city records show. Quivers, a radio personality, author and actress, has been on Stern’s show since 1981, where the duo became famous for ribald riffs on news and current affairs. A Maryland native, she reportedly resided in Manhattan from the mid-1990s until her split from longtime boyfriend Tony – mysteriously referred to as “Mr. X” on the show – in 2007. Quivers bought the apartment at 200 West End Avenue for $2.46 million in May 2008 and sold it to Ervin Shindell, co-founder of the Chicago-based hedge fund RoundKeep Capital advisors, and his wife, Colleen Murphy, according to records filed with the city on Monday. The deal closed Nov. 19. Corcoran Group broker Maria Manuche had the listing for the home at West 70th Street. Originally listed in July with an asking price of $3.15 million, the ask was ...

Manhattan is set to get its first residential building that measures up to passive house standards, a set of green guidelines that aim to cut heating costs by 90% through the use of solar energy, better insulation and other measures. A big step in that direction took place Wednesday morning when the development arm of Synapse Capital closed on the purchase of a 9,900 square-foot lot in Harlem. "We've discovered a process by which we can build a building we think will cost the same, consume less energy and create a better quality of life for the people inside," said Al Picallo, managing partner at Synapse. The vacant site at 542 W. 153rd St. between Broadway and Amsterdam avenues and across the street from a cemetery was used as a parking lot by the seller, Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who parted with the lot for an undisclosed sum. In its place, Synapse plans to build a roughly 40-unit, market-rate rental building over the next 27 months that will use a f...

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 ...

We’ve added a new section to Brownstoner called Market Trends that offers real time info on rental and sales prices throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and upstate. It can show you neighborhoods in your price range you might not have known about or what your property is currently worth — and many other stats. It’s based on the listings on our site and is updated throughout the day. A quick look this morning revealed that most of the more affordable neighborhoods of Brooklyn, from Crown Heights to Bushwick to Bed Stuy and more, all clock in at the same median rental price: about $24 a square foot. Average rental prices vary considerably, with Windsor Terrace at the top at $35.65 a square foot and Bay Ridge at the bottom (cheaper than Crown Heights, Bushwick, Flatbush and Bed Stuy) at $25 a square foot. The more expensive neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and Williamsburg all exceed a median rent of $48 a square foot, with averages as high as $55.97 (the Heights wins). A...

Drivers were urged to be cautious Monday evening and into overnight Tuesday with patchy fog and even freezing fog possible across Fairfield County, the National Weather Service warned. A moist airmass in place above Fairfield County will allow patchy and icy fog to develop across the region, the weather service said. That could lead to issues with visibility and slipperiness on area roads. The skies will remain mostly cloudy with overnight lows in the upper 20s. The clouds will diminish as the day wears on Tuesday with highs in the upper 40s, but patchy and icy fog could return again in the evening, the weather service said. There is a slight chance of showers on Wednesday, but they should not interrupt the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The chance of showers and even snow increases at the end of the week. http://greenwich.dailyvoice.com/news/patchy-icy-fog-possible-overnight-fairfield-county

U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks. The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along. More than $221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 percent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding. For a typical consumer, that shift can translate to their monthly payment more than tripling, a particular burden for the subprime borrowers that often took out these loans. And payments will rise further when the Federal Reserve starts to hike rates, because the loans usually carry floating interest rates. The number of borrowers missing payments around the 10-year point can double in t...

Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » Live a Fairy Tale in a Getaway Castle Tower | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Are you looking for new ways to engage your Facebook fans? Do your current Facebook engagement tactics need a little more oomph? With the addition of Story Bump , getting your fans to engage with updates from your Facebook page has become even more important. Your visibility in the news feed depends on engagement like never before. If your page is experiencing a drop in engagement, using different post types and making a few content adjustments can bump it back up. In this article, you’ll find 26 tips, an A-Z guide, for engaging fans on Facebook . #1: Attract Readers’ Attention to a Point in Your Article Your fans see a lot of content pass through their news feed in a day and a great title isn’t always enough to spark engagement with an article you post to Facebook. When you update your Facebook page to let readers know about your new article, include a statement or question that refers to a specific point from the article to drive more clicks, likes, comments or shares . In...

Home prices will rise in 2014 but at a slower, more steady pace compared with historical trends. The housing recovery has pushed up home prices nearly everywhere. In the past year, home prices rose in 225 of the 276 cities tracked by Clear Capital, a provider of real estate data and analysis. (See how home prices are shifting in 276 metro areas .) Prices nationwide increased by 10.9 percent, pushing the median price for existing homes up by $30,000, to $215,000. For people who have waited to sell their home or refinance their mortgage, that's good news. Rising home prices in Seattle enabled Mike and Kristin Litke to refinance their first mortgage last summer and pay off a second mortgage that had an 8.2 percent interest rate. The Litkes, who bought their three-bedroom, 1.5-bath home for $512,500 in 2007 at the peak of Seattle's housing market, had used the second mortgage to avoid paying private mortgage insurance. In 2010, just as home prices in the area hit a trou...

Which do you select first — kitchen counter or backsplash? How do you coordinate colors? Is it OK to mix patterns? The seemingly unlimited countertop and backsplash choices can feel overwhelming. I've had homeowners approach me after weeks or months of looking at and collecting samples of materials that they love separately but just don't love together. Some settle on a combination that looks good together, but they don't actually like either material on its own. Here are 10 examples of stunning and successful countertop and backsplash combinations to help you plan your own mix of kitchen finishes, along with tips to ease your selection process. Nolan Painting Inc. Save to Ideabook Email Photo Approach 1: Select the Countertop First If you feel overwhelmed by the countertop and backsplash options, try focusing on countertop selection first. Your countertop is the workhorse in your kitchen and can constitute a good chunk of your budget, so you'll want...

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Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » Local New York #Mortgage #Rates | #BedfordHills Real Estate

Freddie Mac today released the results of its  Primary Mortgage Market Survey®  (PMMS ® ), showing average fixed mortgage rates changing little on the heels of the July employment report which came in below the market consensus forecast. Since spiking more than a full percentage point in early May over taper talk, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has seesawed week-to-week, while remaining below its recent high of 4.51 percent in mid-July. News Facts 30-year fixed-rate mortgage  (FRM) averaged 4.40 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending August 8, 2013, up from last week when it averaged 4.39 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.59 percent. 15-year FRM  this week averaged 3.43 percent with an average 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.84 percent. 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage  (ARM) averaged 3.19 percent this week with an average...