Bedford Hills NY has the Area’s Lowest Inventory | Â Bedford Hills Real Estate
Bedford Hills  14.18 months of unsold inventoryBedford Corners  16.79 months of unsold inventory
Bedford      19.16 months of unsold inventory
source: Hgar mls
North Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report
Homes for sale 53
Median Ask Price $769,000.00
Low Price $110,000.00
High Price $18,500,000.00
Average Size 3664
Average Price/foot $439.00
Average DOM 182
Average Ask Price $2,106,787.00
The international luxury real estate market remains relatively immune to the economic and political trends that drive the general housing market and is off to strong start in 2013, according to a report from high-end real estate affiliate network Christie’s International Real Estate.
The report compared 10 top property markets around the world: London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, San Francisco, France’s Cote d’Azur, Toronto, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami. The company, a subsidiary of Christie’s auction house, also rolled out a new index, the Christie’s International Real Estate Index, which ranks markets across metrics such as record sales price, prices per square foot, percentage of non-local and international purchasers, and the number of luxury listings relative to population.
The 10 markets were also chosen for the network’s strong market share locally. Christie’s International Real Estate has 125 affiliated brokerages in 41 countries.
London, which topped the index, achieved a record sales price of more than $121 million for a residential property in 2012, followed by an $88 million sale in New York. In all of the cities studied except Dallas and Toronto, the highest sales price for the year exceeded $35 million, the report said.
Economist Robert Shiller has predicted U.S. home prices will rise only one or two percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms for the next half decade due to “lingering uncertainties” in world economies, the report said. By contrast, a study by the The Boston Consulting Group expects global sales of personal luxury goods, such as fine art, to grow about 7 percent annually through 2014, assuming there are no new major economic crises, the report added.
“Except where there is government intervention luxury residential real estate values will likely follow luxury goods and not the general housing market, and are therefore poised to increase in many of the cities studied in 2013,” the report said. “This is particularly true as (high-net-worth individuals) turn their luxury investments toward nonconsumables and experiential luxury products that have lasting value.”
Warren Buffett’s new franchise network, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, today unveiled the branding the company hopes will be adopted by brokerages affiliated with Prudential Real Estate and Real Living.
Buffett got into the franchising game in October, when HomeServices of America Inc. — a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate that’s the second-largest real estate brokerage in the nation — acquired a majority interest in the Prudential Real Estate and Real Living brands from Brookfield Asset Management.
HomeServices and Brookfield formed a joint venture, HSF Affiliates LLC, which will roll out the new franchise brand later this year while continuing to operate the Real Living and Prudential Real Estate affiliate networks.
The brand “will be available in late 2013,” the company said today. The Berkshire Hathaway name is front and center in the branding, and that’s by design.
“The brand’s strongest asset is the Berkshire Hathaway name itself,” said Kevin Ostler, communications manager for HSF Affiliates LLC, HomeServices’ new franchise wing.
The rich cabernet color, Ostler said, makes the brand stand out from the red-and-blue dominated branding of much of the real estate industry. It also gives distinction, he said. “It’s the color of royalty.”
Realtor.com operator Move Inc. is launching an aggressive marketing campaign today that portrays the timeliness, accuracy and completeness of listings on the portal as giving its users a competitive advantage over buyers searching for homes on less reliable third-party websites.
The “Find It First” marketing campaign makes the case that with inventories tight in many markets, accurate and timely listings data could make the difference between finding your dream home or losing out to another buyer.
“You’re not the only one dreaming about your perfect home,” warns one of the ads.
As the official website of the National Association of Realtors, realtor.com can claim to have the most up-to-date and accurate inventory of U.S. homes listed for sale. The site receives listings data from more than 800 multiple listing services that, in most cases, is updated every 15 minutes.
Because they gather data from a variety of sources, third-party websites like Zillow and Trulia can have gaps in their listings coverage, or show homes that have already been sold or withdrawn from the market as still being for sale. Zillow and Trulia don’t have data on about a quarter of MLS listings, according to recent studies by brokerages ZipRealty and Redfin.
“We are highlighting our competitive advantage in the new campaign,” said Andrew Strickman, vice president of brand and creative at Move.
This is a great time for senior homeowners to take out a home equity conversion mortgage (HECM), especially if they don’t need the extra money now! Sounds crazy? It isn’t, so read on.
The federal HECM reverse mortgage program allows seniors 62 or older who own and occupy their homes to take out a mortgage against it. What makes it a “reverse mortgage” is that the amount owed tends to rise over time, whereas on a standard mortgage it tends to decline.
This difference arises from another one, which is that no payment is required on a HECM until the senior sells the house, moves out of it permanently, or dies. On standard mortgages, as every borrower knows all too well, they must begin making payments immediately.
Another important difference between HECMs and standard mortgages is the role of interest rates. A feature unique to HECMs is that every transaction involves two interest rates.
Most U.S. real-estate markets are past the worst of the housing bust, but homeowners—especially boomers—are still citing real-estate scams and mortgage frauds among their biggest complaints to federal regulators.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, real estate and mortgage issues were both in the top 25 categories of complaints for 2011 and 2012. And those in their 50s had the most to complain about, accounting for 23% of all fraud complaints.
Many boomers may be seeking to downsize from large family homes, while others are overextended or upside down in their mortgage.
Now that jumbo loan rates are making a comeback, the differences between a jumbo loan and a conforming loan are beginning to disappear, especially when looking at the rate, CNBC said.
Conforming loans are mostly backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are valued up to $417,000. However, some can be as high as $625,500. A jumbo loan is anything above that amount, CNBC stated.
