Daily Archives: August 8, 2013

30 Year Mortgage Rate around 4.40% reports Freddie Mac survey | Bedford NY Homes

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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 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.18 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.77 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.62 percent this week with an average 0.3 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.64 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.65 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Bedford NY area sales highlights | Chappaqua sales up 80% – Bedford up 17% | RobReportBlog

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Sales
Armonkup 7%
Chappaquaup 80%
Pound Ridgedown 25%
Bedford Cornerseven
Bedford Villageup 17%
Bedford Hillsup 9%
South Salemup 7%
Katonahup 2%
North Salemup 11%
Mt Kiscodown 12%

Mt Kisco Real Estate sales down 12% | Median price up 51% | RobReportBlog

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Mt Kisco   NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 8/82012
41Sales47
$760,000.00median sold price$503,500.00
$395,000.00low sold price$275,000.00
$3,950,000.00high sold price$2,875,000.00
3074average size2694
$277.00ave. price per foot$254.00
193ave days on market204
$848,469.00average sold price$694,371.00
95.88%ave sold to ask94.80%

Investors Still Bullish on Real Estate | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Real estate ranks second as America’s favorite long term investment despite the three trillion dollars in equity homeowners lost during the housing depression, according to a new survey by Bankrate.com.

More than one in four Americans (26 percent) favor cash, edging out real estate (23 percent). One in six (16 percent) favor gold or other precious metals, even though those investments have been pummeled in 2013, while only 14 percent say stocks would be their choice. Just eight percent of Americans chose bonds. For money not needed for more than 10 years, 26 percent of Americans favor cash, 23 percent real estate, 16 percent gold/other precious metals, 14 percent stocks and 8 percent bonds.

“Americans not saving enough is well-documented, but hunkering down in cash investments and settling for low returns will only magnify the problem of not having a sufficient nest egg to meet longer-range financial goals such as retirement,” said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate.com’s senior financial analyst. “Other choices may not do the trick either, as real estate is not only very cash-intensive, but often illiquid. And precious metals spit out zero cash flows, with gains solely dependent on price appreciation.”

McBride said using a 401K or IRA to invest in residential real estate is not a good idea except for high end investors who are diversifying their portfolio. That real estate very illiquid and hard to access during an emergency and real estate investments are more cash-intensive that many investors realize.

A recent study by economists at the Atlanta Federal Reserve found that real estate was less profitable than securities as an investment. .

“We compute that 40 percent of homes owned for less than 13 years have negative average annual returns, compared to 12 percent of homes owned for 13 years or more. Interestingly, while a much greater portion of those owning for 13 or more years obtain positive returns, the average annual return was actually slightly higher for those owning fewer than 13 years (0.95 percent versus 1.03 percent),” said Ellyn Terry and Jessica Dill, two economists at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, in a working paper published June 12.

Bankrate.com estimates the average money-market deposit account yields just 0.11 percent, so a $10,000 initial investment would only gain $110.55 over a 10-year period. And the average five-year CD currently yields just 0.78 percent.

 

 

Investors Still Bullish on Real Estate | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

How to Use Facebook Power Editor, a Detailed Guide | Bedford Realtor

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Are you looking for a better way to manage your Facebook ads?

Do you want access to new Facebook advertising features as soon as they’re available?

Facebook offers a powerful and often overlooked way for marketers to do amazing things with ads.

In this article I’ll show you what Power Editor is, explore its benefits and show you how you can create campaigns using Power Editor.

What Is Power Editor?

The most powerful way to target your ideal audience on Facebook is with Facebook ads.

But clicking the “Boost Post” button and using the self-serve ad tool only scratches the surface. If you want to thrive and direct profits with your Facebook ads, you need to use Power Editor.

facebook power editor

Use Power Editor to have full control over your Facebook advertising.

Power Editor is a free browser plugin created by Facebook that lets you bulk-edit your ads. It was initially created as a Chrome plugin. Although it does sporadically work in other browsers, you’ll likely want to use the Chrome browser when working with Power Editor.

Go to Facebook.com/powereditor to test your browser or install the plugin.

But Power Editor is much more than just a bulk ad editor. It has many advantages over Facebook’s self-serve ad tool used by the vast majority of Facebook advertisers.

Here are the benefits of using Power Editor for your Facebook ads.

#1: Get Access to Latest Features

partner categories

Partner Categories is a feature available within Power Editor.

When Facebook rolls out new advanced features, they’re sent first to the Facebook ads API (which goes to third-party tools) and Power Editor. As a result, marketers using Power Editor tend to get these features well before those who use the self-serve ad tool exclusively.

Here are some examples of features you can currently find in Power Editor, but not in the self-serve ad tool:

Partner Categories: Facebook has partnered with three data-mining companies (Axciom, Datalogix and Epsilon) that collect mounds of data on users related to purchase history and lifestyle. Facebook uses this data to let advertisers do some powerful ad targeting with more than 500 categories.

Here’s a sampling of the targeting you can do with the help of Partner Categories:

  • Household size of 6 (8,842,800 users)
  • Upscale department store credit card user (34,618,400 users)
  • Home office supply purchases (2,638,300 users)
  • Aftermarket vehicle purchase over 48 months ago (11,952,800 users)
  • Baby food and products buyers (10,497,100 users)
  • Casino vacations (4,242,000 users)
  • Dog owner (12,643,500 users)
  • Fitness buyers—runners (5,950,600 users)
  • Teacher/educator (223,000 users)
  • Donate to veteran causes (7,016,400 users)

While Precise Interest and Broad Category targeting are dependent on users keeping their profiles updated, Partner Category targeting is based on a user’s actual buying history and completion of surveys.

Lookalike Audiences: Facebook’s recent rollout of Custom Audiences to the self-serve ad tool lets advertisers upload their customer lists into Facebook to target those users with ads.

Power Editor’s Lookalike Audiences builds a similar list of Facebook users based on your customer list.

 

 

How to Use Facebook Power Editor, a Detailed Guide | Social Media Examiner.

Closing Costs Keep Pace with Prices | North Salem Real Estate

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Cash-strapped home buyers struggling with soaring home prices have an unpleasant surprise awaiting them at the closing table. Closing costs are rising nearly as quickly as home prices.

On average, mortgage closing costs rose 6 percent over 2012 to $2,402, according to Bankrate.com. Origination fees accounted for the bulk of the increase, rising 8 percent, while third-party fees for services like title and appraisals edged up 1 percent to $672.

Hawaii’s average closing costs of $2,919 are the highest in the nation. Alaska ($2,675), South Carolina ($2,658), California ($2,639) and New Mexico ($2,566) join the Aloha State in the top five.

Wisconsin ($2,119), Missouri ($2,188), Kansas ($2,193), Michigan ($2,203) and Washington State ($2,208) comprise the bottom five.

“It’s unlikely that you will move to Wisconsin solely to pay lower closing costs, but you should shop around and compare fees from different loan originators to make sure you get the best deal in your area,” said Polyana da Costa, senior mortgage analyst, Bankrate.com.

Closing costs
2013
rank

2012 rank†

State

Lender’s
origination fees

Third-party
fees

Origination plus
third-party fees

12Hawaii$1,970$949$2,919
24Alaska$1,925$750$2,675
36South Carolina$1,935$723$2,658
435California$1,977$662$2,639
543New Mexico$1,807$760$2,566
68North Carolina$1,840$718$2,558
718New Jersey$1,804$741$2,545
834Oklahoma$1,919$600$2,519
920Florida$1,798$719$2,517
107Delaware$1,742$760$2,502
1127Ohio$1,803$693$2,496
1211Georgia$1,816$674$2,490
133Texas$1,690$778$2,468
14*26Pennsylvania$1,920$540$2,460
14*13North Dakota$1,797$663$2,460
1624District of Columbia$1,826$623$2,449
1722Montana$1,767$680$2,446
1819Louisiana$1,782$662$2,443
1933Maryland$1,816$624$2,441
2031Tennessee$1,806$631$2,437
2121Connecticut$1,757$680$2,436
2236Maine$1,761$647$2,408
2349Idaho$1,767$641$2,407
2438Iowa$1,757$647$2,403
2541Arkansas$1,782$614$2,396
2628Indiana$1,732$656$2,387
2748Colorado$1,758$625$2,383
2817Kentucky$1,732$649$2,381
2937Arizona$1,752$621$2,372
3046Oregon$1,707$663$2,370
3123Virginia$1,718$650$2,369
3244South Dakota$1,732$617$2,349
3339Alabama$1,721$627$2,348
3415Rhode Island$1,686$660$2,347
3551Nevada$1,642$704$2,346
3610Nebraska$1,656$689$2,345
371New York$1,504$827$2,331
3840Mississippi$1,682$639$2,320
3945Utah$1,663$653$2,316
4050Wyoming$1,678$623$2,301
4114Massachusetts$1,601$699$2,300
4216West Virginia$1,578$705$2,283
4329Minnesota$1,641$612$2,253
4412New Hampshire$1,576$676$2,252
4542Vermont$1,578$667$2,245
469Illinois$1,591$647$2,238
4747Washington$1,603$605$2,208
4832Michigan$1,591$611$2,203
4930Kansas$1,558$635$2,193
5025Missouri$1,542$646$2,188
515Wisconsin$1,438$682$2,119
Average$1,730$672$2,402

*Denotes a tie

 

 

Closing Costs Keep Pace with Prices | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Ellen and Portia List $11M SoCal Ranch Featured in Elle Decor | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Hollywood power couple and prolific flippers Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have decided to part with yet another high-dollar property, just months after it was featured in an Elle Decor spread. The equestrian farm in Thousand Oaks, Calif. has been owned by DeGeneres and de Rossi since 2009 and undergone a complete renovation. The 26-acre compound, listed for close to$11M, includes eight cottages, an office, several barns, and a tennis court. Despite de Rossi’s passion for horses and love for the property, the couple seems to be moving on to assuage Ellen’s obsession with decorating. They are said to have purchased a $26M Montecito villa that has already received a pricey renovation from designer-to-the-stars John Saladino. Meanwhile, the couple has a much more modest Beverly Hills penthouse—perhaps housing for staff or family—on the market for a comparatively paltry $899K.

· Hidden Valley Farm [Sotheby’s International Realty]
· Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi List Thousand Oaks Ranch [Zillow Blog]

Ellen and Portia List $11M SoCal Ranch Featured in Elle Decor – Celebrity Real Estate – Curbed National.

Luxury Housing’s Latest Trend: ‘Limited-Edition’ Residences | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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When Louis Birdman and Gregg Covin decided to build a luxury condo tower on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard, the developers won approval for a 750-unit tower rising 60 stories. They enlisted internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid – it will be her first skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere — to design a $300 million concrete tower that will rise over Biscayne Bay.

 

But rather than carve out hundreds of studios and one-bedroom apartments, the Miami-based developers decided to try something less conventional: offer massive luxury spreads with enough square footage to rival standalone mansions. The resulting One Thousand Museum Tower plan consists of a mere 83 units spanning the full 60 stories.

 

“We are a very limited-edition building,” says Birdman of the project, which will break ground once a round of financing is complete. “We are not a small building, but we are small in terms of the number of units.”

 

One Thousand Museum Tower’s smallest units, half-floor apartments encompassing 4,600 square feet, start at around $4.9 million. Full-floor units will run up to $15 million and a duplex penthouse spreading across 11,000 square feet will likely have an asking price of $30 million. Units will have private balconies, 10- to 20-foot-high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and access to swanky building amenities like a rooftop helicopter pad, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, valet parking and “security” concierges.

 

Multifamily construction has roared back to life across the U.S. But rather than build low- to mid-range housing for the lion’s share of the population, more developers are going boutique, rolling out ultra high-end condo buildings with extra spacious, amenity-laden units promising a high degree of exclusivity.

 

Call them “limited edition” residences. Developers like Birdman and Covin are targeting this niche market because it translates into significantly more money for their efforts. “It’s a trend we saw in the marketplace of downtown Miami,” explains Birdman. “Units over 3,000 square feet are bringing a premium of almost double [the price per square foot] over average-sized units of 1,100 square feet.”

 

Other developers in the Miami area have caught on. Boutique hotelier Ian Schrager is peddling The Residences at the Miami Beach Edition, a luxury hotel-condo hybrid in Miami Beach comprised of 26 “limited-edition” condos scattered across the top floors of the existing hotel and in a new neighboring tower. The residences, set to be unveiled next year, are designed by architect John Pawson and will boast “outdoor rooms” stocked with private pools, dining areas and pergolas.

 

Seven weeks after the sales office opened in January, more than half of the 26 condos – which had been priced 200% higher than the local market — had reportedly already found buyers, for an average of more than $3,000 per square foot. In March two side-by-side Edition penthouses totaling more than 16,000 square feet (including 9,843 square feet of interior space) went for $34 million in South Florida’s most expensive condo deal to date.

 

Luxury Housing’s Latest Trend: ‘Limited-Edition’ Residences – Forbes.

3 Unique Ways to Use Pinterest for Business | Bedford Corners Realtor

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Does your business have a clear Pinterest strategy?

Have you been struggling to figure out howPinterest could help market your business?

Pinterest represents a massive opportunity for both consumer-focused and business-to-business companies.

In this article, I’ll show you three ways to build a successful Pinterest presence for your business.

tips for a winning strategy

Strategy plays a vital role in success on Pinterest.

#1: Increase Your Brand Authority

Do you want to establish authority in your field? This is a common goal for many businesses on Pinterest.

Middle Sister Wines positions itself on Pinterest as an authority in the wine industry by creating several Pinterest boards that provide useful and educational informationto their followers while promoting their products in fun ways.

middle sister wines on pinterest

Middle Sister Wines.

You don’t have to create all the content that you pin on Pinterest. To help position yourself as an authority in your field, share from a carefully vetted combination of sources to ensure your boards contain the most accurate and useful information available.

Middle Sister’s Wine Tips and Tricks board contains videos from their YouTube account, alongside resources from other industry experts. The board addresses topics such as how to pair wine with food and what type of glass should be used to serve different kinds of wine.

Follow Middle Sister Wines’ lead and pin relevant and helpful resources. Your followers will come to think of your account as the go-to place for reliable information about your subject. And as you increase your authority, you’ll continue to build trust, which could lead to increased customer loyalty and referrals from brand advocates.

 

3 Unique Ways to Use Pinterest for Business | Social Media Examiner.

EPA sues Westchester for failure to comply with safe drinking water act | Waccabuc Homes

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The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a civil lawsuit against Westchester County Tuesday over the lack of ultraviolet treatment of drinking water for some towns in county Water District 1.

Lawyers with the U.S. Attorney’s office had been pushing the county to enter into a consent decree settling the violations and gave the county a Friday deadline, but the county refused and urged the government to rethink the lawsuit.

“The federal Safe Drinking Water Act is designed to protect public health by requiring suppliers of water to take steps to prevent water-borne diseases from being transmitted to the public,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement. “Westchester’s prolonged failure to comply with treatment rules designed to prevent cryptosporidiosis is unacceptable.”

The lawsuit seeks compliance and fines of $37,500 for each day the county was in violation.

The ultraviolet treatment kills cryptosporidium, a parasite that can cause gastrointestinal illness. The district serves Scarsdale, White Plains, North Castle, Mount Vernon and Yonkers. Most of Yonkers and Mount Vernon already get treated water and the county has been working on a fix for the other municipalities that could be in place by the spring. But, even then the treatment will be two years past the deadline.

 

 

EPA sues Westchester for failure to comply with safe drinking water act – Northern Westchester.