Monthly Archives: May 2014

A Bland Condo Gets Color and Personality | Pound Ridge Real Estate

After spending almost a year exploring the real estate market in San Francisco, Eunice Chang finally found a place she could call home. Although the condo looked like a bachelor pad and was located in a nondescript 1990s building, it was on the top floor, and the building sat on a small side street straddling the city’s vibrant Castro and Mission districts. “I loved the idea of a walking neighborhood,” she says.

With a hands-on attitude, treasure-hunting know-how and an ongoing desire to improve her space, the homeowner filled the interior with meaningful pieces and a soothing palette of blues and neutrals. “I don’t know if my home will ever be done,” admits Chang, the lead user experience researcher at Opower. “Every time my friends come over, something at my place has changed.”

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Eunice Chang
Location: Castro neighborhood of San Francisco
Size: 1,073 square feet (100 square meters); 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Year built: 1992

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Excited by the potential of a south-facing living room, Chang tried to make the most of all the natural sunlight. Hardwood floors replaced old, tired carpeting, and fresh paint gave the walls new life. Pale aqua paint at the rear of the bookcase creates a vibrant backdrop for an ever-growing collection of mementos.

Wall paint: Muslin, Dunn-Edwards; accent wall paint: Opaline, Dunn-Edwards; leather chair: Cavett, Crate & Barrel; resin deer head: Z Gallerie; striped pouf: Target

Hoi Ning Wong

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Although the structure of the entry hall could not be altered due to strict condo rules, visitors are greeted by a bright aqua door.

Door paint: Fountain City, Dunn-Edwards

Hoi Ning Wong

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Chang’s design sensibilities and love of travel are apparent as soon as you enter the foyer. The sculptural piece of driftwood was a gift from a friend, and the woven bag is a souvenir from a vacation to Africa with her family.

Hoi Ning Wong

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This wall-mounted rack was a quick DIY project. The piece of wood is an old floorboard found at Urban Ore, a salvage yard in Berkeley, and the decorative hooks are from Cost Plus World Market. The groove in the top holds postcards from family and friends. The rack extends the length of the entry hallway, making it both impactful and practical.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/27386186?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u518&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery6

See a Concrete House With a $0 Energy Bill | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Damon Gray has spent 10 years building wood-frame homes. That’s exactly why he stayed away from wood framing when he built his own home. Wait, what?

“I got sick of renovating homes that were falling down,” explains Gray, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia. “In B.C., it’s a wet climate, which is great for mold and rot. So when it came to my house, I kept telling myself, ‘You’ve got to stop building these things that are going to last only 30 years.’”

Instead, Gray went with a concrete structure to create a home built on super-energy-efficient Passive House design principles.He hasn’t lived in the house a full year yet, but so far, with the help of solar panels, he’s expecting his energy bill for the year to be $0.

NZ Builders ltd

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Photos by Leanna Rathkelly

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Damon and Annie Gray and their boys, Kael (age 2½) and Ollie (11 months)
Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Size: 3,000 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
Cost: $280 per square foot ($840,000)

After Gray measured the sun’s path, the L-shaped design emerged as the most advantageous. Gray learned that the property got the most sun on that L-shaped pocket at 3 p.m., so he responded accordingly. “If I changed the angle of the house by 15 degrees, it lessened the energy performance by 25 percent,” he says.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/27285792?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u518&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1

World’s most expensive billionaire homes | Armonk Real Estate

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Owner: Bill Gates, net worth $77.5 billion

Market value: $120.5 million, 2014 tax assessment

The high-tech Lake Washington complex owned by the world’s second-richest man boasts a pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500-square-foot gym and a library with a domed reading room.

http://realestate.msn.com/worlds-most-expensive-billionaire-homes#2

Local Farmers Markets | South Salem NY Real Estate

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JAN2014-DTE-E-Mail-Masthead_(722x226pxl)FRESH-2-(1

Opening Day in Tarrytown with Music & Many New Vendors;
TWO Vendors Debut in Rye + More
May 15th-21st, 2014
DowntoEarthMarkets.com

What’s New, In Season, and On Sale This Week
BBQ Special: $2 OFF Packages of Chicken Breasts, Leg/Thighs & Wings Yellow Bell Farm Fresh Whole Chickens Stone & Thistle Farm Drunken Goat Cheese Raw milk aged cheese, soaked in wine “Fruity with firm interior, reminiscent of Parmesan” Acorn Hill Farm	Ground Beef: Buy five 1lb pkgs & get $2 OFF per pound! (Reg $9.75/lb; now $7.75/lb) Kiernan Farm Lamb Pre-order at the market Kiernan Farm Parisian Baguette Voted New York’s Best by Serious Eats – $0.50 OFF this Saturday! Orwasher’s Bakery	Pork Sausages: 20% OFF! Choose from Andouille, Breakfast, Chorizo, Hot Italian, and Sweet Italian Kiernan Farm Ramps Wild and sustainably foraged Yellow Bell Farm

Click on a Market to see all vendor and event details…

Westchester County		Rockland County
Ossining Saturdays 8:30 am-1:00 pm	Larchmont Saturdays 8:30 am-1:00 pm	Piermont Sundays 9:30 am-3:00 pm
L Croton-on-Hudson Sundays 9:00 am-2:00 pm	Rye Sundays 8:30 am-2:00 pm	Spring Valley Coming in July
Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow OPENING DAY: MAY 24th Saturdays 8:30 am-1:00 pm	New Rochelle OPENING DAY: JUNE 20th Fridays 8:30 am-2:30 pm	*Headed to the city soon?* Visit a Down to Earth Farmers Market in NYC!

Announcements

Ossining

The summer market season begins this Saturday in Ossining. Help us welcome the return of Taliaferro Farm and R & G Produce, along with additional new vendors to come. AND now the market opens at 8:30 am! See you there.

Tarrytown

Celebrate Opening Day of the 2014 farmers market season in Tarrytown with Deuces Child!
The duo of Gigi Tanglewood and Lou Patrick create a unique and lively musical program with their acoustic guitar interplay and amazing harmonic vocals. They will play from 10:00 am to noon.

Visit the Down to Earth Markets Calendar for full details.

Stay tuned to all market happenings via our Down to Earth Markets Facebook page
and follow us on Twitter @DowntoEarthMkts.

Vendor Profile: Introducing Nana’s Home Kitchen

Coco and Nana

The husband and wife team of Serop and Jasmin Mandijan are best known as Coco and Nana. Serop’s middle name is Gregory, and in their native Armenian language, Coco is the nickname for Gregory. As for Nana, this is the name their grandchildren exclaim as they throw open the kitchen door, wild in delight for the food soon to come. It means “Grandma” in Armenian, and after one bite from Nana’s Home Kitchen, it’s easy to imagine their excitement — along with the patter of their little feet, as they run into the kitchen.

Coco and Nana were high school sweethearts in Armenia and married a few years later. They came to the United States in 1984, and Coco worked as a diamond setter for more than two decades. They have both enjoyed cooking since they were children, and once they married, they shared their love of the kitchen together. “She’s my best friend for more than 45 years,” Coco says of Nana.

As Coco retired from diamond setting, they were able to devote more time to their enjoyment of cooking fresh Middle Eastern foods from scratch. Encouraged by family and friends, they decided to offer their cooking to a broader audience and started Nana’s Home Kitchen around 2010. This weekend, they will debut with Down to Earth Markets with a mix of both savory and sweet foods. For the sweet teeth, they bake maamool, cookies stuffed with dates and walnuts, along with baklava, carrot cake, and more.

On their savory menu, crowds gather for their spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, tabouli, hummus varieties, and much more. They are also renowned for their creative pesto sauces, made with ingredients such as sundried tomatoes and roasted peppers. They are inspired by the regional harvest and source from local farmers as much as possible. And, as much as they love the kitchen, Coco also relishes his time at the summer grill. Look for him to fire up delicious chicken kabobs and other specialties at our markets this year!

“Whoever tastes our food, they come back,” says Coco, “They love it. I don’t say it to brag. I say it because it happens.”

Meet Nana’s Home Kitchen all season long at Tarrytown’s Down to Earth Market, and coming up in Ossining, too. ENJOY.

Day Vendors This Week

Croton

Bombay Emerald Chutney Company

Larchmont

Calcutta Kitchens
The Peanut Principle (gourmet nut & seed butters)
Pie Lady & Son
Raaka Chocolate
Trotta Foods

11 reasons the real estate market could crash again | Katonah Homes

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Crash? Don’t be alarmed. Don’t sell your business, but realize that the economic structure and outside occurrences can shape a real estate market.

I am a normally upbeat guy, but I do like realism. We have to step away from being happy all the time to an honest view for our clients — both sellers and buyers.

Tightrope image via Shutterstock.

Here are the top reasons that the real estate market could fail soon, in no particular order:

11. Rates are dropping. What? Aren’t rates dropping a good thing? Actually, no. The market is telling us based on macroeconomic reports that the economy is not cooking and jobs are not being created to make people buy homes. The only good news that will come from this is that those who forgot to refi, especially the HARP2 eligible, will be able to get better rates. Speaking of HARP, it’s being reported that FHFA Director Mel Watt may waive the eligibility date!

10. Robots. CNBC did a report called “Robots Rising” highlighting the fact that robots will continue to take over human jobs. Simple. No job, no house to buy. Also, 3-D printers are all the rage. Instead of ordering a part for your car that has to be manufactured by someone, you or your mechanic will just hit “print” and voila, you have your part!

9. 43*. No, it’s not about a home run record. It’s the magic arbitrary number that the people at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) felt would be the maximum debt-to-income ratio for mortgages under the Dodd-Frank “qualified mortgage” rule. So let’s see. There are no more “no docs,” no more option ARMs, practically no more interest-only rules, but they felt that 43 percent of your income should be the maximum for your mortgage payment plus other qualified debt.

http://www.inman.com/2014/05/21/11-reasons-the-real-estate-market-could-crash-again/?utm_source=20140521&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm

Housing ‘remains the weakest link’ in the economic recovery | Bdford Hills Real Estate

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Fannie Mae economists are optimistic in a report out today that the economy is poised for growth again after stalling out in the first three months of the year, but housing “remains the weakest link” and “there is a lot of concern over the near-term health of the housing sector.”

Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan thinks that improving financial and labor market conditions should contribute to a rebound, with economic growth in April, May and June accelerating to an annual rate of 3 percent.

Storm clouds image via Shutterstock.

The outlook for housing “remains more worrisome, with existing-home sales, new-home sales, housing starts and multifamily housing all experiencing year-over-year declines despite improving consumer attitudes,” Duncan said in a statement. “However, we anticipate a modest uptick in housing activity as the spring and summer selling and building seasons get under way.”

When does Fannie Mae expect housing to get back to normal levels? Brace yourself: “Sometime in late 2016.”

In the first three months of the year, existing-home sales, new single-family home sales, single-family housing starts and multifamily housing starts all saw annual declines.

http://www.inman.com/2014/05/21/housing-remains-the-weakest-link-in-the-economic-recovery/?utm_source=20140521&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm

Fixed Mortgage Rates Near Seven Month Low | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS^®), showing average fixed mortgage rates moving lower for the fourth consecutive week with fixed mortgage rates hitting new lows for this year.

News Facts

30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.14 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending May 22, 2014, down from last week when it averaged 4.20 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.59 percent.
15-year FRM this week averaged 3.25 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.29 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.77 percent.
5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.96 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.01 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.63 percent.
1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.43 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.55 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.

Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Mortgage rates continued to decline this week as industrial production slipped by 0.6 percent in April, below the market consensus forecast. Meanwhile, housing starts jumped 13 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,072,000 units, well above expectations. Permits rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,080,000 in April, also above expectations.

Down Payments Squeeze First-time Buyers | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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It’s no secret that raising the cash for a down payment is the toughest hurdle first-time buyers face on the road to home ownership. For many, government programs like FHA, USDA Rural Development guaranteed loans, VA loans and down payment assistance programs sponsored by state and local housing authorities have made all the difference.

Yet requirements by lenders in the wake of the QM Rule and overall tighter loan-to-value ratio standards are taking their toll. Average down payments are rising again, making it tougher for millennials who may face student loans and other financial hurdles.

Fewer first time home buyers are putting low down payments, according to the latest Realtor Confidence survey. About 60 percent of first time home buyers put down 6 percent or less compared to about 74 percent in 2009. Realtors reported that buyers who pay cash or put down large down payments generally win against those offering lower down payments.. For buyers with sufficient financial resources, a higher downpayment also means saving on mortgage insurance premium payments.

Down payments have already increased when last year, when the media for first-time buyers was 5 percent for first-time buyers and 14 percent for repeat buyers, according to NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Last year first-time buyers used a variety of resources for the loan downpayment: 78 percent tapped into savings; 27 percent received a gift from a friend or relative, usually from their parents; and 7 percent received a loan from a relative or friend. Nine percent sold stocks or bonds and 8 percent tapped into a 401(k) fund. Among entry-level buyers who said that saving for a downpayment was difficult, 54 percent said student loan expenses delayed savings.

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/05/down-payments-squeeze-first-time-buyers/

Economists and Experts Expect 2014 Price Increases to Average 4.4 Percent | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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More than 100 housing economists and experts participating in a quarterly survey expect nationwide home values to appreciate 4.4 percent through the end of this year. The most optimistic group of panelists predicted a 5.8 percent annual increase in home values this year, on average, while the most pessimistic predicted an average increase of 3.2 percent.

.Panelists said they expect home value appreciation to slow to 3.8 percent by the end of 2015, on average, and to 3.4 percent through 2016. During the pre-bubble years from 1987 to 1999, home values grew at 3.6 percent per year.

On average, panelists said they expected U.S. median home values to exceed their pre-recession peaks by Q1 2018. The most optimistic panelists predicted home values would rise roughly 12.6 percent above their 2007 peaks by the end of 2018, on average, while the most pessimistic said they expected home values to remain about 5.9 percent below 2007 peaks.

The second quarter findings represented a slight decline from the first quarter survey, when the expert consensus called for a 4.5 percent price increase in 2014.

“After narrowing over the past year, in this quarter, the spread between the forecasts of the most optimistic and pessimistic groups not only expanded, but widened by a degree we have not seen in the four-year history of this survey,” said Terry Loebs, Founder of Pulsenomics. “These data are consistent with a growing uncertainty about how and when conditions in U.S. housing markets will normalize. Time will tell whether Washington’s unfolding plan to expand mortgage credit will have a durable, positive impact on home values, housing confidence, and market expectations.”

Experts were split on the root causes of mounting housing affordability concerns in several large housing markets nationwide. Panelists were asked to identify the primary cause of declining affordability from a list of five choices. Responses that gained the largest support among those with an opinion were stagnant income growth (28 percent), abnormally high rates of home price and rent appreciation (27 percent) and an abnormally low supply of homes currently available for sale or rent (21 percent). Many also pointed to a generally insufficient number of homes (13 percent) and tight credit (11 percent).

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/05/economists-and-experts-expect-2014-price-increases-to-average-4-4-percent/

Do little fixes boost home sales? | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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In some parts of the country, handyman services made up nearly half of all home-improvement projects undertaken in the six-month period before a home sold, according to real estate website Porch.

Real estate agents and sellers prioritize repairs and aesthetic improvements that prospective buyers are likely to notice, such as upgrades to flooring, cabinets, fences and doors, says Matt Ehrlichman, chief executive of Porch, which tracks home-improvement projects.

The Wall Street Journal For the analysis, details of 675,000 home-improvement projects that had been submitted to Porch by homeowners, architects, builders, real estate agents and others were compared with home listings and sales data from realtor.com, which partners with Porch. The findings: Home sellers in the Northeast and Midwest were most likely to hire a handyman for minor repairs in the six-month period before the home sale. Homeowners in the West were most likely to hire a general contractor for larger improvements. In the South, home sellers were most likely to pay for electrical upgrades and repairs.

“Just doing these minor things will help your house sell quicker and typically for more money,” says Brad Carlson, a real estate agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene in The Woodlands, Texas.

Carlson once had the listing for a three-bedroom home with dated brass fixtures throughout. The house sat on the market for over two months with no offers until the seller finally agreed to swap the fixtures for more modern ones. Two days and $800 in new fixtures later, the home sold close to its listing price at $214,900

http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/post–do-little-fixes-boost-home-sales

Buying Bedford Real Estate

Robert Paul Realtor buying Bedford real estate

Monthly Archives: May 2014

A Bland Condo Gets Color and Personality | Pound Ridge Real Estate

See a Concrete House With a $0 Energy Bill | Chappaqua Real Estate

World’s most expensive billionaire homes | Armonk Real Estate

Local Farmers Markets | South Salem NY Real Estate

11 reasons the real estate market could crash again | Katonah Homes

Housing ‘remains the weakest link’ in the economic recovery | Bdford Hills Real Estate

Fixed Mortgage Rates Near Seven Month Low | Bedford NY Real Estate

Down Payments Squeeze First-time Buyers | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Economists and Experts Expect 2014 Price Increases to Average 4.4 Percent | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Do little fixes boost home sales? | Mount Kisco Real Estate