Daily Archives: August 14, 2014

New rentals surge in Brooklyn and Queens | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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With Manhattan rents continuing to rise, Brooklyn and Queens experienced a surge of new rentals during the month of July, according to Douglas Elliman’s monthly rental report. In Manhattan, the median rental price last month rose 5.4 percent to $3,205, its highest July level in six years, according to the report, which was released today.“Anyone who is looking for an apartment is really not getting a deal,” said Luciane Serifovic, executive vice president of rentals for Douglas Elliman. In Queens and Brooklyn, she said, “Tenants are pushing back and seeking apartments elsewhere because probably they have more opportunities with some of the new development buildings.”In Manhattan, the average rental price in July was $4,022, a 5.2 percent increase from the prior year period.

Meanwhile, the number of new rentals increased 7.2 percent to 4,938, a reflection of the busy summer season. And the vacancy rate dropped to 1.82 percent – the lowest July vacancy rate in five years – while the listing inventory dropped 4.4 percent to 5,690 available units. Not surprisingly, the percentage of rentals with landlord concessions was “nominal,” falling 1.6 percent, the lowest in two years, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel and the author of the Douglas Elliman report. In Brooklyn and Queens, median rents also continued to climb. Brooklyn’s rental prices in July were just $353 lower than Manhattan, down from $500 in June, and the median rental price rose 6.6 percent to $2,852. But the number of new Brooklyn rentals skyrocketed 127 percent to 892 – a reflection of tenant’s resisting the price increases sought by landlords at the time of renewal. Miller said the uptick in new rentals was bolstered by new developments.

Developments in Brooklyn and Queens tend to be rental buildings, while they tend to be condos in Manhattan, he said. In Queens, new rentals surged 136 percent to 203, and in particular, they did so in new development buildings. One out of four new rentals was located in a new building, according to the report. Overall, Queens’ median rental prices rose 10.5 percent to $2,646. –

 

 

 

See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/08/14/as-manhattan-rents-rise-new-rentals-surge-in-brooklyn-and-queens/#sthash.QaBYpbfp.dpuf

 

 

 

Fixed Mortgage Rates Edge Lower | 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 following bond yields lower. Averaging 4.12 percent for the week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage once again is at its 2014 low.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.12 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending August 14, 2014, down from last week when it averaged 4.14 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.40 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.24 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.27 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.44 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.97 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.98 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.23 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.36 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.35 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.67 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 were down slightly amid a week of light economic reports. Of the few releases, retail sales were virtually unchanged in July after a 0.2 percent increase in June, ending five months of increases. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, retail sales were up 0.1 percent last month.”

 

 

How One Israeli Firm Thinks Architecture Can Make Peace | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Saya.jpg

When Israel began building a wall along the West Bank in 2003—called the “separation fence” by some, the “Apartheid wall” by others—Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat and Karen Lee Bar-Sinai were about to graduate from architecture school at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. As aspiring architects studying and living “in the shadow of a territorial conflict,” as Greenfield-Gilat says, they were shocked to see that architects were involved in only the most superficial conversations about the aesthetics of the wall—there were no bigger-picture architectural discussions about how the wall would change its surroundings. “It was insulting that architects were not considered by themselves as people who have something to say about the most significant spatial fact that [was] being built in Israel,” Greenfield-Gilat says now.

Bar-Sinai and Greenfield-Gilat, now 36 and 37, believed architecture and architects had a place in the conversation about conflict resolution. For their Technion thesis project, they designed a transportation hub that, after a final Israeli-Palestinian agreement, could serve as both a border and a functional structure within Jerusalem, strengthening the city rather than fragmenting it. The project raised all kinds of big questions, as Greenfield-Gilat recalls: “How can we use architectural tools and insights in order to enhance…territorial peace agreements? How do you create a border within a city that does not really destroy the city?” And so, in 2006, they formed SAYA, a firm focused on “resolution planning,” or the idea that design and architecture can be tools for peace. The firm’s name is short for “Studio Aya,” in memory of Greenfield-Gilat and Bar-Sinai’s friend and fellow architect Aya Shapira.

Many of the firm’s current projects are thought-driven, paid for by think tanks, universities, or international agencies and governments. Most often, the architects come up with ideas based on needs they see in the world and pitch them to relevant organizations, though sometimes it’s the other way around. It’s prebuilding rather than rebuilding. The idea, as Bar-Sinai explained in a talk at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design last year, is to “be in the prime minister’s head,” to get policymakers to think, as much as possible, like architects.

 

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/01/09/how-one-israeli-firm-thinks-architecture-can-make-peace.php

Three-in-One Waterfront Glass House Wants $3.75M | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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25 images


Click here to view the full photogallery.

Location: Henry Island, Wash.
Price: $3,750,000
The Skinny: The little glass house, it seems, will always be with us, but this contemporary home on Washington State’s Henry Island adds a unique wrinkle to the basic four-glass-walls template to set itself apart. Instead of designing one small glass house (or one gigantic windowed box) the architects here divided up the 2.700 square feet of living space into three separate modules, connected in the rear by a long, low-slung breezeway. The three bedrooms are spread out across the modules, with the largest of the glass compartments containing the living areas and kitchen. All of the rooms look out onto Nelson Bay and have sliding glass walls and doors to allow for—Pacific Northwest weather permitting—indoor/outdoor living. The 24-acre property comes with a private mooring buoy and docking rights, and is located just a short sail away from Roche Harbor. It’s asking $3.75M

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/08/13/three-waterfront-glass-houses-in-one-want-375m.php

Foreclosures rise in July, but still down from 2013 | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Foreclosures of all types were filed on 109,434 properties in July, an increase of 2% from June, but the figure is still down 16% from one year ago, according to July’s Foreclosure Market Report from RealtyTrac.

July’s report shows that one out of every 1,203 homes in the U.S. had a foreclosure filing during the month of July.

Foreclosure activity recorded includes all default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

“July was the 46th consecutive month where U.S. foreclosure activity was down on a year-over-year basis,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “After nearly four years of falling foreclosures, we are starting to see evidence that foreclosure numbers are normalizing at the national level. The 16% decrease in July was exactly half the annual decrease we saw a year ago in July 2013, when U.S. foreclosure activity was down 32% on a year-over-year basis.”

Per RealtyTrac’s report, a total of 49,624 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process for the first time in July, which represents a 5% increase from June. But the figure is still down 18% from a year ago, which marks the 24th consecutive month with a year-over-year decrease in U.S. foreclosure starts.

 

 

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Foreclosures rise in July, but still down from 2013

Once again, real estate opens up its coffers for Cuomo | Armonk Real Estate

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Top New York real estate players continue to funnel their considerable financial resources to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign, a review of the latest state campaign finance filings show.

Leading the pack by a comfortable distance was Leonard Litwin’s Glenwood Management, which gave $169,200 between July 12 and August 4, according to campaign finance records. In total, Glenwood, which has a rental apartment empire on the Upper East Side and is a vehement opponent of the under-construction East 91st Street waste transfer station, has given the governor over $1 million since 2011.

Retail real estate mogul Richard Baker of NRDC Equity Partners gave Cuomo $50,000 between July 12 and August 4. NRDC, through subsidiaries, owns both Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Entities associated with the Fisher Brothers — which was recently hit with subpoenas by the now-defunct Moreland Commission over 421-a tax abatements that were carved out by Cuomo for the firm — gave at least $40,000. BFC Partners, which is developing the $580 million Empire Outlets mall project on Staten Island, gave $25,000. East Coast Plumbing LLC, which shares a Paramus, NJ-address with a Vornado Realty Trust-controlled entity, also gave $25,000, as did entities associated with Ron Moelis’ L&M Development.

Brokers who opened their wallets for Cuomo in this period include Cushman & Wakefield’s Bruce Mosler, who gave $10,000, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman and Michael Ippolito, who each contributed $5,000.

Overall, Cuomo raked in just under $1.1 million in this filing period.

The Fisher Brothers and Mosler made their donations on July 24, the New York Observer noted, just a day after a New York Times investigation revealed that Cuomo may have interfered with an anti-corruption panel that was looking into his ties to the real estate industry.

In the first half of the year, Cuomo’s four top donors all came from the industry, as TRD reported.

– See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/08/13/once-again-real-estate-opens-up-its-coffers-for-cuomo/#sthash.3Rmx3MRj.dpuf

Do you have a bat in your house? | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Do you have a bat in your house? What to do if you are bitten? visit http://health.westchestergov.com/rabies to learn what you should do.

The Westchester County Department of Health (WCDOH) recently distributed notice that the month of August is the peak month for bat activity. Thus the likelihood of human or pet exposures to bats increases.

If you have a bat in your home the DOH recommends capturing the bat and making notification to the DOH for a decision regarding testing. WCDOH can be contacted 24 x 7 at 914 813 5000.

DOH advises a bat killed by trauma will rapidly decompose in warm weather, making it untestable so immediate refrigeration or preferably
freezing is required. Place bat in freezer in a sealed plastic bag or small plastic container.

What to do if you are bitten?

If you are bitten, scratched or have some other exposure immediately wash the area with warm soapy water and call your doctor or hospital. Call the Westchester County Health Department at (914) 813-5000 24 hours a day seven days a week for assistance.

Source –

1) WCDOH memorandum dated August 8, 2014 – Titled Rabies Update – Bats

2) WCDOH website – http://health.westchestergov.com/rabies

For full details, view this message on the web.