Tag Archives: Armonk NY Realtor

Armonk NY Realtor

William Raveis must pay Elliman $5M damages in agent-poaching case | Armonk Real Estate

“They’ll eventually be out of Westchester County,” Bill Raveis declared back in 2015, referring to rival firm Douglas Elliman’s move into William Raveis Real Estate’s stronghold.

Not quite two years later, the opposite is turning out to be true.

On Tuesday, a jury upheld Elliman’s claim that Raveis and a former Elliman manager conspired to poach top agents from its office in Armonk, N.Y. The jury awarded Elliman $5 million in damages.

The rival firms have sparred viciously both in New York City and its wealthy suburbs to the north since 2014, when Elliman opened an office in Greenwich, Conn., in the heart of Raveis country.

That year, the suburban powerhouse, which is based in Connecticut, broke into Manhattan with an office headed by Paul Purcell, a former Elliman president, and Kathy Braddock.

The firms’ battle came to a head in mid-2015 when Raveis accused Elliman of blocking all emails that came from the firm — a move Bill Raveis likened to a “baby tantrum.” Elliman, meanwhile, said Raveis was sending mass emails to brokers in New York City in an attempt to lure them away.

Elliman sued Raveis and former manager Lisa Theiss in 2015 for allegedly conspiring to “decimate” its brach by secretly recruiting the firm’s top agents, according to court papers. The suit alleges that Theiss poached 10 agents, including four “top producers,” from her former firm and lured them to Raveis’ newly opened office across the street.

In a statement Tuesday, Elliman Chair Howard Lorber said he was pleased that the jury saw fit to rectify Raveis’ “egregious and outrageous actions.”

In an email, Bill Raveis said he disagreed “with all aspects of the jury’s decision,” and added that his firm would “vigorously be pursuing [an] appeal.”

Both Raveis and Elliman have been going after the Westchester market, which is still dominated by Houlihan Lawrence and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. Raveis logged $439 million in Westchester sales in 2016 while Elliman followed with $378 million, according to a recent analysis by The Real Deal. 

 

read more…

 

https://therealdeal.com/2017/06/20/william-raveis-must-pay-elliman-5m-damages-in-agent-poaching-case/

Construction Job Openings Continue to Rise | Armonk Real Estate

The count of unfilled jobs in the overall construction sector increased in September, as residential construction employment continued to grow.

According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs (on a seasonally adjusted basis) grew to 221,000 in September, after establishing a cycle high of 225,000 in July. The July estimate represents the highest monthly count of open, unfilled jobs since February 2007.

The open position rate (job openings as a percent of total employment) for September was 3.2%. On a smoothed twelve-month moving average basis, the open position rate for the construction sector increased to 2.6%, setting a cycle high and surpassing the top twelve-month moving average rate set prior to the recession.

The overall trend for open construction jobs has been increasing since the end of the Great Recession. This is consistent with survey data indicating that access to labor remains a top business challenge for builders.

jolts

The construction sector hiring rate, as measured on a twelve-month moving average basis, fell back to 4.6% in September.

Monthly employment data for October 2016 (the employment count data from the BLS establishment survey are published one month ahead of the JOLTS data) indicate that home builder and remodeler net hiring continued to grow, as sector employment increased by 4,500 after posting a 13,200 gain in September. These gains come after a recent period of hiring weakness, which has reduced the 6-month moving average of jobs gains for residential construction to just under 5,000.

Residential construction employment now stands at 2.618 million, broken down as 737,000 builders and 1.881 million residential specialty trade contractors.

res-construction

Over the last 12 months home builders and remodelers have added 140,000 jobs on a net basis. Since the low point of industry employment following the Great Recession, residential construction has gained 632,000 positions.

 

read more…

 

http://eyeonhousing.org/2016/11/construction-job-openings-continue-to-rise/

Mortgage rates average 3.65% | Armonk Real Estate

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing fixed mortgage rates unchanged from the previous week and remaining near their 2015 lows.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.65 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending February 18, 2016, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.76 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.95 percent with an average 0.5 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.05 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.85 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.83 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.97 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 link for theDefinitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quote
Attributed to Sean Becketti, chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“After another week of financial market oscillations driven by rumors of potential limits on oil production, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up 5 basis points, and the 30-year mortgage rate remained unchanged at 3.65 percent. Despite this week’s uptick in Treasury yields, the 10-year is still 54 basis points lower than it stood at the end of 2015, while the mortgage rate has dropped only 36 basis points over the same period.”

 

 

 

Bidding wars return to home market | Armonk Real Estate

Christina and Kevin Dirks have been searching for a house in the Denver area for four months at prices up to $275,000. They made offers on six homes—and were outbid on each one.

“When we first started looking, you had to pay $10,000 over” list price to win the bidding, Ms. Dirks said. “Then, as the weeks went by, it went up to $20,000. And now it’s up to $30,000 and $40,000.”

Ms. Dirks, a 28-year-old office coordinator, said she and her husband, a 30-year-old merchandiser, hope that as the market slows down this winter, “people will put a halt on being so crazy.”

Bidding wars, a hallmark of last decade’s housing boom, are making a comeback in a number of metro areas across the U.S. But while the earlier wars reflected enthusiasm fueled by easy-money mortgages, the current froth stems from a market short of homes for sale.

The reasons for the scant supply are myriad, including a much-slower-than-expected recovery in home construction. Yet an equally significant problem is that millions of people aren’t listing their homes for sale because they suspect they can’t qualify for a new mortgage, can’t afford the costs associated with a sale or fear that they won’t prevail in the scrum for the few houses available.

At the end of May, there were 2.3 million existing U.S. homes for sale, enough supply to last 5.1 months at the current sales pace. That is below the six to seven months of supply that the National Association of Realtors says is needed for a balanced market.

But in more than one-third of the 300 largest metropolitan areas tracked by Realtor.com, homes listed for sale in June had been on the market for a median of less than two months. A low median figure indicates rapid turnover in inventory as demand for homes exceeds supply.

Those include big markets like San Francisco, with a median time on market of 27 days, and Dallas at 38 days, as well as smaller markets like Vallejo, Calif., at 26 days and Kennewick, Wash., at 36 days.

The tightest market in June was Santa Rosa, Calif., a relatively affordable Bay Area suburb, where the median time a home was on the market was 24 days.

In those markets with limited supply, bidding wars tend to push prices higher, creating price bubbles. According to Realtor.com, the $580,000 median listing price in Santa Rosa is up nearly 10% from a year ago. That handily outpaces the national average increase in resale prices, which the National Association of Realtors calculates at 7.9%. Realtor.com is operated by Move Inc., which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp.

The low supply of homes reflects a reluctance or inability of owners to sell their current house or apartment and trade up to their next, often larger, one. Some remain skittish about the economy, their own finances or their ability to qualify for a mortgage. Others can’t sell because they are underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than the homes are worth.

Even though U.S. home prices are up 31% in the past five years, 15.4% of homes—an estimated 7.9 million—remained underwater in the first quarter, according to real estate website Zillow. The long term average is 3% to 5%, Zillow says. These owners can’t sell unless they have thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars on hand to pay the shortfall on their old mortgage and finance costs of selling and moving.

Another pressure on housing inventories is growth in U.S. household formation. The U.S. added roughly 1.5 million households in the first quarter from a year earlier, though almost all were formed by renters.

 

read more…

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bidding-wars-return-home-market-000700177.html

Local Farmers Markets | Armonk NY Homes

 

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Fresh Fish & Bread Return Full-time at Tarrytown Farmers Market;
Recycle Sack Program Begins in Ossining;
Chef Maria Reina Hosts Cooking Demo in Croton-on-Hudson + MORE

August 7-13th, 2014

DowntoEarthMarkets.com
Peaches_CHL_VLPhoto_July2014
What’s New, In Season, and On Sale This Week
$1 OFF Round Soaps
Regularly $4 each; now $3!

Sisters Wicked Good Soap

$2 OFF purchase of 5 products Select from chuneys & frozen
kofta, saag, samosa, & rajama

Bombay Emerald Chutney Co.

Arugula
Taliaferro Farm

Blueberry Honey
Honeybrook Farms

Cantaloupe
Gajeski Produce
Mead Orchards


Croissants
Almond, Chocolate, & Traditional
Wave Hill Breads

Eggs
Fishkill Farm

Eggplant
Taliaferro Farm

Flowers
Fishkill Farm

Gooseberries
Fishkill Farm

Honey in the Rough
Honeybrook Farms

Just Crust Chips and
Rustic Croutons

Garlic, Naked & With a Kick
$0.50 OFF/bag this weekend!

Wave Hill Breads

Kabuchi Squash
Gajeski Produce

Monkey Bread
Wave Hill Breads

Peaches
Alex’s Tomato Farm
Mead Orchards
Migliorelli Farm

Pears
Mead Orchards

Peppers

Taliaferro Farm

Tomatoes
Fishkill Farm
John D. Madura Farm
Migliorelli Farm
Rexcroft Farm
Wright Family Farm

Shawungunk Honey
Honeybrook Farms

Spring Meadow Honey
Honeybrook Farms

Summer Squash Ravioli
Made w green & yellow squash, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, &
onions – all from Newgate Farm
Trotta Pasta

String Beans
Gajeski Produce

Watermelon
Alex’s Tomato 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

Croton-on-Hudson

Sundays
9:00 am-2:00 pm


Rye

Sundays
8:30 am-2:00 pm

Spring Valley

Wednesdays
8:30 am-3:00 pm


Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow

Saturdays
8:30 am-1:00 pm

New Rochelle

Fridays
8:30 am-2:30 pm


Headed to the city soon?

Visit a Down to Earth
Farmers Market in NYC!

Announcements
New Rochelle – Friday, August 8th

Only TWO chances left to meet a Rockstar (under age 9, that is…)! The Beth El Day Camp Rockstars, girls ages 7 and 8, will serve as Food Ambassadors to New Rochelle’s Down to Earth Farmers Market tomorrow and Friday, August 15th. Between the hours of 11 am and 1 pm, you can find the girls with their latest recipe made from fresh market ingredients. Tomorrow they’ll feature FRUIT KABOBS. They make the recipe and offer free samples – and free recipe cards – for everyone to recreate it at home. See you there!

Ossining – Saturday, August 9th

Recycle Sack: With the goal to eliminate plastic bags from the farmers market, this Saturday, the market manager in Ossining will begin accepting donations of clean, reusable shopping bags that people would like to drop-off. The donated bags will be offered to customers as an alternative to plastic bags for their market purchases. For each bag donated, customers can enter to win a $25 gift certificate for the market, and a winner will be drawn every 2 weeks!

Croton-on-Hudson: Sunday, August 10th

Chef Maria Reina of Bella Cucina Maria will host a free cooking demo from 11:30 am-1:30 pm. She creates healthy, seasonal dishes with fresh ingredients from the market. She has a wonderful recipe for this week that features pasture-raised eggs and peppers, but that’s the only hint we’ll give for now. Stop by to sample her dish and gain new ideas for cooking from the market!

For additional events, visit our Down to Earth Markets Event Calendar.

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

Feed Your River: How Riverkeeper and Down to Earth Markets Are Teaming Up
to Support Local Food and Clean Water
by Jeremy Cherson of Riverkeeper
Hudson Sunset
Hudson River sunset as seen by the
Ossining waterfront

Riverkeeper, New York’s clean water advocate, and Down to Earth Markets are teaming up this summer and fall to present the Feed Your River Series, a partnership between neighbors to promote local food and the importance of clean water. The first event takes place this Saturday, August 9th, when Riverkeeper will appear at the Ossining Farmers Market to discuss our latest initiatives with market customers.

Did you know that over 100,000 New Yorkers get their drinking water directly from the Hudson River? Another 8 million New Yorkers depend on the good health of the Catskills for their drinking water supply.

Come visit Riverkeeper at these Down to Earth Farmers Markets:

8/9: Ossining Farmers Market
8/16: Tarrytown Farmers Market
8/31: Piermont Farmers Market
9/7: McGolrick Park Farmers Market (Brooklyn)
9/7: Park Slope Farmers Market (Brooklyn)
10/11: Morningside Park Farmers Market (Manhattan)

The connection between clean water and healthful food is readily apparent for our friends at Down to Earth Markets. Their farmers markets bring the finest produce of the Hudson Valley and surrounding area to the people of the metro region.

Farmers in the Catskills and Hudson Valley rely on clean, plentiful water to provide us with nutritious food. Supporting farmers at a Down to Earth Market helps farms within the NYC watershed stay in business and thrive. Ultimately, stewardship of farmland is an important component of maintaining water quality on the Hudson and its tributaries.

Riverkeeper will be featured at select Down to Earth Markets throughout the estuary to engage communities about the importance of protecting the Hudson River and our drinking supply. Stop by the learn about our ongoing campaigns to stop dangerous oil shipments down the Hudson, prevent the raid of clean water funds to finance the Tappan Zee Bridge, and keep fracking waste off New York roads. Everyone can make an impact. Find out how by visiting Riverkeeper at your favorite Down to Earth Farmers Market.

Riverkeeper relies on extraordinary heroes like you to raise the red flag and educate the public on threats to our river. We need you to join our volunteer team to help the Feed Your River Series thrive and grow. Click here to join our outreach and education volunteer team. See you at the markets!

Rotating* Vendors This Week
*Vendors who rotate through various markets during the season.
They enjoy getting to know many communities, and here’s where to find them this week:

New Rochelle – Friday, August 8th

Trotta Foods (Locally sourced Italian specialties)

Larchmont – Saturday, August 9th

Bombay Emerald Chutney Company
Calcutta Kitchens
Flourish Baking Company
Trotta Foods (Locally sourced Italian specialties)

Ossining – Saturday, August 9th

Bombay Emerald Chutney Company
Hudson River Apiaries
Sisters Wicked Good Soap

Tarrytown – Saturday, August 9th

Tuthilltown Spirits Farm Distillery

Piermont – Sunday, August 10th

Simple Eats with Chef T
#Freedom Craft Brewery

Rye – Sunday, August 10th

Bombay Emerald Chutney Company
Kontoulis Family Olive Oil
Trotta Foods (Locally sourced Italian specialties)
Tuthilltown Spirits Farm Distillery

Sacramento home sales still hot, but not burning | Armonk Homes

 

As a region, Sacramento still ranks in the top 10 in the nation for turning over home inventory, but as other metrics have also shown, sales are quite a bit slower than a year ago.

According to rankings compiled by Trulia, 45 percent of all homes for sale in the region have been on the market for two months or more, good enough for ninth nationally. The figure was 41 percent a year earlier, when Trulia noted both investor buys and rapid price appreciation fueled by bidding wars were much more common, making the market that much more active.

The slight cool down, only 4 percent below a year earlier, reflects mostly more inventory on the market, which is still a sellers’ market overall, according to Trulia.

By comparison, in Virginia Beach, Va., 72 percent of homes on sale now were also on the market two months ago.

Of the overall list, every city above Sacramento was on the West Coast and almost all on or near the Pacific Ocean, with Denver, at fourth, the only exception.

In Oakland, which topped the list, 29 percent of the homes on the market had been there two months or longer, and asking prices were 22.7 percent higher than a year earlier. Sacramento asking prices have risen by 22.2 percent, according to Trulia figures.

 

 

 

read more…

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2014/04/28/sacramento-home-sales-still-hot-but-not-burning.html

Lack of confidence weighs on housing | Armonk NY Homes

Consumers are still wading through the lingering effects of the financial crisis and lacking the confidence needed in the economy to move forward. And as long as consumer spending is lagging on the personal shopping front, homebuying is going to remain out of the question for many families.

This year’s Black Friday shopping failed to kick-start the shopping season with a boom. In fact, retail spending fell for the first time in at least seven years over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Consumers racked up $59.1 billion in purchases in 2012, compared to only $57.4 billion this year, as hyped-up deals and bargains failed to lure in shoppers, the National Retail Federation said.

The good news is that while consumers are not so confident right now, they are de-leveraging debts carried from the pre-crisis days — a potential breakthrough for the housing market.

“Our findings suggest that the consumer de-leveraging experienced since the financial crisis will trough in the next year or two, driven by improved mortgage credit availability and better consumer demand,” Paul Miller, a managing director at FBR Capital Markets, said.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28176-lack-of-confidence-weighs-on-housing

Case Study: Advanced Content Marketing | Armonk Realtor

Case Study- Advanced Content Marketing

Content is a two syllable word that has become an online marketing strategy.  Its impact has far reaching effects that belies its verbal simplicity. It  influences search engine results, drives online engagement and can create brand  awareness at velocity when it goes viral.

With Google’s recent updates, the role of content has increased in priority.  The search giant is now rewarding sites with higher rankings that offer unique  content that delivers a quality user experience.

This means that progressive brands need to become publishers and not just  advertisers. Advanced content marketing is a human and creative art form with  soul enabled by technology and process driven. It is multi-media content at  scale that leverages a brand’s reach that is efficient and amplified.

Is corporate media getting better than mainstream media?

In a recent article on the Hubspot blog, Dan Lyon poses an intriguing question.

Is corporate media getting  better  than mainstream  media?”

He then cites examples of Microsoft, General Electric and Google who are  using both technology and their great content archives to “out publish” existing  traditional media companies.

I think that in some cases he may be right.

Today’s companies do have the technology and platforms to go it alone. They  often have the marketing CRM’s, databases, access to vast libraries of content  and the technology to make a traditional newspaper brand look bland.

Marketing and publishing has been democratized

Technology changes have put the power in the users hands. Companies don’t  need to understand how to use a printing press.

  • Want to publish. Launch a blog
  • Need to design and create an online magazine. Hire a designer, assign an  editor and writer and create your brand magazine using Photoshop.
  • Have the impulse to shoot a video. Buy a $1,000 video camera, create a video  and upload it to YouTube
  • Feel the motivation to market. Amplify your content to your Facebook and  Twitter fans and followers

Should some advertising dollars be moved to publishing?

Companies such as Red Bull are moving their spending from advertising to  publishing. They are also about creating “conversations around the  brand” not “about” the brand. This means creating content that has  heart and soul of the brand embedded but not mentioned.

No-one wants to talk about the drink but the lifestyle that revolves around  the brand image.

Advanced content marketing case study:  Lorna Jane

Lorna Jane is an “activewear” label for women that has been around for over  20 years. The brand is about fitness and fashion for women. They have embraced  the the strategy of advanced content marketing.

Their aim “to inspire women to live their best life through active  living”. Their mantra and mission is based upon a three pillared philosophy  of:

  • Move
  • Nourish
  • Believe

Lorna Jane is not simply a clothing label, it is a way of life”. They are about fitness and a healthy lifestyle.

Lorna Jane’s marketing is not about talking about its product but being a  publisher. The heart and soul is about creating conversations around the  brand.

Jessie Dean, the Digital Marketing Manager at Lorna Jane has a team that  includes:

  • Social media specialist
  • Social media coordinator
  • Editor of “Move Nourish Believe”

They have also created a separate and secondary brand that is about the  lifestyle and mission that is core to the Lorna Jane message.

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/11/27/case-study-advanced-content-marketing/#CgUbpkk6o1KJEJiZ.99