Daily Archives: April 8, 2013

Folly architecture adds mystique to garden | Bedford NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

How about an obelisk in your garden? Or a sun temple? Or a dripping, moss-covered grotto? Or a couple of elegant Muskoka Chairs?

The garden of one famous English estate boasted all of these features and more. It was called Stourhead, and these architectural elements, called follies, were artfully placed along a meandering circular path nearly two miles long. The garden and its follies were designed in 1744 by an amateur landscape designer with the unenviable name of Henry Hoare.

A folly is an architectural structure in the landscape that exists for no reason other than to add interest. Follies were all the rage in English gardens of the late 1700s, when they were an integral part of an architecture and landscape design movement known as the picturesque. The movement espoused pretty much what you might guess — designs were meant to be artfully composed and, well, pretty as a picture. Stourhead was, in fact, literally based upon a landscape painting by Claude Lorrain done a century earlier.

Alas, most gardens don’t have room for Stourhead’s highly creative follies. But a folly doesn’t need a lot of room to be effective. The same design elements that worked for Hoare and others during the golden age of English landscape design can still be used to lend picturesque elements to your own garden.

via inman.com

Construction job growth hits 7-year high | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Leave a reply

While today’s job’s report was disappointing on nearly all fronts, there was one bright spot that shone through the dismal numbers: sustained construction-job growth.

“The solid increase in construction employment in March, which brought the average monthly gain during the first quarter to 30,000 jobs, the biggest in seven years, supports the view that the housing recovery will continue to march on despite headwinds from fiscal drags,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan in a statement. 

Indeed, the economy continues to add construction jobs at a fast clip. At 3.8 percent year over year in March, the growth rate of residential-construction jobs towers over the overall jobs growth rate of 1.4 percent. In the last two years construction has added 317,000 jobs to the economy, with over half of that increase occurring in the last six months, the White House said in a statement on the jobs report. 

Even still, the rate of construction job growth lags far behind growth in actual home construction — which was a whopping 28 percent year over year in February, according to the Census Bureau. Today, Trulia economist Jed Kolko offered an explanation for why this is:

“A key reason for this seemingly slow rebound in construction jobs is that construction activity (in units or dollar value) fell much more than employment did after the housing bubble burst. Economists point to “labor hoarding”: firms often hold on to more workers than they need in temporary downturns if the cost of firing, rehiring, and retraining is high relative to keeping them on,” Kolko wrote in a blog post. “That means jobs declined less than construction activity during the bust and are therefore now rebounding less.”

The number of construction jobs for every housing unit actually appears bloated, Kolko found. In February, there were about 3.7 jobs per unit, up 40 percent from a February 2001 level of 2.6 per unit, he said. 

via inman.com

Monday Morning Cup of Coffee: Rising home prices raise concerns | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

HousingWire’s Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news from the weekend, with more coverage on bigger issues.

With existing home prices up 10% in February from one year prior and inventories at a 20-year low, many homebuyers are facing a dilemma, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal: paying more for a home today, compared with a year ago, or paying even more tomorrow at a time when interest rates might also be higher.

For many buyers looking to get into their first home, high unemployment, low savings, high debt loads and tight credit standards are making homeownership nearly impossible.

Many experts are concerned that if prices keep rising at their current pace, an affordability problem may arise — especially once rates reach above 6%.

Budget cuts due to the federal sequester are already taking a toll on public housing, as the New Albany Housing Authority is adjusting to an 18% annual budget cut, News and Tribune reported.

According to the article, the reduction in the operating budget could lead to the merger of some NAHA offices and potentially even result in employee furloughs, reduction of services and possibly the loss of public housing units.

The NAHA Executive Director Bob Lane says this could force the housing authority to close 40 Section 8 housing units in the next few years if the federal matter isn’t resolved.

With inventories so small, homebuilders are desperate to find quality land to expand the housing inventory. However, in Dayton, Ohio, ready-to-build land is one of the biggest challenges faced by homebuilders, writes Dayton Daily News.

Homebuilding, which is expected to continue improving slowly throughout 2013, could face series issues by 2014 if this turns out to be a good year for local homebuilders.

“I think the problem will get progressively worse as we have chewed through the inventory of lots, and then it will take a little while to bring new lots online to hopefully fill a demand that should be there,” said Walt Hibner, executive director of Home Builders Association of Dayton.

According to the article, it takes time for a new development to get through the approval and financing process.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. closed its fifth institution in the nation this year. 

Gold Canyon Bank in Gold Canyon, Ariz., was closed by the Arizona Department of Financial Institution, which appointed the FDIC as the receiver. As a receiver for Gold Canyon Bank, the FDIC named First Scottsdale as the winning bidder to take over the failed bank’s assets.

The former Gold Canyon Bank has a single branch in Peoria. The bank’s offices will reopen under the First Scottsdale Bank name on April 8. 

As of Dec. 31, 2012, Gold Canyon Bank had approximately $45.2 million in total assets and $44.2 million in total deposits.

Read the full statement here.

via housingwire.com