Monthly Archives: November 2013

Despite uncertainties, homebuilders remain optimistic | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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Despite some recent wobbling in economic and housing indicators, more homebuilders still view market conditions as good than poor, the National Association of Home Builders said today.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index remained at 54 in November unchanged from October after a downward revision.

“Given the current interest rate and pricing environment, consumers continue to show interest in purchasing new homes, but are holding back because Congress keeps pushing critical decisions on budget, tax and government spending issues down the road,” NAHB Chairman Rick Judson editorialized in a statement accompanying the release of the latest index.

“Meanwhile, builders continue to face challenges related to rising construction costs and low appraisals.”NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said that uncertainty about government policies and economic uncertainty is undermining consumer confidence, but that builder confidence remains above 50 “is an encouraging sign, considering the unresolved debt and federal budget issues cause builders and consumers to remain on the sideline.

”The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, and asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers. Scores from each component are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index, with any number over 50 indicating that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

The HMI index gauging current sales conditions in November held steady at 58. Expectations for future sales fell one point to 60, and traffic of prospective buyers dropped one point to 42.

 

 

Source: nahb.org – See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/despite-uncertainties-homebuilders-remain-optimistic/#sthash.5wFo8nm7.dpuf

Nine Über-Grandiose Rentals and Their Mod Complements | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Say what you will about rentals—that they’re hard to decorate, expensive, orders of magnitude too small—there’s at least a smörgåsbord of options in any given locale. If variety is the spice of life, then the rental market is the most well-stocked and poorly organized spice drawer the world has ever known, wherein wasabi snuggles up next to vanilla bean. And, indeed, what field more convenient to have a jumble of balls-to-the-wall offerings than that of temporary homes? Take, as proof, these two listings in London. One (at left) asks £40,000 ($64,440) a week and comes with gold ceilings, two gazillion (an exact figure) pounds of drapery, and a ballroom with three massive crystal chandeliers and two equally monstrous flanking fireplaces. Oh, and let’s not forget the two elevators, 14 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and 11 reception rooms. In the same city: a penthouse apartment—also on the rental market, though at 12 percent of the cost—done up in clean lines and a much more pared-down (to say the least) aesthetic. Below, eight more odd couples:

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Grandiose house: Location: Paris Price: $54,100 a month Highlights: Architecture by Charles Garnier—the mastermind behind the Opera de Paris—plus a suite of yummy salons and reception areas, winter garden, steam room, and indoor pool.

Pared-down house: Location: Paris Price: $5,990 a week Highlights: Interiors like “a rocket ship of luxury,” with lots of angular upholstery and a rooftop patio.

 

 

 

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/nine-grandiose-traditional-rentals-and-their-mod-complements.php

Dive Into Rental Listings Across Miami’s History | South Salem NY Real Estate

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In Miami, renting an apartment always had a certain appeal, and was marketed—with reservations—towards tourists. Renting for the winter season was a halfway point between hotels and owning property. A renter was already someone who came to Miami Beach but who wasn’t ready, or perhaps couldn’t afford, to commit to purchasing.

It was a strange middle-space that ad-men marketed to with pretty ads, showing the beautiful spaces one could occupy, but without full embrace, and always next to the much flashier, much bigger, and much more glamorous ads of those spaces one could own. We tore through old issues of the Miami News on the Google News Archives. So here we present, without further ado, a selection of apartment advertisements from some key boom times in Miami’s history, the 20s, the 40s, and the 50s.

  • A ceiling fan, gas heating, closet space, jalousies!
  • The Carl T. Fisher company, builders of Miami Beach, which placed many, many luscious advertisements for land for sale, limited their rental advertisements to modest, one column listings in the classified section. Bias much?
  • It’s a ‘cooperative apartment’, a.k.a. a Co-op, not actually a rental and a total rarity in Miami.
  • Towards the middle of the century oceanfront, and near-to-oceanfront apartments became more common. An extension of the resort hotel experience, the resort ‘apartment’ duplicated the hotel but one lived there on a longer term basis. You’d rent an apartment for the season, or perhaps buy a condo.
  • The real money was always, of course, in real estate for purchase, not rent. From the beginning realtors and builders knew this. Although you could rent a garden apartment in Coral Gables, what they really wanted you to do was buy. The Biltmore wasn’t built in the middle of a residential neighborhood for nothing.

 

 

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/dive-into-rental-listings-across-miamis-history.php

All Aboard Florida’s Ft. Laud. Station Will Be In Flagler Village | Katonah Real Estate

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All Aboard Florida is planning to announce on November 22nd that their Fort Lauderdale train station will be just north of Broward Boulevard, in Flagler Village. The Las Olas Riverfront site is out. It will likely span the tracks from the empty Florida Power & Light lot on the west side of the railroad tracks between Broward and NW 2nd Avenue to the Broward Central Terminal bus depot on the east side of the tracks, a location that was established as the preferred spot on the railroad’s environmental assessment report. This completes selection of the project’s four station locations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando.

Also in the environmental assessment report (it was full of goodies), the station, which will be designed by firms Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Zyscovich, will be centered around a great hall with an elevated waiting room and concourse above the tracks connecting to a 35 foot wide central platform. Sure, it won’t be as monumental as the Miami terminus station, but it won’t exactly be dinky either. · Fort Lauderdale FEC Station [Curbed Miami] · All Aboard Florida coverage [Curbed Miami]

South Florida mansion comes with $450K Rolls Royce | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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A 16,000-square-foot Boca Raton, Fla., mansion that features a theater, a nine-car garage, full gym, two gourmet kitchens (one to keep kosher with) and direct ocean access with a double yacht dock, also comes with a $450,000 Rolls Royce to any buyer who forks up the full $12.75 million asking price for the home.

 

 

 

Source: Sun-Sentinal – See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/south-florida-mansion-seller-offers-450k-rolls-royce/#sthash.doTTzifs.dpuf

Planting the seeds of brand perception | Bedford NY Real Estate

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I hear this sentence all the time: “I don’t know what a brand is, but I don’t think I need one.” I decided to take this opportunity to try to define the concept of branding to explain why you need a brand.

In a way, it’s like explaining why we need air. So, please hang in there with me, and let me know if what follows makes sense.

How can you recognize a brand? AstonMartin275Raise your hand if you recognize the car in the photo to the left. If you didn’t raise your hand, you know that it’s a sporty-looking car. Just looking at the car, for all you know, it could be a hybrid with a top speed of 60 miles an hour. That could be your perception just from looking at the photo.

If you did raise your hand, you know that you’re looking at an Aston Martin. A 2010 DB9 Volante, to be exact. And, now that the rest of you know it’s an Aston Martin, you probably have quite a different perception of the vehicle.

What do you know about Aston Martins? If you’re a car buff at all, you know that James Bond was fond of Aston Martins. So, does that fact make you feel differently about the car than when you thought it might be a hybrid? Indeed. Why?

Because you now perceive the car to be a hot sports car, capable of making beautiful women swoon, achieving high rates of speed, completing very sharp turns, and, in the hands of  “Q,” launching rockets. And that perception is reinforced by other things you may know if you are a car buff.

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/planting-the-seeds-of-brand-perception-agents-must-be-the-aston-martins-of-real-estate/#sthash.LBy4fAih.dpuf

Fox Lane Senior Stars In Off-Broadway Production | Pound Ridge Homes

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Pound Ridge teenager Lindsay Avellino aspires to perform on Broadway. Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 19, she will be just a few steps from what she hopes is her ultimate destination.

Avellino, a senior at Fox Lane High School, will have the lead female role in “Towards The Moon,” which makes its American debut at the 59E59 Theater in New York. The play opens off-Broadway on Tuesday, Nov. 19 and runs through Dec. 1. More information about dates and tickets can be found online or by calling 212 753 5959 ext 102.

The play is being presented by the Infinity Repertory Theatre Company of Mount Kisco. Avellino has been part of the group for four years, and is in her second year as the group’s artistic director. She has performed in numerous productions with Infinity and was even part of a previous show at the East 59th Street Theatre. Her role in Towards The Moon as Mags is her biggest challenge so far in her budding career.

“I’m ecstatic, I can’t wait to get started,’’ Avellino said. “But it’s also scary, knowing there will be reviewers. Having already experienced performing in New York before, I know how to go into it but it’s still scary.”

Andrew McGregor, a native of Scotland, wrote Towards The Moon for the 2012  Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was there that Paul Perez, Infinity’s Executive Director, saw the play. Infinity was granted the rights to produce the play in the United States.

It follows the story of a boy who wants to leave a small town and become a great writer. His journey is a tale of angst-filled creativity and lost and found friendships. Liam Nelligan plays Bobby, the play’s central character. Ricky Romano, Elene Rnigomez, Lindsay Wund and Elizabeth Price Davies are the other students who appear on stage. Infinity is an all-student company that educates and involves children of all backgrounds and ages in the theater arts.

“Mags is the best friend of the main character,’’ Avellino said. “She’s a hippie, kind of weird, does her own thing and is in love with Bobby. It’s a character that’s a bit out of my comfort zone. She’s older and has a lot more life experience than I have. But it’s a challenge and I’m enjoying it.”

Avellino, who plans to study musical theater in college, captured the lead in an audition earlier this year. She saw the production in Scotland and loved the script. “It’s a beautiful show,’’ she said. “It moved all of us when we saw it. It’s unique because it’s a musical, but it doesn’t move like a musical. It feels like a drama. You feel good after watching it. It’s very relatable, and very real.”

 

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/neighbors/fox-lane-senior-stars-broadway-production

 

Major changes proposed to the King Street and South Greeley Avenue intersection | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Two engineering firms presented concepts for how to improve downtown Chappaqua during a recent New Castle Town Board work session.

The companies responded to a request for proposals (RFP) from the town and came with plans to improve infrastructure and streetscapes, hoping to be selected.

The first company to present at the work session, held Nov. 6, was WSP, which is located near by in Briarcliff Manor. David Weiss, a representative from the company, touted the fact that it has employees of varying specialties – he remarked that everyone is “under one roof” – and its close location. He also noted that the WSP has done similar projects and has a record of coming in under budget.

WSP’s team went through existing problems that the hamlet has, including worn pavement to traffic back-up during peak activity. The scope of its review includes North Greeley Avenue, South Greeley Avenue and King Street.

The WSP proposal, which is in the conceptual phase, was fairly detailed. It calls for eliminating left-hand exit turns from Woodburn onto South Greeley Avenue during peak evening time and instead diverting the traffic to Washington Avenue, where it would then turn onto the main road.

Notably, the intersection of King Street, South Greeley Avenue and North Greeley Avenue would become an “all-stop” intersection, with drivers having to stop once they come down the King Street hill. The intersection would also lose its right-turn slip lane, which would be filled in, and would become a “T” intersection. To make up for the removal of the slip lane, and extra lane would be added to the northbound side of South Greeley Avenue. The intersection would also get stamped concrete pavement and stamped concrete crosswalks, with a fourth crosswalk added so people can cross South Greeley.

The project also calls for bump-out spaces, which have the effect of calming traffic, at the intersection of South Greeley and Senter Street, and at the corner of King Street and North Greeley Avenue. On the infrastructure side, WSP described assessing water and sewer operations, along with some water main replacement and sewer repair. Additionally, it includes adding a water fountain on the triangle at the intersection of South Greeley and the Route 120 bridge.

The company also addressed disruption to the business community, suggesting measures ranging from use of a precast concrete driveway apron to doing test pits to avoid conflicts with utilities.

The second firm to present was VHB, which has a presence in White Plains. A representative touted its assortment of services, including civil engineering and landscape architecture, noting that everything is under one roof and it is a “coordinated and efficient approach.”

Its presentation promoted pedestrian safety, walkability and lighting. Among the principals stated for street usage, were that pedestrians will cross at convenient spaces, that narrow streets can calm traffic and that crossings should be short.

Matthew Carmody, a VHB representative, discussed taking a “complete” streets approach, which involves involving the area from building to building and taking what is called a zonal approach. The firm would do simulation for traffic and phase construction to help merchants.

A concept presented by VHB also shows improving the intersection of South Greeley Avenue, North Greeley Avenue and King Street. It also includes filling in the slip lane but does not add a new right-hand turn to replace it. A fountain would be placed in the plaza area created by eliminating the slip lane, while marked crosswalks would be in all four directions at the intersection.

The proposals are of the town board’s latest effort to improve the aesthetics of the downtown. Previous studies included the 2003 Vollmer Associates Report, a 2007 report from Project for Public Spaces and a 2008 conceptual project from Pouder Design Group. Details on previous work are available on the town’s website at this link.

One conceptual overview – it was called the Chappaqua Hamlet Vision Plan – included two projects that have since been completed, such as construction of a new gazebo and a reconstruction of the South Greeley Avenue parking lot in 2011. It also included doing work in the area currently under consideration.

 

 

 

http://chappaqua.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/firms-vie-for-downtown-chappaqua-overhaul

 

 

 

 

Fantasy and reality meet head-on in photos of costume fans in their own homes | Waccabuc Homes

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Almost everybody has worn a costume at some point in their lives. For Halloween, a school play or just make-believe around the house. But for others, it’s an every-weekend thing.
For these costume enthusiasts, there are numerous communities. Cosplay followers dress up as characters from comics, anime, video games and film; LARPers (live action role players) get together to perform fantasy scenarios dressed up as cowboys, knights or other characters; furries wear furry animal suits for fun; and so on.
But most costume fans have normal day jobs, families and homes in which they put on regular clothes to cook dinner and watch TV. Looking to capture this strange world and the people behind it, photographer Klaus Pichler took photos of costume wearers in full regalia in their most revealing of spaces: their homes.

Pichler spent three years taking photographs for the series, titled “Just the Two of Us.” He spent most of that time “researching people or communities with interesting costumes,” he says. “Quite hard work.”
This homeowner created a custom Cookie Monster costume for a private Carnival celebration.
Cosplay (“costume” plus “play”) is a Japanese-rooted practice; its followers portray characters from Japanese comics (manga), cartoons (anime) and films. This handmade cosplayer costume depicts Jaken, a character from the InuYasha manga series by Rumiko Takahashi.
Star Wars is perhaps one of the most-loved sources of muses for costume adopters. The 501st Legion is the official worldwide Star Wars fan club, founded in 1997 and based on George Lucas’ film series. Here a young Stormtrooper sits in a living room.
Meanwhile, Boba Fett spins a DJ set at home.
Pichler says he chose not to reveal any personal information about the people other than what’s shown in their homes. “I consciously decided to depict the persons in a way that the civic identities disappear behind the mask,” he says. “I tried to create a special kind of tension that’s linked to the refusal of answering the crucial question, Who is the person behind the mask?”

A Pond House in the Arizona Desert | South Salem Homes

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Some of the best modern residential architecture can be found in the U.S. desert Southwest. Phoenix can be considered the epicenter of many of these houses, which seem to rise from the desert through the use of materials like stone and Cor-Ten steel. About 30 miles north of Phoenix is the Pond House, a 1,775-square-foot weekend house designed by Will Bruder, an architect who trained under Paolo Soleri (famous for devoting much of his life to realizing the experimental desert town of Arcosanti). Perched above part of Cave Creek in the upper Bajada desert, the Pond House is skillfully integrated into the landscape, giving a great view of it and being a part of it.
Builder: 180 Degrees Photography by Bill Timmerman

The view from the southeast, looking at the back of the house, shows the water feature that gives the house its name. This “year-round swimming hole,” as Bruder calls it, is an obvious amenity for the weekend retreat.
The front of the house, facing west, is much more opaque, defined by Cor-Ten steel walls that rise from the desert landscape. The curved wall in the foreground defines the edge of the property adjacent to the unpaved approach road. This wall, also Cor-Ten steel, is just out of frame to the right, to allow access to the house; a detached garage lies just beyond the opening.
As you drive alongside the house, its entry is signaled by a couple of small windows above a low roof next to the curved site wall. The rising Cor-Ten wall and roof reach a peak and then descend, only to turn into a stone wall.
Here we are at the break in the curved Cor-Ten site wall, where a water feature rises from the pavement. Water flows over the concrete walls of the fountain to descend toward the house’s entry.
In this dusk shot, the descent to the entrance is clearer, as is the way the stones follow the angle of the wall, something Bruder says gives “a sense of mythical ruins of past cultures.” Perhaps, but It reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, particularly the rising and descending angular forms. Moving inside we’ll see other details that further recall Wright’s Southwestern home.