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Monthly Archives: December 2013
10 surprising new Twitter stats to help you reach more followers | Chappaqua Realtor
Bedford Business Association Tree Lighting Welcomes The Holidays | Bedford NY Realtor
Bundle up for these chilly accommodations and bars around the world | Chappaqua Homes
ICEHOTEL, Jukkasjarvi, Sweden
Sweden’s ICEHOTEL is the world’s largest hotel made of ice and snow. Each year, thousands of visitors descend upon the small village of Lapland — 125 miles from the Arctic Circle — to experience the unique accommodations from December to April. The hotel is the perfect place to view the northern lights while on a dogsled ride.
How to Turn Your Next Event Into a Branding Blockbuster | North Salem Realtor
Events are excellent for building your brand and connecting with your customers. But for all the time, effort and money you put into planning and executing an event, wouldn’t it be nice if the buzz started well before and continued well beyond the actual event time?
This is something Ben Hindman discovered when he ran events for Thrillist — he had to reinvent the wheel every time he planned an event. He knew there was room in the marketplace for a better events tool, so he and co-founder Brett Boskoff designed and developed the tool that Hindman needed.
“As we started using Splash more and more, it just became clear that the world needed this,” says Hindman.
The result is Splash, a tool that lets brands and individuals alike build online communities around events. Hindman does away with one-and-done events, aiming to extend the lifespan of the event via compelling design and useful (read: not spammy) social integrations.
In the past year, the company has gone from servicing 15 event planners to 60,000 planners. Since its March 2012 launch, Splash has powered more than 70,000 events and captured 2.5 million RSVPs. The site is redefining how people think of your typical event, too — Splash is powering New York City’s Talking Transition, a socially enabled activation that’s sourcing feedback from New Yorkers for elected Mayor Bill De Blasio.
With a lean team of 10, the company recently experienced its first month in the black, raking in revenues from ticketing fees (2% + $1 per ticket), premium upgrades, and enterprise sales to clients including MLB, Spotify, Facebook, Google and Vespa. (The company also had $240,000 of seed funding in May 2012.)
http://mashable.com/2013/12/06/
We vent attics for four reasons | Mt Kisco Homes
Most homeowners and builders believe that attics should be vented. If you walk down to your local lumberyard and lean on the counter, the employees and nearby customers will offer a variety of opinions about why attics need to be vented. Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that the statements you hear will be true.
Here are the four most common reasons people suggest to explain the practice of venting attics:
- To reduce the chance of moisture build-up in the attic or condensation on the underside of the roof sheathing.
- To make roofing shingles last longer.
- To lower cooling bills during the summer.
- To reduce the chance of ice dams.
Although attic ventilation is sometimes able to contribute in a very small way to addressing the problems on this list, there are much better solutions to all four problems than ventilation.
What does the code require?
If you plan to install insulation on your attic floor, then most building codes require that your house be equipped with soffit vents.
The standard code formula requires 1 square foot of net free ventilation area for every 300 square feet of attic floor area, assuming that half of the ventilation openings are located in the soffit, and half along the ridge. If a roof has only soffit vents and no ridge vents, most codes require 1 square foot of net free ventilation area for every 150 square feet of attic floor area.
How to Find Home Buying Credits | Bedford Hills Homes
Buying your first home is an exciting process, but it can also be a nerve-racking experience. You invest a lot of time and energy seeking out the right home in the right neighborhood. Then the real challenge begins: financing it.
Getting a mortgage loan requires you to have enough money in the bank to pay all of the costs associated with closing the loan, plus enough left over to convince the lender that you can actually afford to pay a monthly mortgage payment.
One strategy some home buyers employ is to seek out home buying credits that provide funds to help people get into their dream homes. Here’s a look at some of the most common, along with information about how to find them.
Mortgage Credit Certificate
The Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) is available to first-time home buyers in certain states. It provides up to $8,000 in tax credits to people who have not owned a home in the previous three years, meet certain income criteria and use their new home as their primary residence.
Each state has its own rules about when it offers the MCC and who can qualify. Check with your local housing authority to see if it’s available to you.
Good Neighbor Next Door Program
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers significant credits to law enforcement officers, school teachers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who purchase single-family homes in areas targeted for revitalization.
The Good Neighbor Next Door Program makes homes (usually in urban areas) available for up to 50 percent off the list prices. Buyers must agree to live in the home for at least three years. Learn more at HUD’s website.
http://www.zillow.com/blog/2013-12-05/how-to-find-home-buying-credits/
Phoenix housing market’s recovery still lagging most metros | South Salem Real Estate
Metro Phoenix is outperforming most of the country in terms of home-prices, but employment is underwhelming and new-home permits are far below average.
That was the overall conclusion of the National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index, which released a report today comparing current economic and housing conditions in about 360 metro areas with the last period of normalcy before the Great Recession.
Overall, the Valley’s economic and housing activity is running at 79 percent of normal growth, landing it in the No. 250 slot and lagging the nationwide average of 84 percent.
That overall figure is an average of three categories — home prices, new-home permits and employment — based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Freddie Mac and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The index considers the last “normal” period for home prices and permitting as between 2000 and 2003, while the base comparison for employment is 2007. Each of the metro areas’ average permit, price and employment levels over the past 12 months are divided by their annual average over the last period of normal growth.
In Phoenix, home prices are exceeding 2000-03 levels by 24 percent, But current permitting levels are only one quarter of what they were during that normal period. Valley employment growth is running at 87 percent of previous norms.
Nationwide, 54 metro areas returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity, excluding Phoenix.
“This index shows that most housing markets across the nation are continuing a slow, gradual climb back to normal levels,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson said in a prepared statement.
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2013/12/05/phoenix-housing-markets-recovery.html?s=print
Flood Insurance Spikes Threaten to Cripple Local Real Estate Market | Bedford Corners Homes
It was a way to remove FEMA subsidies from flood insurance, but now, an act passed by congress and now in effect nationwide, is threatening to cripple local real estate markets.
A week ago, WTRF introduced you to two home buyers, who like thousands, are struggling with the cost of a new flood insurance policy. Now, another homeowner says the problem is so massive that he’s not about to sit and watch his neighbors lose their homes.
Greg Kloeppner says he is not optimistic they could find a buyer for his home. He wants to even the playing field and slash residential property values by 90 percent, and commercial and industrial properties by half to make up for the increasing cost of flood insurance.
2013 a year of ‘pleasant surprises’ for housing market | Armonk Homes
Toronto’s housing market continues to defy skeptics, Calgary’s is upward and onward, Vancouver has “sprung back to life” and Montreal remains a relative bargain, says a BMO Capital Markets assessment of “a year of pleasant surprises” on Canada’s real estate front.
In fact, the market has “pulled up sharply” from last year’s downturn and “is cruising at an above-normal altitude,” says BMO senior economist Sal Guatieri in a cross-country checkup on four key housing markets.
- Toronto is “hardly landing,” says Guatieri, with sales up 9 per cent over historic norms in the three months up to October. But benchmark prices, up 4 per cent over a year ago, remain “lofty” at more than six times median family income.
But with close to 60,000 new condos under construction and developers offering more incentives, such as free furniture and waived maintenance fees, in the face of a dramatic sales slowdown, price gains should slow in 2014, says Guatieri.
While there is mounting concern that far too many new units will be coming on the market, the report says the shortage of new detached homes, and their high prices, will force more buyers into condos and they should absorb the new supply.
- Calgary is the place to be: It is the strongest major market in Canada, with house sales 20 per cent above historic norms and benchmark prices up 8 per cent, virtually making up for the 16 per cent decline in prices from 2007 to 2009.
Prices remain at a more reasonable four times median family income and demand remains extraordinarily high because of the number of immigrants and young people heading west looking for work.
- Vancouver has pulled out of last year’s steep decline — sales were down 33 per cent, year over year, at the peak, and prices were depressed by 6 per cent — but “affordability is Vancouver’s Achilles’ heel,” says the report.
“We continue to expect detached house prices to decline moderately in the medium term,” says Guatieri.
Condos remain the most affordable option, eating up 29 per cent of median family income, now that prices have fallen to essentially where they stood six years ago, says the report.
- Montrealmay be the weakest of the four major markets, but that’s good news for house hunters. Sales remain 9 per cent below historic norms and prices are up just 2 per year over year.
That makes the median price of a two-storey detached home in Montreal just $382,000, compared to $565,000 in Toronto and just over $1 million in Vancouver.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/12/05/2013_a_year_of_pleasant_surprises_for_housing_market.html