Fed taper could hit housing market | Katonah Realtor
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Monthly Archives: January 2014
53 Ways to Market Your Google Plus Hangout on Air | Bedford Hills Real Estate
How to Replace Your Lawn With a Garden | Bedford NY Real Estate
Where to Splurge, Where to Save in Your Remodel | Chappaqua Real Estate
Bedford Corners Real Estate | Quirky Charm on Aussie Farmland
Armonk Homes | Rolling With Simplicity in a Tiny House on Wheels
North Castle Police Chief is accusing a Lieutenant of falsifying overtime | Armonk Real Estate
North Castle’s police chief is accusing a lieutenant of corruption and the town administrator of attempting to soil his reputation, according to LoHud.com.
Chief Geoffrey Harisch filed a complaint that claims Lt. William Fisher attempted to falsely claim overtime and that he told Town Administrator Joan Goldberg about the attempted time theft during a secret meeting in 2012, LoHud.com reported.
http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/news/north-castle-police-chief-accuses-lieutenant-corruption
Is housing bubbly? There is a lot going on | South Salem NY Homes
There is a lot going on right now in housing and mortgage markets. But one of the debates that continues to rage on is whether U.S. housing markets are in a bubble or not.
HousingWire’s own monthly HW Magazine talked about it in detail in our January issue.
So too has CNBC’s John Carney, in a post from late last year with the headline: Yep, it’s another housing bubble. And then on January 14 of this year, Peter Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute wrote a breathless op-ed proclaiming: The bubble is back.
But is it really a bubble just because home prices are rising again?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this chart published today by rating agency DBRS in their annual overview of the RMBS market for 2014 suggests that anyone claiming a new housing bubble is simply ignoring the most basic housing fundamental of them all: nominal home prices.
Most markets haven’t yet reached their pricing level highs from the previous cycle, with the exception of two markets that saw the least amount of decline.
Those who want us to think there is a bubble cite the relationship between home prices and rental rates; or look at some calculated measure of affordability. And when those are out of whack, they say it’s a bubble.
But it could be that rental rates are themselves out of whack, not housing prices. And it could be that other variables are affecting affordability rather than just prices, too. Supply and demand factors can do funny things to ratios, all of which need to be read in context.
No analysis should ignore market fundamentals, should it? Can we really be building another housing bubble if home prices in almost every U.S. market right now haven’t even surpassed levels they once were at — even after the strong price rebound we’ve already seen in the previous year?
After five years of a housing economy that has been either horrible or just plain bad, it’s difficult to believe that one good year somehow suddenly puts the nation’s housing markets back into the bubble.
http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/28599-the-most-important-chart-in-housing-right-now
Buyers want a photo-driven search experience | Cross River Real Estate
Upwards of 80 percent of buyers want to see property photos first when searching for a home, according to Robyn Woodman, a real estate broker and head of business development at Portland, Ore.-based real estate startup Househappy.
Househappy, a participant in Startup Alley at Real Estate Connect New York City, was founded in 2011 by Kevin McCloskey, a real estate broker with 27 years’ experience in the business.
The startup launched its visually based search site in March 2013. Househappy.org is free for consumers, agents and brokers, and McCloskey has vowed it will remain so. He plans to monetize the site with advertising from home services and other merchants near properties. Listing agents or brokers are posted directly on a listing page with no competing advertising from other agents.
The site obtains its listings from broker data feeds and manual uploads from listing agents or brokers. A deal with a major listing syndicator is also in the works.
Househappy recently raised $1.5 million in a funding round lead by Skechers exec Jeff Greenberg. That funding was on top of $1 million in seed funding previously raised from angel investors.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/01/15/buyers-want-a-photo-driven-search-experience/?utm_source=20140116&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.S2Yc3QBi.dpuf
‘Pay for what agents value, unless they’re wrong’ | Chappaqua NY Real Estate
Joseph “Joe” Rand has what he says is one “golden rule” to profitability, at least when it comes to expenses: Pay as little as possible, only for what your agents really value, and pay for nothing else — unless they’re wrong.
Rand is managing partner at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Rand Realty in the New York metro area. Last year, the firm generated about $45 million in revenue, Rand said.
He spoke to a roomful of his colleagues at Real Estate Connect New York City today in a session called “Survival War Room for Brokers.”
“If your business model is aligned with what your agents value, you’ll be just fine. It really depends on you being a good operator and executing on that,” Rand said.
But ”sometimes there’s a disconnect between what agents want and what they should want,” he added.
For instance, his brokerage used to pay for personal assistants for their most successful agents. But then the industry changed and the agents didn’t need those assistants as much, so the firm allowed the agents to spend that money on marketing.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/01/15/the-golden-rule-to-profitability-for-brokers/?utm_source=20140116&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.Gw830cZN.dpuf