Category Archives: Bedford Corners NY

Home price gains continue to slow | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Home prices fell for the second consecutive month in December in another sign of a sagging real estate market, according to a closely-watched barometer.

December prices declined 0.1% from November based on Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index.

Year over year, the index was up 13.6%, but that was less than November’s annual gain.

Home prices showed monthly gains in only six cities in the 20-city index — Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

“The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index ended its best year since 2005,” says David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “However, gains are slowing from month-to-month and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over.”

The market was affected by cold weather in much of the country, strong gains in prices earlier in the year and interest rates that were higher than in the first half of 2013.

But the report adds more color to a picture of a slowing housing market. The National Association of Realtors reported last week that existing home sales for January fell to the lowest level in 18 months. And home building fell 16% in January from December, the government reported.

Some highlights for cities in the Case-Shiller Index:

• Phoenix showed a 0.3% drop in December, its largest decline since March 2011, ending a 26-month string of gains.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/25/dec-home-prices-case-shiller/5803101/

Smart alternatives to putting 20 percent down | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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These days, there are a number of alternatives to the 20 percent down payment, with some options requiring down payments of 3 to 5 percent, while others offer loans with 0 percent down.

Keep reading to learn more about these alternatives…

Alternative #1 – FHA Loan

If you’re a first-time homebuyer, consider a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan. It’s a type of federal assistance loan that allows lower-income Americans to borrow money to purchase a home they could not otherwise afford.

Buyers can get an FHA loan with a down payment as low as 3.5 percent of the purchase price, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“The FHA loan is designed to protect buyers from buying more house than they can afford,” says Paula Pant, founder of Afford Anything, a website that helps people reach their financial goals. “It limits buyers to spending no more than 31 percent of their gross monthly income on their total house payment. In other words, it protects buyers against making risky decisions.”

However, Pant says there is one drawback: Buyers will need to pay mortgage insurance as a result of not furnishing a 20 percent down payment.

“The cost of this insurance counts towards the total house payment, which is capped at 31 percent of a buyer’s gross monthly income. So, for example, if they earn $1,000 per month (gross), they can’t pay more than $310 per month towards all mortgage expenses, including the principal, interest, taxes and insurance, including PMI.”

 

 

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/alternatives-to-20-percent-down-003911752.html

Home prices rise as market recovers | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Median home prices in Carroll County are on the rise, along with average monthly payments, according to a national survey on home affordability released Wednesday by RealtyTrac, the nation’s leading source on housing data.

These findings are among many recent indicators that show the local housing market is recovering from the 2008 crash that sent values plummeting and flooded the area with foreclosures, said the president of the West Metro Board of Realtors.

“Overall the market is getting a lot more stable and consistent,” said Dwayne Hicks, West Metro president and a broker with Metro West Realty. “If a home is priced right, it’s going to sell. With the values coming back up, current homeowners can move up to a larger house. We’re seeing solid signs of this, with more people putting their homes on the market and getting them sold.”

Hicks said most of the inventory of foreclosed homes that was keeping the market prices down has been sold. He said investors are bidding prices up on the remaining foreclosures left.

The median Carroll County home value at the end of 2013 was $96,267, up from $66,667 at the end of 2012, a 44 percent increase.

Along with the higher home prices, the average monthly payment rose from $288 at the end of 2012 to $458 at the end of 2013, a 59 percent increase.

During the same time period, the average Carroll County rental cost for a three-bedroom home rose slightly, from $1,158 to $1,187.

“Our rental market climbed a little, but it didn’t pick up as much as rentals in other parts of the country because we have a big rental market here with the university,” Hicks said.

 

http://www.times-georgian.com/article_42de3404-99e6-11e3-8194-0017a43b2370.html

 

Scandinavian-Influenced Manse on the Sound Asks $18.5M | Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

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Location: Fairfield, Conn. Price: $18,500,000 The Skinny: Taking his cues from “large scale Scandinavian residential architecture” and Dutch dairy barns, architect Jason Chai worked with famed interior designer Stephen Sills to create Sasco, a modern waterfront estate which has been the subject of an extraordinarily precious Architectural Digest cover story. The 17,000-square-foot home—which sits at the top of an immaculately landscaped, 600-foot lawn that stretches all the way to the shore of the Long Island Sound—features wood-plank siding and a distinctive gambrel roof clad in zinc shingles. Inside the home, Chai worked to break up the cavernous volume into livable, human-scaled rooms, but much of the credit for the interior’s organic feel has to go to Sills and his idiosyncratic design choices. The six-bedroom home doesn’t necessarily forgo grand spaces, but with the exception of the large sitting rooms, smaller, high-ceilinged rooms are the rule here. Built for a cousin of the architect in 2003, Sasco is now on the market for $18.5M, representing a $2.5M PriceChop from what it originally listed for in September.

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/02/19/scandinavian-influenced-manse-on-the-sound-asks-185m.php

 

Mortgage Rates around 4.33% this week | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates up slightly for the second week in a row.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.33 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending February 20, 2014, up from last week when it averaged 4.28 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.56 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.35 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.33 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.77 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.08 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.05 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.64 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.57 percent this week with an average 0.3 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.55 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.65 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 links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Singapore Home Sales Post Slowest Start to the Year Since 2009 | Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

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Singapore’s home sales slid inJanuary, marking the slowest start to the year since 2009, asdevelopers sold fewer projects after property curbs crimpeddemand.

Home sales declined 72 percent to 565 units last monthcompared with 2,028 in the same period a year ago, according todata from the Urban Redevelopment Authority released today. Thenumber of units sold was the lowest in the month of Januarysince 2009, when 108 were sold in that month, the data showed.

More from Bloomberg.com: Kerry Burnishes Green Badge in Asia as Volcano Disrupts Trip

“There were very few projects marketed last month asdevelopers with smaller projects stayed away from the market onweak buyer sentiment,” said Alan Cheong, a Singapore-baseddirector at Savills Plc. Home sales in the quarter could be aslow as 1,000 units, he said.

The government introduced loan measures in June as itwidened a campaign that started in 2009 to curb speculation inthe Southeast Asian city. Singapore’s property market isstabilizing and the country isn’t facing a credit bubble thatputs the island or its banking system at risk of a crisis, thecentral bank said on Jan. 15.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/singapore-home-sales-post-slowest-054340020.html

Selling Your Home? Here Are 3 Tips to Minimize Capital Gains Taxes | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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To put it lightly, home prices tanked during the financial crisis. The S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index fell from from more than 200 to as low as 140, a decline of about 30 percent, and the 10-City index fell by about 33.4 percent. In a just a few years, home prices had lost pretty much every dollar of value they had added during a meteoric rise in the first half of the decade.

Odds are, if you own your home, the idea of a sale in recent years has been unattractive to you for exactly these reasons. The last thing you want to do during an economic recession or an anemic recovery is sell your home for a loss, so if they could, many people held on to their homes, hoping that prices and the market would recover.

The S&P Case-Shiller indexes haven’t yet recovered to their pre-crisis levels, but at 165.8 for the 20-City and 180.15 for the 10-City, they are each sitting at about 80 percent of their pre-crisis peaks. This is healing — if not outright health — in most major real estate markets, although at 79 percent of its pre-crisis peak, the national-level index is slightly weaker.

The time may be right to sell, and to hopefully sell at a gain instead of a loss. If this is the case, you can expect a fiscally weary Uncle Sam to reach out his hand and ask for a cut of the proceeds. Fortunately, there are a few provisions in the tax code that can help you pocket your profits and build your life wherever it is you move next. Click through to see a few tips to minimize capital gains taxes on the sale of your home.

 

 

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/selling-your-home-here-are-3-tips-to-minimize-capital-gains-taxes-2.html/?ref=YF