Category Archives: Chappaqua

Home Prices Reach 2003 Levels; Every Case-Shiller Market Posts Yearly Gain | Chappaqua Real Estate

Data through February 2013, released today by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed average home prices increased 8.6 percent and 9.3 percent for the 10- and 20-City Composites in the 12 months ending in February 2013. The 10- and 20-City Composites rose 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent from January to February.

All 20 cities covered by the indices posted year-over-year increases for at least two consecutive months. In 16 of the 20 cities annual growth rates rose from the last month; Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis and Phoenix saw slight annual deceleration ranging from -0.1 to -0.4 percentage points. Phoenix continued to stand out with an impressive year-over-year return of +23.0% while Atlanta and Dallas had the highest annual growth rates in the history of these indices since 1992 and 2001, respectively.

In February 2013, the 10- and 20-City Composites posted annual increases of 8.6 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.

“Home prices continue to show solid increases across all 20 cities,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The 10- and 20-City Composites recorded their highest annual growth rates since May 2006; seasonally adjusted monthly data show all 20 cities saw higher prices for two months in a row – the last time that happened was in early 2005.

“Phoenix, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Atlanta were the four cities with the highest year-over-year price increases. Atlanta recovered from a wave of foreclosures in 2012 while the other three were among the hardest hit in the housing collapse. At the other end of the rankings, three older cities – New York, Bostonand Chicago – saw the smallest year-over-year price improvements.

Inbound Marketing | Difference Between Tactics and Strategy | Armonk Realtor

Every marketer wants to open up the inbound marketing floodgates, or so they think. But, when you get down to doing inbound marketing what is tactical and what is strategic? This really begs the question: which inbound marketing tactics can you do relatively quickly and without too much effort versus those that require more effort but offer long term results potential?

Our parents taught us that anything worth doing is worth doing right. We were taught “if _____ was easy everyone would do it.” By no means am I suggesting that inbound marketing is easy. But, let’s look at some inbound marketing activities that might be considered tactical and those considered strategic.

Tactical Inbound Marketing

Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Some call this SEM. This involves setting up search marketing campaigns in Google Adwords or Bing whereby your ads are displayed for certain keywords for which you bid an amount you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Setting up one or two campaigns properly takes a matter of hours. Getting Google or Bing to approve them also takes hours. Generally within a day or two you can have a few PPC campaigns up and running. Some will argue that PPC is strategic. For those brands that make a serious commitment to PPC with ongoing monitoring and optimization it can be strategic. That said, PPC campaigns could be turned on and off based on need and budget.

Optimizing Current Your Website

Undergoing an “on page” optimization exercise of your existing website content is also tactical because it is focused on the existing content. Depending on the size of your website the effort may take days, or weeks or even months. The result may be improved discoverability of some of your website’s pages in search results, which could result in more traffic to your website.

Villa Sorriso: Robin Williams’ Napa Valley Estate for Sale | Chappaqua Homes

Hollywood comedian Robin Williams is interested in selling his massive Napa Valley estate, Villa Sorriso. The villa is on 653 acres and includes a 20,000-square-foot main house; solar farm; and 18 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc grapes.

Villa Sorriso is built atop the Mayacama Mountains, which separate the Napa and Sonoma valleys. The five-bedroom, 12-bathroom Italian villa was designed by David Gast & Associates and is faced with Portuguese limestone. The interior features formal living and dining rooms, a gourmet eat-in kitchen, and numerous temperature-controlled vaults for both wine and art storage. The kitchen is understated yet elegant, with stainless steel appliances surrounded by marble and butcher block counters. The living room is simple yet elegant, including a terrace with views of the estate.

No actor’s house would be complete without a state-of-the-art movie theater. The house also features five luxurious bedroom suites, each ornately adorned with contemporary trappings. Each bedroom has its own en suite bathroom and jaw-dropping views from every window.

In addition to 20,000 feet of interior living space, the grounds are truly the spectacle of the property. Steps from the master suite is a 65-foot, infinity-edge swimming pool surrounded by antique stonework and a multitiered sculpture garden, perfect for entertaining. Tennis courts, hiking trails, and a private lake complete with rowboat highlight the variety of different outdoor activities on the estate.

Consumer confidence gets revised up | Chappaqua Real Estate

The University of Michigan’s April consumer confidence survey results are out.

The headline index fell to 76.4 from last month’s 78.6 reading. However, the index reading is well above both the flash estimate published earlier this month and economists’ predictions for today’s release.

April Fools’ Day real estate roundup | Chappaqua Real Estate

On the first day of April each year, communities, businesses and news outlets come up with stories intended to fool, amuse, and, sometimes, satirize. Here’s a roundup of the posts Inman News came across in the residential real estate space today.

National Association of Realtors shutters Realtors Property Resource: If you’re a member of the National Association of Realtors, as of today, you no longer have access to, or are paying for, the funds-draining national property database Realtors Property Resource, according to Greg Robertson on his blog at Vendor Alley.

“Our long national nightmare is over,” said NAR CEO Dale Stinton, via a “quote” in a purported NAR press release shown on the blog.

Never fear, Realtors, the post says that NAR has decided to invest in another industry important to agents — cars. “Today’s cars aren’t designed for the average Realtor, so we thought we needed to do something about it,” said NAR President Gary Thomas in a “statement.”

Seattle broker launches homebuying tournament platform for listings: For those home sellers in Seattle who know that a playoff system is the best way to determine a winner (see college football), Seattle brokerage Findwell has launched a new “March Madness”-like bracket system that will help them find the best buyers.

Eight buyers –- six chosen based solely on ranking of initial offer price and two at-large bids — will be pitted against each other in three single-elimination rounds, Findwell explained in a blog post.

Home prices rise 17.9% in March In The Desert Sun | Chappaqua Real Estate

Realtor John Gonnello can attest to the fact that rising demand for low and moderately priced single-family homes and condos, coupled with falling supply, continue to push prices higher in the Coachella Valley.

Of the 22 Sun City Palm Desert homes he had listed featuring everything from vaulted ceilings and great rooms to open floor plans and golf course and mountain views, all but six have sold.

“There was a surge for about three weeks where it was just crazy,” said Gonnello, an agent with Windermere Real Estate. “It’s quieted down a bit, but now we’re starting to see activity build again.”

Gonnello’s experience is in line with two new real estate reports that show the valley’s median price rose by double-digits last month, the ninth straight month with such robust increases.

The valley’s median home price — half sold for more, half for less — jumped 17.9 percent year-over-year to $247,500 in March, following a 15.9 percent increase to $226,000 in February, San Diego-based real estate information provider DataQuick reported.

U.S. Gives Westchester Deadline to Comply With Housing Pact | Chappaqua Real Estate

Four years after Westchester County entered into a landmark desegregation agreement with the federal government, relations between the two sides are hanging by a thread amid federal threats of contempt suits and revocation of money. The showdown is raising unsettling echoes of the disastrous 27-year-long court fight over housing that virtually bankrupted Yonkers, the county’s largest city.

The United States Justice Department last week sent Westchester officials a letter saying that the county had failed to enact legislation prohibiting housing discrimination based on source of income as ordered by the settlement and by a federal court ruling. The letter said the Justice Department would seek a contempt ruling against the county and County Executive Robert P. Astorino if he did not comply by Thursday.

Additionally, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has said it will revoke $7.4 million in money allocated to Westchester and send it elsewhere if the county does not take steps to comply with at least two elements of the settlement by the same date.

With the deadlines looming, the Westchester County Board of Legislators voted 12 to 4 on Monday to authorize a lawsuit challenging HUD’s decision to take away the $7.4 million, which would have gone to support housing and community needs.

Mr. Astorino, a Republican who was elected after the settlement was reached and has made his opposition to elements of it a centerpiece of his administration, used his annual State of the County address on Tuesday to reiterate his stark differences with the federal government.

He accused the federal government of going beyond the original agreement, trying to undermine all zoning decisions in the county and making “outrageous” demands not in the agreement.

“Washington bureaucrats, who you will never see or meet, want the power to determine who will live where and how each neighborhood will look,” he said. “What’s at stake is the fundamental right of our cities, towns and villages to plan and zone for themselves.”

He added: “Westchester residents didn’t stop becoming American citizens the day the deal was signed in 2009.”

The complaints have vividly shown the tensions between Westchester and federal housing officials since the Obama administration and the county reached one of the most ambitious desegregation settlements in decades, after a discrimination ruling against the county in 2009. In the settlement, the county agreed to create 750 houses and apartments for moderate-income people in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market them to nonwhites in Westchester and New York City.

Mortgage rate hits record low | Chappaqua NY Homes

Mortgage rates continued to drop, with the 15-year fixed-rate loan hitting a record low, according to a weekly report from mortgage financier Freddie Mac.

The 15-year fixed rate fell to 2.61% this week from 2.64%, The previous record low of 2.63% was set the week of Nov. 21, 2012.

Elliman.com Releases North Fork 1st Qtr Results | Chappaqua Homes

Median sales price increased 12.1% to $469,000 from the same period last year.

Year-over-year gains were seen in all but the highest market quintile.

There were 78 sales in the first quarter, 17% fewer than in the year ago quarter and roughly

half the number of sales in the prior quarter tax-incentivized year end rush to close.

Listing inventory expanded 5.5% to 521 from the year ago period. The combination of falling sales and rising inventory slowed the pace of the market as measured by the monthly absorption rate which jumped to 20 months from 15.8 months although the first quarter tends to have the highest absorption rate of the year.

Listing discount, the percent difference between the list price at time of contract and the sales price,

expanded to 11.6% from 10.4% in the same period last year.

Days on market, the number of days from the last price change to the contract date,

averaged 229 days or 30 more days to sell a property than the same period a year ago.

www.elliman.com/marketreports.