Category Archives: Katonah

For People Of Color, A Housing Market Partially Hidden From View | Katonah Real Estate

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We’ve written before about the wealth gap between whites and people of color — a divide that’s only grown wider over the past half decade. And since so much of Americans’ household wealth is wrapped up in homes, a significant amount of that wealth gap has been chalked up to an array of barriers to homeownership for people of color.

 

Here’s another sobering data point to that end: A new study has found that blacks, Latinos and Asians looking for homes were shown fewer housing options than whites who were equally qualified. And fewer options meant higher housing costs.

 

The study, conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Urban Institute (a nonpartisan think tank in Washington) used a method called “pair testing.” Two people — one person of color and one white person — called and then visited a real estate office to ask about an available property for rent or sale. Both of the pair testers told real estate agents that they had about the same income, assets and employment. Both testers were greeted politely and given appointments to look at properties. But whites were told about and shown more units. They were also more likely to be offered lower rent than their testing partners.

 

According to the study, the problem wasn’t regional but national. The researchers said they did this more than 8,000 times in 28 different metropolitan regions.

 

Here’s how their findings broke down:

 

Black renters learned about 11 percent fewer rental units, and black homebuyers were shown about a fifth fewer homes.

Asian renters learned about 7 percent fewer rental units, and Asian homebuyers saw about a fifth fewer homes.

Latino renters learned about 12 percent fewer units. (Interestingly, the study found that there was not a statistically significant difference in the way whites and Latino homebuyers were treated.)

“Those most serious and severe door-slamming kinds of discrimination aren’t happening so frequently,” said Margery Turner of the Urban Institute. “But it’s disappointing to conduct a study on housing discrimination in 2012 and find that it still persists.”

 

The researchers also found that “minority homeseekers whose ethnicity is more readily identifiable” were more likely to be discriminated against.

 

For People Of Color, A Housing Market Partially Hidden From View | WWNO.

Photo giant Instagram integrates video, brings exciting new element to real estate | Katonah Realtor

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Photo giant Instagram has been a steadfast favorite for budding and professional photographers from around the world. The real estate community has had a colorful presence among the photos in the Instagram community, many of whom create large followings, close deals, lead generate and connect with other local residents. From listing photos, community landmarks and hot spots, the creative filters give agents a social edge, and can even show off their creative branding with their followers, creating a visual brand.

Today the announcement came that Instagram has integrated video in its latest update, allowing users to create up to 15 seconds of video, with the availability of its filter tools, video stabilization and social sharing. It is a strategic move to keep and capture its large user base, as well as sway current Vine app users away from their six-second GIF-creation platform.

It still remains to be seen, but based on the Twitter chatter, many in the social sphere are excited about the features to Instagram, as many already have quite a following on the platform. Real estate marketers might find this easier to work into their photographic workflow, as well as have some new creative ideas on how to use video to market themselves or their communities. The brilliant connections that photography can inspire now has a 15-second bigger chance in video.

Jay Thompson, director of social media and industry outreach of Zillow, noted, “I’m sure there will be “InstaVideos” of listings flooding the Interwebs soon, but does 15 seconds really do a home justice? Now if one were to get creative, I can see some cool uses for sharing community stuff. Could be a catchy and fun way to show off certain community aspects.”

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and if Vine will be considered a tight competitor or stand on its own. Vine hasn’t quite taken off in the real estate community as a viable real estate marketing platform, but Instagram may force users to decide.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/photo-giant-instagram-integrates-video-brings-exciting-new-element-to-real-estate/#sthash.N24K8jG2.dpuf

 

Photo giant Instagram integrates video, brings exciting new element to real estate | Inman News.

Increasing mortgage rates will not ruin the housing recovery | Katonah Real Estate

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Although the era of low mortgages rates are beginning to dwindle away, the housing market is still projected to keep recovering, an article in CNN Money said.

The article explains that higher mortgage rates will not derail the housing market for three reasons.

First, interest rates alone do not drive up home prices, with additional factors like unemployment factoring in.

Additionally, investors armed with cash played a large part in the recovery by buying a lot of foreclosed properties with cash, foregoing the need for a mortgage.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates are still low historically.

Rates are close to what they were in Spring 2012, and people thought the rates were amazingly low then, the article said.

 

Increasing mortgage rates will not ruin the housing recovery | HousingWire.

Arnold Schwarzenegger sells former Pacific Palisades home | Katonah Homes

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Designed in a Mediterranean style typical of homes in the area, the 10,000-square-foot villa is located at the end of a long gated driveway, reported Zillow.

It was built in 1982 but has been remodeled since, with a total of 9 bedrooms, 9.5 baths, a large pool, cabana and championship-size tennis court. The grounds, spanning 2.48 acres, include expansive lawns, gardens and a duck pond. The property also provides direct access to Will Rogers State Historic Park horse trails and polo fields, according to Zillow.

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger sells former Pacific Palisades home | HousingWire.

April home prices rise at a faster pace | Katonah Real Estate

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U.S. home prices continued their upward trajectory in April, rising 0.7% from March, according to data from the latest FNC Residential Price Index. The gain in April marks the largest price appreciation since June 2012, due largely to rising demand in the spring and summer.

More credit availability, interest rates that remain low despite quickly rising and low home prices are driving forces behind the housing recovery. Rising interest rates have most likely drawn out additional pent-up demand. 

Foreclosure activity continued to decline, with distressed sales making up only 16% of total home sales, down from 17.8% in March and 21.6% a year earlier, FNC noted.

When analyzing non-distresses properties in the 100 largest metropolitan areas, the FNC 100-MSA composite index reveals that April home prices increased faster when compared to previous months.

Year-over-year, home prices rose 4.6% in April. For months, the indices have been revised downward, resulting in more moderate annual price accelerations.

Of the component markets tracked by the FNC 30-MSA composite index, 25 showed higher prices in April, with home prices up 1.0% or more in nearly a third of the markets.

 

April home prices rise at a faster pace | HousingWire.

The Del McCoury Band Leads Caramoor Music Festival | Katonah NY Real Estate

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KATONAH, N.Y. – The Del McCoury Band will headline Carmoor’s American Roots Music Festival on Saturday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Venetian Theater.

The festival is a a daylong celebration of folk, string band, country, blues, gospel, and bluegrass music. The concert will mark the world premiere and the only New York performance of The Del McCoury Band’s new project, “Del & Woody” featuring unheard and unsung words of Woody Guthrie set to music by the bluegrass musician.

The American Roots Music Festival is appropriate for all ages.  Picnicking is encouraged. Festival-goers can bring their own picnic, purchase food or beverages on site or order a picnic in advance for pick-up at Caramoor by calling Great Performances at 212-337-6055 or visiting www.greatperformances.com/caramoorpicnics. 

Tickets for the festival range from $35-$55. Children under 18 are half price. To order tickets, call the box office at 914.232.1252 or visit www.caramoor.org.

 

The Del McCoury Band Leads Caramoor Music Festival | The Bedford Daily Voice.

California home prices soar to new highs | Katonah Real Estate

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California home prices increased by the most in 33 years as a result of strong sales growth in higher-priced markets and continued housing supply shortage, pushing up median home prices in May, the California Association of Realtors said.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 431,370 units, the report noted.

Meanwhile, sales were up 1.9% in May, up from a revised 423,420 units in April, but down 3.6% from a revised 447,530 last year.

The statewide figures represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2013 if sales maintained the May pace throughout the year and is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that influence home sales, CAR explained.

“It’s encouraging to see median home prices across most parts of the state continuing to recover. The Bay Area, in particular, has been experiencing strong price appreciation, thanks to the region’s robust economic growth, extremely low housing inventory, and an increasing demand from international buyers,” said CAR President Don Faught.

He added, “San Francisco County’s median home price, for example, increased 28% from last May and has just surpassed its previous record high reached in May 2007.”

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home rose to $417,350 in May, up 3.6% from $402,706 in April and also rose 31.9% from the previous year, marking 15 straight months of annual price increases, CAR noted.

The year-over-year increase was the highest since at least 1980, when CAR began tracking the data.

 

California home prices soar to new highs | HousingWire.

Survey: 64% of millennials worry about buying a home | Katonah Real Estate

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Of millennials aged 18 to 34, 64% express some level of worry that they will have trouble affording their rent or mortgage, according to a survey by Think Finance.

Additionally, the same percentage worry that they will never be able to buy a home, the Fort Worth, Texas-based analytics firm found.

The survey was conducted online among 1,021 Americans by Harris Interactive, on behalf of Think Finance. 

 

 

Survey: 64% of millennials worry about buying a home | HousingWire.

Inventories Hit Ten Month High | Katonah Real Estate

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As the spring home buying season transitions into summer, month-over-month inventories are rising faster than they were as sellers respond to price increases at a faster pace than earlier in the buying season.  On a national basis, both list prices and Inventories rose in last month, according to Realtor.com’s May data.

Inventories have risen by about 25 percent since the beginning of the year, signaling a potential end to a sellers’ market and a greater balance between market supply and demand. The monthly increases in the for-sale inventory that took place in the past two months are among the highest observed since Realtor.com has been collecting these data.

In May the inventory deficit fell to 10.11 percent on a year-over-year basis.  Realtor.com’s inventory (1,852,740) was larger in May than it has been in ten months.

“We are seeing large regional markets across the country leading the way to national recovery. These regions are acting as a microcosm for what’s slowly happening in the larger real estate market,” said Steve Berkowitz, chief executive officer of Move. “Overall, we’re seeing seller confidence beginning to respond to consumer demand. Nationally, there are more homes going on the market for a shorter amount of time.  And this is happening in our hot markets on a much larger scale.”

The nationwide median list price rose to $199,000 in May, the highest level since mid-2009. On a year-over-year basis, the median list price was up by almost 5 percent. At the same time, the average age of the for-sale inventory dropped on both a monthly and year-over-year basis, reflecting a surge of new property listings.

The median age of the inventory fell to 79 days in May, down by 2.47 percent over the month and by 13.19 percent on a year-over-year basis.  It’s the youngest median age of inventory ever reported by Realtor.com.

Super-heated markets are in the process of cooling down as a surge in recent listings is a greater balance between supply and demand.  For example, the month-over-month median list price increase in the top 10 markets in the nation, which includes 7 California markets, dropped from an average of 7 percent in April to just 3 percent in May, while the size of their for-sale inventories rose by an average of 13 percent.

On a year-over-year basis, median list prices in May were up by 1 percent or more in 103 of the 146 MSAs covered by Realtor.com, and were up by 5 percent or more in 71 MSAs.  Only 3 markets experienced a decline of more than 5 percent.  These results represent a steady improvement since the beginning of the year, with an increasing number of markets registering increasingly larger list price gains.

Inventories Hit Ten Month High | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

How to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Return on Investment | Katonah Realtor

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Have you ever been asked to show the return on investment (ROI) for your social media work?

Have you had trouble giving an exact number to explain your ROI or even set quantitative goals for your social media?

25% of marketers said that their biggest marketing challenge was finding the ROI of their marketing activities.

In this article, I’ll show you how to tweak some of your social media actions with your business goals in mind and make them easier to tie to your ROI.

#1: Use Social Media to Promote Your Offers

Social media is an important channel to promote any content you create. Whether you’ve created an ebook, blog post, webinar or white paper, you should promote it through social media.

Tap into your social audience whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,Google+ or Pinterest.

sme tweet

Social Media Examiner uses Twitter to share content and generate traffic.

As you can see on Twitter, it’s important to link to all of your content with your tweets. And remember to include hashtags to gain further visibility on Twitter.

For other social channels such as Facebook or Google+, take advantage of the visual real estate you have and include an engaging photo.

facebook update

Social Media Examiner adds the image of the report on a Facebook update.

On LinkedIn, post your content in marketing groups that are discussing similar marketing principles.

Is one of your goals for your business to engage potential prospects on social media? Then you’ll want to make sure you use each social media platform in the best way to connect with them.

#2: Tag Your URLs so You Know They Come from Social

Part of tying your social media efforts to ROI is to understand what actually comes from social media. You may be promoting an offer across multiple channels, but without understanding if it’s successful or unsuccessful through social media or another channel, it’s hard to plan future campaigns.

One way to attribute campaigns to social media is to tag the URL so you know it comes from social.

In the example below, you can see that the link was promoted on social media because of the UTM tags in the URL line at the top that say “twitter” and “social.”

buzz feed

Link to landing page coming from social.

A UTM tag allows you to add identifying information to your URL that will help youkeep track of the source the link is coming from. By doing this, you’ll be able to properly track what comes from social media vs. other channels.

Is one of your goals to understand how your social media is working for you? Then you’ll want to be sure to track the traffic that comes from social media to see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked.

#3: Survey Your Customers About How They Found You

Another way to find out where your customers are first hearing about your company is through surveys. Include a question that asks how your customers found your company at strategic points of contact. This will help you find out where your visitors first found your company.

In the image below from Born Free, you can see the options for their survey.

survey question

Here’s an example of a survey that answers the question “How did you hear about us?”

Of course, when you gather this information from your customers, you can use it to tie into measuring your social media ROI. And it can also be helpful when planning which marketing resources should be used more heavily.

Is one of your business goals to get more leads from social media? Then be sure toinclude a tracking mechanism, such as asking your clients where they first heard about you.

#4: Use Google+ to Influence Your SEO Presence

Don’t forget about using one of the newest social media platforms, Google+. SEO consultants have proven that having a presence on Google+, Google Places andGoogle Authorship can help your SEO. And good SEO translates into better online visibility for your business.

In the case of Google Authorship, your content (especially when you upload a picture) may appear at the top of search engine results.

Here’s an example. Twitter announced that it’s opening its advertising platform to all users in the United States. When you search for “social media twitter advertising,” the first article to appear after a New York Times article and sponsored results is an article that is pulled in from Google+ with an image.

search results

Search results for “social media twitter advertising.”

Also, remember Google pulls in data from social media to make sure that its results are also influenced by social activity.

Appearing higher up on the page on Google’s search results directly influences your business ROI because most people do not click past the first page on Google results. Having your results appear there will drive more traffic to your website.

Is one of your business goals to get more web traffic? Then you’ll want to optimize your presence on Google’s platforms and track how visible your business is in their search engine results.

Use the best social media tactics to tie activity to your ROI.

Remember, you don’t want to fall into thinking that social media is a panacea to cure all of your business’s problems. And don’t expect to see immediate results.

 

How to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Return on Investment | Social Media Examiner.