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Category Archives: Lewisboro
Attorneys general request extended tax relief for distressed homeowners | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate
via housingwire.com
Republicans put fiscal cliff back in Obama’s court | Katonah NY Real Estate
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden just before the president’s Nov. 9 address on the state of the economy. White House photo by Pete Souza.
In a nation still blinking to post-election wakefulness, stick with domestic economics. Europe, the Middle East, China and Japan all have their stuff simmering near boil. But here matters most here. Fiscal cliff, then housing credit.
The strange presidential election was a double rope-a-dope. Mitt Romney assumed that no president would be re-elected in an economy as poor as this. President Obama assumed that a Wall Street fat cat deaf to the people would be unelectable in the Bubble aftermath. Roger that. Ten four.
Thus neither ran on anything new or noteworthy, but the Republicans absolutely got the message. They were lucky to hold the House, and must reformulate their whole painted-in-corner concept. Romney is deaf, but not the Republican leadership in Congress. These are tough, smart hombres; not attractive to mainstream civilians, but above all else they are survivors.
A new rope-a-dope began instantly after the election. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell without a peep of objection from the Tea Pots: “More tax revenue? Of course. We’re all-aboard.”
After several years of Republican tax intransigence, I doubt that the full impact of their dope-reversal has landed in the White House. Now avoiding the fiscal cliff depends entirely on the White House delivering Democrats on spending and entitlement cuts. A turn away from the cliff will require a majority of votes from both parties, as the hard left and hard right will not join any available compromise.
I am less optimistic than last week, if everything depends on Obama’s politicking with Congress. Good defense in the bunker won’t bring this one home.
This Thanksgiving, one person soars above all others deserving our gratitude: Ben Bernanke. He has delivered two speeches in the last week, separated by — and relevant to — a new panic at the FHA.
Last week Bernanke spoke at Operation Hope, next door to Martin King’s home church in Atlanta, and his remarks were devoted entirely to housing and mortgages. He opened by noting that lower-income and minority communities have suffered the greatest losses in the housing bust. Then to say the rate of homeownership has fallen to a 15-year low, and the extension of new mortgages the lowest since 1995. In post-Bubble credit tightening, “The pendulum has swung too far the other way.”
He then recited the remedies the Fed has described all year in a white paper and speeches. Plus one idea lost in all the oppressive and pointless rule-making, and new and incomprehensible “disclosures” — an opportunity for independent housing counselors to help borrowers who have skills less-developed than those of an MBA holder.
The day after he spoke, word leaked that to plug its losses the FHA will again jack its fees, probably to an annual 1.35 percent surcharge on new loans (near triple the rate in its first 75 years), and without waiver upon sufficient owner equity, a life-of-loan fee.
The damage will fall on the least of our brethren, the ones whom the FHA was designed to help. The FHA was the only lending entity not to loosen standards in the Bubble, caught by the misbehavior of others. As it prices itself from the field, it will have more trouble self-financing the sale of its foreclosures, and will weaken the overall market, I believe causing more net loss to itself than if it had left fees as-were.
Despite precision hits to core Obama constituencies, silence from White House and Treasury. Bernanke can see, but Obama and Geithner … Romneyesque.
Bernanke’s second speech repeated the housing credit-pendulum lines, and then addressed the cliff. The whole Western world (including Japan) is caught in the growth-austerity balance, fiscal sustainability versus budget-cut headwinds. Bernanke: “Fortunately, the two objectives are fully compatible, and mutually reinforcing.”
The nation needs cheerleading from somebody. In Europe and Japan the balance is mutually destructive, but here, with an active and brilliant central bank, we have a shot. We can still choose between overcooked breast and done dark, or moist white and icky thighs. Give thanks. Turkeys elsewhere are toast.
The Economic Cycle Research Institute’s weekly leading index is the longest-running, never-missed recession-caller. It is sticking to a recession call now 1 year old. Although confounded by the spring-summer rise in its index, it is rolling over again now. I think its forecast is overdone, but there is no mistaking its weakness as we approach the fiscal cliff, and the good news would be agreeing to the most profound budget and spending cuts ever in our history.
via inman.com
FHA changes won’t impact most buyers | Mt Kisco Real Estate
A bailout for FHA? Don’t bet on it.
And what’s the practical significance of the steps the agency announced last week to avoid a meltdown? What impact will they have for homebuyers and sellers who rely on FHA for affordable financing?
Less than you might think if you read some of the dire reports on Friday’s news: FHA’s capital reserve ratio to support its single-family and reverse mortgage programs plummeted to -1.44 percent, according to an independent audit, representing a negative economic value of more than $16 billion.
You may have also read that in response, the FHA plans to raise its annual mortgage insurance premiums from 1.25 percent to 1.35 percent early next year, and revoke new borrowers’ ability to cancel their premiums once their loan balances hit the 78 percent LTV level.
The agency also is going to expand pre-purchase counseling efforts for applicants with low credit scores and minimal down payments, and step up efforts to promote short sales to seriously delinquent owners who are likely headed for foreclosure.
Taken together, the changes don’t appear to be a big deal for most buyers who opt for FHA loans. In fact, you can argue that what’s not being changed is far more noteworthy than what is:
- Minimum down payments will still be 3.5 percent. The agency resisted demands that it boost the minimum to 5 percent.
- There will be no risk-based pricing on premiums, another demand by critics. FHA will continue to its one-price-for-all system in which low-risk borrowers essentially subsidize the premiums of higher-risk borrowers.
- Underwriting will continue to be generous on key items like debt-to-income ratios.
Whereas Fannie’s and Freddie’s automated underwriting systems cut off applicants who have back-end (total debt including housing) ratios much above 45 percent, loan officers tell me FHA sometimes allows them to push through back-end DTIs in excess of 56 percent, and even front-end (housing) ratios of more than 45 percent.
None of this is changing because, in the words of Bob Ryan, a senior adviser to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, “we don’t want to overreact” to an audit report that may have exaggerated the gravity of the agency’s situation.
The audit report used house price projections that did not reflect important gains in recent months, for example, and did not take full account of revenues being generated by the agency’s high-performing, low-loss recent books of insurance business.
David H. Stevens, immediate past FHA commissioner and current CEO at the Mortgage Bankers Association, told me it’s doubtful FHA will need a cash infusion next September from the Treasury because “they (the leadership at FHA) have all next year to replenish the fund” with additional tweaks to premiums, increasing the pace and productivity of REO dispositions, and restructuring the ailing Home Equity Conversion (HECM) reverse mortgage program to cut losses.
Continuing increases in home prices will help out a lot, since depressed home values in the 2008 and 2009 vintages of FHA originations have plagued the agency and created the bulk of its current problems.
The decision to retain the 3.5 percent minimum down payment was especially key, said Stevens. FHA can raise or lower premiums anytime, “but once you raise the down payment (minimum), that would be difficult to chip back.”
More importantly, raising minimum down payments would exclude large numbers of first-time buyers with good jobs who are solid credit risks, but simply lack the cash to make the type of down payments required in the conventional marketplace.
Turning away qualified applicants because they couldn’t come up with another 1.5 percent in down payment cash would be an abandonment of FHA’s traditional mission of opening the door to homeownership for moderate-income families, especially first-time purchasers and minorities.
In some local markets, FHA finances well over half of all purchase loans. In the first three months of 2012, it held around a 32 percent market share of new purchase loans nationwide.
Another step FHA didn’t announce last week but soon will: reining in seller concessions to buyers to help pay for closing costs and lender fees.
Seller concessions, like the now-prohibited seller-funded down payment assistance programs that were commonplace in 2004-2008, can distort transactions by cutting buyers’ initial stakes in the property to zero or even negative equity, and have been linked to losses to the insurance fund.
Though FHA has proposed a tiered system that would lower maximum contributions for many sellers to 3 or 4 percent and restrict the current 6 percent maximum to low-balance loans, it has not yet published a final rule.
When I asked FHA Commissioner Carol Galante on Friday for an estimate on the timing of the final rule, she rolled her eyes, lamented the frustrations of jumping through the bureaucratic hoops required to get a new federal regulation onto the street, and said “soon.”
This month? “No.” December? “I hope so.” But even when finalized, the rules will almost certainly give real estate brokers and lenders time to adjust.
So bottom line: 6 percent seller concessions are likely to be available for purchasers into the early first quarter of 2013. After that, they’re history.
via inman.com
The New Myspace According to Justin Timberlake | Mt Kisco NY Realtor
Although Facebook and Twitter currently dominate the world of social networks, their management probably understand all too well that today’s industry leader can be tomorrow’s joke. Just ask the early adopters and investors in Friendster about how that went. One social network that had all the visitors and content before Mark Zuckerberg’s company drew international attention was Myspace. Back in its heyday Myspace was the place to be, not only for friends and hopeful daters, but artists and musicians plying their wares as well. Myspace has since spectacularly faded away, and for the last several years was only useful for musicians with a core demographic of tween listeners. But last year Specific Media, an advertising network based in Orange County, California bought Myspace for a paltry $35 million, a sure steal of a company that once was worth upwards of $65 billion. And when music and film superstar Justin Timberlake announced he had purchased an ownership stake in the company, a real curiosity began to swarm around the site. On Thursday the first questions were answered, as Timberlake unveiled the first look at a redesigned Myspace, which he oversaw as a leading creative force.
If you remember anything about Myspace, you probably remember how unattractive it was. Pages were clogged with banner ads, and those die-hards who continued to use the site found that their postings landed in the equivalent of an online ghost town. Under Timberlake’s guidance the development team completely scrapped the old site and redesigned it from the ground up. That’s an important distinction, as the new ownership recognize it’s going to take a huge amount of work to turn public opinion about Myspace around. And according to Tim Vanderhook, the CEO of Specific Media, that’s exactly what they plan to do. He acknowledged the great skepticism they will face, and declared that their first mission is to show the online community exactly why they should revisit Myspace.
Based on the unveiled site and the core constituency Myspace was able to hold on to, this new mission will be continuing to help new artists connect with and win over fans. Once Myspace began losing users in droves to Facebook, this was really the only dynamic that still worked. In fact, a survey of users completed last year found that more than 50% of those left on Facebook were hoping to be ‘discovered’. And with Timberlake’s help, this is exactly what Myspace will be about.
The site will give users free music from independent artists, small record labels and the majors alike. Users will create profiles that help them discover music they will enjoy, and artists’ profiles will be designed to help them aggregate fans. And then fans and artists can personally interact, either through private messages or through a Myspace “Connect”, which is basically the same as a “Like” or “Follow” on the other social networks. According to Timberlake, the ease of interaction will empower artists to a sustainable future, and a closer relationship with their fans.
News from the test run of the website was generally positive. The magazine-style layout was clean and smooth, and the images were impeccable. The navigation bar has a music player built-in, and you can continue to listen to songs even as you browse the site. Upgraded browsing functions such as “Discover” will help you find specific types of music or music news, utilizing an algorithm based on your connections and browsing habits and a curated list of suggestions from the staff. There will be no ads whatsoever once the beta launch is complete, although Timberlake did leave the door open for advertisers to come on board. However, those ads will have to be seamlessly integrated in the site, meaning brands will have their work cut out for them if MySpace again becomes a player in the social media game.
via technozeast.com
Americans still dreaming of big, opulent homes | Katonah Real Estate for Sale
via inman.com
Existing-home sales and builder confidence rise | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate
The housing market recovery showed signs it is continuing to strengthen as sales of existing homes increased 2.1% in October from the previous month and a measure of home-builder confidence jumped in November to its highest level since 2006.
Sales of existing homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million last month, up from a downwardly revised 4.69 million rate in September, that National Assn. of Realtors reported Monday. Sales were up 10.9% in October from a year earlier.
Stronger demand helped push up the median home price nationwide to $178,600 in October, an increase of 11.1% from a year earlier, the group said. It was the eighth-straight month to show a year-over-year increase, the first time that’s happened since 2005-2006.
Fewer houses on the market also helped drive price increases. There were 2.14 million existing homes for sale in October, down 1.4% from September. That translates to a 5.4-month supply at the current sales rate, the lowest level since February 2006.
Sales by distressed homeowners still accounted for a large chunk of activity. Foreclosures and short sales made up 24% of October’s sales. That was the same level as in September, but down from 28% a year earlier.
Superstorm Sandy had some negative impact on sales, the group said.
The Northeast, which was hit hard by the storm, was the only region to show a decrease in sales in October from the previous month. Sales were down 1.7% there, while they increased 1.8% in the Midwest, 2.1% in the South and 4.4% in the West.
“Home sales continue to trend up and most October transactions were completed by the time the storm hit, but the growing demand with limited inventory is pressuring home prices in much of the country,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the Realtors group.
He expected more of an impact in the Northeast in coming months.
The improving housing market led to a boost in builder confidence, according to a measure released Monday.
The National Assn. of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose five points in November to 46 from the previous month. It was the seventh straight monthly increase, lifting the index to its highest level since May 2006, before the crash of the subprime housing market.
The index remained below 50, indicating that builders who view sales conditions as poor still outnumber those who view them as good. But the index is up sharply from its 19 reading a year ago, the home builders group said.
“Builders are reporting increasing demand for new homes as inventories of foreclosed and distressed properties begin to shrink in markets across the country,” said Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla., and chairman of the builders’ group.
“In view of the tightening supply and other improving conditions, many potential buyers who were on the fence are now motivated to move forward with a purchase in order to take advantage of today’s favorable prices and interest rates,” he said.
via latimes.com
Weekly Online Video News Round Up – Dead Camera Edition | Katonah NY Real Estate
On Monday we were on site for a night of shooting and the brand new, less than a month old, Canon 60D stops working and won’t start up. ARGH! A whole day lost. But that doesn’t mean you lose out on the weekly news round up. So here’s what’s what, who’s who and the hows and whys of what happened this week in online video.
Google Stomps Print!
During the first six months of 2012, Google generated more money in advertising revenue than all U.S. print publications combined. Google brought in $10.9 billion in ad revenue in this time period, while U.S. newspapers and magazines brought in $10.5 billion.
There are a couple caveats to this, however. First off, the data here factors in Google’s global ad revenue, rather than just the ad revenue it generates in the U.S., so it’s not entirely a fair comparison. Second, this analysis does not factor in revenue that comes from ads placed on newspaper websites.
Source: Mashable
YouTube Updates Android App For One-Tap Sharing To Google TV
Google has announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV that pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature work only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.
Source: Wired
Android Power!
Nearly three out of four smartphones in the world are now running on Google’s Android operating system, according to a report on third quarter sales released Wednesday.
Android now accounts for 72.4% of the market for smartphone operating systems, up from 52.5% in the period a year earlier. A big chunk of that gain was attributed to Samsung, which sold 55 million smartphones. The bulk of Samsung’s smartphones run on Android.
Source: LA Times
Vevo Expands Into Europe, Partners With Yahoo On Ads
Vevo, the music video website founded by music majors Universal and Sony, is to break into mainland Europe, launching in France, Spain, and Italy. Other markets where Vevo is available include the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.
The service, which is also backed by EMI Music, is aiming to attract music fans who currently watch hundreds of millions of videos each month via its channel on YouTube to its own Vevo.com website.
Source: The Guardian
Brightcove Cloud App Update
Open Plugin Architecture and Partner Integration
The new App Cloud plugin model makes it easy for developers to extend the native functionality that is built into App Cloud. Other hybrid app technologies offer native plugin capabilities, but developers soon find that the available plugins are frequently out-of-date, largely unsupported, and more trouble than they are worth. App Cloud developers can choose from a growing library of fully tested and fully supported App Cloud plugins, such as a native media uploader, native audio player, or in-app email composer, as well as plugins that integrate with third-party cloud services such as Google Analytics or comScore Digital Analytix.
Adding a pre-built plugin is as simple as copying a directory into their App Cloud project and including a JavaScript file. Brightcove’s cloud compilation service then automatically embeds the new functionality in the customer’s application and produces binaries ready for distribution through app stores. Developers will also be able to build custom native plugins of their own using the soon to be released App Cloud plugin development kit (PDK).
New Push Notification APIs
This release also delivers a significant expansion of App Cloud’s integrated support for push notifications. App Cloud developers can leverage a new set of client and server APIs to send individual push notifications to a particular app user or group users into custom-defined segments. For example, a news application could create segments focused on topical areas, allowing users to specify their interest in particular topics, while opting out of others. By targeting notifications by segment, developers can increase user engagement by notifying users only when content is relevant to their interests.
Availability
App Cloud’s new plugin architecture is now available to all customers, including users of App Cloud Core, the free open source version. The native media uploader and in-app email composer are built into version 1.12 of the App Cloud SDK. Additional free plugins, including the native audio player and Google Analytics plugins, are downloadable from the open source plugins repository hosted on GitHub. The comScore Digital Analytix and DRM plugins are currently expected be released later this year. The new push notification APIs are available immediately to customers with subscriptions to the App Cloud Pro or Enterprise editions.
AOL Expands Video Reach With Kaltura Partnership
The AOL On Network announced that it has partnered with Kaltura, the leading open source video platform. The partnership will make the entire AOL video library of more than 420,000 premium videos available to companies using the Kaltura Platform.
Kaltura’s publishers will be able to access and search the AOL video catalog, then add premium, short-form video to their own accounts. By having access to this massive repository, Kaltura publishers will be able to expand their own video library with more premium content, increase total inventory, and leverage a number of revenue options to boost revenues.
Source: Herald Online
Live TV Viewing Dips, Cross-Screen Digital Use Up
Live television viewing continues to lose ground — albeit slowly — as time-shifted programming and multitasking with smartphones and/or tablets gains ground. Nielsen’s new cross-media platform report shows live viewing in the second quarter of 2012 averaged 4 hours and 18 minutes a day, down five minutes a day from the second quarter of 2011.
Source: MediaDailyNewsYouTube Pairs Android With Google TV
On Tuesday, Google announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV. The feature pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature works only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.
Source: Wired
Encoding.com Updates
Universal Closed Captioning
The most powerful and flexible closed caption workflow in the market
Supporting closed captions is a critical component to expanding the size and demographic of your video’s audience. The FCC has now mandated that all content broadcast on television must include closed captions when delivered to Internet and mobile devices. Closed captions are delivered in many different formats and require a diverse set of tools to automate within your media workflow. We researched production broadcast workflows in detail and built a feature set that is more robust and flexible than any other on the market. Using the API, you can now extract, mux, or copy closed captions files in all major formats, including cea-608/708, DFXP, SAMI, SCC, SRT, TTML and 3GPP Time Text
Brand New User Interface
Our enterprise-grade API feature set is now available in the browser
While we have continuously innovated our API based feature set over the last 5 years we felt the industry was long over due for a professional video encoding workflow in the browser. After 9 months of intensive development, we are proud to announce a completely redesigned browser based toolset for professional video encoding in the cloud. New information architecture and a many new features are available including a complete management interface for vid.ly, universal video service,
Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader
Up to100x faster than FTP, powered by Aspera
Now you can rapidly upload batches of huge source files to the cloud with the Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader powered by Aspera. After the accelerated upload, you can configure multiple output renditions and delivery points using the Encoding.com web interface.
Source: Newsletter
WebM for Wii
Just when I thought WebM was dead…
YouTube launched its first-ever native Wii app Thursday, making it possible for users of the game console to watch videos without relying on the game console’s Opera browser. The Wii app looks somewhat similar to YouTube’s recently-launched PS3 app, with an interesting technical twist: Most videos consumed through it are streamed in Google’s WebM open video format.
Source: Gigaom
So YouTube is still using WebM on its backside transcoding it seems.
Optrix Expand Video Capture with New XD Sports Case Accessories
Product Highlights:
Glidepro – Hand Stabilizer
– Ideal to capture smooth and steady videos anywhere
– Eliminates the shakes typically associated with hand-held filming
– Utilizes same technology found in professional filmmaking equipmentDolly – Flexible Roller
– Ideal for tracking shots, time lapse, artistic work and capturing travel videos
– Large wheels provide smooth movement
– 11” adjustable arm allows for unique angles and positionsMonopod – Extendable Arm
– Ideal for self-portraits, high/low angles, self-videos and POV shots
– Extendable arm provides access to hard to reach camera angles and positions
– Lightweight portable design extends up to 3 ftFlex – Flexible Tripod
– Ideal for usage from unique angles, including poles, tree branches and more
– Flexible legs secure your XD Sport to virtually any surface
– Compact size makes it a perfect travel companion
via reelseo.com
