Whether you’re trying to convince your company that adopting inbound marketing is beneficial for business, or you’re hoping to get budget so you can start using a new inbound marketing platform, getting executive buy-in can be a challenge. In a world where people fear change and constantly try to minimize risk, bold, innovative solutions are often met with skepticism, if not disdain. Continue reading
The Caramoor Center for Music and Art of Katonah will be honored by ArtsWestchester at its Arts Awards luncheon on Friday, April 4 at the Westchester Marriott.
Caramoor Center will receive the Innovator Award for In the Garden of Sonic Delights, a large-scale outdoor sound art exhibition that runs from June through November 2014 at five sites in addition to Caramoor: Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill), Jacob Burns Film Center (Pleasantville), Lyndhurst (Tarrytown), the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College (Purchase), and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture (Pocantico Hills).
The project has been in development for more than five years and features 15 new site specific works by nationally-recognized artists including Laurie Anderson, Bruce Odland and Bob Bieleck.
The complete list of winners is on the ArtsWestchester website.
The awards luncheon will at the Westchester Marriott on April 4. A reception begins at 11 a.m. followed by luncheon at noon. Tickets, sponsorships and luncheon journal ads may be reserved by calling (914) 428-4220 x326 or emailing afabrizio@artswestchester.org
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/news/katonahs-caramoor-will-be-honored-artswestchester
Much like the rest of the country, America’s richest neighborhoods continue to evolve in terms of racial diversity.
In his latest Higley 1000, a list of the highest-income neighborhoods in the U.S., Stephen Higley, a professor emeritus of urban social geography at the University of Montevallo, found that the top neighborhoods are home to more Asian and Latino residents than ever before.
Higley ranked the most expensive neighborhoods in America based on American Community Survey 2006 – 2010 data. He aggregated contiguous block groups (subdivisions of Census tracts) with a mean income over $200,000. You can read his complete methodology here.
In the past year, the national foreclosure rate declined each month by at least 20 percent from where it had been the year before, according to the CoreLogic Market National Foreclosure Report from December. Additionally, the 12-month sum of completed foreclosures hit its lowest level since 2007.
The progress is encouraging ? about 837,000 homes in the United States were in a stage of foreclosure in December, down from almost 1.2 million in December 2012 ? but that’s still a lot of homeowners struggling to pay for their homes.
CoreLogic’s report puts the serious delinquency rate among U.S. mortgages at 5 percent in December, its lowest level since November 2008. Quarterly data from Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports and Experian’s IntelliView tool also show a smaller share of mortgages were delinquent. In the final quarter of 2013, the percentage of mortgages that were more than 90 days past due dropped from the previous year’s and the previous quarter’s levels, the reports said. The delinquency rate declined to 2.52 percent, down from 2.74 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 3.26 percent at the same time in 2011.
?Clearly, 2013 was a transitional year for residential property in the United States,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in the foreclosure report. ”Higher home prices and lower shadow inventory levels, together with a slowly improving economy, are hopeful signals that we are turning a long-awaited corner. The housing market should continue to heal in 2014, but we expect progress to remain very slow.?
Mortgage originations had been increasing year over year since the first quarter of 2012, but that momentum faltered in the third quarter of 2013, when new loans declined by about 110,000 from the previous year, according to Experian. Fourth-quarter data isn’t yet available.
http://www.realtor.com/news/last-years-foreclosures-hit-lowest-total-since-2007/
It’s taken several years, but in many parts of the country, home prices are nearly back to where they were at the peak. In places like Florida, where the housing recession hit hard, home prices rose last year by one-fifth or more.
A major factor in the price rise is hedge funds, private equity firms and other large investors. They’ve moved aggressively into the residential market over the past two years, buying tens of thousands of distressed properties, often at bargain prices.
Some analysts are worried that those bulk purchases will leave middle-class buyers out in the cold.
One place where investors have been very active is Florida’s Palm Beach County. Jeff Lichtenstein is a real estate agent there, and he’s busy. He’s listing and selling homes at a pace reminiscent of the go-go days of the last real estate boom back in 2005 and 2006. “I have 19 or 20 under contract right now, which is the most I’ve had at any given time,” he says.
Lichtenstein is currently showing a home he has listed in PGA National, a resort and residential development with more than 5,000 homes. It’s a community of palm trees, lakes, golf courses and manicured lawns.
“This was built in ’92 or ’93. Three bedrooms, three baths,” he explains as he shows off the house, which has a back patio looking out onto a golf course. “The view is what people come here to Florida for.”
The home is listed for $499,000, a bit below what it would have sold for at the peak, Lichtenstein says. But in Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas and parts of California, prices are rising fast. In South Florida, home prices climbed 21 percent last year.
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/286261937/big-investors-boosting-home-prices-and-not-everyones-pleased
It’s easy to get caught up in credit scores when considering a home purchase. But as lenders continue to loosen requirements, the need to have money in the bank doesn’t get any less acute.
Getting prescriptive about how much you need in savings to satisfy a mortgage lender is tough business. The answer can depend on a host of factors, from the type of mortgage and size of the loan to the property itself and more.
You’ll most likely need a solid chunk of change upfront to cover a down payment and closing costs. Lenders might also want to see a stockpile of “reserves,” which often translates to a certain number of months’ worth of mortgage payments.
The bottom line is that it’s tough to talk specifics about your bottom line. That’s why it’s important to get a solid understanding of your mortgage options and seek clear guidance from lenders.
Credit scores are critical, but so are income and assets when you’re applying for a home loan. Here are some of the important savings you’ll need to accumulate first.
Down Payment Needs
Down payments are inescapable for the vast majority of non-cash homebuyers. Outside of state or local programs, only government-backed VA and USDA rural development home loans allow qualified borrowers to purchase with no money down.
Conventional and FHA loans typically require minimum down payments of 5% and 3.5%, respectively. On a $200,000 mortgage, that’s $10,000 for conventional and $7,000 down for FHA. But buyers often put even more skin in the game.
Conventional borrowers last month had an average loan-to-value ratio of 80%, according to mortgage software firm Ellie Mae. For FHA loans, it was 95%. That means buyers are putting down an average of 20% for conventional loans and 5% for FHA loans.
Existing homeowners often have an advantage because they’re able to put the proceeds of a home sale toward a new purchase. It can take first-time buyers years to scrape together enough money for a down payment.
That’s partly why home sales among first-time buyers hit their lowest point last month since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the figure in October 2008.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kind-savings-mortgage-110023166.html
The clear advantages of paying off your mortgage as quickly as possible have changed quite a bit over the past few years. The urgency to pay it off has somewhat diminished, as interest rates have plummeted to historical lows. It’s no longer the black and white decision it was back when interest rates hovered between 6% and 9%, and even the 11% to 13% we saw a couple of decades ago.
I am a big proponent of paying down that ugly mortgage beast as soon as is practical. But, before you go cutting a check to the bank, there is a pecking order of financial priorities you need to address before you consider tackling your mortgage.
In order of importance, here are the places you need to put your financial attention first:
Take The Cards Off The Table: Pay off all credit cards with high interest rates. Consider the huge discrepancy between credit cards with interest rates of 13% – 23%, and a 4% mortgage interest rate.
In Case Of Emergency: You need to build an emergency fund, ideally 8-12 months of living expenses. Yes, today’s job market is improving, but if you suddenly find yourself facing a layoff, you need to be prepared to sustain up to one year of living expenses.
Build Up For Retirement: Are you able to make the maximum yearly contributions to your retirement accounts, 401K, IRA or an equivalent? Ask your accountant what the maximum allowable is for you and go for it!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/03/12/when-to-pay-off-mortgage/6327487/
Location: Atlanta, Ga. Price: $3,250,000 The Skinny: Though Atlanta has played host to plenty of culturally important events, including the Olympics, the first season of the Walking Dead and, of course, the canonical live recording of Free Bird, the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind was such a huge milestone for the city that any association with it is trumpeted to this day. That’s the case with this 1935 home in the Peachtree Heights district of Buckhead, which the BrokerBabble claims hosted the cast party for the film. And it might very well have, though the homes where Clark Gable is said to have been fêted approaches the number of homes wherein George Washington purportedly lay down his wigged, weary head for a nap. Designed by Atlanta firm Cooper and Cooper, it’s all classical symmetry and reassuringly staid formalism (a combination the dim echoes of which can be seen in McMansion developments across the Sunbelt), while the decor veers queasily between traditional (downstairs) and blandly contemporary (upstairs). It’s asking $3.25M, which includes almost two acres of beautifully landscaped grounds that Vivien Leigh might have strolled through.
For all the hoops real estate agents have to jump through in order to secure a highly-coveted listing, it may seem crazy to say, but the truth is: Sometimes a listing just isn’t worth it. Before you take on a property you’re not sure about, ask yourself if it falls under one of the categories below. If it does, it’s probably not worth your time or trouble, so it’s a smart move to back away before it’s too late.
Instead, focus on the listings that you know will be a great partnership between you and the seller and lead to a successful sale. And remember, a listing that isn’t the right fit for you is the perfect chance to make a referral to one of another trusted agent in your network. You’ll avoid a situation that will cost you more time and money than it’s worth, and you’ll build goodwill within your own network.
Here are five red flags to look for that will let you know when it’s okay to say, “No way!” to a listing.
A seller might want to list a property right away—before all of its challenges are solved. And when a property is listed before issues are resolved, it will stay on the market longer, negatively affecting the selling price and wasting your time and marketing budget.
When there are known issues like repairs, zoning restrictions, or environmental hazards that pose obstacles to a smooth closing, you need to ask yourself if you have the qualifications and time to deal with them. If you’re not, tell the property owner they need to bring in the appropriate experts first.
In certain cases, the person who presents himself or herself at the seller might not actually be authorized to sell the property, so it’s up to you to clear up any murky issues before taking on a listing. In instances of divorce, find out who the legal decision maker is and whether both parties must sign.
