Category Archives: Lewisboro

Consolidated Edison rate freeze announced | Katonah NY Real Estate

New York officials say Consolidated Edison Co. has agreed to a two-year freeze in electric delivery rates and a three-year freeze in gas and steam distribution rates starting in 2014.

The settlement proposal, pending approval by the state Public Service Commission, could result in rate decreases for some commercial and industrial customers.

The joint proposal recommends spending $1 billion to make more resilient the company’s electric, gas and steam systems.

Con Edison said lower financing costs and other savings will help offset rates, with most customers seeing little change, and will also fund its program to harden equipment against storms.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140102/ECONOMY/140109995

Recovery Remains Uneven as Cities Spared in Bust Soar, but Many Others Struggle | Katonah Real Estate

Home prices have zipped back into record territory in a handful of American cities, a milestone that comes seven years after the housing bust ravaged the market and the broader economy.

Values are up more than 13% from their 2007 high in Oklahoma City and by more than 6% in the Denver metro area. Prices are back to all-time highs in 10 of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of price data from Zillow, an online real-estate information service. Prices are within 5% of their previous peak in San Jose, Calif.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Dallas.

Prices nationally remain below the highs of the past decade, and many of the cities that have seen the biggest gains largely escaped a boom and bust.

Home prices in some parts of the country that did experience a bust have benefited from low supplies of homes for sale and historically low interest rates that have boosted prices—and sparked concerns that prices could again be overvalued.

The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation, but experts say they underscore the uneven nature of the U.S. housing recovery.

“The main story in a lot of these places is that they didn’t have much of a housing recession. It’s much easier to be back at peak levels when you didn’t have a big boom and bust,” said                                     Stan Humphries,                                 chief economist at Zillow.

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304202204579256620643694940

 

 

 

 

3 fighting bid-rigging charges at California foreclosure auctions | Katonah NY Real Estate

Two California real estate investors and an auctioneer who were indicted more than two years ago for allegedly conspiring to rig bids at real estate foreclosure auctions in San Joaquin County are finally headed to trial next month, where two other investors who have submitted guilty pleas in the case are likely to called as witnesses.

Anthony B. Joachim of Stockton pleaded guilty today to conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud, prosecutors said. Investor Wiley C. Chandler had already submitted a guilty plea.

Auctioneer W. Theodore Longley and investors Andrew B. Katakis and Donald M. Parker are fighting the allegations. Their trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 28.

Prosecutors said they’ve obtained 11 guilty pleas in an ongoing investigation of bid rigging and fraud at real estate foreclosure auctions in the Eastern District of California, a vast area of the state that stretches from the Oregon border in the north to the Tehachapis in the south and from the Coastal Range in the west to the Nevada Border in the east.

Last month the Department of Justice and the FBI said an ongoing investigation into bid rigging in Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties has netted 38 guilty pleas. Source: fbi.gov.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/another-calif-defendant-pleads-guilty-for-foreclosure-auction-fraud/?utm_source=20131231&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.3Wptidgl.dpuf

Real estate prices in Ukraine will go down soon | South Salem NY Homes

A gradual decline of price growth rate in the residential real estate is to be expected in Ukraine in the near future with possible further decrease of the prices, said the director of SHM Smith Hodgkinson Dmitry Selivanov at a press-conference in Kiev, a REGNUM correspondent reports.

According to the expert, processes which are taking place in Ukraine now, have already taken place in the Baltic countries in due time, where real estate prices reached their ceiling, stopped, and then went down by 10-20%. “We will see the same processes in Ukraine within the following year too. It concerns both Kiev and other big cities, where real estate makes profit,” said the expert and added that everything would depend on stability of the macroeconomic situation in the country and on inflation rates.

The reason of the prices going down, the expert believes, is the too overstated price for real estate. “Because, now many apartments are used not on purpose, not as a residential place, but as an object for investing. Rather than investing in banks or bond-like papers, Ukrainians invest  in the real estate,” Selivanov marked. He also expressed an opinion that most perspective for building in Kiev today is the territory of the left bank and in the suburbs, which is caused by a coming transport collapse on the right bank.

 

http://regnum.ru/english/1004619.html

 

San Francisco real estate boom | Cross River NY Homes

“December feels slightly break-neck. There are fewer deals to be had but we are seeing substantial overbidding,” said Blase.

 

“It is wonderful for a real estate agent. It can be tough for my buyers.”

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, buying a house in San Francisco costs 52.8 percent more than in March 2009, at the bottom of the real estate collapse.

 

The average price rise in major U.S. cities during the same period is 18.3 percent. The median U.S. home price is $169,000, according to RealtyTrac. In San Francisco, it’s up to more than $900,000.

 

That has sparked protests by San Franciscans who say well paid tech workers are pushing others out of their homes.

 

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has been a target of the protestors. Not everyone approved of the tax breaks he offered Twitter to move some 800 workers into a headquarters building near the city center.

 

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-francisco-real-estate-boom-taller-buildings-steeper-prices/

Home sales leveling off | Katonah NY Real Estate

The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy existing homes in November
was essentially unchanged from October, suggesting sales are stabilizing after
several months of declines.

The National Association of Realtors said
Monday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index ticked up to 101.7
from 101.5 in October. The October figure was revised lower from an initial
reading of 102.1.

Higher mortgage rates and strong price gains over the
past two years have slowed sales. The pending home sales index had fallen for
five straight months before November. And completed sales of existing homes fell
for three straight months, the Realtors said earlier this month. There is
generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed
sale.

“Bottom line, it’s clear that the rise in mortgage rates slowed
the pace of improvement in the housing market in addition to double digit price
increases and tough lending standards, which have put a pause particularly on
those buying a home with a mortgage,” said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst
with The Lindsey Group, in a research note.

The average interest rate on
a 30-year mortgage edged higher to 4.48 percent last week, from 4.47 percent the
previous week. Rates jumped about 1.25 percentage points from May through
September, peaking at 4.6 percent.

 

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-sales-leveling-off/

Pierre Penthouse Now Costs $95M After $30M Price Cut | South Salem NY Homes

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One of the Real Estate Things To Watch in the coming year was going to be the competition between the city’s five listings asking $100 million or more. But one of those listings, the $125 million penthouse atop the Pierre Hotel owned by the widow of stock investor Martin Zweig, has already dropped out of the $100 million race, cutting its price by $30 million, down to a paltry $95 million. Despite the 24 percent discount, if the residence got its full ask it would still set a city record, and remains a long shot. But an impressive long shot nonetheless, encompassing the three top floors of the famous hotel, with 16 rooms including the living room, which, according to the brokerbabble, “is considered the most magnificent privately owned room in the world.” It carries monthly charges of $42,720.