Dustin Hoffman sells Upper West Side pad for $21M | Mt Kisco Real Estate
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Top 5 trends from the 2014 Builders’ Show | Mt Kisco NY Homes
Some 75,000 builders, designers, remodelers, and more descended on Las Vegas last week for the 2014 International Builders’ Show. For the first time ever, the show shared the stage with the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. Add in a steadily improving housing market, and there was plenty of pep on the floor of the convention center. There was also a lot of ground to cover, including 1,220 exhibitors spread across 650,000 square feet. Our editors and market analysts managed to identify the key themes and hottest products. If you’re considering a move, a remodel, or a brand new home, be sure to take note.
Speedy appliances. Pressed for time during meal prep? We saw a bevy of appliances that could short cut the process, including the pricey Viking Professional TurboChef Double Oven, which uses the same high-speed cooking technology used in places like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. Viking claims the commercial unit can cook food 15 times faster than conventional ovens. It should be out in late 2014 for over $10,000.
If that’s not in the budget, consider a new steam oven, which Bosch CEO Michael Traub called a “key ingredient of the changing American kitchen.” Besides faster cooking, the roughly $3,000 Bosch Benchmark Steam Convection is being promoted as a healthy compliment to your conventional oven, one that will preserve nutrients, flavors and colors in food and retains moisture. See how other new steam ovens did in Consumer Reports’ tests, as well as additional tips for creating a time-saving kitchen.
When it comes time for clean up, Electrolux has a new QuickWash dishwasher with a 30-minute quick cycle that claims to get dishes just as clean as a normal cycle. And for your laundry room, Electrolux also featured a matching washer and dryer that it says can clean two outfits in less than 30 minutes.
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/top-5-trends-2014-builders-show-193000338.html
How to sell a home, despite winter wonderland | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate
Inch upon inch of snow is piling up, and the desire to stay home curled up by the fire is becoming harder to turn away from: welcome to winter.
But despite continued snow flurries, home shopping is still growing.
According Zillow’s (Z) latest report, the online real estate marketplace reached a record number of unique users in January 2014, soaring to 70 million.
So how can real estate agents capitalize on this secret fountain of potential homeowners?
Zillow Real Estate Expert Brendon DeSimone outlined three tips for sellers and agents looking to sell a home during winter season.
One of the biggest points DeSimone emphasized was the need to have strong online photos of your house. Especially during the winter, buyers are shopping online all day.
“Nowadays, you only have one shot to make a good impression, which is your web appeal,” DeSimone explained.
Before, a seller would only have to worry about whether the house had good curb appeal.
“Now your first impression is on the web. Spend as much time and money for the photo shoot as you would for the first open house,” he said.
This Nazi resort never opened, but it will be a luxury vacation spot | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate
On the picturesque beaches of the northern German island of Rügen, along the Baltic Sea, sits an empty 20,000-person resort. The buildings stretch nearly three miles down the coast, with all 10,000 rooms facing the beautiful bay just 500 feet from the water’s edge. Yet, no one ever used the rooms, movie theater or planned swimming pools.
Prora, known by locals as The Colossus, was built from 1936-1939 as part of the Nazi program of “Strength Through Joy.” The plan was to house workers in eight identical six-story buildings, feed them catered meals in scheduled seatings, and prepare them through propaganda and social activities to do their part in Hitler’s plan for Germany. It was also one of the largest architectural projects of the time, with 9,000 workers. The design, done in a Bauhaus style, won a Grand Prix award at the 1937 Paris World Exposition.
But the Nazi resort plans never came to fruition. The outbreak of World War II meant the project was never finished as construction workers headed to the weapons factories instead.
But finally, some plans are moving forward to turn some of the buildings into luxury apartments and vacation rentals.
http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/nazi-resort-never-opened-luxury-vacation-spot-224346831.html
Mortgage Rates Fall For Fifth Straight Week | Mt Kisco Realtor
The bond rally of 2014 continues to carry over into mortgage rates, which fell for a fifth straight week. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dropped to 4.23% this week from 4.32% a week ago and 4.53% in the first week of January, according to Freddie Mac’s (FMCC) latest weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. A year ago that rate stood at 3.53%. The average 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rate also fell to 3.33% from 3.40% a week earlier, up from 2.77% a year ago.
A similar 30-year mortgage rate measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest weekly survey fell to 4.47% from 4.52%, a week earlier. That survey also showed mortgage applications increased by 0.4% in the week.
How Short-Sale Survivors Can Get a Mortgage | Mt Kisco NY Homes
Need to finance a home this year? If you had a previous short sale, pay very close attention to your credit report, because it might list the home as a foreclosure. It’s important to know how this difference can prevent you from getting a new mortgage again, and how you can deal with it so you can get a mortgage.
Maybe you’re purchasing another home to live in, or for investment property. Perhaps you’re financing your primary home for a specific purpose. Whatever the reason, the credit reporting from the previous shorted lender can make or break your new mortgage.
Short-selling allows homeowners to avoid foreclosure. Foreclosure involves defaulting on the mortgage, and essentially giving the house back to the bank, and is typically seen as the worse event of the two, in terms of credit-worthiness.
Lenders are obligated to report the true and exact circumstances surrounding a delinquency. When reporting on a short sale, they will typically report “Settled for less than full balance.” This is what the new lender you’re working with on your loan will want to see because this indicates the previous property was a short sale.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/short-sale-survivors-mortgage-123017741.html
Sean Payton selling Texas mansion with disco | Mt Kisco Real Estate
After going 11-5 during the regular season, the New Orleans Saints were looked at as a possible Super Bowl contender. That was, of course, until they hit the brick wall that is the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. With the season having come to a close the Saints’ head coach, Sean Payton, has turned his attention to a bit of housecleaning. Specifically, he’s selling his sprawling home in Westlake, TX.
Payton is asking $3.45 million for the modernized ranch-style home at the Vaquero Club, an exclusive guard-gated golf course community. According to the astute eye of our friend Candy Evans of Candy’s Dirt, the current ask is exactly what the home last publicly listed for in 2011.
Before moving into the house in March 2012, Payton was renting another home in Westlake, Texas owned by former Texas Ranger and current New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira.
Payton was on the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff from 2003-05, and coached his son’s football team in the nearby Dallas suburb of Argyle during his suspension from the NFL in 2012.
http://canadajournal.net/sports/sean-payton-selling-texas-mansion-disco-photo-3303-2014/
In World’s Best-Run Economy, Home Prices Just Keep Falling — Because That’s What Home Prices Are Supposed To Do | Mt Kisco Homes
Forecast: Dallas home price gains will be smaller this year | Mt Kisco Real Estate
Flip now if you plan to flip that house at all | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate
RealtyTrac, released its year-end and fourth quarter 2013 Home Flipping Report, which shows 156,862 single family home flips — where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within six months — in 2013, up 16% from 2012 and up 114% from 2011.
Profits are strong in flipping right now. The average gross profit for a home flip — the difference between the flipped price and the price the flipper purchased the property for — was $58,081 for all U.S. homes flipped in 2013, up from an average gross profit of $45,759 in 2012. The average gross profit for homes flipped in the fourth quarter was $62,761, up from $52,746 in the fourth quarter of 2012.
It looks like the market for flips is slowing, which could portend ill for housing in general. Flips accounted for 3.8% of all sales in the fourth quarter, down slightly from 3.9% of all sales in the third quarter and down from 7.1% of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2012.
“Strong home price appreciation in many markets boosted profits for flippers in 2013 despite a shrinking inventory of lower-priced foreclosure homes to purchase,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. “For the year 21% of all properties flipped were purchased out of foreclosure, but that is down from 27% in 2012 and 32% in 2011. Meanwhile flipped homes were still purchased at an average discount of 13% below market value in 2013, the same average discount as 2012, indicating that investors are finding discounted buying opportunities outside of the public foreclosure process — particularly in those markets with the biggest increases in flipping for the year.”
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28789-flip-now-if-you-plan-to-flip-that-house-at-all