Category Archives: Mount Kisco

Paul McCartney Eyes $13M 4BR Condo On Fifth Avenue | Mt Kisco NY Homes

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A four-bedroom condo on Museum Mile that’s been sitting on the market for more than a year got some Christmas love from former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. The Post reports that McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, checked out unit 16B at 1049 Fifth Avenue, currently listed for $12.9 million. The 3,335-square-foot apartment was originally listed in October 2012 for $13.5 million, but had its price reduced by $500K in July 2013. The home has Central Park views and design details one expects from a prewar Fifth Avenue building: coffered ceilings, rosewood herringbone floors, marble bathrooms, and a mahogany paneled library.

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/12/26/paul_mccartney_eyes_13m_4br_condo_on_fifth_avenue.php

Mount Kisco Tax Bills Are Due On Dec. 31 | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Mount Kisco is reminding residents that the second half of 2013-14 village tax bills are due on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

In order to make a payment without any penalties, a U.S. postmark of Dec. 31 or earlier is required.

Click here for additional information concerning tax bills and payment schedule

 

 

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/mount-kisco-tax-bills-are-due-dec-31

Classic European architecture mixes with modern furnishings in a newly open Edwardian home | Mt Kisco Homes

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Architect Stephen Sutro of Sutro Architects grew up in San Francisco just four blocks from this home, alongside one of the owners, who was a childhood friend. Years later, when the friend and her husband hired Sutro for this project, that long relationship made it easy to communicate and share ideas for the transformation of the couple’s Edwardian flat from a dark warren of small rooms to a light-filled family dwelling.
Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: A couple and their 2 children Location: San Francisco Size: 2,900 square feet; 3 bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms Year renovated: 2013
Photography by Aaron Leitz

“We call this project Parisian Modern Flat, because it uses the European idea of classic architecture as the backdrop for modern elements and furniture,” says Sutro. The architect reordered the rooms, making a large, open space up front and relocating the bedrooms in the rear of the house. Now the living room, dining room and kitchen are in one space.
Sofa: Dizani; art: Matt Lipps
The architect staged a delicate design balance. “By using classic molding and a herringbone-patterned floor, we referenced the era in which the house was built,” the architect says. A sofa with multisided seating has decidedly modernist attributes; it allows people to relax and enjoy the contemporary fireplace, the avant-garde photo collage, the more traditional bay window or the modern kitchen. “It is the perfect piece, because it has seating on all four sides,” says the architect. “It knits the room together.”
“The modern interventions create an interesting juxtaposition and a pleasant tension between the old and new,” says Sutro. The design of a fireplace in Tom Ford’s New York City flagship store inspired the architect to create this wood and limestone surround and mantel in the living room.
“The Lindsey Adelman light fixture defines the dining area and adds a formality to it,” says Sutro. Although the architect removed the division between the rooms, he left a suggestion of a wall between the dining room and kitchen to make a slight visual separation. “It’s just enough to suggest two spaces,” he says. “Dim the lights in the kitchen during a dinner party, and it seems to disappear.”
Light fixture: Lindsey Adelman; dining table: Link by Jakob Wagner, B&B Italia; dining chairs: Masters by Philippe Starck, Kartell

2014 good for housing, not so much for economic growth | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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The coming year will see the continued slow-but-steady recovery in housing and housing-related industries, minimal interest rate movements, less than stellar economic growth, and an improving purchase market.

That’s the prediction from the brain trust at FBR & Co. FBR is a leading investment bank that focuses its efforts across a broad array of industries including financial institutions and real estate, among a host of others.

Despite the overall tepid outlook, the FBR forecast does point to good signs for the origination market.

“Financials, particularly banks and thrifts, outperformed the broader indices in 2013, and, generally speaking, we expect in-line performance at best over the coming year as stock prices have drastically outperformed fundamentals for most spread-based lending businesses,” the FBR 2014 forecast states.

In particular, the mixed overall news looks good for housing.

“We expect that those subsectors most levered to a continued recovery in housing will outperform in 2014, as housing-levered industries should have the largest opportunities for growth in the near term,” the report states.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28386-fbr-2014-good-for-housing-not-so-much-for-economic-growth

 

U.S. Home Values Seen Gaining Most Since ’05, Zillow Says | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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U.S. homes gained $1.9 trillion in total value this year, the biggest jump since 2005, as the real estate market rebounded from the recession, Zillow Inc. (Z) said.

At the end of 2013, the housing stock will be worth about $25.7 trillion, Zillow said today in a statement. U.S. homes as a whole lost $6.3 trillion in value from 2007 through 2011 and have recovered 44 percent of that, according to the Seattle-based property-data firm.

Home prices are rising across the U.S. as investors drain markets of inventory and improving employment brings in more buyers. Almost 90 percent of the 485 metropolitan areas analyzed by Zillow had price gains this year. The total value of the nation’s housing stock jumped about 7.9 percent from 2012, the second straight annual increase, according to the report.

“The housing market continued to build on the positive momentum that began in 2012,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in the statement. “Low mortgage rates and an improving economy helped bring buyers into the market.”

Price increases will slow next year to a pace closer to the historic norm of 3 percent to 5 percent, according to Humphries.

The Federal Reserve yesterday said it will scale back asset purchases that have bolstered housing demand by keeping interest rates low. Improvements in the job market spurred the decision to cut spending on Treasuries and mortgage bonds to $75 billion from $85 billion starting in January, the Federal Open Market Committee said at the end of a two-day meeting in Washington.

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-19/u-s-home-values-gain-most-since-2005-zillow-says.html?cmpid=yhoo

Mortgage applications plummet heading into the FOMC meeting | Mt Kisco NY Homes

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Mortgage applications filed in the U.S. plummeted 5.5% as both the refinance index and home purchase index declined ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee.

The Mortgage Bankers Association pointed to the meeting as a fear factor for the market since talks of a potential mortgage-backed securities or Treasurys tapering could come out of the Fed today.
If the Fed decides to begin tapering this month, the market will know by this afternoon.

The refi index alone fell 4%, while the purchase index declined 6% ahead of the meeting.
“Mortgage applications fell further last week, with the market index falling to its lowest level in more than a dozen years,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics. “Both purchase and refinance applications fell as interest rates increased going into today’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting.”

The refi share of mortgage activity increased to 66% of total applications from 65% the prior week. Meanwhile, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity remained unchanged at 8% of total applications.

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28336-mortgage-applications-plummet-heading-into-the-fomc-meeting

 

Bitcoin now accepted by RentHop | Mt Kisco NY Realtor

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Rental listing site RentHop thinks it can entice landlords and real estate brokers into using Bitcoin by slashing its listing advertisement fee if they pay with the digital currency.

Users must currently pay $2 to post listings on RentHop, which covers New York City, Boston and Chicago, and has plans to expand nationally.

But as of this week, if brokers and landlords use Bitcoin, they’ll have to pay only 0.833 milli-citcoin (1/1000th of a bitcoin), or $0.76 at today’s exchange rates. That represents a 60 percent discount off the rate that RentHop will continue to charge advertisers who pay in dollars. Find more details at https://de.thebitcoinscode.com/.

“RentHop has always catered to early adopters exploring innovations in real estate,” said RentHop CEO Lee Lin in a statement. “Over the years we’ve noticed the most successful landlords are the ones who proactively seek out and embrace new and disruptive platforms. Bitcoin users are exactly the type of participant we welcome to our marketplace.”

RentHop intends to reduce the exchange-rate volatility of owning Bitcoin for customers by maintaing the exact number in bitcoins that it charges unless Bitcoin’s dollar value changes by more than 30 percent.

Lawrence Zhou, co-founder of RentHop, breaks it down for us:

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/12/16/bitcoin-now-accepted-by-renthop/?utm_source=20131216&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.UtWNx7SJ.dpuf

Fed taper remains guessing game | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news coming across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues.

Looking forward to the week ahead, one of the most anticipated events will be the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday, where Ben Bernanke will give his last press conference as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Most observers expect no major change in interest rates. There is, however, speculation about the Fed’s Treasury and bond-purchase policy. Decisions on whether or not to continue at the same pace is decided in FOMC meetings. While many economists expect the Fed’s bond-buying program to remain unchanged until January or even March, there is growing sentiment that Wednesday might see some announcement.

It is important to note, that for every report showing a sentiment to taper this year, there is another suggesting otherwise.

“Fed officials face a more difficult decision at their meeting next week, as the employment and growth data have picked up since the October meeting” said analysts at Goldman Sachs in a weekend note to clients. “But our central forecast for the first tapering move remains March, with January possible as well.”

In a Reuters poll last week of 60 economists, about half expected the Federal Reserve to wait until March to start the tapering program, but 12 economists — almost one fourth — now see this week as more likely. That’s a steep increase from the three who predicted that in a poll a month ago.

The November drop in unemployment to 7% is certainly a factor in considering tapering, but there are still plenty of signs that the U.S. economy is not strong enough for a cutback in the stimulus.The positive affect on the housing market of that lower unemployment number may be offset by the expanded unemployment benefit that expires at the end of this month.

In the two-year budget deal that the House of Representatives reached this week, that benefit — which has been providing the unemployed with an extra 14 weeks of help — was not renewed. That will immediately affect 1.3 million Americans who are receiving that help now, along with another 3.6 million who would have qualified in 2014.

And although the unemployment rate declined for young workers — 16 to 24 year olds — from 15.1% in October to 14.1% in November, that number is still double the national average. As HousingWire reported last month, the decline in the overall homeownership rate to 63.9% this year shows that there are still significant barriers to first-time buyers — including that Millennial market that will be key for the future of housing.

 

http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/28305-monday-morning-cup-of-coffee-fed-taper-remains-guessing-game

 

Why today’s homebuyer needs a real estate agent more than ever | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Last summer I got an email from a local real estate attorney who wanted to buy a house. He’d just gotten engaged and wanted to save some money by representing himself.

This attorney wanted to do all the work an agent would do to find and buy his first home, and get paid a commission for his work. I explained to him that the commission is payable to the listing agent who agrees to pay a portion of it to the Realtor representing a buyer.

Usually, if there’s no buyer’s agent, the seller’s agent gets the entire commission. Some agents will accept a reduced commission for representing both parties.

The seller saves some money that way. Sometimes the savings get passed along to the buyer. I get several emails each year from homebuyers, usually first-timers, who want to know how they can get a real estate license so they can save money on the purchase of a home.

They find me through my blog, and apparently decide that I am too scary to work with, but not so scary that they can’t ask me a question or two. I always let them know that they do not need a license to buy a home, and that they do not need a real estate agent.

After I explain to them how to get a license — and that they have to work through a broker, who generally gets a percentage of each commission — they start to let go of their dream of being paid to find their own home. The buyers who want to do this are usually planning on buying a home that costs $300,000 or more — higher than average for a first-time homebuyer in this market — and planning on saving at least $9,000 by doing the work themselves.

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/12/12/why-todays-homebuyer-needs-a-real-estate-agent-more-than-ever/?utm_source=20131212&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.GuPAbDvB.dpuf