Category Archives: South Salem

Antique Homes Are Popular Again In Westchester | South Salem NY Homes

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Antique homes are making a comeback on Westchester’s real estate scene, especially among houses built before 1900.

Many homebuyers are looking to these homes because of their history, unique layouts, and to cultivate old-fashioned pursuits such as gardening, knitting, and even raising chickens. One Westchester real estate office,Douglas Elliman, has more than a dozen historic listings on the market in Westchester.

In Chappaqua, a 1740 red Colonial on King Street is listed for $1.39 million. Nestled on just under 3.5 acres, the 5-bedroom, 4-bath home has been updated to include a dishwasher, eat-in kitchen, central air conditioning, and updated electrical systems, while still maintaining its antique charm. The nicely landscaped grounds feature extensive stonework, perennial, and vegetable gardens. There is also a pool and a two-car detached garage.

“Antique homes are really in vogue right now because they appeal to people who want an authentic living experience. Some people like the new turn-key look, but we are seeing that people are also really adamant about living in a highly unique space with a sense of history that echoes the values of a bygone, simpler time,” said listing agent Nancy Strong. “Westchester is steeped in history, and we are lucky to be ahead of the trend when it comes to antique house hunting.”

 

Antique Homes Are Popular Again In Westchester | The White Plains Daily Voice.

Remembering New York’s Historic Baseball Stadiums | South Salem Real Estate

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o avid baseball fans, summer is everything: season tickets, double plays, the crack of the bat, doubleheaders, cracker jacks, the disabled list. These days, New Yorkers have some elegant stadiums to watch both major and minor league ball—but the oldest among them, the Richmond County Bank Ballpark and MCU Park, where the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones play, were built in 2001. Citi Field and Yankee Stadium’s latest incarnation are even newer. So as the summer wears on, the All-Star break comes and goes, and the Subway Series grows ever more heated, take a moment to remember the city’s great ballparks that were. Journey from the very early days of the Capitoline Grounds to the expansion of Harlem’s Polo Grounds, where people perched on bluffs to watch the matches for free. Remember the dear departed Ebbets Field (sadly replaced by an apartment complex, though its flagpole stands at Barclays Center) and the wonderfully retro 60s-era colored paneling of the original Shea Stadium. If we missed any of your favorites, please let us know in the comments or by email. Now please doff your cap to rise for the national anthem. And play ball!

↓ Union Grounds
Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Team: Brooklyn Hartfords
In operation: 1862-1883

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↓ Washington Park I, II & III
Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Teams: Brooklyn Atlantics, Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Brooklyn Tip Tops
In operation (in various locations): 1883-1915

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↓ Eastern Park
Location: Brownsville, Brooklyn
Teams: Brooklyn Ward’s Wonders and Brooklyn Dodgers
In operation: 1890-1898

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Remembering New York’s Historic Baseball Stadiums, In Photos – Summer Flashbacks – Curbed NY.

Remembering The Granddaddy Of Miami Hotels, The Royal Palm | South Salem Real Estate

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Painted in ‘Flagler Yellow’ with white trim, green shutters, and a red mansard roof, Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel, along with Flagler’s railroad, was for many years the reason for Miami’s existence. Originally containing 350 rooms when it opened on January 16th, 1897, with an additional 100 for servants, the six story hotel would grow another huge wing before the rambling wood structure was eventually deemed a fire hazard and demolished in 1930.

Almost as grand as Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach, the Royal Palm was fabulously posh and established the basic elements of the city’s identity that really have held up, more or less, until today. Just as the Royal Palm was, Miami is still a tourist mecca. As the Royal Palm was, Miami is still a playground of the rich. The Royal Palm, with its 578 foot long veranda, gardens, and location on the mouth of the Miami River, celebrated Miami’s natural environment, and the pleasure of being outdoors in the winter months. The Royal Palm established the winter months as Miami’s high season. The Royal Palm’s location became the center of Downtown Miami, on the north side of the river, right up against the bay. The hotel’s outdoor pool, rudimentary by today’s standards, was a hot amenity, featured in many postcards,

For many years after its demolition, the site sat empty as surface parking lots, its lush grounds turned over to Bayfront Park, its marina still in operation where the Related Group’s One Miami condo towers are today. The DuPont family built the DuPont Plaza Hotel on part of the site in 1957, and the InterContinental was built on another part in 1982, but much of the rest remained empty, leading a 1996 Miami Herald article to suggest some thought the site was haunted. But rampant construction since then has filled up practically all the empty land. The last remaining bits of the hotel, a few steps of a veranda staircase and some bricks for decades buried under concrete and asphalt, recently were discovered by archeologists but, after documentation, will soon be buried again under a new tower. Aside from the park, and a few preserved worker’s cottages, just like that the Royal Palm Hotel, the granddaddy of all Miami Hotels, will be gone again.

 

Remembering The Granddaddy Of Miami Hotels, The Royal Palm – Hotels Week 2013 – Curbed Miami.

Second-home sales shift to Generation X | South Salem Real Estate

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The average age of a consumer looking to buy a second home is 50, said Chris Kelsey, president of Long Cove, a private community on Cedar Creek Lake built to give Dallas-area families a close-to-home getaway. 

“A lot of people are wondering how the desires of consumers are changing now that we’re coming out of the recession,” said Kelsey. 

The whole second-home industry has been predicated on Baby Boomers, said Kelsey, although the industry is now crossing the threshold from Boomer to Generation X. 

“Boomers are becoming grandparents,” said Kelsey, who noted that their motivation for buying is often for extended family. On the other hand, Generation X is simply approaching the natural point in life where a second home becomes a feasible option. 

What’s interesting, notes Kelsey, is the language used by the Baby Boomers compared to Generation X. Boomers often refer to their second home as a “vacation home,” while Gen X typically calls it a “second home.”

“This distinction is important to them because they don’t see their resort property as a place for vacation,” said the Kelsey & Norden Resort Real Estate Survey. “Instead, they think of it as an extension of their regular lives, a second home where they are connected to a community of like-minded friends and can provide their kids an alternative experience to their urban or suburban neighborhoods. And with the shift comes a similar shift in vocabulary.”

Kelsey added that Gen X is notorious for its distaste for gated communities and their dislike of inclusivity. “They may want a gated community, they may just not want to celebrate the fact that they’re in a gated community,” said Kelsey. 

 

Second-home sales shift to Generation X | HousingWire.

May home sales up 4.2%; median price up 15.4% | South Salem Real Estate

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Existing home sales improved in May but the supply of homes for sale remains tight — which isn’t good news for buyers, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Total existing home sales increased 4.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.18 million in May from 4.97 million in April, NAR said. That’s the highest rate since November 2009 and almost 13% above year-ago levels.

The inventory of homes for sale, meanwhile, dipped to a 5.1 month supply, down from 5.2 months in April. That means all the homes would sell in that time frame if no new supply was added and sales continued at May’s pace. Realtors consider a 6-month supply to be a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

Total housing inventory at the end of May was up 3.3% to 2.22 million existing homes for sale.

Despite last month’s “nice” gain in homes for sale, the supply is unlikely to grow unless home building ramps up by an additional 50%, says Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.

Homes are also selling fast. The median time on market for all homes was 41 days in May, down from 46 in April.

Nationwide, 45% of all homes sold in May were on the market for less than a month, NAR says.

Single-family home sales rose 5% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 million and are almost 13% above the year ago pace.

 

May home sales up 4.2%; median price up 15.4%.

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | South Salem Real Estate

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Surging home prices throughout the country have spurred talk of a housing bubble, as many markets are still recovering from the last bubble bursting in 2007.

But Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services states that, although double-digit gains are ultimately unsustainable, we may not have reached bubble status quite yet. 

Home price appreciation can be attributed to a number of factors, including historically low rates, property purchases by investors who are renting homes out and a shortage in home inventory. In fact, recently the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index hit an 11% year-over-year increase, from 8%. 

Across the U.S., home prices are back to 2003 levels, yet they remain far from their 2006 peak. Lack of available inventory coupled with high demand has played a large role in this. In April, the sales of existing homes were up 9.7% year-over-year, while existing housing inventory dropped 13.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

Sadly, housing starts plummeted 16.5% in April after rising 1 million units in March for the first time in nearly five years. 

Yet, despite the slow climb for starts, analysts anticipate that builders will begin to break ground in the next few months. Permits increased 14.3% to a five-year high of 1.017 million, indicating a bounce in starts.

 

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | HousingWire.

New Mexico, Nebraska Realtor associations sign up with dotloop | South Salem Homes

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Transaction management platform provider dotloop announced today it has signed up state Realtor associations in Nebraska and New Mexico to use its service, and brought on two new local associations — the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and the Toledo Board of Realtors.

In December, dotloop announced that the Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont state Realtor associations had signed up to use its platform.

One of the key features of dotloop’s platform, the latest version of which was released last week, is the ability for all members of a transaction to fill out digitized forms from a secure location in the cloud. That capability becomes available to agents when the owner of the forms libraries licenses them to dotloop, as the above associations and about 40 others have done.

The ability to license forms, which allows users to fill them out in its software, is a key component of dotloop’s business.

In many markets where dotloop doesn’t license forms or partner with a Realtor association, users still fill out the forms digitally using the platform, said Gregg Larson, CEO of Clareity Consulting, who’s looked into the issue. It’s not clear whether dotloop is knowingly maintaining those users’ form libraries or not, but many have been found on the platform, Larson said.

In April, the California Association of Realtors, which is not a dotloop partner, sent dotloop a cease-and-desist letter telling the company to stop allowing users to fill out CAR forms in the platform.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/06/13/new-mexico-nebraska-realtor-associations-sign-up-with-dotloop/#sthash.PgyhCdbG.dpuf

 

New Mexico, Nebraska Realtor associations sign up with dotloop | Inman News.

Top 15 Design Trends in Single-Family Living | South Salem Real Estate

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From spalike master baths to super-large kitchens and beautiful outdoor spaces, a range of consumer preferences is driving home design. My newly compiled list of lifestyle and design trends details what consumers want in a home now and in years to come.

• Smaller homes. According to the results of a recent AIA Design Trends Survey, there is a growing interest in smaller home sizes and volumes due to an effort to contain energy costs. The era of the McMansion could be over, and a significantly higher number of architects have reported demand for smaller homes. The key is to create scale and function over size, while creating more financially attainable homes.

• Private outdoor spaces. Almost all homeowners—whether baby boomers, empty nesters, or Gen Y—want less maintenance and more privatized outdoor space to gather and entertain without the neighbors watching. This design trend can be achieved by positioning architecture around the outdoor space or by allowing the outdoor space to pierce architecture, affording more living spaces in the house to be exposed to the outdoor area.

• Better indoor/outdoor connectivity. The use of large floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors brings the outdoors into the home experience. These thresholds to the outdoors offer more light and access to private outdoor space, resulting in the interior feeling like it extends beyond the walls.

• Covered outdoor rooms. These outdoor rooms expand the utility of adjoining interior spaces. The rooms become outdoor retreats, providing intimate relaxing spaces, still covered and protected, but open to the outdoors. Often these spaces include a stone fireplace to complete the living room feel.

• Personalization. Whether for a resale or a new home, consumers are looking to find and purchase feature elements that reflect their personal tastes and preferences, from kitchen products and bath fixtures to custom flooring and even the overall layout of the home.

• Super-sized kitchens. In addition to food preparation, the kitchen serves as an entertainment area when guests are present, a conversation area among family members, or even a place for homework or a craft project. Islands and their seating capacity must expand in size, and utility spaces and pantries need to be able to store more packaged foods, which are now purchased in larger boxes and in multiple quantities.

• More seating for media areas. The typical home TV is now a large flat-screen TV capable of everything from games to 3D movies to surfing hundreds of cable channels or the Internet. The increasing TV sizes have created a design need for more wall space and larger seating capability.

 

Top 15 Design Trends in Single-Family Living – Architects, Design, In-House Design, Living Room, Outdoor Kitchens, Outdoor Rooms, Planning, Single Family – Builder Magazine.

Google Glass apps to download for real estate | South Salem Real Estate

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At HousingWire’s Real Estate Expo (REX Annual) this week,VaynerMedia Founder and CEO Gary Vaynerchuk advised the audience of real estate professionals to start eyeing up Google Glass. So, as a real estate agent, how should you be utilizing this new technology?

Google Glass allows users who walk down a street wearing the technology to see alerts about nearby houses on the market. The alerts are courtesy of Trulia which this week introduced an app for Google Glass. It is one of only a handful of apps available for the Internet-connected glasses, and is an example of how software developers are experimenting with the new device.

To read the full article, click here.

Google Glass apps to download for real estate | HousingWire.

Florida governor signs bill to speed up state’s foreclosure process | South Salem Real Estate

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Florida’s governor signed a much-discussed foreclosure bill Friday, enacting a series of provisions aimed at speeding up the default process in the state.

While the legislation is considered a response to Florida’s untimely foreclosure timelines, it’s a big shift that has attracted a great deal of attention.

Attorneys working within the foreclosure space note House Bill 87 comes with new legal and procedural requirements. Critics refer to it as the ‘rocket docket‘ legislation, in reference to the quickened foreclosure review system previously in place. However, there are many procedural caveats that could make that comparison less appropriate.

The office of Florida attorney Daniel Consuegra even published an alert for attorneys advising them that HB 87 reduces the statute of limitations for filing a deficiency action to only one year from the sale or date of the acceptance of a deed-in-lieu. That section of the bill takes effect July 1.

“As a result you will need to act quickly and secure your deficiency judgment,” Consuegra said.

Furthermore, attorneys says the bill requires additional items to be presented with the foreclosure complaint – namely a certification of possession of the original note, or a lost note affidavit filed concurrently with the complaint, Consuegra pointed out.

To meet these demands, Consuegra said forms used in the process are likely to require modification, and it could take time to adopt them.

HB 87 also changes state law to where now any named party can move for “an order to show cause” – not just a plaintiff, the attorney noted.

“This presents some interesting challenges and opportunities that should be prepared for,” Consuegra said.

“Further, the changes in the law provide an avenue for plaintiff’s, for property other than owner occupied, to request the court to enter an order to show cause why an order to make payments or order to vacate the premises should not be entered. This could be an effective tool in dealing with litigious owners who are renting the properties.”

The bill also establishes adequate protection for lost notes and is designed to prevent what Consuegra refers to as “collateral attacks on foreclosure judgments by borrowers who were served in the action when the property has been acquired for value by a third party and all time periods to appeal have expired.”

 

Florida governor signs bill to speed up state’s foreclosure process | HousingWire.