Front porches add character and curb appeal as well as enviable outdoor living space. If you are lucky enough to have one, are considering adding one or just like to dream, check out these inspiring photos from our friends at Houzz.
read more…
http://glo.msn.com/living/10-fabulous-front-porches-10209.gallery
Owning a home has long been associated with success, stability, and work ethic. An investment in your future, purchasing a home is one of your more significant financial decisions. It’s a decision two out of every three Americans have made in recent years.
Interest rates, housing markets, community and school ratings, and crime statistics are only a few of the factors that may weigh into the decision to buy a home. This week, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 4.33 percent, and next week this rate will likely change.
While finding the right home that will earn you a decent return on your investment is essential, perhaps even more critical is the need to find a home you can afford. HSH recently published a report on the annual salary required to purchase a home in 27 different metropolitan areas. Based on this report and other supplemental data, let’s see where you can afford to buy at the median home price.
Joseph and Neidin Henard thought they had finally fixed the mortgage that was crushing them.
In January, the couple reached a settlement with every company that had a stake in the mortgage on their house in Santa Cruz, California, a deal that would have slashed their monthly payment by almost 40 percent to $3,337. It was the end of a process that started with their defaulting in 2009.
But when they saw the final paperwork for their settlement, they found that Ocwen Financial Corp, the company that collected and processed their mortgage payments, had added an extra clause: they could not say or print or post anything negative about Ocwen, ever.
The Henards’ experience was not unusual. Mortgage payment collectors at companies including Ocwen, Bank of America Corp and PNC Financial Services Group are agreeing to ease the terms of borrowers’ underwater mortgages, but they are increasingly demanding that homeowners promise not to insult them publicly, consumer lawyers say. In many cases, they are demanding that homeowners’ lawyers agree to the same terms. Sometimes, they even require borrowers to agree not to sue them again.
These clauses can hurt borrowers who later have problems with their mortgage collector by preventing them from complaining publicly about their difficulties or suing, lawyers said. If a collector, known as a servicer, makes an error, getting everything fixed can be a nightmare without litigation or public outcry.
read more….
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-mortgage-collectors-gag-homeowners-loan-deals-052329273.html
Eastern Massachusetts appears headed toward another housing boom that could turn out bigger than the last one as frenzied real estate activity near Boston begins to spread to outer suburbs and beyond, economists and housing specialists say.
The projection is based on trends in communities that historically have led the region’s housing market, particularly Cambridge. The red hot market there has already pushed the median price 30 percent above the pre-recession peak and housing specialists say it’s only a matter of time before other cities and towns follow.
“Traditionally, Cambridge and other areas in or near Boston are first to explode in housing prices, then it spreads to Route 128 and eventually even further out,” said Mark Hickey, an economist at CoStar Group, a real estate research firm in Boston. “Cambridge is kind of the canary in the coal mine.”
The Cambridge housing market has become so hot over the past 18 months that buyers are paying an average of 4 percent above the asking prices of sellers, according to data compiled by CoStar. By comparison, sale prices in Cambridge never exceeded average asking prices during the last decade’s housing boom — or the housing boom that accompanied the dot-com era of the 1990s, data shows.
Homes for sale in Cambridge now last only about eight days on the market before they’re snapped up by buyers, compared to the norm of 50 to 70 days during the last housing boom, according to CoStar. Even at the very peak of last decade’s housing frenzy, Cambridge homes still took more than a month to sell on average.
read more…
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/19/boston-and-beyond-another-housing-boom-way-maybe-bigger-than-last-one/OnYyr5v5gme8JWjHBcHMyJ/story.html
Rohit Sabhlok said he’s upset he lost a bidding war on a London house. Katy Barnes bought her home to avoid rising rents, while Holly Martin purchased hers as an investment. Both are hooked on a website that shows their property values soaring. Kay Durrant used her home’s growing equity value to pay bills.
Welcome to London’s frenzied housing market, where low mortgage rates and a dearth of properties for sale have sent prices rising in a year by an amount almost twice the average annual London wage. From centuries-old pubs to Mayfair clubs to the halls of Parliament, London is abuzz with talk of escalating values, foreign buyers with piles of cash and half-built garages selling for vast sums.
London’s housing boom “has become a mainstay of conversation,” said Paul Stenson, an asset manager at Dunbar Assets Plc as he sipped a pint of Aspall cider at Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street, a pub dating back to 1549. “Never mind the hackneyed view of it being the conversation of dinner parties, it’s gone beyond that. It’s like the elevator music that’s constantly on play.”
read more…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-19/london-housing-talk-of-ye-olde-tavern-alarming-carney-mortgages.html
All that sounded upbeat and was heartily welcomed by groups such as NAR, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the home builders. It sounded like good news in a week that saw prospects for long-term reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dim in a split vote by the Senate Banking Committee.
But how significant were these promises by Washington politicians and what will the changes really mean on the ground for real estate professionals and their clients? Much less than it all appeared to audiences eager to hear that credit standards finally are going to start loosening up for mortgage applicants.
read more…
http://www.inman.com/2014/05/20/governments-moves-to-ease-mortgage-credit-are-mostly-for-show/?utm_source=20140520&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam
Photo via the book Empty Mansions
Snagged from the pages of Empty Mansions, a book all about the many old money homes of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, are these incredible photos of the interiors of Bellosguardo, the family’s estate in Santa Barbara, and, above, the old Clark Mansion on Fifth Avenue. In their NYC palace, the dining room boasted 167 vertical panels carved from a single piece of black oak. The ceilings, according to the Huffington Post, were laced with gargoyles and classical figures. Since her death in 2011, the 17,000-square-foot mansion has been sold off in piecemeal slivers.
read more…
http://curbed.com/archives/2014/05/16/welcome-back-to-monochromes-a.php
This is Alek Lisefski’s tiny home, which was built on a 8-by-12-foot flatbed trailer and inspired by his desire to live a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle. The home measures 13 feet and 4 inches tall, 8 feet and 6 inches wide, and 20 feet long, and can be pulled behind a car
read more…
http://realestate.msn.com/how-to-build-a-tiny-house-for-dollar30000
Fueled by backlash from the financial and housing crisis, these homes — typically sized 500 square feet or smaller — are having a moment. In April, the first Tiny House Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, sold out, attracting some 170 attendees.
Tiny-house pioneer Dee Williams, who has spent the last decade in an 84-square-foot home in a friend’s backyard, has toured touring the nation to promote her memoir “The Big Tiny.” Even students at the Savannah College of Art and Design are getting into the game, building an entire floor of 135-square-foot homes inside an old school parking lot.
These home may be environmentally friendly — they force owners to reduce their possessions and, often, to use less power — but they’re not exactly cheap. Tiny houses typically cost between $200 to $400 per square foot. On a square-foot basis, that’s far pricier than the average American home-and tiny homes don’t include land.
read more…
http://realestate.msn.com/12-tiny-tricked-out-homes
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| Great sales in Ossining + British-inspired specialties in Larchmont; New vendors in Piermont & Croton + More May 15th-21st, 2014 DowntoEarthMarkets.com | ||||||||||||
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Click on a Market to see all vendor and event details…
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| Announcements | ||||||||||||
| PiermontPiermont welcomes back Ed Packer and his Irish root music – with Bob Dylan influences, too – back to the market for the first time this season. Being right on the river means a lot to him, and we hope to hear songs from his new release of “The River’s Journey,” inspired by the Hudson. Visit the Down to Earth Markets Calendar for full details. Stay tuned to all market happenings via our Down to Earth Markets Facebook pageand follow us on Twitter @DowntoEarthMkts. | ||||||||||||
| Introducing Collaboration: Down to Earth Markets & Good Food Jobs | ||||||||||||
Work is love made visible. – Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet Guided by the idea of sustainability in all aspects of food – including work — Down to Earth Markets is delighted to announce a new collaboration with Good Food Jobs, the website where job seekers go “to satisfy the hunger for meaningful work.” Now farmers and food makers who sell at Down to Earth Markets can post their job listings on Good Food Jobs at a deeply discounted rate. In turn, the job listings (often for weekend help at the markets) are viewed by thousands of potential workers who are passionate about better food. Doug Ornstein, Assistant Operations Manager at Down to Earth Markets and the catalyst behind the collaboration, came up with the idea while vetting applications for market managers this season. “There are so many smart, passionate, and talented people who want to work in sustainable food that I thought our vendors should work with some of them, too,” he explained. “I believe that the crucial next step in fixing the broken food system is to create a different kind of food economy – one with meaningful jobs,” he elaborated, “If waves of people start working in good food that will instigate the kind of change in food that we’re looking for.” Dorothy Williams-Neagle, co-founder of Good Food Jobs, spoke along these lines as well, “We know that the farmers market is a hotbed of folks who are transforming our food system for the better. We wanted to provide an opportunity for them to spread the word about their job openings more affordably and effectively. For us, it was as simple connecting the resources we are able to provide to the needs of those vendors whose work we support wholeheartedly.” With Good Food Jobs, Taylor and Dorothy make the path by walking on the topic of sustainable food and work. They stirred debate earlier this year with an announcement that they would no longer post unpaid internships on their site. In explaining their decision, they said that money isn’t the only kind of compensation needed for work. Rather, employers could offer room and board, products, or other items as compensation. They opened the conversation about the value of work. Taylor has since noted that some small business owners replied, “But what if we can’t afford to pay someone in this position now?” She responded, “A paid employee [not just by money] that you can retain for years will become a far more valuable asset than a revolving door of interns.” She went on to say that if work is consistently done without compensation of any kind, then there is a fundamental flaw in the company business plan. We 100% agree with this view of sustainability in work. Down to Earth Markets is a small business that believes in order to have sustainable food, we have to have sustainable businesses. We have five full-time employees and two part-time employees who support approximately 15 market managers and 100 vendors. We can create livelihoods in this work. With this collaboration with Good Food Jobs, that is exactly what we’re setting out to do. We’d love to hear your feedback on this. Reply to this email and let us know your thoughts on the topic of work and sustainable food. And if you stroll the market and think, “it should be nice to work here,” just click on this link to see if there’s an opportunity with your favorite vendor. Thank you for shopping at Down to Earth Farmers Markets this weekend. | ||||||||||||
