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Message from North Castle Town Hall | Armonk Real Estate

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Dear Residents:

I continue to receive many questions from residents regarding our Town’s upcoming Special Election on THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 (not regular Election Day) regarding the Ward System. Please see below for additional answers to your questions in an effort to provide clarity on this election. Some of this information may be repetitive from my last email (click here), but worth repeating.

 

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What is this Special Election for? Residents are asked to vote “yes” or “no” on two propositions, as below:

 

Proposition 1:

Shall the ward system be established for the election of Councilmen or Councilwomen in the Town of North Castle?

Proposition 2:

Shall the number of Councilmen or Councilwomen of the Town of North Castle be increased from four to six?

Why is the Town Board having this election? I get this question a lot. The answer is simple. This vote was not initiated by the Town Board. By town law, any resident who secures the requisite number of petition signatures can offer these propositions for a town-wide vote. In this case, North White Plains resident Tony Futia secured the requisite number of signatures and submitted to the Town Clerk for processing through the Board of Elections.

 

What is the main difference in the Ward system from our current system? This is probably the most commonly asked question. Currently we operate in an “at large” system, meaning that all residents have the right to vote for all Councilmen, currently 4. In the Ward system, residents are limited to voting for only 1 of the 4 (or 6) Councilmen. (Please note that in either system, all residents can vote for the Supervisor.)

 

What do I think? How do other Board members feel about the Ward system? You should contact myself and other Board members directly if you have questions as to our opinions on this system.

 

Does this Special Election cost the Town money? Good question and it does. I cannot provide an exact cost, but we are tracking all expenditures as they occur. Items like printing, postage, legal costs, and election inspectors are all examples of additional expenditures.

 

 

How can I get more details? By now, you should have received a large post card in the mail from the Town (click here). Our apologies if you received multiple copies. To insure that no resident was disenfranchised, we mailed to every registered voter and every household. Please note that the Town Clerk’s telephone number was listed incorrectly on the bottom of the card, the correct number is (914)273-3321.

 

What if I am not registered to vote?   We are having a special day of registration on Monday, November 3rd. Please refer to the postcard link above for locations on where to register to vote if you are not already registered.

 

 

What about our own Town Board election this year – is that part of the Special Election? This is a really good question as there has been some confusion on this. There answer is No. The election for the Councilman seat will be on the regular ballot on Nov. 4th. (This election is necessary because when I became Supervisor, my Councilman term had 2 years left on it. The first year of that span was filled by Jose Berra, but an election is required to fill out the rest of the term, namely the 4th year of that term.)

Thank you for your attention to this very important election. First of all, regardless of your position on this issue, I urge you to vote on Thursday, November 13. We live in a democracy and everyone should exercise their right to vote. (And don’t forget to vote on the regular Election Day, Tuesday November 4th too.) Second, if you have any other questions, please click on this link (click here) which will take you to the Town web page for all information that we have posted regarding this election.

Thank you again,

Sincerely,

Michael J. Schiliro

Town Supervisor  

See New York’s Stunningly Ornate Movie Palace-Turned-Church | Armonk Real Estate

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In the 1920s, Loew’s built five Wonder Theaters: movie palaces that were, quite literally, palaces, bedecked with ornate architecture meant to awe, instill hope, and provide an escape from the depressing world outside. That was the aim of Marcus Loew, of the eponymous chain and the founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. One of these cinemas, the historic Leow’s Valencia Theatre in Queens, exists to this day—it just doesn’t show films anymore. A Pentecostal church, the Tabernacle of Prayer For All People, bought the then-abandoned 3,500-seattheater on Jamaica Avenue. The congregation donated $200,000 (about $758,303 in 2013 dollars) to restore the eclectic Spanish-Mexican-Moroccan interior to its original splendor.

It has used the theater ever since, and continues to maintain elaborate-theater savant John Eberson’s ridiculously detailed ornamentation. Notice the gilded lion carvings scattered throughout the hall? “Because we are Pentecostal, we had all sorts of religious reasons for it,” says Sister Forbes, the church’s pastoral secretary. “It’s just that Eberson was a good employee. What’s the symbol for MGM? A roaring lion.”

 

read more….

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/22/see_new_yorks_stunningly_ornate_movie_palaceturnedchurch.php

Housing is biggest expense for retirees | Armonk Real Estate

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It’s become fashionable these days for advisers to warn retirees and pre-retirees to set aside enough money to pay for health care in their golden years.

Folks might be better served if they were told to make sure they first have enough income and assets to pay for housing and home-related expenses after age 65.

That’s because those expenses — mortgages, property taxes, insurance, utilities, home maintenance, and the like — comprise the largest spending category for older Americans, according to a new report published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute based in Washington, D.C.

Yes, health-care expenses increase steadily with age, and remain a big cause of concern, but the cost of maintaining a home is typically the biggest expense for older people. EBRI said.

Women typically live longer than men, often have less saved for retirement and interact differently with financial planners, says Eve Kaplan of Kaplan Financial Advisors in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

To be fair, the dollar amount spent on housing and home-related expenses decreases with age. But the share of these costs in household budgets remain stable at between 40% to 45%, depending on age group, EBRI said in a release.

Consider: Households age 60-64 spent on average $18,720 or 43% of total expenses on housing in 2011, adjusted for 2013 dollars; households age 65-74 spent $14,732 or 42%; and households age 75-plus spent $13,111 or 44%. Or put another way: you’ll need roughly $250,000 set aside at age 65 to pay for 20 years of housing expenses.

To be fair, EBRI found in its analysis that health expenses increase steadily with age. In 2011, for instance, households with at least one member between ages 50‒64 spent 8% of their total budget (or $4,176) on health items, compared with 19% (or $6,603) for those age 85 or over. And health-related expenses do occupy the second-largest share of total expenditure for those over age 75, EBRI noted.

But housing is the cost no one is really talking about.

Of course, health care can be a budget buster, too. For instance, EBRI also found a large increase in spending at the 95th percentile for those age 90 or older, which can be attributed to very high health-care expenses.

But much of that expense is associated with end-of-life care. “For some, health-care expenses can be heavily skewed toward the end of life,” Sudipto Banerjee, EBRI research associate and author of the report, said in a release.

For example, Banerjee said, in 2011, the (midpoint, half above and half below) health-care expenditure for households with at least one member 85 and above was $2,814, while the average was much higher at $6,603.

And costs can be especially troublesome for households that fall in the 95th percentile, the worst-case folks. In that percentile, health-care expenses ranged from $13,918 for those households age 65-79 to $28,339 for those ages 90 and above. “If withdrawals are not well managed then by that time many (retirees) may have little left in their nest eggs,” said Banerjee.

 

 

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/housing-is-biggest-expense-for-retirees-2014-09-30?siteid=yhoof2

 

New home sales leap to six-year high | #Armonk Real Estate

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A new home is seen for sale in Vienna, Va., in this file photo taken March 27, 2014. Sales of new US single-family homes surged in August and hit their highest level in more than six years, offering confirmation that the housing recovery remains on course.

 

Two days after existing home sales put a damper on hope for the housing market, a dazzling new home sales report has it roaring back.

Sales of new single-family homes surged 18 percent to a 504,000 annualized pace in August, up from a 427,000 pace in July and a 419,000 pace in June, according to data released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. The report surpassed predictions – economist had been expecting about 430,000 annualized.

“Altogether, this is a much stronger report than expected and suggests housing demand has stabilized in recent quarters,” Michael Gapen, US economist with Barclays Research, writes in an e-mailed statement.

The stock of new homes for sale reached a four-year high, inching up to 203,000 last month, following 201,000 in July and 169,000 in June. But sales were so strong that the months’ supply of homes available fell to 4.8 after holding steady at 5.6 in June and July.

 

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http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2014/0924/New-home-sales-leap-to-six-year-high-renewing-hope-for-the-market

New Rochelle Dining | Armonk Real Estate

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Susan Nagib / SUSA Designs

New Rochelle hasn’t developed a foodie cred as say the likes of a Port Chester or Tarrytown, yet when you look at the restaurant lineup for its upcoming Dine Downtown you can’t help but be impressed (and get a little hungry).

Of the 10 participating restaurants, two have had positive reviews in Westchester Magazine (A Place 2 Go and Alvin & Friends) and four have won Best Of awards (Coromandel, Gnarly Vine, Modern Restaurant, NoMa Social). Sorell Wine Bar Bistro was recently featured prominently in the magazine’s August issue feature Under the Radar Restaurants, and Posto 22 and Patrias have all both been written up in various articles. I can’t say we’ve done any editorial on the final participant, Da Giovanni, but their enticing homepage displaying (among other goodies) a hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano, mammoth jars of olives, and a tray of stuffed green peppers tells me it’s time for a scouting lunch.

Sorell Wine Bar Bistro

NoMa Social

For the Dine Downtown event, each of these restaurants is offering a three-course dinner menu for $26 Monday through Thursday September 22 to 25 as well as September 29 to October 2.

The dining deals are sandwiched between the 2014 New Rochelle/Pelham ArtsFest (September 27 to 28), which includes a classic car show, a community painting party, the 3rd Annual Lincoln Avenue Arts & Culture Festival, LEGO Day at the Huguenot Children’s Library, a behind-the-scenes tour of illustrator Charles Fazzino’s studio, and more.

 

 

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http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Blogs/Eat-Drink-Post/September-2014/Dine-Downtown-New-Rochelle/

Armonk Outdoor Art Show Sept 20-21 | #ArmonkRealEstate

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How Rare are Housing Bubbles? | #Armonk Real Estate

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Do house prices experience periodic bull and bear markets like the stock market?  Or are they stable in real (inflation-adjusted) terms most of the time, with big disruptions once or twice in a century?  Two popular house price series tell these very different stories.  Knowing which is better will lead to superior investment outcomes and improved policy decisions.

Karl (Chip) Case, of Wellesley College, and the Nobel Prize-winning Yale professor Robert Shiller, have constructed the most widely-known suite of indices, which are now part of the S&P index family. Here is the Case-Shiller national house price index in real terms from 1890 through December 2013:

Figure 1
Case-Shiller National House Price Index in Constant Dollars, 1890-2013

Housing bubbles

Source: http://www.multpl.com/case-shiller-home-price-index-inflation-adjusted/

And here is a house price series distributed by the data firm of Crandall, Pierce & Co., consisting of the median new home sales price in constant dollars collected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (For brevity, we call this the “Crandall” series.)

Figure 2
Crandall, Pierce Median New Home Sale Prices in Constant Dollars, March 1963-March 2014.03

Housing bubbles

Source: Crandall, Pierce & Co., Libertyville, IL.  Reprinted with permission.

Could any two charts describing the same underlying phenomenon look more different?  In the Case-Shiller chart, there was one great bear market in the last 50 years, from late 2006 to early 2012, following a massive price expansion or bubble.1

In the Crandall chart, however, bull and bear markets have alternated in a remarkably regular pattern.  All of the bear markets represent losses of roughly 20%, with the crash of 2008-2011 only a little worse than the three other housing bear markets that occurred in 1968-1970, 1979-1982, and 1988-1992.  The Crandall chart also shows real prices rising pretty smartly – 1.35% per year – while the Case-Shiller chart shows a much slower rise.

Note that the two price series do not purport to measure the same thing.  The Crandall data are for new houses only; the Case-Shiller data are intended to reflect the entire stock of housing capital.2 The Crandall data are for a median house, the size and quality of which are constantly changing; Case and Shiller explicitly adjust for changes in the size and quality of a house. There are many other differences, so it’s understandable that the two series disagree somewhat – but they’re both intended to track house prices, so the contrast between them is striking and troubling.

 

 

read more….

 

 

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/09/rare-housing-bubbles/