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Armonk Luxury Homes

Armonk’s Mariachi Mexico Restaurant Gets Makeover | Armonk Homes

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For 23 years, Mariachi Mexico has been an Armonk institution. Now the restaurant is spicing things up.

The restaurant has undergone interior and menu makeovers thanks to new head chef Joana Herrera, who started in February. Herrera, a Hastings-on-Hudson resident who emigrated from Mexico when she was 11, previously worked at Mariachi Mexico as a waitress.

“I want to create a totally different vibe,” Herrera said. “This is one of my dreams. I want people to feel comfortable and relaxed.”

Herrera said she said wants customers to feel like they can come in and have a little bite to eat, and not have to order entrees.

“They can come in and have tacos and drink,” Herrera said. “I want them to enjoy the company.”

All types of music plays throughout the restaurant, from Spanish music to European techno to tango. The walls have been painted white, and a blackboard hangs in the back offering specials. Herrera, who graduated from culinary school in New York City, wants her passion for life to shine through.

“I believe in living each day to the fullest,” Herrera said. “You truly don’t know what’s happening tomorrow.”

A sign hangs in the center of the restaurant imploring customers to eat, drink, smile and love. The restaurant’s interior is inspired by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Herrera visits the Frida Kahlo museum whenever she is in Mexico City.

Herrera said she feels fortunate to be head chef of a restaurant, knowing how few get the opportunity.

“I am extremely excited that I have gotten to this point,” Herrera said.

Working on the strip in downtown Armonk is also something Herrera enjoys. Herrera said she enjoys people watching outside the restaurant, and is glad she is not working in an isolated area.

When it comes to the menu, Herrera is very high on the restaurant’s chips, offering homemade plantain chips and blue tortilla chips. She described the food as Mexcian with a New York flare. Herrera cooks her food using epazote and guajillo chili.

Herrera said she loves street food, and has a real affection for tacos.

“Tacos are so enjoyable,” Herrera said. “You cannot turn down a taco.”

Tacos al pastor is her personal favorite, but the rest of the menu comes at a close second.

“I like everything,” Herrera said. “It’s hard to grow up in Mexico and not end up loving food.”

Mariachi offers light and healthy food, that Herrera said will fill patrons up and she is always working on the menu to satisfy the needs of customers.

“I want people to walk out with a big smile,” Herrera said. “From the food, décor and music to the smiles of the staff, I want them to have a good experience that reflects how hard we work.”

Mariachi Mexico is at 405 Main Street in Armonk. For more information, contact (914) 273-6805 or visit the restaurant’s website.

 

Armonk’s Mariachi Mexico Restaurant Gets Makeover | The Chappaqua Daily Voice.

High Price Low Cost SEO | Social Media Today | Armonk Realtor

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Everyone wants to be found in the search engines. Organic visitors typically account for most Web publishers’ traffic and yield one of the highest long-term returns on investment of any digital channel.

 

Ranking well in Google has obvious benefits to one’s business. More qualified traffic equals more revenue and customers. As such, this led a lot of companies to take shortcuts in their link building for years because the reward far outweighed the risk.

 

Some examples of link building tactics that used to work include: Over-optimization of anchor text, low-quality links and creating dummy blogs with robot-generated text.

 

What is the common theme here?  Little to no effort in order to generate these links. Much of it could be automated or purchased relatively cheaply and the low costs yielded tremendous returns until February 2011. That’s when Panda hit, and it hit hard. Then in April 2012 another major update hit: Penguin. This focused primarily on the sources linking to Websites.

 

After the dust settled, Warren Buffett’s famous saying “when the tide goes out, you see who was swimming naked,” which was intended for those who played the stock market and were heavily leveraged could also apply for many Websites’ SEO. The tide went out on low cost link building and many company’s link profile was naked, resulting in losses of traffic and thousands to millions of dollars for many Webmasters.

 

Unfortunately for these companies, regaining lost rankings was not as easy as drawing a line in the sand and doing things right from that point on. The cost was exponentially greater because these companies needed to factor in the price of fixing the old issue before moving on towards the newer, cleaner link building.

 

Earning trust today in Google takes time. A lot of it. It involves building relationships with real people, at authoritative Websites, and distributing quality content across the Web that provides real value to the audience that engages with it. The links earned from quality content tells Google’s crawlers that Web sites of authority trust you enough to link to you.

 

Google can also quickly discern which content is more valuable than others based on the number of times it is shared across the social Web. Obviously the easiest way they have insight into this data is from their own social property Google+. However, since most Twitter tweets are public, their crawlers can also determine how frequently the content has been shared on this massive social network.  In addition, Facebook’s API can quickly indicate how many times a given domain and page have been shared on its site.

 

The times have changed. Continuing with old link building practices is only a recipe to digging an even deeper grave for a Website’s SEO. Costs associated with link building today have increased mostly because of the time involved, but the end result is the same: prominent visibility in Google which leads to more awareness and customers for your brand.

 

High Price Low Cost SEO | Social Media Today.

Mortgages are Coming Home | Armonk Real Estate

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Since late last year, industry experts forecast a drop in mortgage refinancings as rates rise and a revival of purchase mortgages as the housing recovery creates business for lenders willing to working with home buyers. The spring housing market is here and now the mortgage market is following.

Purchase mortgages zoomed to their highest monthly market share since last August in Ellie Mae’s latest originations report, a sign that the mortgage business is shifting gears and the greatest boom in refis in recent years is ending. Loans to home buyers made up 38 percent of all loans processed by the nation’s largest mortgage processing platform, up from 32 percent in February and 27 percent in January.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Rising House Prices, Not Stocks, Make People Feel Wealthy | Armonk NY Real Estate

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As a key influence on households’ spending decisions, the health of the housing sector trumps stock-market moves, a paper released this week by the National Bureau for Economic Research claims.

 

European Pressphoto Agency

The study, written by prominent economists Karl Case, John Quigley and Robert Shiller, refines their existing study of what is called the wealth effect. Case and Shiller are well known names, especially on housing issues. Quigley, another luminary, died in May, before the research’s publication.

Most economists and policymakers agree asset price gains can be big drivers of consumer spending power. Rising home or stock prices are generally agreed to increase consumer spending, while falling asset prices cut the other way.

That said, economists and policymakers have had a hard time quantifying the wealth effect. That’s problematic for many reasons, but it’s even more so due to the fact that the housing market’s crash and apparent recovery are considered central to the overall fate of the economy. To that end, the Federal Reserve is pursing a policy course deliberately aimed at driving up all manner of asset prices in hopes its actions will boost household spending to power better overall growth.

In the paper, the economists update their decade-old work, drawing on a wider and more up-to-date set of data ranging from 1975 to the second quarter of 2012. The broader information changes and clarifies what was once thought about the wealth effect’s influence.

There is “at best weak evidence of a link between stock market wealth and consumption,” the economists wrote. “In contrast, we do find strong evidence that variations in housing market wealth have important effects upon consumption,” they said.

“An increase in real housing wealth comparable to the rise between 2001 and 2005 would, over the four years, push up household spending by a total of about 4.3%,” the paper stated. Meanwhile, “a decrease in real housing wealth comparable to the crash which took place between 2005 and 2009 would lead to a drop of about 3.5%.”

This finding upends the old understanding that housing gains tended to push spending higher by a wider margin that home price declines depressed spending, the economists wrote.

The paper’s conclusion provides some additional hope that a nascent housing sector recovery could in fact be a meaningful contributor to a broader acceleration in growth over coming years. It may also explain why even as the stock market has scored strong gains in recent years on the back of extremely aggressive monetary policy, growth to date has been so middling and disconnected from the story told by equities.

A note from Deutsche Bank sees housing contributing strongly to a better economy. “The wealth effect on consumer spending could be substantial” this year, the bank told clients. “We are projecting home price appreciation of 5-10% in 2013, which translates into a further increase in household assets, i.e. wealth creation, ranging between $860 billion and $1.720 trillion.”

“Through its direct and indirect effects, the housing sector alone could potentially contribute as much as 2% to real GDP growth this year,” Deutsche said.

via blogs.wsj.com

 

Foreclosure filings up in half of US states in 2012 | Armonk Real Estate

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Half of U.S. states saw an annual increase in the number of foreclosure-related filings in 2012, but most of those were judicial foreclosure states where loan servicers were catching up on the backlog from the “robo-signing” controversy, according to a year-end report by data aggregator RealtyTrac.

All told, RealtyTrac reported foreclosure-related filings against 1.84 million U.S. properties in 2012, down 3 percent from 2011 and down 36 percent from a 2010 peak of 2.9 million homes.

All but five of the 25 states seeing an increase in foreclosure-related filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) were states where courts handle most foreclosure proceedings.

Many foreclosure proceedings against homeowners in those states were stalled, but not derailed, by allegations that loan servicers failed to follow proper procedures in filing legal documents.

After loan servicers reached a settlement last March with state and federal officials last over so-called “robo-signing” practices and revised their procedures, they began pushing new and existing proceedings through the system again (many also started approving more short sales to meet their obligations under the terms of the settlement).

Foreclosures are handled by courts in the six states seeing the biggest annual increase in 2012 foreclosure filings — New Jersey (up 55 percent), Florida (53 percent), Connecticut (48 percent), Indiana (46 percent), Illinois (33 percent), and New York (31 percent).

Homes in New York took the longest to move through the foreclosure process — 1,089 days — followed by New Jersey (987 days), Florida (853 days), Hawaii (781 days), and Illinois (697 days).

In the 25 states that saw foreclosure filings drop from 2011 to 2012, 19 handle most foreclosures outside of the court system, and  loan servicers in those states continued to move homes through the foreclosure process during the robo-signing controversy.

Nonjudicial foreclosure states seeing the biggest drop in foreclosure filings in 2012 were Nevada (down 57 percent), Utah (down 40 percent), Oregon (down 40 percent), Arizona (down 33 percent), California (down 25 percent), and Michigan (down 23 percent).

RealtyTrac warned there could be a foreclosure backlog building up some states that saw filings decline in 2012, as the result of new state legislation and court rulings that make it more difficult for lenders to foreclose.

So 2013 could see “two discrete jumps in foreclosure activity,” at the beginning and end of the year, said Realty Trac’s Daren Blomquist.

“We expect to see continued increases in judicial foreclosure states near the beginning of the year as lenders finish catching up with the backlogs in those states, and another set of increases in some nonjudicial states near the end of the year as lenders adjust to the new laws and process some deferred foreclosures in those states.”

The rise in foreclosure activity in many local markets in 2012 “should translate into more foreclosure inventory available for sale in 2013 in those markets,” Blomquist said. “That is good news for buyers and investors, but could result in some short-term weakness in home prices as the often-discounted foreclosure sales weigh down overall home values” in those markets.

States with the highest foreclosure rates in 2012 were Florida (with filings against 3.11 percent of homes), Nevada (2.7 percent), Arizona (2.69 percent), Georgia (2.58 percent), California (2.33 percent), Ohio (1.75 percent), Michigan (1.69 percent), South Carolina (1.66 percent), and Colorado (1.64 percent).

Among metro areas with a population of 200,000 or more, Stockton, Calif., had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate (3.98 percent). Six other California cities made RealtyTrac’s list of the 20 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, and Florida landed eight cities on the list, including Miami (3.71 percent) and Orlando (3.46 percent).

Zillow is projecting that a half-dozen markets in California, including some Central Valley cities hard hit by foreclosures, will see double-digit home price aprreciation in the months ahead. The real estate portal’s analysis of more than 250 markets predicts that national home prices will appreciate 2.5 percent in the year ending November 2013.

“The U.S. housing market bottomed in the fourth quarter of 2011 and has since entered a sustainable recovery,” Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said in a blog post.

California metros Zillow expects to see the biggest gains are Modesto (projected to gain 14.7 percent), Merced (12.1 percent), Bakersfied (10.7 percent), Vallejo (10.4 percent), Sacramento (10.1 percent) and Visalia (10.0 percent).

via inman.com

FHA Audit Leads to Higher Fees | Armonk NY Real Estate

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The results of FHA’s annual audit sent a shock wave through the nation’s housing community Friday afternoon as even agency officials could not confirm that the higher borrowing costs it will charge borrowers will enough to cover losses.

The FHA reported on Friday that its annual audit shows that even if it stopped making any new loans immediately, the agency doesn’t have enough in reserve to cover expected losses on loans already in its portfolio. The result would lead to a $16.3 billion net worth deficit.

The agency announced it will raise premiums and sell delinquent loans as it seeks to avoid taking aid from taxpayers for the first time in its 78- year history, but when asked whether those steps will be enough to overcome the deficit, FHA Acting Commissioner Carol Galante declined to speculate on whether these measures would be enough to keep the agency from seeking Treasury assistance.

“At this point in time, it’s literally impossible to say whether we will or won’t need a draw,” she said during a briefing for reporters in Washington. “We are doing this to increase the likelihood that we will not.” More than 17 percent of all FHA loans were delinquent in September. The agency has lost $70 billion on loans it insured from fiscal years 2007 through 2009.

Most of the FHA’s price increases will go into effect in January. The annual premium FHA charges borrowers in return for guaranteeing loans will rise by 10 basis points on new mortgages, an average cost of about $13 per month for borrowers. The agency also will no longer allow some borrowers to stop paying premiums after 10 years. FHA will also provide deeper levels of payment relief for borrowers who receive loan modifications to avert foreclosure.

In addition, FHA will expand short sales for defaulting borrowers and continue auctioning off at least 10,000 delinquent loans every quarter, urging investors who buy them to take steps to keep families in their homes.

The premium increase comes on top of a significant hike in mortgage insurance premiums and tighter credit standards enacted late last year and earlier this year. The higher costs are driving borrowers who can qualify to use conventional financing, which may be accelerating the deterioration of the quality its portfolio.

Earlier this year, FHA raised upfront mortgage insurance premiums to 1.75 percent of the amount borrowed, due at closing and raised annual mortgage insurance premiums to as high as 1.25 percent a per year. FHA also refused to lend to borrowers with FICO scores below 530 and instituted a 10 percent down payment requirement for those with scores between 530 and 580.

Following implementation of the new policies, use of FHA loans declined. In January, FHA transactions accounted for 27.3 percent of all home purchase transactions. FHA-financed transactions were only 25.9 percent in August, according to the Campbell Surveys/Inside Mortgage Finance Housing Pulse. Ellie Mae also reported that the FHA share of mortgage originations declined, from 29 percent in August 2011 to 17 percent in September 2012. During the same period, conventional mortgages increased their market share of new from 61 to 72 percent.

Higher borrowing costs will affect first-time buyers more than others. FHA mortgages were used by 46 percent of first-time buyers in 2011. In September, the media FICO score of FHA borrowers was 701, according to Ellie Mae, whose software platform processes about 20 percent of all U.S. mortgage originations.

“Conventional mortgages are making a comeback while FHA mortgages are not,” said Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys in September. “Reasons for the growth in conventional mortgages include low rates, increased underwriting of high LTV mortgages by private mortgage insurers, and a price structure including insurance premiums that is cheaper than the FHA alternative.”

Housing organizations across the spectrum issued statements of concern about the audit. “While there is no doubt that the housing finance system needs to be reformed, the contributions that the FHA has made during this economic downturn underscore the need for a government backstop for both the primary and secondary mortgage markets. In times of crisis, private financial institutions have fled the marketplace and consistently failed to step up to the plate. Without government support for home purchasing and refinancing, the nation’s mortgage markets will grind to a halt, throwing the economy back into recession,” said Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, said, “FHA has already instituted changes so that its current and more recent loans are projected to generate a profit. Those safeguards, along with the additional changes FHA announced today, should produce the additional revenue that will enable FHA to operate without a subsidy from taxpayers. Further restrictions, however, would undercut the ability of FHA to fulfill its mission.”

Said Debra W. Still, CMB, Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA): “While everyone had hoped for a better report, the news that the Fund has gone negative is not wholly unexpected, as last year’s report predicted there was a 50 percent likelihood this would occur. The characteristics and stresses on FHA’s pre-2010 books of business continue to be the source of losses, while books from 2010 onward are performing well.

“The good news is that the steps that FHA has taken to better manage its risk in recent years have succeeded in vastly improving loan performance on more recent vintages. The industry welcomed many of those changes and believes that policymakers can take further steps that would stabilize FHA single family programs, starting with a rigorous look at the data driving the actuarial results and an open, robust discussion over the future of the government’s role in housing finance.”

“Given the significant role that housing plays in the economy, policymakers need to take a long-term, holistic approach to housing finance reform and carefully gauge how it affects other efforts under way to get the nation’s fiscal house in order and achieve long-term economic growth.”

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Evernote for Real Estate – A sneak peak at Evernote 5 | Armonk Real Estate

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My self-diagnosed, borderline OCD loves every single thing about Evernote. I use it every day in both my work and personal life. So, earlier this week, when I received this little email from the crew at Evernote, excitement doesn’t even begin to express how I feel. Over a hundred new features? I’m in!

Evernote 5 Coming Soon

What’s new?
The design nerd in me loves the redesigned interface and new left panel. If you’re a paperless agent and use Evernote to organize all of your clients and paperwork, the added shortcuts and advancements in viewing both your own and shared notebooks together should make streamlining even more efficient.

TypeAhead search is new as well. It will give you suggestions as you’re typing and also pull up your most recent and saved searches for easy access. They’ve also integrated Mountain Lion’s notification center.

For those of you who use Evernote Food and Hello, those are being integrated as well in their new Atlas feature allowing you to visually see your notes and remember where you were when you took them!

Just getting started with Evernote? No problem. These are a must!

1. Download the web clipper for your browser.
Whatever browser you use (even IE, I’m not here to judge) download this extension. Any website you’re visiting you’re able to clip with just one click. It automatically saves it to your notebooks in your Evernote account.

2. Evernote is everywhere.
Since you’re able to access your Evernote account anywhere, download the app for your mobile devices too! Although the latest updates will be for Mac, Evernote works on Android, Blackberry and Windows devices as well.

3. Go paperless!
It’s scary, I know. Just take baby steps and work your way through it. Evernote has many uses, so start at your own pace and grow with it. Some basic starter ideas:

  • Personal productivity: Type notes during meetings, keep personal and private checklists, save web clippings, photos, files and more.
  • Transaction Management: Keep client’s records, inspection reports, emails, signed documents during and after the transaction. You have the option to share with your clients and keep them in the loop at all times.
  • Checklists and action plans: From listing coordination and seller action plans, closing checklists, and even marketing plans, staying organized and having your information at a glance is key to systemizing your entire business.
  • Share notebooks with clients and team members: Do you manage a team? Have buyer’s agents? An escrow coordinator? Set up notebooks just to share with them, and have them do the same. Embracing the digital lifestyle works great for teams too!
  • Syncs across all your devices so you have everything available: As a mobile professional the ease of having everything sync together is a must. Upgrade to the pro account and you have access even if you’re offline.
Already using Evernote? How do you use Evernote to help keep you organized? Let us know and we’ll share them on Twitter!


via next.inman.com

Down Payments Fall to Three Year Low | Armonk Homes for Sale

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The median downpayment made by all homebuyers in 2012 was 9 percent, ranging from 4 percent for first-time buyers to 13 percent for repeat buyers. The median down payment was the lowest since 2009 but still far above the levels during the housing boom, when nearly half of first-time buyers made no downpayment at all.

First-time buyers who financed their purchase used a variety of resources for the down payment: 76 percent tapped into savings; 24 percent received a gift from a friend or relative, typically from their parents; and 6 percent received a loan from a relative or friend. Eleven percent tapped into a 401(k) fund, and 6 percent sold stocks or bonds. Ninety-three percent of entry-level buyers chose a fixed-rate mortgage, reported the National Association of Realtors.

Forty-six percent of first-time buyers financed with a low-downpayment FHA mortgage, and 10 percent used the VA loan program with no downpayment requirements. Forty-two percent cut spending on luxury items to buy their first home, 35 percent cut spending on entertainment and 27 percent cut spending on clothes.

In 2005, the median first-time home buyer scraped together a down payment of only 2 percent to buy a $150,000 home . Two years later, in 2007, the median downpayment by first-time buyers was still only 2 percent and 45 percent purchased with no money down – the same as in 2006. That year 43 percent of first-time home buyers purchased their homes with no-money-down loans.

After lenders tightened standards in the wake of the housing crash, the median down payment soared , reaching 11 percent in 2010-2011. First time buyers put about 5 percent down in 2011. Repeat buyers, pooling equity with savings, typically put down about 15 percent. Investment and vacation-home buyers have been paying higher down payments than those buying a primary residence. The median down payment for both was 27 percent, according to NAR’s 2011 Profile of Investment and Vacation Buyers.

“First-time buyers historically make small down payments, but repeat buyers like to put down 20 percent if they can to avoid paying mortgage insurance,” NAR’s Paul Bishop said. “The general loss in home value since the peak of the housing boom means many repeat buyers in recent years had to make smaller downpayments. Fortunately, prices have turned up this year and are showing sustained increases, so we’re on the road to a recovery in home equity.”

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Armonk NY Homes wants to know what makes real estate ‘prime’? | Inman News for the Armonk NY Real Estate market

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What makes real estate ‘prime’?

Mood of the Market

Flickr image courtesy of <a href=.

I’m fascinated by the concept of “prime real estate.” In fact, I apply it in all areas of life — some of which would cause quizzical looks in a crowd of real estate professionals. When dealing with difficult people and relationships, I’ve been known to evict them from my prime mental real estate.

What my mother might call tailgating, I call the highest and best use of prime, rush-hour, freeway real estate. I’ve taught my son that the whole foods I want him to eat — mostly produce and proteins — occupy the prime real estate in the grocery store.

(In turn, he has informed me that the processed foods he wants to eat — mostly hot Cheetos and Mountain Dew — are just a few aisles in.)

The subject of prime real estate jolted into mind for me, recently, after someone invaded my freeway real estate, rear-ending me in a (blessedly) minor fender bender. Bizarrely enough, I was rear-ended, also at very low speed, in virtually the identical spot on the freeway almost exactly a year ago.

I thought … that is a “bad” piece of real estate in this interchange, which is otherwise probably one of the highest-utility-per-square-foot spots in town. My hypertext mind then clicked to the question of whether what is considered prime vs. “bad” real estate has changed over this past four years of real estate market recession, reset and reformation that we’ve experienced.

In some ways, it most certainly, obviously has. The exclusivity, newness, vast, high-ceiling, remote, “conclave-y” feel of many suburbs folded in on itself when all the subprime adjustable-rate mortgages that financed the original purchase of those homes reset at the same time and foreclosed en masse.

This foreclosure wave, happening at the same time as gas prices skyrocketed and frugality became en vogue, caused a triple-time change in the definition of many newly developed suburban communities, from the prime real estate of the suburbs, to the burdensome-for-commuters exurbs, to the down-and-out “slumburbs.”

Another new set of elements that has been added into the mix of what constitutes prime real estate, post-recession, is how well the area has withstood the recession. Just last week, I read this frightening factoid: 78 percent of today’s foreclosure sales are taking place in 10 states.

Now, as you might suspect from my conception of the supermarket boundaries, nothing in real estate is more hyperlocal, to use an overused phrase, than which areas are “prime” and which are less desirable. So, while some of these states have areas where foreclosure rates are sky-high, home values have been decimated, and the vast majority of the homes are burdened with mortgage balances greater than their market value, most also have “prime” real estate districts.

These prime areas in otherwise subprime states are the counties, cities or even neighborhoods where these conditions do not prevail, often because of a thriving local job market or some unique limitation on supply, like tight building regulations or a simple lack of space for new construction in a coastal area.

Of course, I also recently saw an online news outlet feature a slide show on the healthiest housing markets in America, which featured a number of states where more than 30 percent of the homes are upside-down, meaning that their owners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth.

The fact that these markets are accurately deemed relatively healthy does show a tide change in what prime real estate is, at least by that definition.

So, with the addition of recession-resistance to the list of qualifying criteria, what is and isn’t prime real estate has changed somewhat over the real estate recession. But I wouldn’t say it has changed much otherwise. The same things that my parents and grandparents thought made a neighborhood desirable for living and homeownership 20, 40 and 60 years ago still make for prime real estate today.

Established neighborhoods, with high rates of homeownership and relatively low turnover (possibly two sides of the same coin), tend to be desirable, as the residents invest more in their homes and the supply of homes for sale is scarce, which positions them to sell at a good value.

Walkability or other convenient access to jobs, shopping, amenities and activities also characterize districts we think of as prime real estate. And let’s not forget plain old aesthetic beauty — whether it’s natural beauty of tree-lined streets, water views, mountains, or the beautiful sleek, modern, artisanal or vintage architecture of the homes.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and the real estate consumer.

Some would automatically throw good schools on the list, but I’d beg to differ, proposing instead that locally valued comforts might be what we’re really referring to. Last year, the National Association of Realtors’ 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers found that a shockingly low minority of homebuyers actually have children under 18 at home.

Of course, homeowners without children certainly don’t mind living in a good school district. But neither is it necessary to be in one for the real estate to be prime, if most people in an area are childless or, as in my area, send their children to private schools.

But “prime” is a synonym for desirable, which, in real estate, is driven by what buyers want — and that differs in different areas. If you’re in Manhattan, for example, this might be having a Whole Foods or a YMCA on your building’s ground floor. If you’re in an urban area, this might be parking. If you’re on the coast, this could be ocean views. If you’re in the suburbs, this could mean a five-car garage with air conditioning and a pool.

Whatever floats your (and your neighbors’) boats, if possessed by a home, building or community, and renders it prime real estate — like, for example, having a boat lift in Miami, where no boat should have to lift itself, as I always say.

And the opposite is also true: What is considered “bad” is relative to what people in your area value or dislike; train tracks might be seen as a noisy eyesore in some suburbs, while proximity to a subway station is considered a vast benefit in some cities.

Which leads us to the last, most unsung ingredient of prime real estate: the absence of bad stuff. Again, what is “bad” varies by area, but there are some general things buyers want to avoid. Lots of foreclosures, tons of homes for sale, or vacant homes. Graffiti. Train tracks. Crime. Blighted homes or other eyesores.

If the way we talk about real estate reflects the way we think about real estate, then there are certainly degrees of value we place on homes and their locations, with an upper echelon reserved for homes with physical characteristics and surroundings and lifestyle amenities that are desirable to local buyers.

That desirability empowers these homes to sustain their economic value over time; yet another way — in the mold of consumer confidence — what we want and think and believe creates our individual and collective economic real estate realities.

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.


via inman.com