Housing market: Sellers losing some control, Redfin says – Sun Sentinel.
Tag Archives: Armonk NY Luxury Homes
Schiliro Leads Arden In North Castle Supervisor Race | Armonk NY Real Estate
Councilman Michael Schiliro remains in the lead in the race for North Castle Supervisor as of 11:50 p.m.
Schiliro is leading Supervisor Howard Arden 56 percent to 44 percent with 90 percent of precincts reporting.
Republican Barbara DiGiacinto and Democrat Barry Reiter are pulling away in the race for town board, leading with 29 percent of the vote each. Incumbent Republican John Cronin trails with 22 percent of the vote and Democrat Jose Berra has 21 percent.
Arden, a Republican, was running for a second term as supervisor, is opposed by Schiliro, who has served three terms on the Town Board. Cronin was running for a second term on the board. Cronin campaigned with Diane Didonato-Roth, who was defeated in the Republican primary by DiGiancinto.
Berra and Reiter were running for the first time on the Democratic line.
http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/politics/schiliro-leads-arden-north-castle-supervisor-race
Armonk’s Mariani Gardens Granted Zoning Text Amendment For Café Plans | Armonk Real Estate

Mariani Gardens in Armonk was recently granted a zoning text amendment from the North Castle Town Board to enlarge its café, according to a report by The Examiner News.
The text amendment would allow the Armonk nursery, located on Bedford Road, to enlarge its café from 1,000-square-feet to up to 3,500-square feet, and it would also be able to increase its seating capacity from 16 to 72, the report said. Certain home furnishing and luxury items, like soaps, lotions and jewelry, could also be sold at the business.
The final step in granting the zoning revision is approval from the North Castle Planning Board.
The text amendment was granted after two years of debate and revised proposals, according to the report.
9 Creative Ways to Use Social Media to Launch a Product | ArmonkRealtor
Are you looking for creative ideas to help launch your next product (or company)?
Want some actionable tips to employ social media in your next launch?
If so, keep reading as I explore nine ways we used social media to help launch a new project.
You’re sure to find unusual tactics that will help you with your next launch.
Why Social Media for a Launch?
Social media has changed everything when it comes to marketing.
Now, instead of spending a ton of money hoping to get in front of the “press,” you are the media. Social media allows you to connect with people and encourage engagement with very little money and only a nominal effort.
Like Social Media Examiner, you may have a blog or podcast—or perhaps a video series. This means you are a media outlet and can leverage that following every time you launch.
Even if you don’t produce content, chances are pretty good you’ve developed relationships across social channels. All of these outposts provide a great opportunity to take the launch process to an entirely new level.
Let me show you how. Below are nine ways we employed social media to help launch a new initiative called My Kids’ Adventures.
Tip #1: Create a Teaser Campaign on Facebook
When your idea is nothing more than a thought, start brainstorming ways you can employ social media to hint that something exciting is coming.
My teaser campaign was code-named “Project Torch” and I referred to it every now and again on Facebook. As you can see below, a lot of folks were intrigued and wondered what I had up my sleeve.
I posted the result of a brainstorming session on Facebook, with the words blurred on the clipboard
Starting months before launch, I regularly posted random images of torches, Indiana Jones and updates about my progress on “Project Torch.”
People were private messaging me, calling me and emailing me (family, friends and business peers) wondering what in the world this secret project was.
Tips when doing a teaser campaign:
- Experiment using Facebook posts with and without images.
- Share progress images (I showed fuzzed-out logos we were working on).
- Reference your “code name” in all of your updates to create natural curiosity.
- Be very careful not to reveal too much too early (even to your closest friends and employees!).
Tip #2: Create a Video That’s Personal
Social media provides an amazing opportunity to connect with people. Why not create a video that reveals the need you hope to address while simply hinting at the solution?
The video below was put together in less than two weeks. Part was filmed with my iPhone while I was on vacation and the other part was done with the help of a guy at my church on a Saturday afternoon.
This video played an instrumental role in setting the tone for our new project.
How I unveiled the video…
The above video was first formally revealed at Social Media Marketing World, following my keynote presentation.
I pulled a Steve Jobs and said, “But wait, there’s one more thing…” I showed the video and spoke for about 5 minutes and that was it.
Read more….
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-product-launch/
Retail real estate landscape is looking different after the recession | Armonk Homes
As New Jersey continues to emerge from the recession, observers are noticing changes in the commercial retail real estate landscape: Bigger isn’t better, but variety is. And for the time being, it’s a tenant’s market.
In 2002, vacant storefronts represented about 2 percent of the shopping corridors in the central and northern parts of New Jersey. Buildings didn’t stay empty for long. Because space was at a premium, rents were high.
When big box stores such as Bradlees or Caldors went out of business, other enterprises like Kohl’s or Home Depot moved in.
But as the dark clouds of the recession roiled over New Jersey, large and small retailers became tentative. A survey of lease renewals by CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information company, showed 10-year lease renewals for retail outlets began plummeting in 2005, while one-year leases climbed dramatically.
Ryan McCullough, a vice president at CoStar, said it was as if stores had been placed on “a waiting list for foreclosure.” Parent companies wanted to take a wait-and-see approach before making long-term commitments. At the same time, landlords, looking to hold on to their tenants, lowered rents.
By the fourth quarter of 2006, the vacancy rate had risen to 7.6 percent and rents were $20.92 per square foot, according to CoStar. In the first quarter of this year, however, the vacancy rate is 6.6 percent while rents average $19.37. And lease lengths are showing signs of growing longer again.
“Think of it as a sign of retailer confidence,” said McCullough.
Marta Villa, vice president of CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, said, “One reason for the longer lease is the lower rents brought on by the recession. If (a retailer’s) lease is coming due in the next 24 months, they want to get in there and tie up that space.”
Villa said it is part of the new mantra in the commercial real estate market: “blend and extend.” In addition to extending leases, she said landlords are also willing to shake up the mix of outlets on a property.
Landlords have “become more receptive to filling space with nontraditional uses, like fitness centers, or day care or medical centers,” she said. “Gyms are one of the major retail sectors on the move.”
Fast food franchises are also growing rapidly in New Jersey, Villa said, as well as quick-serve restaurants like Smashburger or Chipotles.
Part of the uptick in activity is the lower rents
“A couple of years ago, we were fielding a lot of rent reduction requests,” said Matt Harding, president of Levin Management. “We reviewed them and we did work with tenants. But over the past 12 months, the number is slowing, absolutely.”
Retail real estate landscape is looking different after the recession | NJ.com.
Bedford, Armonk Lead in Highest 2012 Average Sold Price | RobReportBlog
Bedford, Armonk Lead in Highest 2012 Average Sold Price | RobReportBlog
Average 2012 Sold Price $1,264,648.00 Armonk $1,030,634.00 Chappaqua $892,754.00 Pound Ridge $639,674.00 North Salem $1,356,741.00 Bedford NY $652,715.00 South Salem $1,083,327.00 Bedford Hills $781,510.00 Mount Kisco $846,804.00 Katonah
Realogy CEO highlights ties to real estate search portals | Armonk NY Homes
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If Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com have come to symbolize the way the Internet has revolutionized the real estate industry, don’t assume that brokerage and franchising giant Realogy Holdings Corp. is a proxy for the traditional way of doing business.
After pulling off a successful initial public offering Thursday, CEO Richard Smith told Forbes’ Tom Taulli that the traditional real estate marketing model of classified ads is dead.
While that’s not news to anybody in the real estate business, Smith also pointed out something that’s sometimes forgotten — that Realogy has “invested heavily” in online channels like Trulia and Zillow, Taulli said.
Realogy’s IPO prospectus noted that the company has “attractive financial arrangements with third-party websites such as Google, Yahoo, Trulia, Zillow, and others that significantly advantage our agents and franchisees.”
In April 2011, for example, Zillow announced that it would provide exclusive discounts to Century 21 Real Estate brokers and agents on featured listings on Zillow.
In June 2011, Realogy Corp. subsidiary NRT LLC announced it had signed agreements to add advertising enhancements to 100,000 property listings on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate. Under an agreement announced in April 2011, Trulia offered brokers affiliated with Realogy subsidiary Century 21 Real Estate LLC discounts on premium listings for a limited time.
Zillow’s broker advisory board includes Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, and Beverly Thorne, chief marketing officer for Century 21 Real Estate LLC.
After Realogy priced its IPO at $27 per share , Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff wrote “Rooting for our friends at Realogy
So it was no surprise when Realogy announced today that underwriters of the IPO have exercised their option to purchase an additional 6 million shares of common stock at the $27 IPO price, bringing the total offering to 46 million shares.
After paying commissions and other expenses, Realogy expects to see $154 million in additional proceeds, bringing the net proceeds from the IPO to $1.2 billion.
The sale of the additional shares also means that parent company Apollo Global Management LLC’s stake in Realogy will fall to 48 percent and Realogy will no longer be considered a “controlled company,” exempt from certain corporate governance requirements.
That means Realogy will have one year to appoint a majority of independent directors to its board, and ensure that the company has a compensation committee and a corporate governance committee each composed entirely of independent directors.
In its IPO prospectus, Realogy said it expects one additional director to join the company’s five-member board “immediately following the completion” of the IPO, and that one additional director would be added within 90 days of the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Francis Gaskins, founder and editor of IPO Desktop, doesn’t think Smith — who in March added chairman of the Realogy board of directors to his existing titles of CEO and president — will have to relinquish any of his roles due to corporate governance requirements for noncontrolled companies, which he described as just “bluff and icing.”
In its prospectus, Realogy predicted that even if it controls less than 50 percent of Realogy’s common stock, Apollo “will continue to be able to significantly influence or effectively control our decisions,” and have the ability “to prevent any transaction that requires the approval of our board of directors or our stockholders, including the approval of significant corporate transactions such as restructurings, mergers and the sale of substantially all of our assets.”
Mortgage rates stay near historic lows | Armonk NY Real Estate
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Mortgage rates inched up almost imperceptibly this week from historic lows that helped boost demand for purchase loans last week by more than 10 percent from a year ago.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.39 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Oct. 11, up from 3.36 percent last week but down from 4.12 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Last week’s rates were an all-time low in Freddie Mac records dating to 1971.
For 15-year fixed-rate loans, popular with homeowners refinancing, rates averaged 2.7 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from 2.69 percent last week but down from 3.37 percent from a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages were at an all-time low last week in records dating to 1991.
Rates on five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans averaged 2.73 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from 2.72 percent last week but down from 3.06 percent a year ago. Rates on five-year ARM loans hit a low in records dating to 2005 of 2.69 percent during the week ending July 19.
For one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, rates averaged 2.59 percent with an average 0.4 point, up from 2.57 percent last week but down from 2.9 percent a year ago. Rates on one-year ARM loans were at an all-time low last week in records dating to 1984.
An $40-billion-per-month increase in government purchases of mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced by the Federal Reserve on Sept. 13 is expected to bolster MBS prices and keep yields down for an indefinite period.
Looking back a week, a separate survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed demand for purchase mortgages was up a seasonally adjusted 2 percent during the week ending Oct. 5 compared to a week earlier. Demand for purchase loans was up 12 percent from a year ago, the MBA said, but applications to refinance still accounted for 83 percent of all loan requests.






