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Beirut ranks second place for regional real estate prices | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Beirut ranked in second place in the Arab world in terms of price of midsized apartments, according to the Global Property Guide’s latest annual report on investment trends around the world. According to Byblos Bank’s weekly economic newsletter, the report ranked Beirut 46th among 94 markets globally in 2012 and second in the Arab world after Dubai in terms of the price of a 150-square-meter apartment.

The report estimated the price per square meter at $3,591, with a price range in Central Beirut between $4,200 and $6,800 compared to $1,200 in 2004.

The report also highlighted that gross rental yields have dropped significantly in the past six years from 10 to 11 percent to 3.62 percent currently.

Beirut ranked 66th among 83 markets globally and in last place among five Arab markets in terms of gross rental yield, which is the annual rent relative to the house price.

The report warned that high prices and low yield trends are unlikely to be sustainable. Beirut’s GRY was 3.62 percent in 2012, significantly lower than the Arab average of 6.8 percent.

Lebanon’s price-to-rent ratio was 28, higher than the Arab average of 16.4. It means that it takes 28 years of rent to recover the purchase price of a 150-sqm apartment in Beirut, ranking the Lebanese capital 16th among 83 markets and in first place in the region.

The price-to-rent ratio is typically used for measuring the undervaluation or overvaluation of real estate prices.

Beirut’s rent-per-month was second highest in the Arab world at $1,623 per square meter while the Arab average stood at $1,579 per month.

In terms of the house price-to-income ratio, which is the cost of a 100-sqm housing unit relative to the country’s GDP per capita, Lebanon ranked in second place among five Arab states.

The price of a 100-sqm upscale apartment in Lebanon is equivalent to 34.29 times the country’s GDP per capita, compared to 29.19 in Jordan, 28.44 in Egypt and 6.02 in the UAE.

 

 

 

Pricey property: Beirut ranks second place for regional real estate prices | Al Bawaba.

Michael Jackson Producer Brian Malouf Lists Sherman Oaks Home | Bedford Corners Homes

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“So Michael Jackson walks in and says, ‘Hey Brian, I want to come back tonight and do my own stuff. Can you do it with me?’”

And that’s all it took, Brian Malouf explains in an interview with Mix magazine: A casual encounter with the King of Pop to completely change his producing career.

Twenty-six years later, Malouf is still living the dream, producing a total of 53 gold, platinum and double platinum records to-date for Stevie Wonder, Queen, Madonna, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and other leading artists. He’s so good that he’s also earned the right to work from his home, a 3-bedroom located at 13245 Addison St, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423.

Now listed for $1.099 million, the 1955-built house has been tastefully remodeled with high ceilings, skylights, French doors, hardwood floors, wooden built-ins and, of course, a recording studio.

“[The] garage has been converted to a high-end professional recording studio with all the bells and whistles,” writes Rodeo Realty, Inc.‘s Niki Rosenfeld in the listing description. In fact, the entire property has been decked out with surround sound and outdoor speakers.

Malouf purchased the 2,599-square-foot home in May 2011 for $990,000. Born in in nearby Hollywood, he’s been passionate about percussion since playing for his high school band. In 1981, he started working for Can-Am Recorders in Tarzana, where Michael Jackson walked in the door looking for someone to help him produce the ‘Bad’ album.

“I try to be a useful human in the race,” writes Malouf in his Twitter profile description. “I spend a lot of time in front of knobs and faders and do the best I can to make beautiful sounding music come out.”

 

Michael Jackson Producer Brian Malouf Lists Sherman Oaks Home | Zillow Blog.

Gas Prices On The Rise In Bedford | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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As temperatures continue to rise, so too do gas prices in Bedford and Mount Kisco, with prices at the pump jumping nearly 20 cents nationally in the last week.

New York gas prices are among the highest in the nation, with motorists paying an average of $3.90 per regular gallon, compared to the national average of $3.70. The only states in the continental United States paying more on gas are California ($4.04) and Connecticut ($4.00).
Since July 11, the average price of gas has risen 18 cents nationally. Prices are up 28 cents nationally from where they sat a year ago.

Robert Sinclair, the media relations manager for AAA New York, said that a conflict overseas is one of the key factors in the sudden and unexpected spike in gas prices.

“First and foremost, it’s the Egyptian situation that had led to the price of crude oil ramping up, really without justification,” he said. “This is just further evidence of a ‘fear tax,’ the worry that the Egypt problem could spread and oil production in the Middle East might be interrupted.”

The price of crude oil has risen above $100 per barrel for the first time since March 2012, Sinclair said. As recently as 2000, that price stood at just $28 per barrel, which has been a factor in the ever-rising cost of fuel.

“It’s a volatile market. Unforeseen events, in addition to the price of crude oil spiking, makes things even more volatile,” he said. “We’re seeing swings as wide as 50 or 60 cents per gallon in a given year, these are things that didn’t happen before.”

According to NewYorkGasPrices.com, the cheapest gas in Bedford can be found at the Gulf at 193 Pound Ridge Road. In Mount Kisco, the Shell at 513 Main St. is selling regular fuel for $4.29.

There may be no relief in sight for drivers, as there are still several months until refineries switch from the eco-friendly summer blend of fuel to the cheaper winter blend in September or October.

Tim James, a White Plains resident filling up for $3.99 per gallon at the Shell station on Post Road in Scarsdale, said that he wouldn’t curb the use of his car locally, but would think twice before going on a long road trip.

 

Gas Prices On The Rise In Bedford | The Bedford Daily Voice.

House prices in euro area hit seven-year low | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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House prices in the euro area have fallen to a seven-year low, with some of the steepest declines felt in countries worst hit by the financial crisis, where a large share of household wealth is stored in property.
European Central Bank figures also highlight gaping disparities between eurozone countries – partly echoing their divergent economic fates.
Spain, still reeling from the bursting of a property bubble that left thousands of new dwellings uninhabited, has seen prices plunge further than the average – to 2003 levels.
But Germany, where fewer people own their homes than in Spain, is still riding a surge in prices, now at their highest point in a 10-year index. Italy, regularly a source of economic concern for the bloc, has seen prices fall to the eurozone average of a seven-year low, but there are fears it has further to go.
“Our analysis suggested the extent to which prices had fallen in recent years was directly related to the size they had grown before 2007,” said Yolande Barnes, head of global research at the property group Savills. “Italy looked . . . like it had not seen nearly enough downside yet.
The ECB’s eurozone-wide residential property prices index, updated last week, captures price levels for new and existing properties across the 17-nation bloc. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, it hit 96.33, down from 97.56 at the end of 2012 and the lowest point since mid-2006, before the global financial crisis.
But similar indices focusing on individual countries reveal stark underlying differences, echoing other macroeconomic imbalances across the region, such as wildly divergent unemployment levels, real interest rates and budget deficits.

Eurozone house prices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exceeding even the Spanish slump is Ireland’s descent, where house prices are at their lowest since 2000.
By contrast, Austria, which like Germany has low unemployment and historically low levels of home ownership, has racked up gains. The most recent data published by the ECB, for the end of 2012, put Austrian property prices at their highest level since the beginning of its 12-year data series.
Of the eurozone countries that have continued to enjoy low interest rates during the crisis and advocated strict austerity in crisis-hit neighbours, the Netherlands stands out as having a housing market in sharp decline, with prices at their lowest for a decade. The Dutch slump, however, follows years of easy mortgage credit and a tax system that spurred mortgage borrowing, but which since this year has been reformed to discourage popular interest-only mortgages.
The German property boom, which started in big cities such as Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin but by some measures has spread further, partly reflects the search for yield for household savings in a low-interest-rate environment. The Bundesbank has expressed concern about this. Since interest rates are set by the ECB for the whole eurozone, the German central bank would be able to intervene only by adopting macroprudential measures, such as capping the loan-to-value of mortgages, if it needed to cool the market.
Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit in Munich, noted that a longer view on German property in big cities, going back to 1990, showed more moderate gains, especially compared with countries with recognised property bubbles such as Spain and Ireland.

 

 

House prices in euro area hit seven-year low – FT.com.

What $1,800/Month Can Rent You Around New York City | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Welcome back to Curbed Comparisons, a column that explores what one can rent for a set dollar amount in various New York City neighborhoods. Is one man’s studio another man’s townhouse? Let’s find out! Today’s price:$1,800/month.

↑ On Eighth Avenue at West 132nd Street in Harlem, a newly gut-renovated 2BR/2BA is going for $1,895/month. It has central air, recessed lighting, and a big skylight.

↑ In Midtown East, a spacious, 625-square-foot first-floor 1BR is available for$1,850/month. In addition to the over-200-square-foot living room (completely separate from the bedroom and kitchen) there are three closets.

↑ Located more or less on the border of Crown Heights and Flatbush, acolorful, 950-square-foot 2BR on the third floor of an elevator co-op building is asking $1,850/month.

↑ Live in a cool computer hacker (or music producer) bedroom in this 440-square-foot studio with “defined bedroom space” on the Upper East Side. It’s asking $1,800/month and is a walkup on the fourth floor.

 

 

What $1,800/Month Can Rent You Around New York City – Curbed Comparisons – Curbed NY.

Improve your real estate content strategy with new Facebook Insights | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Have you checked out the new Insights tab on your Facebook page lately? Before, stats and insights from Facebook were pretty basic unless you dive into Excel files full of data. The use of graphs and quick views of posts you’ve published makes it easier to analyze what’s working and what isn’t.

Wondering what the big deal is? The new user interface makes it easier for you to pinpoint what types of posts are working  (video and photos tend to do better for reach and engagement) and who your target audience is through demographics. One of my favorite updates is being able to see when your fans are online and what the popular times they saw your content under the Posts tab.

The quick tour of the new Insight panel takes you through the four tabs at the top: Overview, Page, Posts and People. Let’s break them down.

Overview:
Here you will get a breakdown of the last seven days of the basics: page likes, post reach, engagement and your most recent posts.

Overview Tab

Page:
This tab gets broken down into likes, reach and visits. You’re able to use the scroll bar the top to change the range of dates you are viewing.

Page Tab

You also get the total number of likes on your page by day as well as what has changed between unlikes, organic and paid likes.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/improve-your-real-estate-content-strategy-with-new-facebook-insights/#sthash.XwZn2kUV.dpuf

 

 

Improve your real estate content strategy with new Facebook Insights | Inman News.

June Foreclosures Fell to Lowest Level since December 2006 | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Not since Santa Claus visited the George W. Bush White House has the total of properties with foreclosure filings–default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – reached a level as low as they did last month.

RealtyTrac reported last week that 0.61 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 164) had at least one foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year. A total of 127,790 U.S. properties had foreclosure filings in June, down 14 percent from the previous month and down 35 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2006   Filings in the first half of the year totaled 801,359, representing a 19 percent decrease from the previous six months and a fall of 23 percent from the first half of 2012.

For a little perspective, here’s an excerpt from Freddie Mac’s economic outlook in December 2006:

“The recovery, however, will not be a re-run of the white-hot market in 2004-2005. Rather, there will likely be a return to more “normal” conditions next year, with starts and sales picking up only gradually and then growing at a modest pace. Nationally, house prices will likely appreciate around the rate of consumer price inflation, although there is a potential for real declines and some hard-hit areas will need greater improvements in the local economy before experiencing a housing recovery. With smaller price gains and reduced opportunities to extract equity, mortgage debt will grow more slowly. In short, housing markets will move off center stage, but will resume quietly providing homes and opportunities to build a nest egg for millions of American households.”

Things didn’t work out as planned.  Six years later, some 4.3 million nest eggs were lost to foreclosure and homeowners have lost $3 trillion in equity but at long last the recovery has begun and housing is back on center stage.

High-level findings from the report:

  • U.S. foreclosure starts in June dropped 21 percent from the previous month and were down 45 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2005 – a seven and a half year low. Year to date through June, 409,491 foreclosure starts have been filed nationwide, on pace to reach more than 800,000 for the year, which would be down from 1.1 million foreclosure starts in 2012.
  • Foreclosure starts in June decreased from the previous month in 38 states, including Nevada (down 84 percent), Colorado (down 62 percent), New Jersey (down 40 percent), Illinois (down 39 percent) and Florida (down 26 percent).
  • Bank repossessions (REO) in June decreased 9 percent from the previous month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Year to date through June, a total of 248,538 bank repossessions have occurred nationwide, on pace for nearly 500,000 for the year, which would be down from more than 671,000 in 2012.
  • Bank repossessions in June decreased from a year ago in 34 states, but there were some notable exceptions where bank repossessions were up from a year ago, including Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent).
  • Judicial foreclosure auctions (NFS) were scheduled for 28,296 U.S. properties in June, up less than 1 percent from May but up 34 percent from June 2012. States with substantial annual increases in scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions included New Jersey (up 103 percent), Florida (up 100 percent), Maryland (up 94 percent), New York (up 66 percent), and Illinois (up 65 percent to a 35-month high).
  • Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and Georgia posted the top five state foreclosure rates for the first half of the year, while five Florida cities posted the top five metro foreclosure rates: Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ocala, and Tampa.

“Halfway through 2013 it is becoming increasingly evident that while foreclosures are no longer a problem nationally they continue to be a thorn in the side of several state and local markets, particularly where a backlog of delayed distress has built up thanks to a lengthy foreclosure process,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The increases in judicial foreclosure auctions demonstrate that these delayed foreclosure cases are now being moved more quickly through to foreclosure completion. Given the rising home prices in most of these markets, it is an opportune time for lenders to dispose of these distressed properties, either at the foreclosure auction to a third-party buyer, or by repossessing the property at the auction and subsequently selling it as a bank-owned home.

Florida, Nevada, Illinois post top state foreclosure rates in first half of 2013

Florida posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate in the first half of the year: 1.74 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in every 58) during the six-month period – nearly three times the national average. A total of 155,264 Florida properties had a foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year, the most of any state and up 12 percent from a year ago. In June Florida foreclosure starts (LIS) decreased 23 percent from a year ago but scheduled foreclosure auctions increased 100 percent and bank repossessions increased 14 percent during the same time period.

Despite a 58 percent month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity in June, Nevada posted the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2013: 1.40 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in every 71) during the six-month period. A total of 16,291 Nevada properties had a foreclosure filing in the first half of 2013, up 12 percent from the previous six months but down 21 percent from a year ago. New state legislation (AB 300) that changes the foreclosure process in Nevada took effect in June.

Illinois foreclosure activity in the first half of 2013 decreased from the previous six months and a year ago, but the state still posted the nation’s third highest foreclosure rate: 1.20 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in 83) during the six-month period. In June Illinois foreclosure starts (LIS) decreased 68 percent from a year ago and bank repossessions were down 49 percent from a year ago, but scheduled foreclosure auctions increased 65 percent during the same time period to the highest monthly level since July 2010

Ticks’ stealth and human nature hamper Lyme-disease prevention | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Efforts to keep ticks and people apart have foundered, even as Lyme has emerged as the second most commonly reported infectious disease in New England.

This regional epidemic has yet to trigger a broad public health response on par with prevention strategies for other pervasive illnesses. That is partly because ticks are a devious foe. Vacation spots are also loath to publicize the threat, and the public and politicians often don’t perceive Lyme as a serious malady. The result is a lopsided spending gap between prevention efforts for tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses.

Ticks have stealth on their side. Small as a pinhead, they don’t buzz in warning and their bite is painless.

 

Ticks’ stealth and human nature hamper Lyme-disease prevention – Health – Boston.com.

11 Brilliant Ways to Crush It on LinkedIn | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Are you using LinkedIn?

Personally I’ve spent most of my social media energy on Facebook.

But lately I’m thinking I should pay more attention to LinkedIn — since millions of businesses are thriving there.

I know LinkedIn has made a ton of important changes over the past year — many of which have caught my attention.

And their mobile app is better than Facebook’s!

So here’s a list of the best resources I could find on LinkedIn. Enjoy & please let me know if they’re helpful.

11 LinkedIn Resources You Can’t Miss

How to Effectively Use LinkedIn For Business

by Kim Garst

According to Kim, LinkedIn is an amazing tool to promote your product or service. It’s a place to start conversations with others in your niche.  It’s a place where having an up-to-date profile can land you your next big opportunity. And if you know how to use it well, the networking & growth potential is astounding.

3 LinkedIn Tools to Grow Your Presence on LinkedIn

by Ian Cleary

LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool for your business but only if you’re using the right LinkedIn management tools? In this article Ian outlines 3 tools that will really help you grow your presence on LinkedIn.

5 Creative Ways to Use LinkedIn Company Pages

by Social Media Examiner

Here Social Media Examiner gives us five brands using their LinkedIn company pages creatively. Check out what these businesses are doing so you can learn to tell your story, generate leads & engage your communities through your LinkedIn page.

LinkedIn: Revolutionizing the World of Recruiting [Infographic]

by MarketingProfs

To find out how LinkedIn is transforming job recruiting, the folks at MarketingProfs did some indepth research. It turns out HR folks aren’t flipping through resumes & paperwork anymore to help companies fill positions. Instead, they’re searching through profiles on LinkedIn, their go-to source for quality recruits.

Turn Your Profile Into Your Portfolio on LinkedIn

by Marketing Pilgrim

LinkedIn now lets you set your profile up to function as a portfolio! So if you have a visual backlog of work, you need to read this post to see how to make it stand out on LinkedIn.

How to Boost Engagement on Your LinkedIn Company Page

by Social Media Examiner

In a recent LinkedIn study, 50% of company followers said they’re more likely to purchase products & services from a business they engage with on LinkedIn. Here are 5 simple ways to boost engagement with your LinkedIn followers.

LinkedIn: Unlock Your Potential on the World’s Largest Business Network

by Kim Garst

LinkedIn is a powerful tool when it comes to finding potential employees, searching for a dream job & expanding your network. It easily outdoes any online job board in all of these areas. Kim covers some easy-to-follow ways to unlock your potential on LinkedIn — and maybe land your dream job.

How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

by The 60 Second Marketer

Most people know LinkedIn is used to find new jobs. But are you leveraging LinkedIn in the right way to do that? In this post, the 60 Second Marketer gives you some practical tips on how to land your new job via LinkedIn.

 

 

11 Brilliant Ways to Crush It on LinkedIn – Yahoo! Small Business Advisor.

10 kitchen storage essentials under $10 | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Garlic keeper

Thanks to a lid that blocks out sunlight and a small grid of ventilation holes, garlic lasts days longer when kept in this tiny terra cotta pot. Garlic Keeper, $9. crateandbarrel.com.

 

 

10 kitchen storage essentials under $10 – MSN Living.