| Bedford Village NY Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog | ||
| 2013 | 6 months ending 11/13 | 2012 | |
| 51 | Sales | 35 | up 31% |
| $897,000.00 | median sold price | $950,000.00 | down 5% |
| $412,500.00 | low sold price | $418,500.00 | |
| $8,200,000.00 | high sold price | $4,450,000.00 | |
| 3709 | average size | 3874 | |
| $303.00 | ave. price per foot | $315.00 | |
| 202 | ave days on market | 193 | |
| $1,116,475.00 | average sold price | $1,242,314.00 | |
| 93.81% | ave sold to ask | 93.91% | |
The Village of Bedford will celebrate the opening of the new playground at Bedford Village Memorial Park on Saturday, Nov. 16.
The opening ceremony is set for 10 a.m. at the playground at Bedford Village Memorial Park at 65 Greenwich Road in Bedford, according to a notice from the village. The ceremony promises to include a ribbon cutting for the new playground and a “Slide Ride” ceremony, according to the notice.
“As part of the playground opening celebration, the Bedford Youth Soccer Club will be presenting a check in the amount of $8,500 to the town for the purchase of a new Portable Light Tower for the benefit of the BYSC program participants and the residents of the town during emergencies and special events throughout the year,” representatives said in the notice.
Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Bill Heidepriem will open the ceremony with Recreation & Parks Advisory Committee Chair Brian McCabe and Town Supervisor Lee V.A. Roberts offering remarks, according to the notice. The ceremony will also feature the presentation of a presentation of a playground project pledge check of $20,000 from the Chowder & Marching Club.
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/events/village-bedford-open-playground
Address: 58 Noyac Harbor Rd, Sag Harbor, NY 11963 Asking Price: $2.495M Close. Very close. But no cigar! The most popular guess for this listing was $2.795M, which is 300K more than the actual price. (Bargain!) You folks liked this serene updated waterfront cottage, though one commenter noted that the property is “just a little more congested than those perfect photos.” · Waterfront Beach Cottage [Town&Country] · How Much for This Waterfront Noyack Four Bed? [Curbed Hamptons]
The first Bedford Antiques Show is set for this weekend.
The show will run Saturday and Sunday at the Bedford Historical Society’s Historical Hall across from the Village Green in Bedford, according to a press release. The show promises to bring together nearly 20 exhibitors, “all of whom have been invited to participate because of the quality, authenticity and diversity of their collections,” according to the release.
“This unique event has been organized to fill a void in Northern Westchester after the Historical Society decided to retire its antique show this year,” said Brad Reh, estate jewelry specialist and producer of the new show, according to the release. “It allows well-respected dealers to continue to bring fine furniture, decorative objects, art and jewelry to a discerning and loyal clientele in an intimate venue right in their own backyard.”
The Bedford Antiques Show is set to feature “an exceptional and eclectic selection of items from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for perusal and purchase, including English and Belgian hall lanterns and hurricane shades, American and English furniture, and fine Estate Jewelry,” according to the release.
Participating exhibitors include: Brad Reh, fine estate and signed jewelry; Debbie Turi, furniture, fine art; Fair Trade Antiques, British Colonial furniture and lighting; Fardin’s Antique Rugs, oriental rugs and textiles; Jaffe & Thurston, fine art and antiques; Donald Rich, period furniture and objects; Diane Davis, porcelain and small furniture; Knollwood Antiques LLC, furnishings for the home including lighting, mirrors, art and accessories, and more, according to the release.
To preview some of the pieces that will be on display, visit the Bedford Antiques Show website.
http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/events/bedford-antiques-show-opens-weekend
Image via The Atlantic Cities
No, that’s not an Instagram of rural Connecticut, it’s a look at a “busy street” in the Paris of 1838, and also the first print produced by Daguerreotype creator Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. The Atlantic Cities recently dug up this and a few more Dagerreotypes—prints produced via complicated methods and bulky, expensive machinery once lauded for being the first “practicable” photographic process—of 19th-century cities. The images show off urban sprawl from before Chanel and Michael Kors lined the boulevards and starchitect-designed towers stood shoulder to steel-boned shoulder in the most congested bits of town. Below, Philadelphia in 1843 and Washington, D.C., in 1846.
Image via The Atlantic Cities
Image via The Atlantic Cities
· Gorgeous 19th Century Cityscapes, Courtesy of Daguerrotype [The Atlantic Cities]
Miami Beach Mayoral Candidate Steve Berke (who is also, by the way, a comedian, marijuana activist, and documentarian of said Mayoral run) has some grand ideas for solving Miami Beach’s transit woes. The first idea, a light rail system circling South Beach is very good but not new and already an aspect of the recently revived Baylink idea. The second idea is the real headline grabber: an epic aerial tramway zooming over Biscayne Bay to Miami, ski-slope gondola style, that at the least would be an absolutely wild ride.
As for the routes each system would take, well, Berke’s light rail zigzags all over the beach like a cat on crack. A whole loop goes to Belle Isle, because apparently walking from there to Sunset Harbor is just too far. Halfway up Alton, the train doglegs over to West Avenue and then, wouldn’t ya know it, doglegs back a few blocks later. It basically makes curlicues around the Bass Museum. Meanwhile, gondolas full of tourists will depart South Point Park and immediately have to ascend hundreds of feet vertically above the tallest cruise ships before zooming over PortMiami’s working post-panamax container port. Oh, and on the other side of the port, the gondolas will pass directly through PortMiami’s turning basin, getting in the way of the ships. Apparently, those cruise ships just gonna have to flip it in reverse and back their asses out. Beep, beep.
Curbed Miami does not endorse any candidate in the Miami Beach mayoral race, but to give credit where credit is due, it is extremely refreshing that the island city’s hellish transportation situation is being addressed as a serious issue in this election instead of being swept under the rug. On the other hand, we’re not transportation engineers, but neither Steve Berke, and boy is it obvious.
UPDATE: A previous version of this story claimed that Berke brought a mariachi band to the last Miami Beach Mayoral debate. There was a mariachi band present, but according to Berke it was not he who brought it.
Location: Brooklyn, N.Y. Price: $4,800,000 The Skinny:Identified by theNew York Times in 2004 as “the original gentrifiers,” Evelyn and Everett Ortner dedicated their lives to the historic preservation of Brooklyn’s Park Slope, campaigning against big development projects, pushing for the neighborhood to gain landmark status, and setting a shining example by meticulously maintaining and restoring the 1886 four-story brownstone that they bought for $32,000 in 1963. With both Ortners now gone—Everett died in 2012, Evelyn in 2006—the house now finds itself back on the market for $4.8M. Featuring original mahogany woodwork, parquetry ornamentation, Lincrusta wallpaper, and its original heating system (uh-oh), the 5,043-square-foot house is one of the best preserved specimens in an area where people are paying above ask for historic properties on a regular basis—a phenomenon that Everett Ortner was not above jokingly taking credit for, telling friends he’d convinced to buy townhouses in the ’60s, “I made you all millionaires, and I think you should give me a commission.”
· 272 Berkeley Place [Vandenberg] · COPING; The Couple Who Saved Park Slope [NYT] · A Couple Who Gave Brownstones New Life [NYT]
One year ago today, on Oct. 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit Westchester.
County residents recall the hurricane’s destruction with heavy hearts.
Westchester suffered three casualties during the hurricane – two of them children. Homes were damaged and destroyed, streets and parks were flooded, and power was lost for weeks.
Bill Gheduzzi of Irvington, who co-owns his family’s Mar-Vera Corp. construction company, spent 12 “dark and cold” days with his family following Sandy’s arrival. He kept his business going, but came home to flashlights and a chilly house every night.
“We were without power for almost two weeks and we own a property in Hastings where power was also out for a while,” Gheduzzi said. “My daughter was in California and came home to no power, even though we told her to stay there. Even the dog was going crazy. We’ve had storms before, but the (aftermath) was tough.”
Rob McCarthy of Peekskill recalls being fortunately exempt from the damage.
“We were actually one of the lucky ones up in Peekskill. We had an evergreen fall behind the house which landed on our deck but caused no damage – lost power for two days, but that was about it,” he said.
McCarthy added, “We really got away lucky. I just remember driving to work the next morning down Route 9, and seeing a lot of the devastation that occurred in the towns between Peekskill and Tarrytown.”
Sam Qunsel of Yonkers, co-owner of Madaba’s Deli in Hastings, left home on a family trip to his hometown in Jordan four days before Sandy hit. He was concerned about his family and business back home in New York.
“When we heard about the storm we were concerned because there was no power in the area,” Qunsel said. “There we were in Jordan with power, and back here my brother (Sal) had to connect a wire to the store next door to keep the business going. I was calling all the time.”
Fadia Ezaizat, who was living in Yonkers and working in Hastings-on-Hudson last tall, said her first experience with a hurricane was memorable.
“Hurricane Sandy was actually the first hurricane I have ever experienced,” said Ezaizat, who now lives in Kentucky. “I didn’t realize the severity of the storm until afterwards seeing all the debris and losing power for a week. I know next time I hear a hurricanes approaching I’ll be more prepared. But I don’t think I’ll have that issue in Kentucky.”
Susan Boland-Garcin of Yonkers vividly remembers the force of the storm.
“I recall being terrified of the high winds in the four large trees in my back yard and praying the didn’t fall on the house,” Boland-Garcin said. “I couldn’t find a place I felt safe except in the lower level of my house. We had roof damage with shingles flying off the roof. My house was literally shaking from the high winds.”
http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/one-year-after-sandy-westchester-residents-recall-dark-cold-days
Some say there is no spark in today’s economy. Others claim we’ve hit a speed bump. Nonetheless, everyone will agree the housing market is light years ahead of where it stood a year ago. But has the recovery cooled?
Back in my younger days — about six months ago — when my husband and I were looking to buy our first house, the market was pure insanity. I’m talking about ten-offers-in-one-day insanity. It was undeniably a seller’s market. Homes were flying off the market in hours and any offer below list price was laughable.
We were even forced to throw in a picture of our pup to help persuade the sellers to chose us.
But it seems that the market has slowed considerably since then. In fact, this year the number of people moving to a new home fell dangerously close to the record lows set in 2011 after rising in 2012, according to data from Trulia (TRLA).
“Last year the Census reported an increase in mobility in 2012 to 12.0%, led by an increase in longer-distance moves. However, new 2013 data suggest that the mobility rebound we saw in 2012 might have been short-lived,” said Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko.
We can only assume rising interest rates coupled with an increase in home prices is the culprit behind this. Historically, rates are still very low at 4.62%. (My father-in-law’s first house was financed at 14% or something equally ridiculous.) But compared to the 3.5% I was able to get six months ago, this seems high to a lot of people.
And after all… isn’t my generation, the Millennials, a big weight holding housing down? We are drowning in student debt, unable to find high-paying jobs and are scared to death of an interest rate above 4.0%.
Heck… the fear of closing with an interest rate above 3.5% motivated me to put in an offer above list price just so I could sneak into the house I bought six months ago before rates rose any further.
So what is the solution here? How can we get the momentum back?
Well, it doesn’t appear feasible for my generation to even put together a downpayment on a home, let alone finance a mortgage with the amount of student debt we are facing. What we need is move-up buyers, and we need them fast.
A high-tech study conducted on Bedford’s most famous tree, a 500-year-old white oak at the intersection of Route 22 and The Hook Road, has found it to be in “overall good health” and should live for many more years to come with proper care.
After a limb recently fell off, SavATree took an in-depth look into the tree using visual observation and radar to assess its health.
The scan inspected a 27-inch section of limb that had previously been cut and stands 20-feet above the ground. Radar was also used to explore the trunk and the roots at different points.
The scan found very early stages of saprot in both the branch and a part of the tree, but the study says there is “no cause for alarm.”
“There is no treatment or cure to stop decay in the tree, but optimizing tree health can delay the process and maximize tree longevity,” according to the study.
The study recommends trimming the “crown” area of the branches by 10-percent this winter and another 10-percent over the following three years depending on the tree’s response. This is expected to help bring the weight of the branches closer to the trunk, lowering the chance of a branch breaking off and falling.
It also recommends to include ArborBalance in the tree’s regimen, replace the current turf near the roots with composited mulch and place benches and paths outside of the zone where visitors could potentially get hit by a falling branch.
It is estimated to cost the town $5,650 over the next three years to maintain the tree.
The oak is more than 30 feet thick at its biggest girth and its branches spread more than 120 feet from tip to tip.
The land the oak sits on has been owned by the town since 1977.
See the full SavATree study here.
http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/lifestyle/study-finds-bedfords-500-year-old-oak-tree-good-health
