| Bedford NY Weekly Real Estate Report | 9/3/2013 | |
| Homes for sale | 85 | |
| Median Ask Price | $1,650,000.00 | |
| Low Price | $419,000.00 | |
| High Price | $14,500,000.00 | |
| Average Size | 4849 | |
| Average Price/foot | $410.00 | |
| Average DOM | 145 | |
| Average Ask Price | $2,036,182.00 |
Falling foreclosures are the result of heroic homeowners who have spent the past five years deleveraging, or paying down personal debts, says economics reporter Jon Hilsenrath with The Wall Street Journal.
CBS This Morning caught up with Hilsenrath to learn more about this deleveraging trend.
The news agency pulled the following excerpt from the interview:
“Americans have done something heroic, really, in the last five years,” Hilsenrath said. “Faced with all of this debt after the housing boom, they’ve made a lot of progress on paying it down. Almost one-eighth of the household consumer debt got basically paid down.”
The Bedford Central School Board and the Bedford Teachers’ Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year deal.
The deal will be retroactive to July 1 and continue through June 30, 2016, according to patch.com
Based on the new collective bargaining agreement, current teachers will receive “modified compensation,” though exact numbers were not announced. New teachers, however will be subject to a new compensation framework.
Current teachers on “step increases” will receive partial increases for the 2013-2014 and 2014-15 school years. A full step increase won’t take place until the 2015-2016 school year and will involve an off-schedule payment.
The new compensation structure is designed to comply with the state-mandated tax levy cap. The tax levy cap limits tax revenue increases to the lesser of 2 percent or inflation.
The previous four-year contract expired June 30.
Though the tentative agreement has been reached, it still requires formal approval. The union will vote on the deal in September; the school board will vote after the union.
read more…
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/schools/bedford-central-schools-teachers-union-reach-deal
Is HUD’s Section 8 housing program about to go on steroids? That’s the question a writer for the Baltimore Sun alluded to over the weekend while outlining the Obama administration’s planned attempt to use the Department of Housing and Urban Development to “track diversity in American neighborhoods” and back policies to change any areas that look discriminatory from a data standpoint.
The editorial claims a discrimination database could be implemented allowing officials to “seek changes in (local) zoning ordinances, housing finance, infrastructure policy and transportation in order to remedy the alleged segregation,” the publication said.
It seems interest rate shocks may have finally taken a toll on the U.S. housing recovery. After a busy week on Wall Street, a new government report showed a 12.4% drop in seasonally adjusted new single-family home sales. The decline prompted market analysts to assume potential homebuyers are beginning to feel the pinch of rising interest rates, the Motley Fool noted. Rates have been edging higher ever since the Fed began teasing the markets with the idea that a curtailment of QE3, or massive Treasury and MBS purchases, could come as early as September.
New York City and the entire state of New York may have lost as much as $100 million in damages stemming from mortgage document fraud, the New York Post claims. The paper reported on an unsealed lawsuit filed by a whistleblower over the weekend. The whistleblower claims dozens of banks and servicers violated the False Claims Act when dealing in mortgage-backed securities during the years 2004 and 2007. The suit has already been partly settled, but the Post says attorneys are still trying to figure out which mortgage-backed securities were purchased in New York to continue on with another critical part of the claim.
A group of students who paid thousands of dollars to learn the art of real estate investing from Donald Trump want a refund, Reuters reports. And it seems New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is happy to oblige. The AG filed suit against Trump this past week, claiming Trump University, otherwise referred to as the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, swindled students out of $40 million by offering courses in real estate investment that were costly and fell short of providing the type of education needed to enter the market as an effective investor.
The housing market has another week of key reports ahead of it, with the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index scheduled for release Tuesday, followed by the Pending Home Sales Index on Wednesday. Visit HW’s US Economic Calendar to track these reports and more.
Financial regulators in Arizona and the FDIC shut down Sunrise Bank of Arizona on Friday, Aug. 23, with all deposits transferred to First Fidelity Bank National Association. The former Sunrise branches will reopen as part of First Fidelity Bank.
The FDIC also announced the closing of Community South Bank in Parsons, Tenn., moving all brokered and account deposits to CB&S Bank Inc. in Russellville, Ala.
read more…
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26414-rising-rates-take-toll-on-us-housing-recovery
Existing-home sales flourished in July, with the median price continuing to see double-digit year-over-year increases, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
Total existing-home sales — which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — rose 6.5% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million units, up from a downwardly revised 5.06 million in June. Year-over-year, existing-home sales rose 17.2% from the 4.50 million-unit pace set in July 2012.
The impressive growth in existing-home sales would seem to suggest a continually improving housing market. But David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide, believes it may be premature to assume this report is directly correlated with the current housing market.
Existing-home sales data tends to lag what’s happening in the market to some extent because the data takes into account when a buyer actually closes on the home.
The lag time for existing-home sales is typically 60-90 days, said Berson, meaning the report on July sales is actually more reflective of the housing market between April and June, when mortgage rates were significantly lower than they are today.
read more…
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26329-existing-home-sales-not-reflective-of-current-market
![Create Perfect Posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ [Infographic]](http://cdn.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/social-media-conversations.jpeg "Create Perfect Posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ [Infographic]")
Is there any such thing as a perfect social media post? Each social network has a specific set of expectations, limitations — and pros and cons. And each one is constantly evolving in terms of potential. A one-size-fits-all strategy just isn’t feasible. This makes it more challenging for brand marketers whose goals are growing their fanbase and creating engagement around relevant content. So what’s the best strategy to engage followers and attract new ones on each site?
My recent post, 10 Tips for Better Facebook Status Updates, offered some great ideas for increasing Facebook engagement through crafting better status updates. The folks at MyCleverAgency, a social media consultancy in the U.K., did some research and formulated these 17 guidelines to help you gain the traction you need to jumpstart your social media engagement.
Being positive breeds engagement and encourages sharing.
The most appealing updates are ones that offer something, but don’t disclose everything — this increases the likelihood that fans will click.
If you’re going to provide a link, use Bit.ly, TInyURL, or another link-shortening service so you can track how many people are clicking through.
Posts with images get the highest amount of engagement on Facebook, so be sure to include one when you can. The perfect size is 800×600.
Read more…
News from the Bedford Central School District on the Board of Education vacancy:
The Board of Education is seeking an individual to serve on the Board to fill the seat of Ms. Lee Goldstein, who will be resigning due to family relocation. The term of office will conclude on May 20, 2014, the date of the next school board election. The Board of Education invites interested individuals to submit an application by September 13, 2013. The Board will meet in Public Special Session in the Fox Lane Middle School Little Theater to conduct interviews of all candidates on September 18 at a time not earlier than 7 pm. The meeting, which is open to the public, will be televised on BCSD-TV and on the website via live video streaming. To assist the Board in preparing questions and to gather community input, community members are asked to submit a topic or question for consideration at the public interviews to boe@bcsdny.org no later than September 13. Following the public interview of candidates, community members may also submit input to the Board from September 18 through September 23, 2013 by email at boe@bcsdny.org.
The Board is expected to make an appointment on or about September 25, 2013. The term of office will commence with the Board’s appointment and continue until the next school board election on May 20, 2014.
To be eligible for this position, an individual must be a qualified voter of the district and have lived in the school district for at least one continuous year. At a minimum, service on the Board requires preparation for and attendance at bimonthly Board meetings. In addition, School Board members serve on at least one Board subcommittee, which meets monthly.
read more…
http://northernwestchester.lohudblogs.com/2013/08/14/bedford-board-of-education-seeks-applicant/
Facebook news feeds are like the crawl on CNN. You’ve seen the scrolling words on your TV screen. Item after item after item that are “nice to knows” until there is breaking news. Then, we get a big “BREAKING NEWS” in red that hooks us in.
The job of real estate salesperson on Facebook is to participate in the mundane while figuring out a way to break through. What’s the big red “BREAKING NEWS” items in your network’s world that will impact you?
This “big news” often includes major lifestyle announcements like getting a new job, announcing a pregnancy, getting engaged/married/divorced and even retiring. These lifestyle announcements occasionally have a direct correlation to housing needs but are sometimes overlooked by real estate professionals.
When someone in your social stream mentions any of these lifestyle triggers they are opening a door of opportunity and you should be prepared to walk right in. To effectively execute this strategy you need to follow these three easy steps:
Be an active engager
After connecting with a current or prospective client on a social network like Facebook, it is imperative to stay in touch. By engaging them continuously, you will nurture your relationship on a personal level and have an easier time opening the door of opportunity when the time is appropriate.
read more…
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/secure-more-real-estate-leads-on-facebook/#sthash.JHTgM9Cb.dpuf
Though a recent surge in interest rates may dissuade some consumers from buying homes, the development also could have a silver lining for the real estate market: making mortgages available to more people.
With the recent spike in interest rates, refinances have plummeted. In the last week of May, shortly after Fed officials hinted that the Fed may scale back its stimulus program later this year, refinance applications dropped to their lowest level since November 2011, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported.
With the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage continuing to push higher, they have trended lower since then.
That’s chipping away at banks’ profits. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo recently reported that their earnings from refinances have dropped significantly in recent months.
To make up for the lost revenue, some experts say, banks may extend credit to a larger swath of borrowers, allowing them to originate more mortgages.
“Because refi activity is down, you have a little more room to do business with people who don’t have an 800 credit score,” said Zillow Senior Economist Svenja Gudell.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/07/15/interest-rate-increases-may-have-silver-lining/#sthash.CZXfQzkk.dpuf