Tag Archives: Chappaqua Luxury Homes

Home prices tick up 0.9% in May | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Home prices continue to slowly trend higher, rising .9% in May, up 5.9% from a year ago, according to the latest home price index report from Black Knight Financial Services.

This is now just 11% off the 2006 peak of $268,000, with the HPI coming in at $239,000.

Meanwhile, Colorado and Texas both hit new peaks in May, reaching $269,000 and $195,000, respectively.

In addition, 20 of the largest 40 metros all experienced month-over-month growth.

Las Vegas still leads the largest metros in distance from its local market peak (-42.6%). For the 20 largest states, Florida holds that position, where prices are 32.4% lower than their April 2006 peak.

 

read more…

 

Black Knight: Home prices tick up 0.9% in May

Valuation Fraud Soared 27 Percent in Q1 | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

The national Property Valuation Fraud Risk Index rose 27 percent in the first quarter and 17 percent from a year ago, evidence that an epidemic of fraudulent home valuations is sweeping certain real estate markets on the East and West Coasts.

Property valuations are increasingly being manipulated by individuals who purchase and list multiple properties in the same neighborhoods to dominate values in hyper local markets ienabling them to set fraudulent sales prices to their advantage, according to a report from Interthinx, a subsidiary of First American that helps lenders minimize risk and review appraisals.

Another contributing factor observed is the rise in the number of properties being appraised well above traditional valuation thresholds to artificially create equity.

 

fraud1

 

“This quarter’s report is a reminder that lenders need to be aware of emerging fraud risks. The rise in property valuation risk is troublesome because collateral values are a critical element in making sound lending decisions,” said Jeff Moyer, president of Interthinx. “To make lending decisions with increased confidence in the loan’s quality, we recommend that lenders use automated tools early in the valuation process to double check opinions of value, quality of work and regulatory compliance on issues such as licensing.”

California continues to be the riskiest state with a Mortgage Fraud Risk Index of 146, and it contains eight of the 10 riskiest Metropolitan Statistical Areas, (MSAs) and eight of the 10 riskiest ZIP codes. California also continues to dominate the type-specific lists with four of the 10 riskiest MSAs for property valuation fraud, seven of the 10 riskiest MSAs for identity fraud, six of the 10 riskiest MSAs for occupancy fraud and eight of the 10 riskiest MSAs for employment/income fraud.

 

read more….

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/07/valuation-fraud-soared-27-percent-in-q1/

Rentals in demand: Central Harlem back in top 5 | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

With 20-somethings scavenging for more affordable rentals in Manhattan, demand for Central Harlem units among prospective renters jumped last week, according to apartment listings website Zumper.

Central Harlem made it into the top five popular neighborhoods for the first time in nearly two months. The Upper West Side, Upper East Side and East Village topped the list, followed by Central Harlem and Greenwich Village. The median rent inquiry in Manhattan fell to $2,450, largely as a result of the Harlem surge.

The priciest inquiry was for a four-bedroom Chelsea rental seeking $7,000 per month, while the cheapest was for a Washington Heights studio renting for $1,150 per month.

As for apartment sizes, two-bedrooms dominated with a bit more than a third of the leads and a median inquiry of $2,795 per month. One-bedrooms and studios were next with a 26 percent and 23 percent share of the leads, respectively. Three-bedrooms accounted for 15 percent of the leads.

 

 

read more…

 

 

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/07/16/rentals-in-demand-central-harlem-back-in-top-5/

Housing recovery continues to make progress | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

The housing recovery is continuing to trend in a positive direction, but more work needs to be done to help the economy fully recover, the Obama administration said in its June housing scorecard, which is a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market prepared by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

June’s housing scorecard echoes the sentiments of the last two housing scorecards. In May, the administration cited overall positive trends in the housing market, but cautioned that the harsh winter slowed growth while the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession.

In April, the administration also noted the tough winter as a challenge to the year’s housing performance.

June’s scorecard identifies growing equity and a rebound in the sale of new and existing homes as positive trends.

“The June Housing Scorecard shows the housing market continues to make progress as we move into the summer months,” said HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Katherine O’Regan. “Sales of new and existing homes are up, equity continues to grow, and foreclosures starts continue trending down. While these are all signs of a healthy recovery, given the severity of the housing crisis, we must stay committed to helping homeowners.”

 

 

read more…

 

Scorecard: Housing recovery continues to make progress

Inside The Stack, New York’s First Batch of Modular Homes | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

[The Stack, the bulk of which was made from 56 modules over the course of just 19 days, has been in the works since 2009. All photos by Will Femia.]
56 images


Click here to view the full photogallery.

Over the course of just 10 months, New York City’s first building made entirely of modular units came together. (Sorry, Atlantic Yards’ B2, but you’re literally going be No. 2 in this fight.) Developers Jeffrey Brown and Kim Frank, along with the creative architecture firm Gluck+, took a 50-foot-wide, 150-foot-deep site on Broadway near the Cloisters and loaded 56 modules into it in only 19 days, stacking them—in a manner that handily produced neat time-lapse videos—into two seven-story structures with one unified facade that surround a central courtyard. Within The Stack are 22 apartments that hit the rental market in May, with studios starting at $1,755, one-bedrooms from $2,400, two-bedrooms from $2,850, and three-bedrooms from $3,990. (There are also six affordable apartments getting doled out via lottery.)

Curbed took a tour of this urban milestone in prefab-ulous construction, learning all sorts new terminology, like “mate lines,” a.k.a. the visible notches in the floor where two modules meet. Fun fact: the quarter-mile-long assembly line where the modules were constructed in Pennsylvania custom-equipped each of the 56 rectangular prisms with everything from toilet paper roll holders and mirrors to kitchen cabinets and countertops, all constructed into position hundreds of miles away based on the module’s final destination in its intended apartment

 

 

read more…

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/26/inside_the_stack_new_yorks_first_batch_of_modular_homes.php

Despite drop, cash sales still rule market | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

 

Despite cash sales dropping in 102 of 126 metro areas in the first quarter of 2014 compared to a year ago, cash still rules the market, according to a recent Zillow report.

“Even as the share of all-cash sales falls in many areas, it’s pretty clear that cash is still king, especially at the lower end of the market,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

“It can be difficult for more traditional buyers to compete with cash offers, especially in a tight inventory environment and among cash-strapped first-time buyers most likely to seek lower-priced properties,” Humphries said.

“Housing is much more than an investment for most buyers, and it’s heartening to see more buyers armed with traditional financing begin to enter the market. This is a critical step on the way back to a more normal, balanced housing market,” he added.

However, homes priced in the lowest third of all homes available are the most attractive to cash buyers.

In 27 of the top 30 metros, more than one third of all sales of the lowest-priced homes were made by cash.

Furthermore, in three of the top 10 metros – Tampa, Detroit and Miami – more than 80% of all sales in the lowest price bracket were cash deals.

As reported by HousingWire back in May, “Strict lending standards combined with low inventory continue to give the advantage to investors and other cash buyers in this housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

 

 

read more…

 

Despite drop, cash sales still rule market

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Hold Steady | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages remained stable this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.04 percent, up only three basis points from this time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate peaked at 4.12 percent on Thursday before dropping to 4.03 percent on Friday, where rates hovered for the remainder of the week.

“Mortgage rates were flat last week as two highly anticipated announcements, the European Central Bank’s stimulus plan and the latest U.S. employment report, confirmed the outcomes the markets were expecting,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “Next week there is a limited number of market-moving news or events scheduled, so we expect rates to remain stable.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.03 percent and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.78 percent.

 

 

read more…

 

 

http://www.zillow.com/blog/30-year-fixed-steady-153618/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ZillowBlog+%28Zillow+Blog%29

Referendum Sought On Chappaqua Train Station Lease | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Applicants who sought to lease space at the Chappaqua train station and were turned down in favor of Leslie Lampert’s Love at 10514 want the lease to be the subject of a permissive referendum.

The applicants — Via Vanti! founder Carla Gambescia and Peter and Erin Chase — have teamed up to back the effort, which requires petition signatures from New Castle residents equal to five percent of the total local turnout in the last election for governor. The deadline for collecting valid signatures is Wednesday, June 18.

The three individuals, collectively, were two applicants because the Chases filed together.

The three, in an announcement of the initiative that was posted to a Facebook group called Our Station, Our Town, gave a statement.

“We are fully confident we will be able to gather the required number of local registered voters’ signatures, resulting in the issuance of a Permissive Referendum on the lease. We, like so many of our fellow residents, are not pleased that we are compelled to seek this course of action; however, we want what is best for our town and only wish for an end result that the residents of New Castle can all feel proud of.”

 

 

read more….

 

http://chappaqua.dailyvoice.com/news/referendum-sought-chappaqua-train-station-lease

How borrowers can still get a mortgage below 3 percent | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

 

With the average mortgage interest rates well north of 4 percent and predicted to move toward 5 percent by the end of the year, it may surprise you to know that there are still ways to get a rate below 3 percent.

Yes, we said below 3 percent. And yes, on a house.

“It’s definitely possible to get a rate below 3 percent. It’s just going to be a unique product, and not for everyone,” says Nate Kuchera, a senior loan officer with Bank of Manhattan of Newport Beach, California.

But if it is for you, it will save you a lot of money, he says. Here are ways people are still locking in sub-3 percent rates.

Get a 10-Year Mortgage

If you’re looking for the lowest rate you can get on a fixed-rate mortgage, a 10-year term is your best bet, says Kuchera. He says it’s a rare product, but some people do choose it. And right now, he says you can likely find 10-year, fixed-rate mortgages at below 3 percent.

“This is good for people who are on the brink of retiring,” he says. “They’re on the tail end of their careers and want to pay off their mortgage quickly but don’t want to do it in one big lump sum. So they refinance to a 10-year.”

In addition to paying off their home for retirement, he says they also have the opportunity to save a lot of money in interest. That, of course, depends on their original mortgage, he says.

Still, to illustrate how much paying off a mortgage in a shorter time could save you, consider that the lifetime interest on a 30-year, fixed-rate,$300,000 mortgage with a rate of 4.41 percent is $241,460. The lifetime interest on a 10-year, fixed-rate $300,000 mortgage with a rate of 3 percent is $47,619. That’s a $193,841 difference.

There is one thing to keep in mind, however, says Kuchera. With a shorter term mortgage, your monthly payments will be higher.

“Yes, your rate may be better but you know how life is, things come up,” says Kuchera. “So make sure you’re comfortable with the higher payment. If you are, you’ll save a lot of money.”

 

 

read more…

 

 

https://homes.yahoo.com/news/how-to-get-a-rate-below-3-percent-182724351.html

Pending home sales plunge 9.2% in April | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Pending home sales for the month of April plummeted 9.2% compared to April 2013, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Contracts signed to buy existing homes increased 0.4% in April compared to March 2014, but that’s coming off three months of flat sales blamed on cold weather.

The expectation had been for at least a 2% gain month-over-month.

Optimistic economists expected that there was a swathe of pent-up demand that would flood the market at the start of the spring buying season. That didn’t happen.

“Higher inventory levels are giving buyers more choices, and a slight decline in mortgage interest rates this spring is raising prospective homebuyers’ confidence,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “An uptrend in closed sales is expected, although some months will encounter a modest setback.”

Sales have arrested despite mortgage rates now being at a near nine-month low after five straight weeks of steady declines. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage this week was 4.12%. Even refinancings have dropped to 37% of all mortgage activity, meaning borrowers are staying away despite historic lows.

Which means it could get worse, as Yun projects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to trend up and average 5.5% next year.

“The extent to which higher mortgage interest rates will impact housing affordability and sales depends on income growth, ongoing improvement in the labor market and any change to mortgage underwriting conditions,” he said.

This comes as the economy is looking at more bad news.

The nation’s domestic economic output for the first quarter was revised downward Thursday, posting a contraction of -1.0% from a meager positive 0.1% initially reported.

 

read more…

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30140-pending-home-sales-plunge-92-in-april