Tag Archives: Chappaqua NY Homes for Sale

Chappaqua NY Homes for Sale

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Plummet 16 Basis Points | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.06 percent, down from 4.22 percent at this same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate steadily declined last week, leveling off near 4.12 percent over the weekend before falling to the current rate this morning.

“Mortgage rates during the past week have fallen back to lower levels, helped by Federal Reserve vice chair Janet Yellen’s assurances before the Senate Banking Committee that Federal Reserve stimulus won’t be removed too quickly. This trend halves the increases of the prior two weeks,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. “Looking ahead, rates will be influenced by the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes, scheduled for late Wednesday, as observers try to read the tea leaves to assess the likelihood of a December taper.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.05 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.69 percent.

 

 

 

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/30-fixed-mortgage-rates-plummet-16-basis-points-192253906.html

JPMorgan’s $13-billion settlement includes $4 billion allocated for consumer mortgage relief | Chappaqua Homes

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JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $13-billion settlement with the government over selling shoddy mortgage investments, ending a legal battle that signals a tougher stance against Wall Street wrongdoing.

The nation’s largest bank admitted to knowingly peddling the toxic securities that helped lead to the housing bubble and the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression. The settlement is the largest made by any single American company in history.

California, slammed by 1 million foreclosures during the mortgage meltdown, will be a major beneficiary of the deal.

The agreement includes $4 billion to help homeowners in the Golden State and across the nation who were foreclosed on or who are struggling with their loans. California pension funds, which were big investors in mortgage securities, will receive nearly $300 million in damages to cover losses to the retirement accounts of state employees and teachers.

For the Justice Department, it was a much-needed win. Critics have lambasted the government for not doing enough to hold banks accountable for financial chicanery that helped trigger a global recession.

“Before the crisis, Big Brother was asleep on the couch,” said Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at CLSA in New York. “Now Big Brother is coming back with a vengeance.”

JPMorgan has long contended that the government’s case against it was unfair because many of the problem mortgage securities came from investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. and thrift Washington Mutual. JPMorgan purchased those crippled institutions at the depths of the financial crisis at the urging of the federal government.

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chairman and chief executive, said the bank was “pleased to have concluded this extensive agreement” that covers a “very significant portion” of its legacy mortgage problems.

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jpmorgan-doj-deal-20131120,0,1814328.story#axzz2lCdeUPPK

 

7 Strategies for a Well-Designed Kitchen | Chappaqua Real Estate

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What’s the most important room in your house? For me it’s the kitchen. I love to eat, cook and spend time with family, and the kitchen is where I can do it all. With today’s busy schedules, mealtimes are often the only times families have to spend with one another. So how can you have the perfect kitchen for your lifestyle, stay within your budget and maximize resale value?
One of the most important steps in any project is starting with a great design. It’s not just about looks, it’s more about function and adding value to your life. More than any other room in the house, a kitchen has to be well thought out, carefully configured and designed to accommodate multiple functions. You probably spend more time in your kitchen than any other room, and that’s exactly why it’s so important to start with a great design. Consider these seven ways to get there.

1. Avoid isolation. For many of today’s families, the kitchen is the heart of the home and should be a place where people can gather, entertain and relax — not just cook. That’s why an open plan, like in this kitchen, works so well.
The open plan isn’t your only option, but it isn’t going anywhere yet. Consider your family’s needs carefully before choosing a kitchen plan, and know that if resale is an option for you, most buyers these days are looking for an open kitchen.
Open vs. Closed Kitchens — Which Style Works Best for You?
2. Plan a functional layout. If you like to cook and enjoy making meals for family and friends, there is nothing more frustrating than a kitchen that doesn’t function well. Most designs today follow the basic kitchen work triangle of the sink, refrigerator and range to maximize functionality. But take your own needs into account too. Plenty of counter space for prep, especially next to appliances, like in this kitchen, can make your cooking routine go much more smoothly.
Read more about kitchen layouts
3. Choose a good location. If you plan to make your kitchen the heart of your home, choose a location that connects it with all the other major circulation points. Having your kitchen anchor your home’s great room or provide access to the garage through a mudroom or laundry room is a great way to achieve this.

Dive Into New York’s Historic Rental Ads, From The 1830s On | Chappaqua Real Estate

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As the world has transformed over time, so, too, has the courtship between the owners of empty rooms and potential tenants. The Roman burden of donning your toga and trekking to the agora to find your next rental in one centralized marketplace has given way to virtual tours. (Which you can also do in a toga, should you so desire, although no one needs to know.) But because of various changes to the way letted spaces move, the past century has seen a full circuit in the evolution of rental ads.

18641014%20BDE.png [Want to check out this tony Clinton Hill residence on your own time? You know where to find it! (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 14, 1865)]

In the 1800s, such ads were usually posted by the owner. Unencumbered by character-limits, spots for rentals were filled with prose and description. The landlord wanted to fill his vacancy. Nothing else mattered. If your space came equipped with rosewood furniture and a piano—to some, the 19th-century equivalent to Carrara marble and a private gym—all the better to pitch. The newspaper, of course, was a common resort (or the only resort) for those who couldn’t fill their spaces by word of mouth or through their own networks.

18370624%20Wburg%20Gazette.jpg [Really pitching to the perfect “respectable genteel family.” The ad (click for big!) sells the lots’ proximity to the Peck Slip Ferry, which connected the Williamsburg waterfront with downtown Manhattan, or the base of today’s Brooklyn Bridge. (Williamsburg Gazette, June 24, 1837)]

Then, in the early 20th century, brokers began to flood the market. Although the oldest of today’s largest firms, Brown Harris Stevens, traces its roots to 1874, what is now the National Association of Realtors was founded in 1908. But perhaps most importantly, a ten-year moratorium on taxes for new housing (warning: PDF!) led to a building boom starting in 1920. Those units needed people to live inside them… and fast.

Crafted by hired hands, ads began to take on a sense of urgency—and offered much less description. Mentions of specific addresses gave way to pitches for streets or neighborhoods; vowels became the victims of cost-cutting measures when every word cost cash.

19750825%20Post.jpg [KITCH PRIVLS BMT EXP? I’ll take two! Translated: furnished room somewhere in the five miles(!) between Prospect Park and Sheepshead Bay, with kitchen access, and close to the express BMT, which is today’s B train. (New York Post, August 25, 1975)]

This modern format—concise, with no frills—remained the standard for generations, and is still in occasional use today. Such a listing published in the last few decades usually lays out the specifics of the apartment’s interior (“2 BR, 1.5 BA, southern light”) while giving a vague idea of its location (“3 blocks from the R”).

19850406%20BP.jpg [In some cases, no location is given at all. Given the broker’s coordinates, we assume they are in northwest Brooklyn, but… (Brooklyn Paper, April 6, 1985)]

The intentional omission of a street address was actually a matter of self-preservation—not for the landlord, who just wanted a steady stream of income, but for the broker, who risked losing his fee if others got wind that an owner was actively seeking a tenant and moved the apartment before she herself did.

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/dive_into_new_yorks_historic_rental_ads_from_the_1830s_on.php

 

Westchester Superintendents React To Reduced State Testing | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Superintendents are reacting positively to an announcement that the state is looking to eliminate some standardized tests.

According to a report in LoHud, John King, State Education Commissioner, is telling school superintendents the Board of Regents is looking to eliminate the eighth-grade math test.

The Board of Regents is also considering eliminating other tests. King said grants will be provided to help school districts reduce local standardized tests.

“This is too little, too late,” Pleasantville Superintendent Mary Fox-Alter said. “We’ve been asking them to do this for years.”

Fox-Alter said while she thinks it’s a good thing, she said there are bigger issues the state needs to address. Fox-Alter said many kids are being double tested with common core exams and the regents.

Fox-Alter said the grades 3 to 8 English Language Assessment tests are not allowed to be shown to students after the tests are taken.

 

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/schools/westchester-superintendents-react-reduced-state-testing

NAR leaves list of MLS ‘basic services’ untouched | Chappaqua Real Estate

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The National Association of Realtors (NAR) did not change its classification guidelines for MLS “basic services” at its annual conference, ensuring that, for at least the near future, multiple listing services (MLSs) may confidently charge all their members to operate public-facing websites — a practice that has riled some large brokers.

Asked of his reaction to the committee meeting, Craig Cheatham, CEO of The Realty Alliance, said that public-facing sites should be switched from “basic” to “optional” in NAR’s MLS service classification guidelines “immediately and without hesitation.”

“Giving the committee and the board of directors the benefit of the doubt, they simply must not understand the stakes of what they have done and the direction they continue to head,” Cheatham said. “Our conscience is clear. We have sounded the alarm loud and clear. We were optimistic for progress, but actions speak volumes.”

In an announcement that has kindled anxiety among MLSs, Cheatham recently announced that The Realty Alliance is planning to roll out an unspecified “big initiative” to address some brokers’ concerns with MLSs.

Some brokers have clamored for NAR to remove public-facing websites from a list of examples of services that it considers reasonable for MLSs to choose to offer as “basic services” — MLS services that all members are required to pay for in their dues — ever since NAR added them to the list in May.

The inclusion of public-facing sites in a list part of MLS Policy Statement 7.57, “Categorization of MLS Services, Information and Product,” allows MLSs to force their members to pay for a service that can compete with their own websites, those brokers say.

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/11/nar-leaves-list-of-mls-basic-services-untouched/#sthash.utywKTka.dpuf

Realtors forecast flat sales, rising prices | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Home sales will hold steady next year, but prices will continue to rise due to a low supply of homes for sale, the National Association of Realtors predicts.

Flattening home sales will mark a sharp reversal from the past two years in which existing home sales increased from the year before.

But the lack of income growth, higher home prices and rising interest rates will weigh on sales, says Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist, speaking at the NAR annual conference here Friday.

Median home prices, currently about $200,000 for the U.S., will rise 6% next year after an 11% gain this year, Yun says.

The existing home inventory is now near a 13-year low.

“The inventory shortage will not go away,” Yun says, noting that new home construction is still far from historic levels.

While rising home prices will entice more people to sell homes, many of those people will also buy homes, Yun says. New home construction is what’s needed to expand inventories.

Markets with stronger job growth will do better next year that those without. Some of the best-performing housing markets next year will likely include Salt Lake City, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Tampa and Atlanta, Yun says.

Coastal California markets are likely to continue to experience inventory shortages given good job growth in many of those markets and little new home building.

Home sales could get a boost next year if lenders loosen home loan-lending standards. That would expand the pool of potential home buyers.

Lenders may do that given a dropoff in refinance demand. Refinance volume will fall next year to a 15-year low, Yun says. That’s largely because interest rates have been below 6% for five years and there are not many people with mortgages left to refinance.

By the end of 2014, NAR forecasts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate will hit 5.4%. Rates will rise as the Federal Reserve pulls back on the stimulus measures it has used since 2008 to keep rates low and stimulate the economy.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/11/10/realtors-home-sales-outlook/3476517/

More than 44,000 agents buying ads on Zillow, up 68 percent from year ago | Chappaqua Real Estate

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The number of agents paying to promote themselves on Zillow grew 68 percent from a year ago, to 44,749, the company said in reporting third quarter results today. But average monthly revenue per subscriber was essentially flat at $264, compared to $270 during the same quarter last year.

Zillow reported record revenue ($53.3 million), new subscribers (5,942) and average monthly unique visitors (61.1 million) for the quarter, but reported a net loss of $1.2 million on increased advertising expenses.

Revenue for the quarter was up 67 percent from a year ago, with advertising by real estate agents accounting for the lion’s share of revenue ($35.1 million).

“The third quarter was another extremely strong one for Zillow, as we exceeded our outlook and delivered record results,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff in a statement. “We made significant progress toward our priorities to grow audience, grow our Premier Agent business and grow our emerging marketplaces.”

Zillow announced an initiative this year to boost the company’s brand with enhanced spends in advertising on the Web and TV. The company hosted a housing discussion with President Barack Obama in August and a housing forum with Washington, D.C. heavyweights including Federal Housing Finance Agency director Edward DeMarco and Federal Housing Agency commissioner Carol Galante in October.

Zillow’s chief competitors, Trulia and realtor.com, reported third quarter revenue growth of 59 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/05/zillow-reports-record-revenue-subscriber-count-and-web-traffic-in-q3/#sthash.OZtyelh4.dpuf

Tight Lending Standards Slow the Economy | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Changes in lending standards by banks, undertaken to reduce their risk and preserve capital, have huge, macroeconomic effects on the economy.  Not are not only restricting credit, they simultaneously reduce the demand for credit by businesses homeowners, even creating credit shocks that impact GDP. However, banks loosen standards to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace according to a new study by economists at the Federal Reserve.

Tightening credit creates shocks to the credit supply and leads to a substantial decline in output and the capacity of businesses and households to borrow from banks, as well as to a widening of credit spreads and an easing of monetary policy.

Shifts in the supply of bank loans to businesses and households corresponds to changes in lending standards that-using an econometric model-have been adjusted for the bank-specific and macroeconomic factors that, in addition to affecting banks’ credit policies, can also have a simultaneous effect on the demand for credit.

The economists, William F. Bassett, Mary Beth Chosak, John C. Driscoll, and Egon Zakrajsek, used the Fed’s quarter Senior Loan Officer Survey as a way to measure and track banks’ lending standards and credit policies from the bottom up, using bank-level responses on changes in lending standards for businesses.

“This analysis shows that credit supply disturbances have economically large and statistically significant effects on output and core lending capacity of U.S. commercial banks. Specifically, an adverse credit supply shock of one standard deviation is associated with a decline in the level of real GDP of about 0.75 percent two years after the shock, while the capacity of businesses and households to borrow from the banking sector falls more than 4 percent over the same period, the economists found. Such disruptions in the credit-intermediation process also lead to a substantial rise,” they found.

Economic factors influencing banks’ business credit policies include a projected increase in the unemployment rate as does a deterioration in the current labor market conditions. Expected changes in longer-term interest rates again exert a significant influence-in both economic and statistical terms-on the probability that banks will modify their current lending standards: An expected increase of 100 basis points in the 10-year Treasury yield over the next four quarters is estimated to lower the probability of tightening in the current quarter about 6.5 percentage points and boost the likelihood of easing by nearly the same amount.

The capacity of businesses and households to borrow from the banking sector begins to decline within two quarters after the initial credit disruption, and the resulting reduction in this broad measure of credit inter-mediation is very persistent and protracted, they said.

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/11/tight-standards-can-rock-the-economy/