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Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Will Rising Mortgage Rates Halt The Housing Rebound? | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Could rising mortgage rates derail the housing market’s slow healing? Economists in the latest Wall Street Journal survey are divided on the question. Among those surveyed, 40% said the rise “won’t have a noticeable effect,” 35.6% warned “it will slow sales” and 24.4% said “it will slow home-price gains.”

 

There’s no doubting the housing market’s contribution to the overall recovery. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in starting two days of congressional testimony, on Wednesday told lawmakers that  “housing has contributed significantly to recent gains in economic activity. Home sales, house prices, and residential construction have moved up over the past year, supported by low mortgage rates and improved confidence in both the housing market and the economy.” The Fed chief seemed to place himself within the no “noticeable effect,” camp, but added, “Housing activity and prices seem likely to continue to recover, notwithstanding the recent increases in mortgage rates, but it will be important to monitor developments in this sector carefully.”

 

In the Fed’s periodic report on regional economic conditions, issued Wednesday, the central bank sounded a relatively upbeat note, saying “Residential real estate activity increased at a moderate to strong pace in most Districts.” The beige book continued, “Most Districts reported increases in home sales.”

 

Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have jumped in the recent months, climbing in the most recent week to 4.37%, up more than a percentage point from the 3.35% level of early May. However, even with the climb, rates are lower than they have been in decades.

 

That historical perspective is important, said Stephen Stanley, of Pierpont Securities, who noted “rates were so incredibly low before they can rise significantly and still be incredibly attractive by historical standards.”

 

Mr. Stanley said the housing market’s healing is likely to continue because—despite the rise in rates—the fact that home prices are going up…is an overwhelming incentive for people.”

 

John Lonski, ofMoody’s MCO +0.02% Analytics, sees rising rates affecting sales, and points to mortgage applications for home purchases to support his point. During the four-week period ended July 12, those applications were down 5% from their 2013 high, during the four weeks ended May 3, Mr. Lonski said. “This tends to suggest that higher mortgage yields will at least slow the housing recovery.”

 

He added, “It doesn’t mean that home sales are about to collapse or contract. But they will be slowed by costlier mortgages.”

 

Will Rising Mortgage Rates Halt The Housing Rebound? – Real Time Economics – WSJ.

Real estate horror continues with ‘zombie foreclosures’ | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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Joseph Keller doesn’t expect he’ll live to see the end of 2013. He blames the three story house at 190 Avondale Avenue.

Five years ago, Keller, 10 months behind on his mortgage payments, received notice of a foreclosure judgment from JP Morgan Chase. In a few weeks, the house would be put up for auction at a sheriff’s sale.

The 58-year-old former social worker and his wife, Jennifer, packed up their home and moved. Joseph thought he would never have anything to do with the house again. And for about a year, he didn’t. Then it started to stalk him.

He had become caught up in a little-known horror of the U.S. housing bust: the zombie title. Six years in, thousands of homeowners are finding themselves legally liable for houses they didn’t know they still owned after banks decided it wasn’t worth their while to complete foreclosures on them. With impunity, banks have been walking away from foreclosures much the way some homeowners walked away from their mortgages when the housing market first crashed.

First, in 2010, the county sued Keller because the house, already picked clean by scavengers, was in a shambles, its hanging gutters and collapsed garage in violation of local housing code. Then the tax collector started sending Keller notices about mounting back taxes, sewer fees and bills for weed and waste removal. And last year, Chase’s debt collector began pressing Keller to pay his mortgage, which had swollen, with penalties and fees, from $62,100.27 to $84,194.69.

The worst news came last January, when the Social Security Administration rejected Keller’s application for disability benefits; the “asset” on Avondale Avenue rendered him ineligible. Keller’s medical problems include advanced liver disease, hepatitis C and inactive tuberculosis. Without disability coverage, he can’t get the liver transplant he needs to stay alive.

Real estate Foreclosure: Joseph Keller and his wife Jennifer stand on the porch of their abandoned house in Columbus, Ohio, September 30, 2012. IMAGE

 

 

Real estate horror continues with ‘zombie foreclosures’.

Seattle Residential real-estate market makes recovery | Chappaqua Real Estate

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After a bumpy 2011 and a slow-starting 2012, there is no disputing the residential real-estate market this year has pulled out of the depths of the mortgage crisis.

For the last 18 months, the median home price in King County has gone up each month when compared to the same month a year ago. Since January, the median price also has gone up each month from the previous month. Median means half the homes sold for more, half for less.

The high-water mark was set in July 2007, when the median price of a single-family home in King County was $481,000.

A closer look at the submarkets in June shows the same basic trend with a few twists.

• Eastside: The most expensive area keeps its title. In the last two years, the median has moved up 16 percent to $591,825 from $510,000 in June 2011. The July 2007 median high was: $628,000.

• Seattle: The median is $458,000, up 19.7 percent from $382,500 in June 2011. The July 2007 median: $499,000.

• North King County: The median is $375,000, up 22.4 percent from $306,250 in June 2011. The July 2007 median: $448,250.

Foreclosures and short sales hit the southern end of the county the hardest. Even so, the prices have increased.

• Southwest King County (Burien, Tukwila, Des Moines, Federal Way, west Kent): The median is $240,000, up 28 percent from $187,500 in June 2011. The July 2007 median: $330,000.

• Southeast King County (Renton, east Kent, Auburn, Maple Valley): The median is $292,100, up 21.7 percent from $239,900 in June 2011. The July 2007 median: $375,000.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines the last two years, you have missed the bottom in terms of prices and interest rates.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday the average on the 30-year loan rose to 4.51 percent, a two-year high.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage increased to 3.53 percent from 3.39 percent last week. That’s the highest since August 2011.

Just two months ago, the average rate on the 30-year loan was 3.35 percent — barely above the record low of 3.31 percent.

 

Residential real-estate market makes recovery | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times.

Former missile silo reborn as a $750K home | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Here's another missile …

 

If you’re looking for a peaceful country home that can also keep you safe from natural disaster, social upheaval, disease and even zombies, this home is for you.

A decommissioned Cold War-era missile silo, located in the Adirondock Mountains of upstate New York, recently hit the market for $750,000. While it’s not much to look at from the outside, if you go 40 feet below ground, you’ll find a 3,200–square-foot silo home, including one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and a large living area. (Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshowwith more than a dozen pictures of the home.)

Click on a photo to go to a slideshow of a missile silo home. Photo by Brian Dominic of Select Sotheby's International Realty“It’s very crazy that when you drive up to this silo you cannot see anything because it is all underground,” said Realtor Brian Dominic of Select Sotheby’s International Realty. “There is no curb appeal necessary.”

 

 

Former missile silo reborn as a $750K home | Former missile silo reborn as a $750K home – Yahoo! Homes.

America’s top 6 states for business | Chappaqua NY Homes

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Change of the guard

We have a new champion.

South Dakota has climbed to the top of CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business list in 2013.

It is the best finish yet for the Mount Rushmore State, which has always been a quiet contender in the annual study, rarely finishing outside the Top 10. But even more impressive, South Dakota’s point total this year — 1,639 out of a possible 2,500 — is the highest logged by any state since we began keeping score in 2007.

Each year, we rate all 50 states on more than 50 metrics in 10 categories of competitiveness. We weight the categories based on how frequently they appear as selling points in state economic-development marketing materials. That way, we hold the states to their own standards.

This year’s categories and point values are:

  • Cost of doing business (450 points)
  • Economy (375 points)
  • Infrastructure (350 points)
  • Workforce (300 points)
  • Quality of life (300 points)
  • Technology and innovation (300 points)
  • Business friendliness (200 points)
  • Education (150 points)
  • Cost of living (50 points)
  • Access to capital (25 points)

In many ways, the competitive landscape — and our study — shifted in South Dakota’s direction this year. A wave of tax cutting that followed the 2010 Republican sweep of statehouses across the country has led to a wave of states touting their low costs of doing business. As a result, the “cost of doing business” category carries more weight than ever in our study.

That said, click ahead for a look at the top six states for business.

 

America’s top 6 states for business- MSN Money.

Chappaqua sales up 80% – Prices p 1% | RobReportBlog | Chappaqua Homes

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Chappaqua NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 7/82012
85Sales47
$950,000.00median sold price$939,000.00
$335,000.00low sold price$225,000.00
$3,100,000.00high sold price$2,575,000.00
3607average size3593
$286.00ave. price per foot$288.00
166ave days on market169
$1,025,487.00average sold price$1,222,460.00
96%ave. sold to ask96%

 

 

Chappaqua sales up 80% – Prices p 1% | RobReportBlog | Chappaqua Homes.

Improving Your Content Marketing | Chappaqua Realtor

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Content marketing is required for success in today’s competitive business world.  No matter which industry you are in, your website visitors want high-quality, information-rich, high-impact and captivatingcontent-marketing-superpowerscontent with deep industry insight.  We are in the midst of the information age; your prospects do a significant amount of research, comparing you to your top competitors.  How can you distinguish your company and win content marketing game?  A top-notch company blog is the foundation for winning content marketing.  If you have committed to content marketing, you may as well dive in, and grant your content marketing some superpowers.

Achieving high rates of social content curation—social sharing—is now vital to SEO and the ranking of search engine results pages (SERPS).  Each time someone shares your content with their network of friends and industry contacts, it gets a stamp of approval—increasing its reach and amplifying your chances for higher rates of traffic and lead generation.  The need to create content, which readers find valuable enough to share, will ultimately improve the quality of online marketing and the Internet as a whole.

There are no shortcuts to producing highly shareable content, which calls for vision, creativity, a deep knowledge base and a sophisticated understanding of your industry.  Consistently creating valuable, relevant and share-worthy content will inevitably improve your search rankings, which are increasingly taking into account the social exposure and influence of content and the authors who create it.  Creating highly shareable content will get others to promote your content for you.  While originality is an important goal of content creation, highly shared content does have some common characteristics.

Highly Shareable Content Defined

1.  It has no typos, spelling or grammatical errors.

2.  It features fresh ideas and innovative best practices.

3.  Highly shareable content is not overly “salesy” and avoids a primary focus on pushing products or services.

4.  It maintains breadth and depth of subject matter.

5.  It has captivating images.

6.  Highly shareable content leverages newsjacking of hot industry-relevant news.

7.  It highlights industry thought leadership.

8. Highly shared titles are actionable, concise, clear, descriptive, authoritative, intriguing and sometimes even a little mysterious.

9.  Highly shearable content includes information-rich and captivating infographics.

10.  It is visually striking and presented in an organized fashion.

5 Ways to Make Your Content More Formidable 

 

1.  Create Easy-to-Process Content

Everyone with an Internet browser is inundated with content on a daily basis.  The best way to keep people reading your content is to structure it so that it can be easily skimmed over.  Paragraphs should have headlines, and main points should be put into numbered lists and bullet points.  People may not want to read every single point you make; this practice allows them to skip some information and search for what they find most intriguing, which increases your chances of high rates of content curation.

 

 

Improving Your Content Marketing | Social Media Today.

First-time home buyers getting shut out | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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U.S. home prices have risen for 14 straight months, but first-time buyers have been increasingly on the sidelines.

 

In May, first-time buyers accounted for 28 percent of existing-home purchases, down from 34 percent a year before and 36 percent two years ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

 

The declining share of first timers means that many have missed out on low interest rates, which recently moved up from near-record lows, and home prices that have risen sharply from their bottom.

 

“The people buying homes today … are participating in home price growth. Younger people, they are being left out,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the NAR. “It remains to be seen when the first-time buyer can return.”

 

First-tme buyers are critical to a housing recovery because they help existing-home owners sell and move up to larger or more expensive homes. But their presence is being reduced by:

 

• Competition. Cash buyers accounted for 33 percent of existing home sales in May. Investors, who are often all-cash buyers, accounted for 18 percent of purchases, the NAR says.

 

Cash buyers are tough competitors, especially in markets with limited inventory and for first-time buyers who often use low down-payment loans to finance purchases.

 

The first-time buyer “is being squeezed out of the market a lot,” says Zillow economist Svenja Gudell.

 

There are also more repeat buyers in the market, given that higher home prices have enabled more people to sell homes and buy others, says Glenn Kelman, CEO of brokerage Redfin.

 

• Tight credit. Home loans are harder to get than before the housing bust, and that’s true for first-time buyers, too.

 

Almost half of first-timers get low down-payment loans through the Federal Housing Administration, NAR data show.

 

New FHA home loans in the last three months of 2012 went to borrowers with an average credit score of 696, vs. under 660 in 2007 and 2008, FHA data shows. Credit scores, which run up to 850, for conventional loans have also risen.

 

• Recession. It hit the 25- to 34-year-old group with higher unemployment than for adults overall, says Jed Kolko, Trulia economist. Young people have made a strong recovery, but it takes years of steady employment to save a down payment and build strong credit, he says. High levels of student debt will also delay homeownership, Kolko says.

 

Increases in home prices and mortgage rates since last year have made a big difference in costs.

 

In May, the median value of the bottom third of homes in San Francisco was $287,500, Zillow says. With today’s 4.4 percent interest rate and 20 percent down, the mortgage payment runs $1,154, that’s $313 more than at last year’s prices and rates, its data shows.

 

“You’re getting a double whammy with higher prices and rates,” says Ashley Krause, 31, of Boston, who’s been trying to buy her first home for six months with a down payment of 5 percent or less.

 

The hospital pharmacist has lost two bids to others.

 

 

First-time home buyers getting shut out | Sheboygan Press | sheboyganpress.com.

Wayne Gretzky Lists Scottsdale Home for $3.395M | Chappaqua Real Estate

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With 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) under his belt, you’d think Wayne Gretzky would be ready to settle down. But in real estate, “The Great One” is just warming up.

In 2007, he sold his Thousand Oaks, CA home for $18.5 million. While that property recently returned to the for-sale market, the former professional hockey player has listed his Scottsdale, AZ residence for $3.395 million.

According to the Los Angeles Times and property records, Gretzky purchased the home at 6436 E Gainsborough Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 in 2003 while putting the finishing touches on his 6.5-acre Sherwood Country Club estate, which he custom designed with architect Richard Landry.

The Scottsdale property is an architectural gem as well, described by listing agent Pam Wugalter as “both sophisticated and elegant, with finishes that are of superior quality and workmanship.” Built in a Spanish-Mediterranean style, the home boasts high ceilings, vintage chandeliers and wood beams throughout.

One of 13 homes in a secluded Arcadia development, the property affords more than an acre of privacy with a large, covered poolside patio for outdoor entertaining. The main house has 3 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and a 1-bed, 1-bath casita provides additional living space for guests.

After retiring in ’99, Gretzky was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has since purchased real estate in Westlake Village, CA, in addition to his Scottsdale and former Thousand Oaks homes. Today, he’s considered by many to be the greatest player in the history of the NHL.

 

Wayne Gretzky Lists Scottsdale Home for $3.395M | Zillow Blog.

Oil may be booming in North Dakota, but real estate is slow to follow | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Money and workers are pouring into Williston, the capital of North Dakota’s oil boom, but the only department store in town is a JCPenney, with a facade straight out of the 1950s.

“We desperately need some kind of shopping center or mall here in Williston,” said Rev. Jay Reinke, a 20-year resident and pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church. “You have to drive hours to find decent shopping.”

That drive is not getting shorter anytime soon. Real estate developers are finding loans and investments hard to come by from Wells Fargo, private equity firm Carlyle Group and other major American financial powerhouses for new department stores and other commercial property, as well as residential developments.

While billions of dollars in oil money may be rushing into North Dakota, big money has resisted financing large real estate deals there, barring some projects entirely and leading other developers to self-finance.

Many would-be financiers say the North Dakota oil patch real estate market is too hot to handle right now, with demand for housing outstripping supply, fueling high prices. The average two-bedroom apartment in the oil patch rents for more than $2,500 per month, helping drive land prices sky-high and sparking concern about a bubble.

National homebuilders such as Pulte Group, D.R. Horton and Hovnanian Enterprises have yet to enter North Dakota. Pulte said it was focused on improving its market share on the East and West Coasts, as well as some Midwest states. The other two declined to comment.

Part of the hesitancy stems from the reluctance of energy-field workers to move their families full-time to North Dakota, a step that would cause them to spend more money locally. The state’s biting winter weather and remoteness have discouraged all but a few families, realtors say.

Data about home-building permits suggests workers are still keen to rent apartments rather than invest in housing and settle down. Only 20 permits were granted in Williston during the first five months of this year, compared to permits to build 482 apartment units, according to the city’s building department. As recently as 2010 the number of homebuilding permits in Williston, a city of about 16,000, far outpaced apartment permits.

“At first we thought we really had to run fast to get position in the homebuilding market, and now we see a landscape that frankly isn’t running away from us,” said Terry Olin, a North Dakota native now exploring real estate projects in the state with Switzerland-based investment company Stropiq LLP.

HISTORY IS A GUIDE

Many banks remain wary of the past repeating itself. North Dakota saw a surge of oil activity in the 1950s and 1980s, only to have the flare-ups burn out, leaving many residents, municipalities and banks in debt after funding large projects. Williston alone had millions in debt from the 1980s oil boom as recently as 2005.

“What we don’t want to do is go into a community like Williston and engage in speculative lending and not have an exit strategy,” said Dan Murphy, Wells Fargo’s regional president for North Dakota, South Dakota and western Minnesota. “We’re happy to make loans. We want to be repaid.”

The hesitancy comes even as Marathon Oil, Exxon Mobil, Statoil and dozens of other energy companies spend billions of dollars to extract North Dakota’s oil and natural gas.

 

Oil may be booming in North Dakota, but real estate is slow to follow – CSMonitor.com.