Tag Archives: Katonah NY Homes for Sale

Katonah NY Homes for Sale

Katonah Realtor | Housing market receives B-minus going into new year

Leave a reply

President and Chief Economist Sam Chandan of Chandan Economics and professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania told Fox News Friday that the housing market will be somewhat of a snooze fest going into January.

While many homeowners are on a path of fury to sell their homes before Dec. 31 – given the chance of the fiscal cliff – it’s going to unfold like a “cash-for-clunkers program.”

Take a look at the clip at 1:24.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

By buying or selling a house before the potential tax increase goes into effect, homeowners are dealing with a lower tax advantage.

However, by selling so many homes before the year is out, Chandan expects the market will experience a lull at the top end of the market next year.

So, are all the forecasted reports for a strong, continued recovery in the housing market for 2013 true? Yes, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Again, take a look at the bit at 2:18.

Put simply, by coming from such a low end of the spectrum the industry only has one way to go — up.

“It’s a slow recovery — a very early stage recovery — but we’re benefiting from modest job creation, at the same time we’ve got historically low mortgage costs and a smaller number of increase in the number of families who are able to qualify for those mortgages,” Chandan said. “You put those things together, along with the expectation that prices look like their picking up and so now is the right time to buy, and that starts to lead to some home sales.”

Although credit remains extremely tight, the bigger picture is identifying the types of mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are acquiring, securitizing and bringing on to both entity’s books.

It’s an important piece to the housing market puzzle because it’s a key driver for banks and the origination of mortgages.

Combining all of these factors together what letter grade would Chandan assign the year a head?

The housing market earned a respectable B-minus.

via housingwire.com

Katonah NY Realtor | Looking to sell your home, follow these six simple tips

Leave a reply

Katonah Realtor |  Looking to sell your home follow these 6 steps

The NAR has it right when they talk about the five steps in selling your home.

1.  Consider comparables

2.  Consider competition

3.  Consider contingencies

4.  Get an appraisal

5.  Be accurate.

6.  Know what you will accept.

via trulia.com

8 states where ‘repair and deduct’ could spark eviction | Katonah Real Estate

Leave a reply

Q: Our landlord has refused to fix our heater, despite our repeated requests. We’d fix it ourselves, but we can’t afford it. In fact, we’re down to one income and are behind in the rent. The landlord says if we fix it ourselves and deduct the cost from our rent bill, he’ll evict us. Is this legal? –Dale and Candace

A: In every state but Arkansas, residential landlords are required to offer and maintain fit and habitable housing. While a handful limit the guarantee to certain types of tenancies (excluding portions of the guarantee for single-family dwellings, for example), most simply extend the warranty to all tenancies. But that doesn’t mean that all tenants, at every moment, can call upon its protections.

In fact, at least eight states condition a tenant’s right to get action from the landlord on the tenant not being delinquent in rent at the time the tenant gives notice to the landlord of the problem. In Delaware, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming, tenants cannot avail themselves of some typical remedies — withholding the rent, using “repair and deduct,” or moving out without liability for rent — unless they’re current in the rent.

The policy behind this rule is pretty straightforward — it’s to discourage tenants from staying rent-free while they manufacture habitability problems and fight an eviction. Although the vast majority of tenants do not engage in such behavior, publicized stories of “tenants from hell” who manage to stay in the property while the landlord spends time and money trying to evict them have gotten legislators’ attention.

You’ll need to find out where your state stands on the issue, before you can confidently fix the heater and lower your rent obligation. If you live in one of the states mentioned above, your landlord may indeed have grounds to punish your exercise of a remedy that would otherwise be available to you.

Q: I’ve just learned that one of my tenants was arrested for assault last week. The incident took place in a city park. Can I terminate the tenancy on this basis? –Andre Z.

A: Several states have laws that allow landlords to terminate tenancies when the tenant has committed certain illegal acts. (Many states also allow for termination when there’s an act of domestic violence, but that’s not exactly what you’re asking about.) These laws vary considerably when it comes to what kinds of acts will justify a termination, and how much proof is needed by the landlord.

It’s most common for states to allow termination when the acts affect the health or safety of other residents or tenants. For example, Iowa’s provision targets acts that threaten the safety of the landlord, landlord’s employee, other tenants, or anyone within 1,000 feet of the property. (Iowa Code Section 562A.27A.)

But not all states are similarly limiting — in Tennessee, for example, the landlord can terminate if the tenant “willfully or intentionally commits a violent act,” no matter where it might have occurred. (Tenn. Code Section 66-28-517.)

So you’ll need to check your state law to see whether it gives you the right to terminate under the circumstances. You’ll also need to find out whether the tenant must be convicted of the offense first, or whether you can terminate based on the arrest alone.

via inman.com

Republicans put fiscal cliff back in Obama’s court | Katonah NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden just before the president's Nov. 9 address on the state of the economy. White House photo by Pete Souza.President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden just before the president’s Nov. 9 address on the state of the economy. White House photo by Pete Souza.

In a nation still blinking to post-election wakefulness, stick with domestic economics. Europe, the Middle East, China and Japan all have their stuff simmering near boil. But here matters most here. Fiscal cliff, then housing credit.

The strange presidential election was a double rope-a-dope. Mitt Romney assumed that no president would be re-elected in an economy as poor as this. President Obama assumed that a Wall Street fat cat deaf to the people would be unelectable in the Bubble aftermath. Roger that. Ten four.

Thus neither ran on anything new or noteworthy, but the Republicans absolutely got the message. They were lucky to hold the House, and must reformulate their whole painted-in-corner concept. Romney is deaf, but not the Republican leadership in Congress. These are tough, smart hombres; not attractive to mainstream civilians, but above all else they are survivors.

A new rope-a-dope began instantly after the election. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell without a peep of objection from the Tea Pots: “More tax revenue? Of course. We’re all-aboard.”

After several years of Republican tax intransigence, I doubt that the full impact of their dope-reversal has landed in the White House. Now avoiding the fiscal cliff depends entirely on the White House delivering Democrats on spending and entitlement cuts. A turn away from the cliff will require a majority of votes from both parties, as the hard left and hard right will not join any available compromise.

I am less optimistic than last week, if everything depends on Obama’s politicking with Congress. Good defense in the bunker won’t bring this one home.

This Thanksgiving, one person soars above all others deserving our gratitude: Ben Bernanke. He has delivered two speeches in the last week, separated by — and relevant to — a new panic at the FHA.

Last week Bernanke spoke at Operation Hope, next door to Martin King’s home church in Atlanta, and his remarks were devoted entirely to housing and mortgages. He opened by noting that lower-income and minority communities have suffered the greatest losses in the housing bust. Then to say the rate of homeownership has fallen to a 15-year low, and the extension of new mortgages the lowest since 1995. In post-Bubble credit tightening, “The pendulum has swung too far the other way.”

He then recited the remedies the Fed has described all year in a white paper and speeches. Plus one idea lost in all the oppressive and pointless rule-making, and new and incomprehensible “disclosures” — an opportunity for independent housing counselors to help borrowers who have skills less-developed than those of an MBA holder.

The day after he spoke, word leaked that to plug its losses the FHA will again jack its fees, probably to an annual 1.35 percent surcharge on new loans (near triple the rate in its first 75 years), and without waiver upon sufficient owner equity, a life-of-loan fee.

The damage will fall on the least of our brethren, the ones whom the FHA was designed to help. The FHA was the only lending entity not to loosen standards in the Bubble, caught by the misbehavior of others. As it prices itself from the field, it will have more trouble self-financing the sale of its foreclosures, and will weaken the overall market, I believe causing more net loss to itself than if it had left fees as-were.

Despite precision hits to core Obama constituencies, silence from White House and Treasury. Bernanke can see, but Obama and Geithner … Romneyesque.

Bernanke’s second speech repeated the housing credit-pendulum lines, and then addressed the cliff. The whole Western world (including Japan) is caught in the growth-austerity balance, fiscal sustainability versus budget-cut headwinds. Bernanke: “Fortunately, the two objectives are fully compatible, and mutually reinforcing.”

The nation needs cheerleading from somebody. In Europe and Japan the balance is mutually destructive, but here, with an active and brilliant central bank, we have a shot. We can still choose between overcooked breast and done dark, or moist white and icky thighs. Give thanks. Turkeys elsewhere are toast.

The Economic Cycle Research Institute’s weekly leading index is the longest-running, never-missed recession-caller. It is sticking to a recession call now 1 year old. Although confounded by the spring-summer rise in its index, it is rolling over again now. I think its forecast is overdone, but there is no mistaking its weakness as we approach the fiscal cliff, and the good news would be agreeing to the most profound budget and spending cuts ever in our history.

via inman.com

Weekly Online Video News Round Up – Dead Camera Edition | Katonah NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

On Monday we were on site for a night of shooting and the brand new, less than a month old, Canon 60D stops working and won’t start up. ARGH! A whole day lost. But that doesn’t mean you lose out on the weekly news round up. So here’s what’s what, who’s who and the hows and whys of what happened this week in online video.

Google Stomps Print!

During the first six months of 2012, Google generated more money in advertising revenue than all U.S. print publications combined. Google brought in $10.9 billion in ad revenue in this time period, while U.S. newspapers and magazines brought in $10.5 billion.

There are a couple caveats to this, however. First off, the data here factors in Google’s global ad revenue, rather than just the ad revenue it generates in the U.S., so it’s not entirely a fair comparison. Second, this analysis does not factor in revenue that comes from ads placed on newspaper websites.

Source: Mashable

YouTube Updates Android App For One-Tap Sharing To Google TV

Google has announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV that pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature work only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.

Source: Wired

Android Power!

Nearly three out of four smartphones in the world are now running on Google’s Android operating system, according to a report on third quarter sales released Wednesday.

Android now accounts for 72.4% of the market for smartphone operating systems, up from 52.5% in the period a year earlier. A big chunk of that gain was attributed to Samsung, which sold 55 million smartphones. The bulk of Samsung’s smartphones run on Android.

Source: LA Times

Vevo Expands Into Europe, Partners With Yahoo On Ads

Vevo, the music video website founded by music majors Universal and Sony, is to break into mainland Europe, launching in France, Spain, and Italy. Other markets where Vevo is available include the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.

The service, which is also backed by EMI Music, is aiming to attract music fans who currently watch hundreds of millions of videos each month via its channel on YouTube to its own Vevo.com website.

Source: The Guardian

Brightcove Cloud App Update

Open Plugin Architecture and Partner Integration

The new App Cloud plugin model makes it easy for developers to extend the native functionality that is built into App Cloud. Other hybrid app technologies offer native plugin capabilities, but developers soon find that the available plugins are frequently out-of-date, largely unsupported, and more trouble than they are worth. App Cloud developers can choose from a growing library of fully tested and fully supported App Cloud plugins, such as a native media uploader, native audio player, or in-app email composer, as well as plugins that integrate with third-party cloud services such as Google Analytics or comScore Digital Analytix.

Adding a pre-built plugin is as simple as copying a directory into their App Cloud project and including a JavaScript file. Brightcove’s cloud compilation service then automatically embeds the new functionality in the customer’s application and produces binaries ready for distribution through app stores. Developers will also be able to build custom native plugins of their own using the soon to be released App Cloud plugin development kit (PDK).

New Push Notification APIs

This release also delivers a significant expansion of App Cloud’s integrated support for push notifications. App Cloud developers can leverage a new set of client and server APIs to send individual push notifications to a particular app user or group users into custom-defined segments. For example, a news application could create segments focused on topical areas, allowing users to specify their interest in particular topics, while opting out of others. By targeting notifications by segment, developers can increase user engagement by notifying users only when content is relevant to their interests.

Availability

App Cloud’s new plugin architecture is now available to all customers, including users of App Cloud Core, the free open source version. The native media uploader and in-app email composer are built into version 1.12 of the App Cloud SDK. Additional free plugins, including the native audio player and Google Analytics plugins, are downloadable from the open source plugins repository hosted on GitHub. The comScore Digital Analytix and DRM plugins are currently expected be released later this year. The new push notification APIs are available immediately to customers with subscriptions to the App Cloud Pro or Enterprise editions.

AOL Expands Video Reach With Kaltura Partnership

The AOL On Network announced that it has partnered with Kaltura, the leading open source video platform. The partnership will make the entire AOL video library of more than 420,000 premium videos available to companies using the Kaltura Platform.

Kaltura’s publishers will be able to access and search the AOL video catalog, then add premium, short-form video to their own accounts. By having access to this massive repository, Kaltura publishers will be able to expand their own video library with more premium content, increase total inventory, and leverage a number of revenue options to boost revenues.

Source: Herald Online

Live TV Viewing Dips, Cross-Screen Digital Use Up

Live television viewing continues to lose ground — albeit slowly — as time-shifted programming and multitasking with smartphones and/or tablets gains ground. Nielsen’s new cross-media platform report shows live viewing in the second quarter of 2012 averaged 4 hours and 18 minutes a day, down five minutes a day from the second quarter of 2011.

YouTube Pairs Android With Google TV

On Tuesday, Google announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV. The feature pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature works only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.

Source: Wired

Encoding.com Updates

Universal Closed Captioning

The most powerful and flexible closed caption workflow in the market

Supporting closed captions is a critical component to expanding the size and demographic of your video’s audience. The FCC has now mandated that all content broadcast on television must include closed captions when delivered to Internet and mobile devices. Closed captions are delivered in many different formats and require a diverse set of tools to automate within your media workflow. We researched production broadcast workflows in detail and built a feature set that is more robust and flexible than any other on the market. Using the API, you can now extract, mux, or copy closed captions files in all major formats, including cea-608/708, DFXP, SAMI, SCC, SRT, TTML and 3GPP Time Text

Brand New User Interface

Our enterprise-grade API feature set is now available in the browser

While we have continuously innovated our API based feature set over the last 5 years we felt the industry was long over due for a professional video encoding workflow in the browser. After 9 months of intensive development, we are proud to announce a completely redesigned browser based toolset for professional video encoding in the cloud. New information architecture and a many new features are available including a complete management interface for vid.ly, universal video service,

Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader

Up to100x faster than FTP, powered by Aspera

Now you can rapidly upload batches of huge source files to the cloud with the Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader powered by Aspera. After the accelerated upload, you can configure multiple output renditions and delivery points using the Encoding.com web interface.

Source: Newsletter

WebM for Wii

Just when I thought WebM was dead…

YouTube launched its first-ever native Wii app Thursday, making it possible for users of the game console to watch videos without relying on the game console’s Opera browser. The Wii app looks somewhat similar to YouTube’s recently-launched PS3 app, with an interesting technical twist: Most videos consumed through it are streamed in Google’s WebM open video format.

Source: Gigaom

So YouTube is still using WebM on its backside transcoding it seems.

Optrix Expand Video Capture with New XD Sports Case Accessories

Product Highlights:

Glidepro – Hand Stabilizer
–    Ideal to capture smooth and steady videos anywhere
–    Eliminates the shakes typically associated with hand-held filming
–    Utilizes same technology found in professional filmmaking equipment

Dolly – Flexible Roller
–    Ideal for tracking shots, time lapse, artistic work and capturing travel videos
–    Large wheels provide smooth movement
–    11” adjustable arm allows for unique angles and positions

Monopod – Extendable Arm
–    Ideal for self-portraits, high/low angles, self-videos and POV shots
–    Extendable arm provides access to hard to reach camera angles and positions
–    Lightweight portable design extends up to 3 ft

Flex – Flexible Tripod
–    Ideal for usage from unique angles, including poles, tree branches and more
–    Flexible legs secure your XD Sport to virtually any surface
–    Compact size makes it a perfect travel companion

via reelseo.com