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Deadline is Monday for foreclosure review | Katonah NY Real Estate
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30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Unchanged | Katonah Real Estate
Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages were unchanged this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.24 percent.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.2 and 3.25 percent for the majority of the week, rising to the current rate this morning.
“This past week rates remained flat, still buoyed by optimism that lawmakers might be able to reach a compromise on the fiscal cliff before year-end,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “However, as we enter the last week of the year rates may reverse course back downward unless lawmakers are able to quickly agree on a plan”
Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.59 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs the rate was 2.52 percent.
*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.
Given the U.S. public holiday of New Year’s on Tuesday, Jan. 1, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace weekly rates will be published on Wednesday, Jan. 2. For more information on mortgage rates, please visit: http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates/
via zillow.com
Pending Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Climb for Third Month | Katonah Homes
Pending home sales rose for the third month in November, a sign of the housing recovery’s resilience in the face of fiscal threats facing the U.S.
The index of pending home sales climbed 1.7 percent to 106.4, the highest reading since April 2010, after a revised 5 percent gain in October, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent advance.
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values, talks about the outlook for the U.S. housing market. He speaks with Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — James Lockhart, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co., talks about the outlook for the residential real estate mortgage market and the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Lockhart speaks with Sara Eisen, Mike McKee and Alix Steel on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Low borrowing costs and stable prices are drawing homebuyers three years after a recession triggered in part by a collapse in housing prices. Fewer foreclosures are coming onto the market, easing concerns that values could fall.
“Housing is building some momentum,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “There is a growing perception that now is a good time to buy. Prices are starting to tick up, mortgage rates are still rock-bottom and the job market has shown some signs of improvement.”
Another report today showed the economy picked up in December. The MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 51.6 in December, a four-month high, from 50.4 in November. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.
Shares Drop
Stocks slumped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower for a fifth day, amid concern talks between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers may not yield a budget deal by the year-end deadline. The 500 Index fell 0.6 percent to 1,408.99 at 10 a.m. in New York.
Estimates for pending home sales in the Bloomberg survey of 35 economists ranged from a 2.7 percent drop to an increase of 6 percent.
Three of four regions showed a gain last month, including a 5.2 percent increase in the Northeast and a 4.2 percent advance in the West. Sales contracts were little changed in the South.
Pending sales are considered a leading indicator because they track purchase contracts in advance of actual transactions, which are tabulated a month or two later. Existing or previously owned homes account for more than 90 percent of the housing market.
Sales of existing homes reached a three-year high in November, rising 5.9 percent to a 5.04 million annual rate, the Realtor group reported last week.
Sales Climb
New-home sales, also logged when contracts are signed, rose 4.4 percent in November to a 377,000 annual pace, the highest level since April 2010, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.
Property values, too, are picking up. The S&P/Case-Shiller index last week showed home prices rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010.
Record-low borrowing costs have helped fuel demand for would-be buyers who qualify for financing. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.35 percent this week, according to Freddie Mac. A late November reading of 3.31 percent was the lowest in data going back to 1972.
Federal Reserve policy makers this month expanded asset purchases in a continuing bid to reduce unemployment and spur growth. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has said that tight credit availability remains a concern to the housing market.
Stronger Traffic
Homebuilders are taking advantage of strong demand and tight inventory by breaking ground on new communities and raising prices. Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) and KB Home (KBH) are reporting stronger traffic at their sales offices.
“New demand is now being created due to increased urgency to take advantage of incredible affordability as prices are now on the rise,” KB Home Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mezger said on a Dec. 20 earnings call. “While it’s been a few years in the making, housing is becoming a bright spot for the economy and the industry is once again positioned to play its historical role of being a job creator and leading the national economy into a full recovery.”
via bloomberg.com
6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Series Content | Katonah NY Real Estate
Below is a list of cliches every creator should know when developing a web show or web series. Development is the first chance a show has to “get it right” or “get it wrong” before entering into production and ultimately published online. These tips on programming, format, audience and overall strategy will help you save time, money and increase your chance for web show success:
6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Show Content
1) “Two’s a failure, three’s a success”
Your content should satisfy your brand, your audience and you personally. These 3 areas are the sweet spot of successful web content. Your brand is the channel, business or identity that you’ve created that exists when you’re not in the room. Your audience is someone specific (#3 below). And YOU are the one who needs to be inspired to create the content consistently. A perfect example of this is ReelSEO’s very own Creator Tip series.
2) “For every $1 spent in pre-production, you save $5 in production & $10 in post”
This rule extends to content development. Spend time crafting a strong show format and script first, and you’ll reap benefits from production to audience development. FreddieW spent over a year writing Video Game High School and EpicMealTime’s Epic Chef was hinted at many months before we saw it publised.
3) “If your audience is everyone, your audience is no one”
When developing content I always create 3 audience personas: target, broad and opportunity. These fictional people have names and behaviors and allow me to understand who we’re creating the show for. Use YouTube Analytics and Facebook Insights to extract demographics and content trends. There’s a reason AOL On serves entertainment news and Revision3 is exclusively unscripted content.
4) “Bad creators steal, good creators iterate”
See what I did there? On the internet it’s fine to be blatantly “inspired” by others work. Just make sure you give it your own voice, personality and a fresh twist. Make a new version, also known as “iterating”. Audiences are drawn to content they already know. SourceFed wasn’t the first web show to cover a news topic, but they developed a unique show with personality.
5) “Shoot for the low hanging fruit”
when developing a new channel use popular, social trends to draw in audiences. Then retain them with your original, but less social, creations. I recently worked with DustFilmsOriginals on is content strategy. His wonderful shorts couldn’t find an audience so he made a Man of Steel parody to draw in audiences. Now they’re watching his originals too!
6) “This program is part of a balanced diet”
Have you considered adding a show to your programming slate? If you can afford the investment, more content can help you grow your audience, brand and ultimately revenue. But make the new show compliments the existing program. A solid channel supports their flagship content with talk show, behind the scenes and Q&A content. Just look at MyMusic Show and IGN Start for a balanced programming diet.
via reelseo.com
List Prices Flatten Despite Sinking Inventory | Katonah NY Real Estate
Inventories continued to fall in November to record lows and the age of the nation’s listings inventory declined, but asking prices failed to rise as housing markets prepared for their annual wintertime hibernation. The total U.S. for-sale inventory of single family homes, condos, townhomes and co-ops dropped to its lowest point since 2007, with 1.674 million units for sale in November, down 16.87 percent compared to a year ago and more than 45 percent below its peak of 3.1 million units in September 2007, when Realtor.com began monitoring these markets. The median age of the inventory was also down by 11.4 percent on a year-over-year basis. The national for-sale inventory in November (1,674,412) decreased (4.69 percent) from what it was in October and was down by 16.87 percent on an annual basis. The large year-over-year decline in inventory is a positive sign that the market may have worked through much of its excess inventory, which should help to bolster housing prices and potentially set the stage for additional growth. The median age of inventory of for-sale listings was 101 days in November, up by 4.12 percent from October, but 11.40 percent below the median age a year ago (November 2011). While the median age of the inventory is highly seasonal, the year-over-year decline is consistent with other data that shows a general tightening of market conditions throughout the year. However, the median list price in November ($189,900) was the same as it was a year ago despite the significant gains observed earlier in the year. The nationwide median list price ($189,900) held steady in November and is essentially unchanged from a year ago. While the gains that accompanied the onset of the 2012 spring home buying season have disappeared at the national level, record-low inventories may prevent a further erosion of list prices in 2013.according to November data from Realtor.com. National data masks pronounced regional differences in the strength of the housing market. Patterns that have been observed throughout the year continued to run their course, as markets that were once the epicenter of the housing crisis continued to strengthen while markets in more industrialized parts of the Midwest and Northeast continued to fall behind. California, Arizona, and Washington markets are ending the year with dramatic declines in their number of for-sale properties, coupled with significant year-over-year list price increases of 10 percent of more. However, markets such as Peoria, Ill.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Toledo, Ohio-areas that never experienced a rapid run-up in their housing prices-have experienced median list prices that are down by as much as 10 percent on an annual basis and significantly smaller year-over-year reductions in their for-sale inventories. On a year-over-year basis, the for-sale inventory declined in all but five of the 146 markets covered by Realtor.com, while list prices increased in 70 markets, held steady in 30 markets and declined in 46 markets. The number of markets experiencing year-over-year list price declines has increased steadily in recent months, underscoring the continued fragility of many housing markets.
Katonah Realtor | Housing market receives B-minus going into new year
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
‘Virtuous cycle’ of low interest rates is working | Katonah NY Real Estate
via usatoday.com
Biggest technology flops of 2012 | Katonah Realtor
They can’t all be winners.
This is especially true when it comes to technology and gadgets.Consumers can be a fickle bunch and even the best minds come up with the occasional loser.
Although 2012 wasn’t a huge year for gadget flops, those that flopped did so in magnificent fashion.
Facebook’s poor IPO showing was daily news. (As for IPOs, Zynga didn’t do much better.) But Facebook’s Reach Generator flopped as well. A product that would have filled your news feed with more ads, it was killed after six months.
On the marketing side of technology, we saw Oprah use Apple’s iPad to Tweet praise for the Microsoft Surface:
“Gotta say love that SURFACE! Have bought 12 already for Christmas gifts.
It would have been a hell of an endorsement if she didn’t post it “via Twitter for iPad.”
Here’s some more of 2012’s biggest tech flops.
1. BlackBerry 10
We used to call them “CrackBerrys.”They were everywhere and people couldn’t put them down. Even President Barack Obama was seen obsessing over his Blackberry during his first campaign.
But those days are over.The Blackberry 10 is one of the year’s biggest tech flops because it never released in 2012 as promised. This was supposed to be a comeback year for the Blackberry brand. The promise of a new line of Blackberry was exciting. Now that it’s nearing its newest release date — Jan. 30, 2013 — the Blackberry faithful are getting their hopes up again. But have the rest of us — and, more importantly, the development community — lost interest?
We’ll see when the Blackberry 10 allegedly releases next year, which should totally help them not capitalize on the 2012 Christmas shopping season.
2. Sean Parker’s AirTime
This turned out to be a whole lot of nothing.Airtime was Sean Parker’s response to Chatroulette, a place to meet new people via text-chat, webcam and mic.
As a social video network, AirTime suffered from a stagnant user base despite its $33 million in funding and a somewhat infamous June opening press conference with stars such as Jim Carrey and Alicia Keys — not to mention the blessing of cool comics Jimmy Fallon and Julia Louis Dreyfus.
Parker later said the site was getting only 10,000 active users per day. Despite that anemic performance, he maintains the product will transform how we communicate.
Not yet.3. PlayStation Vita
This is a hard one for me because I truly want the Vita to succeed. It has a ton of cool things going for it: amazing graphics, excellent design and build quality, the promise of a robust online community, and cross-play with the PS3. Still, mine gathers dust.It was well received at launch but it has yet to get the killer app it needs to become a “must have” platform. “Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified” for the Vita could have easily been that title. Instead, it was an absolute mess.
One or two blockbuster games could change this momentum, but I don’t see any on the immediate horizon.
As of now, the PlayStation Vita has become a chilling answer to the question about the viability of handheld gaming consoles in a world filled with game-capable smartphones.
4. Nokia Lumia 900
At the beginning of 2012 Nokia and Microsoft launched their first major phone together in the United States. This may be news to you because almost no one bought the Lumia 900.More people probably have a Zune, which is dreadful news for Microsoft as they try to stop Apple from eating their lunch in the smartphone market.
That’s too bad, because it was actually a good phone — certainly the best Windows phone available when it launched. The unibody design was smart looking and it came with a beautiful 4.3-inch screen and 8-magapixel camera.
But no one cared.
5. 3D televisions
The 3D HDTV was not introduced in 2012, but this is the year it became irrelevant. It was a hot product when seen at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. And it was easy to see why. Who wouldn’t want the “Avatar” experience in their living room?
The answer: Most of us.Despite an estimated 3% adoption rate in American homes, the industry hasn’t given up on 3D HDTVs yet. You’ll still see them on the shelves of most major retailers. But the glasses can be bulky, awkward and (for some folks) can induce headaches. Picture quality varies greatly and their initial price points were too high for most. Expect to see less and less 3D content coming out while these TVs — which are completely capable of excellent 2D performance — decrease in price and profile.
6. Apple Maps
The company Steve Jobs built may be a juggernaut, but even the mighty Apple makes mistakes. Apple Maps was such a fantastic disaster that CEO Tim Cook publicly apologized for it.When Apple revamped its mapping software to replace Google’s maps in iOS 6, it looked good and early reviews were positive. Users, however, quickly discovered it was broken. The Internet buzzed with stories of Apple Maps suggesting routes that would intersect with a 747 at Dulles Airport or send a car careening off the Brooklyn Bridge.
Apparently the years it took Google to assemble and fine tune their product could not be replicated on the fly by Apple’s cleverness and hubris. Fancy new features such as 3D imagery and spoken turn-by-turn directions couldn’t save what was a product riddled with errors.
Asians Lead Ultra Luxury Foreign Invasion | Katonah NY Real Estate
Nearly twice as many homes priced over $10 million were sold to Asians as Western Europeans in the US last year, while buyers from the Americas dominate a far greater share of the international sales for all price tiers than either Asians or Western Europeans.
Of the 28 percent of international buyers measured by a recent Coldwell Banker International Previews survey of its agents, 39 percent come from Asia and only 20 percent come from Western Europe. Coldwell Banker did not break down its data by country of origin.
Asians have been gaining in their share of all price ranges but are not nearly as dominant as the lower tiers as they are in the ultra luxury category, as reported by last June by the National Association of Realtors in its annual Profile of International Home Buying Activity. According to the NAR report of all price ranges, market share of purchases by buyers from China, Japan and India have increased from 12 to 18 percent since 2007. Chinese purchases alone have risen from 5 to 11 percent of all foreign sales in the last five years. During the same period, purchases by Europeans have increased from 19 percent to 14 percent.
Buyers from North, South and Central America continue to dominate all international purchases, account for 35 percent of all international sales in 2011. But for homes priced over $1 million, buyers from the Americas trail Asians and Europeans, except in Miami. According to Helen Jeanne Nicastri, a Coldwell Banker International Previews specialist in Coral Gables: “At least half of the buyers in Miami are international, and are specifically coming from Latin America-including Brazil,Venezuela, Mexico and Argentina.”
Coldwell Banker Previews International also released rankings of top luxury zip codes.
Top Ten Markets by Zip Code: Listings Over $10 Million
ZIP code City/ State Number of Listings
90210 Beverly Hills, CA 19 81611 Aspen, CO 13 93108 Santa Barbara, CA 13 90077 Los Angeles, CA 9 33139 Miami Beach, FL 7 94027 Atherton, CA 7 06830 Greenwich, CT 6 90265 Malibu, CA 5 90049 Los Angeles, CA 5 94115 San Francisco, CA 5 Coldwell Banker Previews International 2012
Katonah NY Real Estate | Analysts Watch How Lumber, Logging Prices Affect the Housing Market
via abcnews.go.com