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Katonah NY

Housing Costs Rose for Working Families During Housing Bust | Katonah NY Real Estate

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Despite falling mortgage interest rates and home prices from 2008 to 2011, severe housing cost burdens remained stable but high for working families who own their homes while more than one in four working renter households (26.4 percent) spent more than half of their income on housing costs in 2011-an increase of more than three percentage points since 2008.

The share of working households with a severe housing cost burden increased almost two percentage points between 2008 and 2011, rising from 21.8 percent to 23.7 percent. This growth reflects the combined effects of an increase in the rate of severe housing cost burden for working renters and a more or less steady rate for working owners, according to a new study by the Center for Housing Policy.

The median housing costs of working renters rose nearly six percent between 2008 and 2011 while their median incomes fell more than three percent. Working owners experienced a decrease in median housing costs over the three-year period, but the lower costs were accompanied by an even larger decline in their median incomes, so affordability did not improve, the study found.

Median gross rents of working renters rose nearly six percent in nominal terms since 2008, with steady year-over-year increases. In contrast, housing costs for working owners followed precisely the opposite course, falling more than three percent between 2008 and 2011, with steady annual drops. Rising rental costs may be due in part to increased competition for rental units and the inadequate production of new rental units during the Great Recession.

Household incomes for working renters and owners fell at least three percent between 2008 and 2011, despite a modest one-percent increase in incomes in the most recent year. For working renters, a 3.2 percent drop in median household income reflects a larger one-year drop between 2008 and 2009 followed by small improvements in both 2010 and 2011. Working owners faced a 4.2 percent drop in median household income between 2008 and 2011 that reflects incremental annual decreases from 2008 to 2010 followed by a modest increase in 2011.

“The growing rate of severe housing cost burdens among renters is not a new trend, but it is clearly an unsustainable one,” said lead report author Janet Viveiros. “While rental costs have steadily risen over the last few years, wages for these working families have not fully recovered from the hit they took between 2008 and 2009. Spending most of your paycheck on rent means cutting back on other necessities, including healthcare and even food.”

Co-author Maya Brennan noted that the causes of rising housing cost burdens among working renters include a difficult economy and an increased demand for rental housing, partly due to the crisis on the homeownership side of the market.

“While the economy pushed both owners’ and renters’ incomes down, the shift away from homeownership is pushing rents up due to increased demand. What we’re seeing with the rental market is not explainable by population trends alone-it clearly reflects the movement of former homeowners into rentals as well as delays in home purchases by current renters,” Brennan explained. “But this increase in rental demand has not been matched by an increase in supply. This imbalance leads to rising rents in markets across the country.”

The study defined working households as those that report household members working at least 20 hours per week, on average, and earning no more than 120 percent of the median income (AMI) in their area. There were approximately 44.5 million working households in the United States in 2011, split between homeowners (21.9 million) and renters (22.6 million).

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/05

 

14 Bloggers Share Their Daily Blogging Routine | Katonah Realtor

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Tsh Oxenreider from Simple Mom

I have a pretty set routine, simply because it is my job (that I also happen to love)—but that doesn’t mean I don’t also have lots of random things I need to do here and there, which I squeeze in with I can with three little kids. I typically write in the morning, since that’s my brain’s best time, and then I’ll fill in the gaps with tasks that don’t take as much brain power for me. Every day is different, to be honest, but here’s a typical day for me:

  • 6 am—Wake up, personal time, coffee, writing time (if my toddler doesn’t wake up).
  • 7:30-9:00 am—Breakfast with the family, get the kids ready for the day and out to school.
  • 9:00 am-1:00 pm—Work, work, work in my office at home while our babysitter is out in the rest of the house with the boys (my oldest is in school).
  • 1:00 pm—My second goes to preschool and my youngest naps, so I either wrap up work or catch up on household stuff.
  • 3:30 pm—Pick up kids from school, help with homework, start dinner, clean, and other typical mom stuff.
  • 5:30 pm-8:30 pm—Dinner, baths, storytime, family time, bed.
  • 8:30 pm-10:00 pm—Any combination of work catch-up (although I don’t write, I do more brainless stuff, like photo editing, email processing, etc.), but I prefer to do things like watch a movie or read a book
via problogger.net

Katonah Sales Down 4.5% | Median Price Up 15% | RobReportBlog

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Katonah NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog20136 months ending 4/29201221Sales22$750,000.00median sold price$651,500.00$320,000.00low sold price$365,000.00$7,000,000.00high sold price$4,000,000.003564average size2859$308.00ave. price per foot$328.00261ave days on market216$1,262,785.00average sold price$1,027,795.0089.67%ave sold to ask94.08%
via trulia.com

Westchester housing conflict heats up; county could be held in contempt | Katonah NY Homes

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A residential desegregation conflict between the United States Justice Department and Westchester County was ratcheted up when the department threatened to ask that the county be held in contempt of court, according to a report by ProPublica.

The four-year dispute pits Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino against the Justice Department, and stems from a 2009 settlement in which the county agreed to pass a law aimed at ending discrimination against people receiving government subsidies to pay rent, the report said. However, Astorino vetoed that legislation, leading to a federal court decision earlier this month that he had violated the settlement, and included an order to sign the legislation, ProPublica said.

In its letter to the county, the Justice Department gave Astorino until Thursday to enact the legislation, ProPublica reported, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development added that it would withhold $7.4 million in federal grants if the county does not comply with the court order by Thursday

via bizjournals.com

20 Enlightening Pearls of Wisdom From Marketing Experts | Katonah Realtor

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Life is busy. Marketers are trying to stay on top of content creation, messaging, branding, budget, industry trends — not to mention trying to find time for a personal life. This juggling act is a serious time commitment, but short and sweet inspiration isn’t (or at least we don’t want it to be). Continue reading →

U.K. Home Sellers Raise Asking Prices for Fourth Month | Katonah NY Real Estate

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U.K. home sellers raised asking prices in April for a fourth consecutive month amid a shortage of properties for sale, according to Rightmove Plc. (RMV)

Prices sought rose 2.1 percent from March to an average 244,706 pounds ($376,000), the property-website operator said in a report published today. In London, they fell 0.5 percent. U.K. asking prices increased 6.9 percent in the first four months of the year and were 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier.

U.K. Home Sellers Increase Asking Prices for Fourth Month

U.K. Home Sellers Increase Asking Prices for Fourth Month

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Pedestrians pass an estate agent’s sign advertising a property as sold in Saffron Walden, U.K. The number of properties advertised for sale nationwide fell 4 percent from a year ago, the report showed.

Pedestrians pass an estate agent’s sign advertising a property as sold in Saffron Walden, U.K. The number of properties advertised for sale nationwide fell 4 percent from a year ago, the report showed. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

The scarcity of homes on the market is supporting prices and masking the weakness of demand in many areas as Britain risks falling into a third recession in five years. In his budget last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne pledged 3.5 billion pounds of loans plus 130 billion pounds of guarantees to spur housebuilding and help people struggling to afford a home.

“With mass-market buyers still sitting on the sidelines, the size of the active market is a lot smaller, making it easier for an upswing in activity to feed through to an upturn in prices,” said Miles Shipside, a director at Rightmove. “This should not be confused with an overall market recovery, as while spring may be here the ongoing chill of the recession is still in the air.”

Message Received

The number of properties advertised for sale nationwide fell 4 percent from a year ago, the report showed.

Sellers in East Anglia led the increase by raising asking prices by 4.4 percent in April, followed by 3.9 percent gains in Wales and Southwest England, Rightmove said. In London, sellers reduced average values sought for the first time this year to 493,635 pounds, though prices remained 6.2 percent higher than a year ago.

Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders today showed the number of home loans fell 0.8 percent to 37,900 in February from the previous month. Still, it was up 4.7 percent from a year earlier.

In a separate report, Ernst & Young’s Item Club said the government has “got the message,” noting the measures to help the mortgage market announced by Osborne in his March 20 budget. They follow the Funding for Lending Scheme, introduced by the Bank of England last summer to boost credit.

In the report, Item cut its 2013 economic growth forecast to 0.6 percent from 0.9 percent in January and said weak demand in Europe will hold back Britain’s recovery. It sees growth accelerating to 1.9 percent next year and 2.5 percent in 2015.

‘Home Front’

“With export markets continuing to disappoint, the chancellor has focused his firepower on the home front,” said Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to Item. “Although it’s not a long term strategy, stimulating the housing market and the high street will keep gross domestic product growth positive. Unbalanced growth is better than no growth.”

Item said it expects the government’s 3.5 billion-pound “Help to Buy” program to be “popular” because of pent-up demand for new-build homes. Still, it’s “not clear” whether the demand will lead to an increase in construction or just be satisfied from houses that would have been built anyway, it said.

Recent house-price data have been mixed, with Nationwide Building Society saying in a March 28 report that the outlook for home values was “unusually uncertain.” Halifax, the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc, said this month that prices may continue on a “modest” upward trend this year.

China Slowdown

In a blow to global expansion, data today showed China’s economic growth unexpectedly lost momentum in the first quarter as gains in factory output and consumption weakened. Gross domestic product rose 7.7 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That compares with the 8 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 41 analysts and 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

European (SXXP) stocks retreated after the China data and as investors awaited a report on manufacturing in the New York area. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1 percent and the FTSE 100 Index dropped 1.2 percent.

Manufacturing in the New York region expanded for a third month in April, a report at 8:30 a.m. local time may show. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index declined to 7 this month from 9.2 in March, economists forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Readings greater than zero mean that activity increased.

via bloomberg.com

Pace of Home Building Rose at Vigorous Clip in February | Katonah NY Realtor

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The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that builders broke ground on houses and apartments last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000. That rate was 910,000 in January. February’s pace was the second-fastest since June 2008, behind December’s rate of 982,000.

Single-family home construction increased to an annual rate of 618,000, the most in four and half years. Apartment construction also ticked up, to 285,000.

The gains are likely to grow even faster in the coming months. Building permits, a sign of future construction, increased 4.6 percent to 946,000. That was also the most since June 2008, just a few months into the recession.

The figures for January and December were also revised upward. Housing starts have risen 28 percent over the last 12 months.

Separately, a private report showed that the number of Americans with equity in their homes increased last year. That suggested that one of the biggest drags from the housing crisis was easing, and it could clear the way for more people to put homes on the market.

“The road ahead for housing is still, so far, looking promising,” Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients.

The housing market is recovering after stagnating for roughly five years. Steady job gains and near-record-low mortgage rates have encouraged more people to buy.

Still, the supply of available homes for sale remained low. That has helped push up home prices. They rose nearly 10 percent in January compared with 12 months earlier, according to CoreLogic, a research firm, the biggest increase in nearly seven years.

Higher prices mean more Americans have equity in their homes. Last year, about 1.7 million Americans went from owing more on their mortgages than their homes were worth to having some ownership stake, CoreLogic reported on Tuesday. Still, 10.4 million households, or 21.5 percent of those with a mortgage, remain “under water,” or owe more on their home than it is worth.

via nytimes.com

9 Reasons Why Facebook Needs the “I Don’t Care” Button | Katonah Realtor

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Do you remember when you joined Facebook? What was it like when you put in your details and joined the world’s biggest social network?9 Reasons Why Facebook Needs the I Don't Care Button - Infographic

When those friends, family and old college acquaintances came up on your screen and you were invited to connect with them after years and maybe decades of no contact. Many looked the same, others looked a bit older and some I couldn’t recognize.

For me it was a bit of a “Wow”moment. Global connection in an instant in full living color.

The network touched us, connected us and provided glimpses into lives forgotten but still lived. It allowed us to share photos, videos and stories of our adventures. Some glimpses into others lives are exciting, others intriguing and some just border on the mundane.

Engaging with your friends online from your news feed can be done in a variety of ways from placing a comment, sharing the update  or just hitting “like” if we don’t have much time.

But we are still working out the ways to play.

Does the “Like” button need an alternative?

The ever present “like” button seems to have been with us forever. In fact it has only been with us for just over four years on personal pages and replaced the “become a fan” button on brand pages in June, 2010.

We have all seen those updates from friends where we silently say “I didn’t want to know that!” Other reactions are sometimes “too much information” and sometimes you feel like saying “I don’t care“.

Maybe we need buttons like “funny” when you see an update like this.

“I am proud of myself. I finished the puzzle in just 6 months while the box said 2 to 4 years“.

9 Updates Deserving the “I Don’t Care” Button

Here is a fun look at 9 types of  updates that don’t need a like button.

Do we need a Facebook I don't care button

Infographic source: By www.themaplekind.com  – where you can waste a lot of time and also have a chuckle.

What About You?

Do you often see updates that needed something stronger than the “like” button?

What is the best Facebook update you have seen?

Look forward to your comments.

Want to learn how to create great content for your blog and social media networks?

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 140,000.

Download and read it now.

 

Image by Eveline314

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