Tag Archives: Mt Kisco Homes

Foreclosure declines reverse as starts surge 9.5% in May | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Foreclosure starts unexpectedly reversed course and climbed 9.5% in May, according to Black Knight Financial Services, countering an eight-month streak of declines.

The survey found that more than half of these foreclosure starts were repeats, rather than new foreclosures, and almost 80% were on loans from 2008 or earlier.

Click the graphic to enlarge.

“While foreclosure starts did rise over 9% in May, it’s important to remember the historical trend is still one of improvement,” said Kostya Gradushy, Black Knight’s manager of Loan Data and Customer Analytics. “On a year-over-year basis, January through May foreclosure starts were still down 32%, and we are still looking at the lowest level of foreclosure starts in seven years.

“Additionally, over half of these starts are repeat foreclosures, rather than new entries into the pipeline, That is, these are loans that had been in foreclosure, shifted back to either current or delinquent status by way of modification, repayment plan or some action by the borrower, but have now fallen into foreclosure once again,” Gradushy said.

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30533-foreclosure-declines-reverse-as-starts-surge-95-in-may

Here Now, 7 Lovely Houses For Sale in World Cup Country | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Today, on the opening day of the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, we celebrate some of the realms Brazil rules: soccer—they’ve got the most World Cup wins, after all—and architecture. (There are other things—string bikinis, coffee, the largest rainforest in the world, for example—but let’s not touch those for now.) There’s a jumble of architectural styles on the luxury market right now in the Cidade Maravilhosa: French Neoclassical, contemporary, and Imperial dwellings, to name a few. The most intriguing of the Rio listings? Well, if one’s discounting the Airbnb offering listed by soccer stall Ronaldinho, it’s just too hard to choose, so, below, find eight mansions in the running.

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/06/12/rio-de-janeiro-mansions-for-sale.php

Super Realtor Man rescues ‘urgent seller’ | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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Erick Motta, owner of Fresno, Calif.-based Home Star, is tired of watching YouTube videos of agents pitching themselves to potential clients.

So to set his brokerage apart, he decided to produce a different kind of promotional video. Motta — the latest winner of Inman News #madREskillz contest – cast himself as Superman.

In the video, Motta soars across Fresno, Calif. to answer the call of a client who must sell her home in 24 hours. The video is a spoof on the viral hit “Superman With a GoPro,” and is designed to showcase Home Star’s expertise with video marketing, Motta said.

Like “Superman with a GoPro,” Motta’s video features what is supposed be first-person footage of a superhero flying through the atmosphere.

The video opens with animation showing a conversation between “Super Realtor Man,” played by Motta, and a damsel in distress, the “urgent seller.” Home Star bought the animation sequence from VideoHive, and filled the dialogue bubbles with original content, Motta said.

“When do you need to sell it by?” Super Realtor Man asks in the video.

“By Friday,” she says — not next week, but tomorrow.

 

 

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http://www.inman.com/2014/05/02/super-realtor-man-rescues-urgent-seller/?utm_source=20140502&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam

Shadow Inventory Down 23 Percent, Foreclosure Inventory Shrinks 35 Percent | Mt Kisco Homes

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The numbers of foreclosures and potential foreclosures have fallen dramatically over the past 12 months as the foreclosure picture rapidly returns to pre-2006 levels.  The decline in foreclosures in the pipeline has important ramifications for real estate investors and local markets that are returning to health as they recover from the foreclosure flood that produced 4.9 million foreclosures since 2008.

CoreLogic reported today that as of February 2014, approximately 752,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.2 million in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 35 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from January 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February represented 1.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.9 percent in February 2013.

At the end of February 2014, there were 1.9 million mortgages, or 4.9 percent, in serious delinquency, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned (REO) that there were 43,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in February 2014, down from 51,000 in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 15 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 13.1 percent from 50,000 in January 2014.

The national residential shadow inventory was 1.7 million homes as of January 2014 compared to 2.2 million in January 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 23 percent.

“Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory.”

“The stock of seriously delinquent homes and the foreclosure rate are back to levels last seen in the final quarter of 2008,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The shadow inventory has also declined year over year for the past 3 years as the housing market continues to heal, including double-digit declines for the past 16 consecutive months.”

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/04/shadow-inventory-down-23-percent-foreclosure-inventory-shrinks-35-percent/

Why Home Prices Are Climbing Again, and What You Should Do About It | Mt Kisco Homes

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Chances are home prices in your neighborhood have been rising lately. Strangely enough, that only made the news when, for last November, Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 top cities fell the grand total of 0.1 percent.

The Federal Reserve tracks a national composite home price index for the country, which looks like this:

Home price index since 1987 (all data available)

Is this good news or bad news to you? That may depend on whether you own your home or not. If not, and you’re saving up to buy, that’s disheartening, as you see your dream slipping out of reach. If you do own, odds are you’re pleased to hear news like this.

Of course, not everyone is sharing equally in this bonanza. Metropolitan centers like New York and San Francisco are experiencing sharper increases, while other locations have more moderate increases or even no increases at all.

Why Are Home Prices Rising? The glib answer would be something like: “Well, it’s about time the market caught up with itself again!” The reality, though, is there is no such thing as normal home prices. When they go up, some complain, saying that’s inflation, pricing newcomers out of the market. On the other hand, when home prices drop, all hullabaloo breaks loose and it’s the end of the world. You can’t please all the people all the time, as the saying goes. Politicians (and the Federal Reserve) have figured out most people want home prices to rise slowly over time, and that’s what they generally have done in the past.

We all know about the housing bubble which engulfed us as the new millennium started, and its subsequent pop. The chart above shows those two events clearly. We know why the housing market crashed: the explosion of the Wall Street collateralized-mortgage-securities debacle.

But why are home prices rising again? Many reasons have been suggested.

 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/20/why-home-prices-are-climbing-again-and-what-you-sh.aspx

What to Know Before You Buy a Sectional | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Even though sectionals are a family-friendly alternative to the traditional sofa and love seat, they’re one of the more polarizing elements in room design.  People either love them or hate them.  Add to that the available configurations and myriad options (which can be confusing at best, and mind-boggling at worst), and you have a full-blown case of design angst. Let’s take some of the mystery out of sectionals, and help you avoid a costly mistake.

First, let’s get comfortable with sectional terminology.  “Right arm facing” (RAF) means that when you are facing the piece or section, the arm is on your right.  “Left arm facing” (LAF) means that the arm is on your left.  Getting the proper-facing arm is critical, because you will be joining two or more pieces, and the placement of the arm will determine if your new sectional works in your room.
The sectional shown here is composed of a left-arm-facing love seat and a right-arm-facing chaise.
A sectional is usually made up of two or more pieces.  Generally speaking, the fewer pieces you use to create your sectional, the more reasonable the price will be.
This sectional appears to be made of a left-arm-facing sofa (three seat cushions), a square corner and a right-arm-facing love seat.

Metro-North Put On-Time Performance Over Safety | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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A review by the Federal Railroad Administration has found that Metro-North places on-time performance over worker and passenger safety, according to the New York Times.

Operation Deep Dive is a review of the railroad prompted by the Dec. 1 derailment in the Bronx that killed four people and injured more than 70 more. The 28-page report analyzes safety measures taken by Metro-North and suggests corrective actions that the railroad can take to improve safety.

The report also found that cell phone usage is commonplace among track workers on the job and that workers are pressured to rush to respond to signal failures, according to the New York Times. It also said that track inspectors receive inadequate training and that safety briefings are poorly attended.

The full report will be released Friday. Click here to see the full story in the New York Times.

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/report-metro-north-put-time-performance-over-safety

Mortgage rates ticked up, but homebuilders should be okay | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Mortgage rates are the lifeblood of the housing market, which is why Bernanke and the Fed began conducting quantitative easing (or QE) in the first place. Lower rates allow homeowners to refinance, which increases their disposable income and helps stimulate economic growth. Lower rates enable first-time homebuyers to move out of an apartment and into a house, which means higher consumption (and good things for home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s). Consumption accounts for some 70% of the U.S. economy, and consumption has been depressed since the housing bubble burst. The Federal Reserve would prefer to keep rates as low as possible for as long as possible.

 

Mortgage rates rise as the ten-year bond falls

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 7 basis points as the ten-year yield increased 15 basis points, and TBAs sold off. With the refinance boom over, originators are overstaffed and cutting prices to drive business. We’ve seen a number of small originators go out of business, as they found themselves unable to compete in a purchase-driven mortgage market. The purchase market is fundamentally different from the refinance market in that it’s driven by relationships and not price. Last week, we heard from the biggest banks in the mortgage business, and every one reported drops in origination activity of 30% to 40%. Margins are getting squeezed as bankers compete for business.

The confirmation of Mel Watt as FHFA Chairman might give originators a break, as he’s expected to endorse further government homeowner assistance, which could mean an extension of HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) eligibility dates. This could trigger a new refinance boom.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mortgage-rates-ticked-homebuilders-okay-170018801.html