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North Salem Homes

RIP Fail Whale: Twitter’s iconic error image bites the dust | North Salem Realtor

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There was a time when the sight of the Fail Whale was common on Twitter, back when the growing startup struggled to keep pace with its users and the sheer volume of tweets. Much has changed since then — including many more users and, of course, Twitter’s recent IPO — and now the company has admitted it killed off the cult whale this past summer.

Christopher Fry, senior vice president of engineering at Twitter, confirmed in an interview with Wired that the iconic image of birds lifting a whale has been replaced by robots.

The Fail Whale is a thing of the past. Actually, this summer we took the Fail Whale out of production. So if you come to Twitter, and there are always gonna be problems, no service is ever perfect. But right now you will see robots instead of the Fail Whale. So the Fail Whale image is not served by Twitter anymore. It had a long history and some of our users feel very connected to it. But in the end, it did represent a time when I don’t think we lived up to what the world needed Twitter to be.

Twitter had already effectively slayed the whale by improving its service and minimizing downtime, so the chances of spotting it were fairly remote. Still, those of us who were acquainted with it will mourn the passing of a symbolic image.

 

 

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2013/11/25/

 

A Shingle-Style Remodel | North Salem Real Estate

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For San Francisco architects and builders, challenging lots and tight footprints are a way of life. So are stiff historic regulations, zoning laws, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). So, when it came time to renovate a Shingle-style house nestled on a tree-lined cul de sac, architects David Gast and Dennis Budd of Gast Architects in San Francisco had their work cut out for them. By playing nice with the planning authorities, they cut out six months of approvals time. Here, you’ll see how they also more than doubled square footage, raised the house, lowered the floors, let in tons more daylight, capitalized on indoor-outdoor connections, made a great backyard, and forged a happy marriage of traditional design and modern finishes.

General Contractor: Moroso Construction Landscape Designer/Contractor: The Garden Route Structural Engineer: Strandberg Engineering

 

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Gast Loft

 

Gast Floor 3

 

Gast Floor 2

 

Gast Floor 1

 

 

 

http://www.customhomeonline.com/remodeling/a-shingle-style-remodel.aspx

 

Home sales in October weaken more than forecast | North Salem Real Estate

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Home sales declined for the second consecutive month in October, while prices continue to rise given a limited supply of homes for sale, the National Association of Realtors says.

Total existing home sales fell 3.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million in October from 5.29 million in September. They are 6% higher than the 4.83 million-unit level in October 2012.

Economists’ median forecast was for an annual rate of 5.25 million for last month, according to an Action Economics’ survey.

A flattening trend is expected, says Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.

“The erosion in buying power is dampening home sales,” he said. “Moreover, low inventory is holding back sales while at the same time pushing up home prices in most of the country.”

Recent housing data shows that the market “has come off the boil,” says Paul Diggle, economist with Capital Economics.

Home builder confidence moderated in October and there have been signs that price gains are slowing.

 

 

 

Banks willing to finance house flippers who burned them before | North Salem NY Real Estate

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Homes are being flipped in Southwest Florida at the fastest pace since the housing boom, and about 1 in 4 deals involve some kind of financing — often provided by the same banks that fueled the last bubble, who have proven themselves willing to lend money to flippers who burned them during the crash, according to an analysis by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

The newspaper reviewed 1,287 property flips in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties identified by RealtyTrac Inc., examining who was behind the flips, the source of their funding, and who the properties were sold to.

Many flippers who had defaulted on loans they’d obtained during the boom were able to finance new deals, often from the same lenders they’d burned before. Big banks that “played a central role in the financial meltdown” have been the most active in financing flips, the paper found, along with personal financiers and smaller credit unions.

So far, the deals have been profitable — the flips analyzed by the Herald-Tribune generated almost $23 million in profits, or close to $18,000 per deal. But some wonder how long that trend can last.

“We’re starting to see many of the same factors we saw during the last boom and bust,” real estate analyst Jack McCabe told the paper. “There is going to come a day of reckoning.”

 

 

 

 

Source: heraldtribune.com

Foreclosure filings creep up a slight 2% | North Salem NY Homes

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Foreclosure filings crept up 2% in the most recent weekly survey, but still declined 28% from year ago levels, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.

In all, the data firm recorded 133,919 filings in October.

For the 16th month in a row, judicial foreclosure auctions increased from year ago levels, with 30,023 foreclosure auctions nationwide in October, up 10% from the prior month and up 7% from last year.

Overall, there were 58,939 properties that started the foreclosure process for the first time in October, rising 2% from September, but down 34% from last year.

This marks the 15th consecutive month where foreclosure starts have declined on an annual basis, the data firm said.

Individually, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida witnessed the largest annual increases in scheduled judicial foreclosures. In particular, Maryland and Delaware shocked with dramatic ‘judicial foreclosure’ increases of 177% and 142%, respectively.

“The backlog of delayed judicial foreclosures continues to make its way through the pipeline, with many of these properties now being scheduled for the public auction after starting the foreclosure process last year or earlier this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27952-foreclosure-filings-creep-up-a-slight-2

The Grove’s Demolished Du Pont Estate Was Buried In Poison | North Salem Real Estate

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The end of Baymere, the lavish 33-room midcentury modern estate of Willis Du Pont in Coconut Grove that was listed on the market for $22 million, was sad and quick. After surveyors determined the property to be absolutely soaked with toxic waste—it was built on as much as 100,000 tons of toxic soil carted over from the “Old Smokey” incinerator over in the West Grove—the house sold for $11.4 million and was demolished. Perhaps it was appropriate for an heir to chemical fortune, Willis Du Pont, to build his house above a toxic wasteland in 1964. The current owners, who might be heirs to a Venezuelan oil fortune, demolished the house and apparently plan to build five luxury residences on impermeable surfaces and new top fill that should cap the contaminated soil, rendering it safe. · Live Like A Du Pont In The 1960s, In This $22M Grove Estate [Curbed Miami] · Du Pont Mansion In Coconut Grove Is Buried In Poison [Miami New Times]

Angular Inverted Home Built For the Views Asks $5.3M | North Salem Real Estate

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Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We’d love to see what you’ve got.

Location: Bar Harbor, Maine Price: $5,300,000 The Skinny: If you’re building a home on a wooded lot just outside Maine’s Acadia National Park, how do you get to the ocean and mountains views without taking a bulldozer to the vista-blocking trees surrounding your plot? Simple: you build an angular four-level home that towers above the trees, stack the floors in ascending order according to square footage, cover the whole thing in wood shingle siding and call it a day. That’s exactly what “organic architect” James Schildroth did with his Starbird house, and while the home gives off an unmistakably dated whiff of the mid-1990s (we direct your attention to the built in dining table surrounding the central stairwell), the stupendous panoramic views from the open-plan top level cannot be denied. The rest of the five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 7,800-square-foot home continues the top floor’s theme of plentiful windows, high ceilings, and ample recessed lighting. There’s also a faux wood-paneled elevator to serve the stair-averse. The property, which was owned by the late regional watercolor artist Mary Anne Starbird, is listed for $5.3M. —Scott Garner

Shadow Inventory is a Shadow of Itself | North Salem NY Real Estate

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The shadow inventory-the number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline–is down 33 percent from a year ago and now is at its lowest level since August 2008, at least one year before the notion of a foreclosure shadow inventory was recognized.

According to CoreLogic’s August National Foreclosure Report, the overall residential shadow inventory as of July 2013 was 1.9 million homes, accounting for a value of $293 billion and representing a supply of 3.7 months. This was down 22 percent from a year ago, when it was at 2.4 million, and down 38 percent from its peak in 2010, when it reached 3 million homes.

CoreLogic also reported there were 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in August of 2013, down from 72,000 in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 34 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 1.3 percent, from 47,000 in July 2013*.

As a basis of comparison to the 48,000 completed foreclosures reported for August 2013, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country. As of August 2013, approximately 939,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 33 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.2 percent from August 2013 to July 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of August 2013 represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.3 percent in August 2012.

At the end of August 2013, there were approximately 2.1 million mortgages, or 5.3 percent, in serious delinquency (SDQ, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned, REO). The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages is at its lowest level since December 2008.

“The foreclosure inventory continues to improve, as exhibited by these recent numbers,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “A surge in completed foreclosures and a rise in the foreclosure inventory is unlikely given continued house price improvements and shortages of supply in many markets.”

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/shadow-inventory-is-a-shadow-of-itself/

Climbing interest rate slows refinance boom | North Salem Real Estate

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The mortgage refinance boom is ending on Long Island as in the nation, a change that will take some wind out of the sails of a modest economic recovery.

Since early May, the interest rate on a typical 30-year mortgage rate has risen almost one percentage point, to 4.32 percent, according to mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac.

That rise has choked off banks’ refinancing business by reducing the money homeowners save by paying off their old mortgage with a new, lower-rate deal.

What that means, in turn, is that fewer homeowners have a boost in discretionary income that they might spend on things like home improvements, gasoline, college costs or paying down debt.

While it’s hard to calculate how much of a boost such refinancing gave to Long Island, it appears considerable.

At Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the Island’s largest mortgage lenders, president and chief executive Kirk Kordeleski estimates that his refinance customers saved a total of about $56 million in interest from 2009 through 2012.

Add that to the savings won by refinancing customers of others lenders such as Wells Fargo and Chase, he said, and “a lot of money went into people’s pockets to help the Long Island economy during that time.”

Lower payments

Bill consolidation and lower monthly mortgage payments were key drivers of the refinance boom.

Dan and Lisa Donoghu,  of Fort Salonga, accomplished both when they refinanced in May through Lynx Mortgage Bank LLC in Westbury. Their interest rate went down from about 3.88 percent to 3.5 percent, they lengthened their term from 15 years to 20 and took cash out.

“My two boys are in college and my daughter got married in August, so I had some big bills I wanted to take care of,” said Dan, 51, a New York City Fire Department deputy chief in Manhattan and a registered nurse at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Patchogue.

The couple — Lisa is also a nurse — bought their house in June 2001 with a 30-year mortgage at about 7 percent and had refinanced twice before, Dan said. They got lower rates and shortened the term to 15 years. “After my younger son gets out of college in three years, then we’ll have the option of prepaying to get us back to where we’re hoping to be — retiring without a mortgage,” he said.

Nationally, the Mortgage Bankers Association trade group in Washington says refinancing nationwide fell 18 percent from $388 billion in the fourth quarter of last year to $316 billion in this year’s second quarter and is forecast to fall by another 40 percent from the second quarter to the current, third, quarter.

The boom was great while it lasted.

 

 

 

http://www.newsday.com/business/climbing-interest-rate-slows-refinance-boom-1.6155561

6 Trees You’ll Fall For | North Salem NY Real Estate

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he leaves are changing, the nights are crisp. In much of the world, gardeners are laying down their tools, cleaning up their gardens and perhaps breathing a sigh of relief that another gardening season has come and gone.
But the planting season isn’t over. Fall — particularly until late October in colder areas of the country and until November in the South — is the preferred time to plant many species of trees. Planting conditions are near perfect: The soil is warm, the sun isn’t too hot and there’s usually more rain. The weather that makes people say, “Fall is my favorite time of year,” is ideal for many newly planted trees, too.
Different types of trees prefer different living conditions. Not every tree should be planted in fall, of course. The reason is in the roots: Trees with larger, thicker roots that reach deeper into the soil, such as magnolias and oaks, are better off planted in spring. Trees best planted in fall, such as crabapples, maples, elms and honeylocusts, have fibrous root systems shallow enough to readily reach water and nutrients. This allows them to settle in and put out new root growth before the weather turns frigid.

traditional landscape by Liquidscapes

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One of the best trees for small gardens, crabapples (Malus spp.) top out at a manageable 20 feet. They flower gloriously in the spring in shades of light pink, dark pink or white. Fruits follow, and although they must be cooked for humans to find them palatable, birds depend on them to get through the winter. Hardy to zones 5 (to -20°F) to 8 (15°F), crabapples need full sun and well-drained soil.
traditional landscape by Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting

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At the garden center, look for trees that are in containers or that are balled and burlapped. These can be planted in fall. Dormant (bareroot) plants must be planted in spring.
When buying a tree, always check to be sure it’s healthy: no dead branches, splits or damage to the trunk. A damaged trunk interrupts the flow of water up and sugars down the tree. A tree may recover, but a damaged trunk can ultimately kill a tree.
farmhouse landscape by Wagner Hodgson

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Some Great Trees for Fall Planting
Native to North America, honeylocusts (Gleditsia triacanthos) have fern-like leaves that provide airy shade, so they are a good choice if you want shade but not too much. The species has fierce thorns and grows well over 80 feet tall, but cultivars are thornless and grow to about 40 feet. They need full sun and are hardy in zones 3 (-40°F) to 7 (0°F).
traditional landscape by Dear Garden Associates, Inc.

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Green hawthorn (Crataegus viridis) is a lovely tree with three seasons of interest: white flowers in spring, red fall foliage, and in winter, red berries that birds adore. Hardiest in zones 5 (-20°F) to 7 (0°F), hawthorns stay under 40 feet. They require full sun and do best in soil that’s not too rich or too moist. The cultivar ‘Winter King,’ shown here, is especially disease-resistant and drought-tolerant.