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North Salem NY Real Estate

Reese Witherspoon Is Girl Next Door With Third Brentwood House | North Salem Real Estate

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Source: IMDb

Source: IMDb

If you live in Brentwood Circle, there’s a good chance Reese Witherspoon is the girl next door. With two existing homes in the neighborhood, the Oscar-winning actress has purchased another for $3 million.

The ranch-style home is described by the listing agent as an “enchanted cottage” that’s “warm and inviting.” With a glass art studio and hillside gardens, the home offers a retreat from downtown L.A.

It isn’t surprising Witherspoon would choose a getaway outside the city center — her Ojai ranch provided the feeling of being in the country while only an hour removed from Los Angeles. And, with a recent trip to jail on a disorderly conduct charge, the actress is likely looking to steer clear of the paparazzi.

It also isn’t surprising Witherspoon bought a few houses down from her existing property; celebs have a track record for hopping around the same neighborhood or owning several properties within the same ZIP code. Actress Kate Hudson is known for buying a $5.8 million home next door to her longtime Pacific Palisades residence, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also recently added to his collection of homes on Malibu’s “Billionaires’ Row.”

While celebs typically move up with successive home purchases, however, Witherspoon paid less for this property than her two other Brentwood homes. It’s also the smallest of the three, measuring 3,053 square feet

 

 

http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-05-07

The 10 Commandments of Twitter- Jeff Bullas | North Salem Realtor

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When I stumbled upon Twitter 54 months ago I was bemused, flummoxed and even curious. What is this social network that keeps me to 140 characters, sounds like a bird and seemed…well…. pointless?10 Commandments of Twitter

I tweeted here and there and collected 31 followers in 90 days of meandering. Even followed people with large Twitter tribes on topics as diverse as food, photography and politics. Malcolm Turnbull, the local senator must have thought I was a Twitter groupie.

Luckily he didn’t report me for stalking.

My progress on Twitter was slow, confused but persistent. Despite this I continued to tweet, retweet and play. My curiosity was undiminished.

Obsession on Twitter is not unknown. Some people such as Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend at the time tweeted so much that she decided that he loved Twitter more than her.

She moved onto boyfriend number twenty seven.

Twitter is more powerful than you think

Twitter’s sometimes chaotic nature does make management of the torrent of tweets seem like herding cats. It is essential that you plug your Twitter account into a management tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. This will help you manage your stream with lists of people and hashtags that categorise on topics.

The real power of Twitter is that you can build a follower base that allows you to share a focused stream of content that adds value to your followers daily lives.

There are no fancy Facebook “Edgerank” algorithms to throttle your tweets and choke your content distribution.

Its pure and wild. I like that.

So what are some fundamental principles that you should embrace if you want Twitter to work for you?

The 10 Commandments of Twitter

Here are 10 commandments that may guide you to the Twitter promised land of a large and loyal following.  That engages with you and shares your content with speed and velocity.

Thou shalt

Moses used this term so I thought that I couldn’t go wrong if I borrowed the term “Thou shalt”

1. Write a meaningful “bio” description

If you are using Twitter for purely personal reasons then go crazy and knock yourself out with a crazy and cute bio. If you are serious then make sure that when they read it they know in a heartbeat what you are about.

2. Have a link

I don’t know how many times I have looked for a link to take a deeper dive into a Tweeter to see what they do and where they have come from but get stymied. If you don’t have a blog then take them to your Linked account or Facebook page.

Let them discover the real you. The bio is just the start

3. Be focused

Build a tribe of Twitter followers who are passionate and interested in your topic of interest. That can be done with tools such as Tweepi or Twellow.

4. Automate where appropriate

This may seem evil to some but as you grow your follower base things like following back become time consuming and unmanageable. Automate the boring tasks such as content distribution and follow back but not the conversation and engagement
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/08/the-10-commandments-of-twitter/#rCCZyAZAUwH7oUCG.99

Fannie Mae: Homebuilding jobs far from normal | North Salem Real Estate

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Residential construction jobs faced a 41% drop between 2006 and 2011. With homebuilding predicted to return to normal by 2016, housing starts may double over the next four years,Fannie Mae said.

This return to normalcy also implies an improvement in residential construction employment. But many are wondering how many jobs will come out of this homebuilding rebound.

In its latest edition of Housing Insights, Fannie Mae studies the historical relationship between housing starts and residential construction employment coupled with Economic and Strategic Research’s housing starts forecast, to project future homebuilding employment.

If housing starts keep up with expectations and return to normal levels in 2016, it is predicted that residential construction employment will rise to nearly 2.5 million jobs.

Fannie Mae predicts housing construction will recover to a “normal” level of about 1.6 million units in 2016. But what does this mean for homebuilding employment?

Fannie’s forecast predicts that residential construction employment will increase by 412,000 jobs between 2012 and 2016. This 20% rise in homebuilding employment will nearly triple the forecasted pace of total job growth during this time period.

However, the pace of growth will not be quick enough to bring back all homebuilding jobs lost during the housing bust. In 2016, the number of residential construction jobs is expected to remain nearly 1 million jobs below peaks established during the housing boom.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/news

Housing Market Improvements: How Will You Adjust? | North Salem Real Estate

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Wade Corbett

A very wise man named Obi Wan once said: “I feel a great disturbance in the Force.” OK sure, it’s a Star Wars quote, and I’m talking about the housing market and not a metaphysical power, but the overall message still applies! If you pay close attention, you’ll notice the market has begun to shift. Depending on your area, you may be seeing a little change, or you may be seeing a lot of change already. The latest numbers reflect this positive upturn and show that real estate is drastically improving.

If you’ve been in this industry for the last six or seven years, you know that selling real estate takes a certain amount of hustle. When the market is less than stellar, you’ve got to work harder in order to keep business alive. Maybe you’ve had to hold your transactions together with duct tape to prevent them from falling apart. Or maybe you’ve been working 60 hours to do what 40 hours used to accomplish. Either way, kudos to you! But with the market springing back to life, does this mean an end to the “hustle era”?

Two weeks ago, I had the immense pleasure of addressing a class full of aspiring new REALTORS®. If I had given my speech in 2009, this class would have had 25-30 students in attendance. In 2013, the class consisted of 50-70 eager students, all scheduled to take their licensing exam the following week. As I addressed the students, I began to notice that a large majority of these future REALTORS® were very young! Why are these young people hoping to join the real estate sales force? I believe they know about the shift! They know the real estate marketing is going to gather steam, and they want to get in before things really start to pick up.

As the stock market, jobs, and overall economy continue to improve, the real estate market will inevitably follow suit. But is your business model prepared to handle the improving market demands? Do you have your systems in place to take on a larger work load while still trying to hold those difficult transactions together? You may want to consider tweaking the way you run your business to accommodate for the changes that are to come. Foresight is essential to success.

 

 

http://ypnlounge.blogs.realtor.org

US home prices up 9.3 pct., most in nearly 7 years | North Salem Homes

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U.S. home prices rose 9.3 percent in February compared with a year ago, the most in nearly seven years. The gains were driven by a growing number of buyers who bid on a limited supply of homes.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased from an 8.1 percent year-over-year gain in January. And annual prices rose in February in all 20 cities for the second month in a row.

Phoenix led all cities with an annual gain of 23 percent in February. Prices jumped nearly 19 percent in San Francisco. In Las Vegas, home prices increased 17.6 percent and in Atlanta they rose 16.5 percent.

Eleven of the 20 cities reported price gains in February compared with January. Those monthly numbers are not seasonally adjusted and reflect the slower winter buying period.

The index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The February figures are the latest available.

Steady hiring and near-record low mortgage rates are driving up demand, helping sustain the housing recovery that began last year. Buyer traffic was 25 percent higher in March than it was a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

 

 

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com

Construction Spending, ISM Index, ADP Payroll, Mortgage Purchase Applications | North Salem Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses construction spending, the ISM index, ADP payroll figures, and mortgage purchase applications.

 

  • A stream of fresh economic data appears on the first day of every month. Here is a quick summary of today’s data and what it may mean to you.
  • Construction spending on residential buildings rose, but activities on new commercial buildings and government-funded projects declined. This means there is and will be more construction job opportunities for homebuilding.
  • The manufacturing sector is barely holding on. The ISM index, which measure activity in this sector, fell for the second consecutive month. The latest reading of 50.7 is only marginally above the critical 50 mark, which separates expansion and contraction. This means job gains in the manufacturing sector will slow or even possibly reverse in a few months.
  • ADP, a company that processes payroll checks for many firms, revealed 119,000 net new jobs in April in the private sector. This data has smaller coverage than the official employment data from the government, which is scheduled to come out this Friday. This likely means that official job gains will be comfortably positive, but the job creation pace is still not strong enough to meaningfully bring the unemployment rate down.
  • Mortgage applications for a home purchase fell slightly, though are up by 13 percent from one year ago. Applications for refi rose and are up 31 percent from one year ago. This means that home buying demand remains strong, but mortgage brokers need to prepare for a potentially sharp decline in mortgage refi activity in 2014.
  • Finally, the big cities are creating jobs. The L.A.-Santa Ana region added 116,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months. The Greater New York City area put 106,800 new people to work. However, La-La land and the Big Apple have huge populations so the job growth rates were only in line with the national pace. Dallas and Houston are the true stars. Dallas added 101,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months, while Houston put 102,300 more people to work. These Texas job growth rates were triple the national job growth rate. This means there will be greater housing demand per each REALTOR® in Texas versus other parts of the country.

 

 

 

http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2013/05/01

How to Herd Cats on Twitter | North Salem Realtor

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If there is one thing you have to love about Twitter is that sometimes it seems like the “Wild West”. Untamed but with many opportunities.How to herd cats on Twitter

At other moments it feels like you are herding cats.

A chaotic stream of tweets that have no apparent organisation, theme or filters.

Wikipedia says this on herding cats:

“An idiomatic saying that refers to an attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors.”

Now doesn’t that sound like Twitter?

It is trying to make sense of its chaos, embracing a jumble of jellyfish or throwing a net over a swarm of bees.

Always fun, sometimes dangerous but with a lot of potential.

Twitter has its own rhythm

Facebook is filtered for family and friend fun. Google+ is like Twitter on intelligence steroids…. Long form content preferred, geeky and very visual….with an overdose of males from Silicon Valley.

Well… what about Pinterest?…..It needs no explaining, just pin your image and let it speak its thousand words.

And Instagram?
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/#fdqVDq4OumJ51rAX.99

Investors face new housing era obstacles | North Salem Real Estate

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In this new era, trading mortgages has been challenging over the past year for investors due to a number of reasons. 

In particular, massive mortgage-backed securities purchases by the Federal Reserve have impaired liquidity and market depth while policy changes have made prepayments difficult to forecast because of changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program and Federal Housing Finance Agency leadership remain uncertainties, JPMorgan Chase said in its latest report. 

Additionally, short rates have been anchored, rendering traditional measures of duration such as parallel rate shifts irrelevant, particularly for higher coupons, the banking giant noted.

“As a result of these factors, many inter-coupon relationships are no longer mean-reverting with the same frequency they exhibited in previous environments, and money managers therefore struggle to generate alpha using age-old methodologies such as regression analysis,” said analysts of JPMorgan ($48.86 -0.0179%).

Investors expect the 2-year note on higher coupons to remain anchored for some time, as the central bank continues to open-ended third round of quantitative easing, making the correlation between price and rate moves anemic. 

via housingwire.com