Tag Archives: Pound Ridge Homes for Sale

Existing Home Sales Tumble | Pound Ridge NY Homes

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Existing home sales fell 3.2% month-over-month in October to an annualized pace of 5.12 million units.

This was worse than expectations for a 2.9% month-over-month to an annualized pace of 5.14 million units.

This was the second straight monthly decline.

September’s number was left unchanged to show a 1.9% MoM fall to 5.29 million units the previous month.

“The erosion in buying power is dampening home sales,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said in a press release. “Moreover, low inventory is holding back sales while at the same time pushing up home prices in most of the country. More new home construction is needed to help relieve the inventory pressure and moderate price gains.”

The national median existing-home price was up 12.8% on the year to $199,500. Meanwhile, the median time for homes on the market was 54 days, up from 50 days the previous month.

Housing inventory fell 1.8% to 2.13 million units for sale at the end of the month. This represented a 5 month supply at current sales pace.

The share of distressed sales in existing home sales was unchanged at 14% in October. This is up from 12% in August, but is well down from 27% in 2012, which is an encouraging sign for the market.

Here’s a look at the regional breakdown:

  • In the northeast, existing home sales fell 2.9% to an annual rate of 670,000, but were up 11.7% year-over-year.
  • In the Midwest, they fell 1.6% to 1.22 million units, but were up 8% from a year ago.
  • In the South, they were down 1.9% to 2.06 million units, but up 7.3% on the year.
  • In the West, existing home sales were down 7.1% to 1.17 million units, down 0.8% on the year.

Pending home sales, considered a leading indicator for future existing home sales, have been falling sharply. This suggests that existing home sales will be ticking lower.

Existing home sales account for a larger share of the market than new homes

 

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comes-existing-home-sales-143906022.html

Freddie Mac: Housing will remain generally affordable | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The next year brings a bevy of unprecedented changes to the mortgage market as it shifts from a refinance to purchase business.

Despite all of this, in an environment of rising interest rates and tightening loan criteria, Freddie Mac still believes most of the nation’s housing will remain affordable. The issue that remains, is getting responsible mortgages to the homeowners who deserve them.

Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie, released the enterprise’s 2014 outlook report in conjunction with a HousingWire webinar he participated in.

“The big shift ahead will occur as the single-family mortgage market begins transitioning from a rate-and-term refinance dominated market, to the first purchase-dominated market we’ve seen since 2000,” Nothaft said. “The emerging purchase market should gather momentum in the coming year.”

The webinar, titled Competitive lending in the Qualified Mortgage world, also took a hard look at the challenges lenders will face after the ruling comes into effect in January.

Craig Crabtree, general manager of Equifax Mortgage Services, spoke at length of the critical importance of underwriting and outlined the types of mortgage products that would likely be prohibited under the QM.

This aspect of great underwriting standards will need to be carefully balanced against the need to shorten closing times to under 30 days. Regional banks, for example, should re-approach their underwriting methodology to seek greater efficiency in writing new mortgages.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28039-freddie-mac-housing-will-remain-generally-affordable

Fox Lane Senior Stars In Off-Broadway Production | Pound Ridge Homes

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Pound Ridge teenager Lindsay Avellino aspires to perform on Broadway. Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 19, she will be just a few steps from what she hopes is her ultimate destination.

Avellino, a senior at Fox Lane High School, will have the lead female role in “Towards The Moon,” which makes its American debut at the 59E59 Theater in New York. The play opens off-Broadway on Tuesday, Nov. 19 and runs through Dec. 1. More information about dates and tickets can be found online or by calling 212 753 5959 ext 102.

The play is being presented by the Infinity Repertory Theatre Company of Mount Kisco. Avellino has been part of the group for four years, and is in her second year as the group’s artistic director. She has performed in numerous productions with Infinity and was even part of a previous show at the East 59th Street Theatre. Her role in Towards The Moon as Mags is her biggest challenge so far in her budding career.

“I’m ecstatic, I can’t wait to get started,’’ Avellino said. “But it’s also scary, knowing there will be reviewers. Having already experienced performing in New York before, I know how to go into it but it’s still scary.”

Andrew McGregor, a native of Scotland, wrote Towards The Moon for the 2012  Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was there that Paul Perez, Infinity’s Executive Director, saw the play. Infinity was granted the rights to produce the play in the United States.

It follows the story of a boy who wants to leave a small town and become a great writer. His journey is a tale of angst-filled creativity and lost and found friendships. Liam Nelligan plays Bobby, the play’s central character. Ricky Romano, Elene Rnigomez, Lindsay Wund and Elizabeth Price Davies are the other students who appear on stage. Infinity is an all-student company that educates and involves children of all backgrounds and ages in the theater arts.

“Mags is the best friend of the main character,’’ Avellino said. “She’s a hippie, kind of weird, does her own thing and is in love with Bobby. It’s a character that’s a bit out of my comfort zone. She’s older and has a lot more life experience than I have. But it’s a challenge and I’m enjoying it.”

Avellino, who plans to study musical theater in college, captured the lead in an audition earlier this year. She saw the production in Scotland and loved the script. “It’s a beautiful show,’’ she said. “It moved all of us when we saw it. It’s unique because it’s a musical, but it doesn’t move like a musical. It feels like a drama. You feel good after watching it. It’s very relatable, and very real.”

 

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/neighbors/fox-lane-senior-stars-broadway-production

 

Spike Lee Wants $32M For UES Home With Celeb-Studded Past | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Spike-Lee-and-the-Hatch-House.jpg [Photo via Flickr/Emilio Guerra.]

Though filmmaker Spike Lee is best known for his Brooklyn presence—the house where Crooklyn was shot sold for $400,000 over ask and the Fort Greene brownstone he inhabited in the 90s sold to that controversial dung artist—he actually owns an even more significant property on the Upper East Side. He just put the 8,292-square-foot, 2BR/2BA at 153 East 63rd Street on the market for $32 million, the Post reports, which he originally bought from artist Jasper Johns in 1998 for $16,624,999. (Though the formal deed lists the transaction as being worth nothing, and the rest of public records for the plot are hazy.)

Daytonian in Manhattan has chronicled the long history of the so-called Hatch House, named for the husband of Barbara Rutherford, who married Cyril Hatch in the nineteen-teens. Rutherford’s mother bought the property (formerly two horse stables) as a wedding gift for the Hatches.

Architect Frederick Sterner, who at one point had converted or designed essentially all of 63rd Street, is behind the “three-story Spanish renaissance fancy” with “a stucco facade and red-tile roof.” Though many of the residences he worked on are no longer in their original condition, notes the Times‘ Christopher Gray, Lee’s is

 

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/11/13/spike_lee_wants_32m_for_ues_home_with_celebstudded_past.php

Real estate industry has never been better capitalized | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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In my talks I often preach that real innovation comes when we have the ingredients that got us to the moon: money, brains and passion.

In real estate today, these fundamentals are in place.

A new generation of passionate leaders is taking over — younger and better-educated agents, a new crop of innovative and fearless  brokers, and a slew of startup whiz kids. A recovering housing market and successful IPOs such as Zillow and Trulia are attracting supersmart professionals who want in on the largess.

Oscar Wilde said, “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”

Indeed, capital has returned to the industry and that is a good thing. The largest real estate company, Realogy Holdings Corp. ($6.16 billion market cap), has put a big dent in its debt and gone public with a fresh dose of capital (raised $1 billion with its IPO).

Re/Max has capital to invest after raising $225 million with its successful IPO this fall. One of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett, is doubling down on real estate services with his Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices franchise. Can Keller Williams be far behind, capitalizing its rapidly growing enterprise?

Then, there are the awe-inspiring IPOs of Zillow ($2.85 billion market cap) and Trulia ($1.25 billion market cap). These two alone have a staggering amount of capital to invest in innovation, and stock prices that are perfectly poised for a slew of acquisitions. Realtor.com operator Move Inc. ($630 million market cap) will also rely on acquisitions as part of its strategy for growth

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/13/time-for-an-industry-moon-shot/#sthash.hGLKG0oU.dpuf

Hollywood Hills Modern With Glass Garage Asks $8.5M | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Location: Los Angeles, Calif. Price: $8,500,000 The Skinny: Some houses definitely need brokerbabble that scales the dizzying heights of Purple Prose Mountain to help make the sale, but then again, some houses really ought to be able to sell themselves. This car collector’s dream home that Curbed L.A. covered last week is definitely one of the latter. For the studio exec (for example) who wants to be able park their Bentley next to his Tesla inside a glass-walled nine-car garage, it’s a no-brainer. That being said, it’s hard to sever the bond between a broker and his or her hyperbole: “An irreplaceable property, an unparalleled history, and great location. This trophy estate of awe-inspiring indoor & outdoor living space is one of the most distinctive residential properties in Los Angeles…. comparable to 5-Star Hotel with amazing pool, spa and an opulent master suite, this is the absolute best opportunity to purchase a pristine compound in years. ..This celebrity compound is Walled & gated and sits on almost ONE ACRE of complete PRIVACY.” It goes on like that—with, oddly, just one off-handed mention of the garage—when all the listing really needs to say is “Do you have nine cars that need a glass garage to park in? Then buy this house.” The listing asks $8.5M.

Palatial Post-Modern Estate by Michael Graves Asks $5.8M | Pound Ridge 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: Livingston, N.J. Price: $5,800,000 The Skinny: Looking for a home that combines the welcoming feel of a corporate campus with the homey decor of an airport hotel in a second tier convention city? Good news! This Michael Graves design in Livingston, N.J., has all those bases covered. From the faded tan exteriors to the teal blue walls of the indoor gym, the color palette of this seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 16,000-square-foot paean to corporatist post-modernism is spot on. The atrium will remind you of the lobby of your office building, the piano lounge will bring back fond memories of that time you spent a week in Oklahoma City on business, and the ubiquitous flat-screen TVs are just one part of the “exquisite appointments” the brokerbabble brags about. All teasing aside, the place brags some cool curved walls, huge windows, and a prime location “atop the highest point in [New Jersey’s] Bel Air.” Outside? A lawn, swimming pool, and jungle gym. The owners are asking $5.8 M for what the listing describes as a “must see for discriminating clients.”

Shanghai Raises Home Down-Payment Requirement as Prices Jump | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Shanghai raised the minimum down payment required for buyers of a second home to 70 percent from 60 percent as house prices in China’s financial hub surge.

Counties and municipal departments should take measures to ensure the city’s annual price-control target is met, according to a statement on the local housing bureau’s website. The city also tightened the qualifications required for non-local home buyers and will increase residential land supplies, according to the statement.

Home prices in China’s four major cities jumped the most in September since January 2011, heightening concerns a bubble is forming as the national government refrains from introducing more property curbs that would hinder economic growth. Prices surged 17 percent in Shanghai from a year earlier, the biggest gain in the 70 cities the government tracks, only behind the 20 percent jump in the southern business hubs of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

“It’s more like they are gesturing that they are serious about property curbs” after Beijing and Shenzhen’s tightening measures, said Dai Fang, a Shanghai-based analyst at Zheshang Securities Co. “The wait-and-see atmosphere may grow a little bit and sales may slow a little as fewer people can buy now.”

New home prices excluding government-sponsored social housing jumped 21 percent in Beijing in September from a year earlier, defying the strictest property curbs among all cities, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The Chinese capital raised down payment for second homes to 70 percent in March.

 

Local Measures

 

Former Premier Wen Jiabao in March stepped up a three-year campaign to contain price gains, ordering cities with excessive increases to raise down payments. Shenzhen made the move only on Nov. 1. Guangzhou, now the only of the four so-called first-tier cities that hasn’t raised down-payment requirements from 60 percent, is likely to follow suit, Dai said.

China’s average new home price surged 10.7 percent in October from a year earlier, the most this year, as homebuyers defied the government’s property curbs and developers offered more high-priced apartments to tap demand, according to SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN), the nation’s biggest real estate website owner.

“Fluctuations in home prices have been noticeable this year, and upward pressure on housing prices increased recently with rising transaction volumes,” Shanghai’s housing bureau said in today’s statement.

The city government will crack down on price collusion and violations of home-purchase restrictions and will take measures to ensure the stability of the land market, according to the statement.

 

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-08/shanghai-raises-home-down-payment-requirement-after-prices-jump.html

Pound Ridge School Hosts Science Workshop | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Pound Ridge third- graders are invited to attend a hands-on science workshop that enables students to discover magnetism at the in the Pound Ridge Elementary School Bistro on Nov. 12.

Students will have the opportunity to experience transferring magnetism through water, wood and other media. In addition, they will use electromagnets to learn about other ways to make a magnet.

There will be three 90-minute sessions, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.; 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The school is at 7 Pound Ridge Road.

 

 

http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/schools/pound-ridge-school-hosts-science-workshop