Tag Archives: Pound Ridge NY Homes

Pound Ridge NY Homes

Mortgage Rates decline again | Pound Ridge Homes

Leave a reply

Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates falling for the third consecutive week amid declining consumer confidence and the onset of the federal government shutdown. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is at its lowest level since the week ending June 20, 2013.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.22 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending October 3, 2013, down from last week when it averaged 4.32 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.36 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.29 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.37 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.69 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.63 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.57 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quotes Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“With the onset of the federal government shutdown and declining consumer confidence, fixed mortgage rates fell for the third consecutive week. Consumer sentiment fell for the second month in a row in September to its lowest reading since April, according to the University of Michigan. Moreover, a recent Bloomberg survey of professional forecasters suggests that a partial federal shutdown lasting one week would shave 0.1 percentage points off of GDP growth in the fourth quarter and even more if the shutdown lasts longer.”

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation’s residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Today Freddie Mac is making home possible for one in four home borrowers and is one of the largest sources of financing for multifamily housing. For more information please visit www.FreddieMac.com and Twitter: @FreddieMac.

Here Now, a Look at ‘Outlandish Homes on Impossible Sites’ | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Leave a reply

While Brooklyn-based painter Dean Monogenis is obsessed with architecture—an interest that began after 9/11, when he “realized that [buildings] were like people in that they could live and die,” he recently told Wired—he has zero interest in actually learning the technical aspects of design. He much prefers to keep his work in that middle-gray area between the surreal and real, where the ultra-modern homes he paints look somewhat possible at first, yet perhaps less so as one looks a little closer. “In a painting you can completely ignore things like gravity and engineering,” he says. “As a painter I am free to make a building as plausible or implausible as I like.”

Gizmodo sums up Monogenis’ scenes, which often feature scaffolding, cranes, and other construction elements, as “outlandish homes on impossible sites,” adding, “it’s as if the entire series is based on an architect’s renderings for a massive speculative development planned for a growing population, unearthed long after that civilization had vanished.”

ku-xlarge-6.jpgPainting by Dean Monogenis via Wired

Head to Wired for more of Monogenis’ work. For other eye-popping examples of architectural paintings, see: Paul Davies’ Pop Art-esque midcentury houses, Sunga Park’s dream-like watercolors of European buildings.

· Gorgeous Architectural Paintings From a World Without Gravity [Wired Design via Gizmodo] · All Artistry coverage [Curbed National]

Enjoy Cider Saturday At New Canaan Nature Center | Pound Ridge Homes

Leave a reply

The New Canaan Nature Center is celebrating cider season with a series of autumn-themed events on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Cider press demonstrations will be held 15 and 45 minutes after every hour, and the apple sling shot will be fired at the top of every hour.

There will also be a pumpkin scavenger hunt and seasonal crafts activities for children.

Fresh local cider will be available for purchase by the cup, half gallon and gallon.

Admission is $5 for nature center members and $8 for nonmembers. Children under age 2 are free.

The Nature Center is located at 144 Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan.

For more information, contact the nature center at 203-966-9577 or online at http://www.newcanaannature.org.

 

 

http://newcanaan.dailyvoice.com/neighbors/enjoy-cider-saturday-new-canaan-nature-center

Mortgage Bankers Association reveals new branding | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Leave a reply

The Mortgage Bankers Association revealed its latest rebranding strategy Wednesday, which includes a new logo, revamped corporate messaging and updated web and email domains. The trade group’s signature MBA logo will now be shown with a lower case ‘a’ to emphasize the group’s work in mortgage banking.

“This new brand reflects MBa’s forward looking approach, and brings us fully in step with who we are now, and where we will lead our industry into the future,” said MBAs President and CEO David H. Stevens.  “Our message behind the brand is simple: We put our members first. We are constantly evolving to better support and serve our members. We pull strength from the broad diversity of our membership – by bringing them together – in one voice with one vision – on behalf of a vibrant and sustainable real estate finance system.”

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26897-mortgage-bankers-association-reveals-new-branding

Considering or Dreaming About Buying a Home? How to Pick the Best Mortgage Rate for You | Pound Ridge Homes

Leave a reply

Even though the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was just 2.5 percent last year, the lowest in recorded history, and three-quarters of a percentage point below the 30-year fixed-rate loan, more than 85 percent of the home loan market was dominated by 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been popular particularly in recent times after the housing bubble and crash, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors.

Yun said consumers want certainty, and by getting a 30-year fixed rate mortgage while they are in their homes is protection against the uncertainty of other economic factors.

As for the second reason, stability, a fixed interest rate over 30 years also means a monthly principal and interest payment that is predictable to homeowners.

“Moreover, by avoiding payment shock and negative amortization, fixed-rate borrowers are less likely to fall behind on their payments, – a plus for investors too,” Nothaft writes.

Why not a longer period than 30 years?

Yun says institutions and homeowners rely on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for both tradition and history.

Also, “People view more than 30 years as lifetime of payments,” Yun said. “Thirty years offers a term limit to say,  ‘At a certain point in my life, I will not have to pay a mortgage.’ I think that assurance is comforting.”

Yun adds that given the mortgage’s standardization and popularity, it makes it easy for Wall Street, or Fannie and Freddie to guarantee those mortgages.

Nothaft said 30-year fixed-rate loan is flexible because it is generally prepayable at any time without penalty.

If homebuyers choose to pay off the loan before maturity, in the case of refinancing or selling the home, for example, they can do so without paying an early prepayment fee, Nothaft said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/

Stop blaming rising interest rates for the housing slowdown | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Leave a reply

So you heard that rising interest rates are forcing first-time homebuyers to stay on the sidelines, effectively derailing the housing recovery?

Well, think again, argues Heidi Moore in The Guardian.

As Moore explains it, a true housing recovery cannot occur until a real economic recovery is afoot. Per The Guardian:

Rising interest rates are not wrecking the housing recovery; what is wrecking the recovery is that house prices are rising faster than the ability of people to afford them. Maybe we thought we could cheat history, and that a housing recovery would bring about an economic recovery. That can’t happen. The housing recovery can’t start until the economic recovery begins.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26828-stop-blaming-rising-interest-rates-for-the-housing-slowdown

Singapore’s Home Sales Rebound to Be Short-Lived: Southeast Asia | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Leave a reply

Singapore’s jump in private home sales last month was only a temporary reprieve for developers as the government’s cooling measures take root and mortgage rates begin to rise.

The city’s housing sales climbed 54 percent to 742 in August from July, when they fell to 482, the lowest in almost four years, according to government data. With nine rounds of cooling measures since mid-2009, the increase will be short-lived, according to Mizuho Bank Ltd. and UOB Kay Hian Pte. Monthly sales averaged about 1,700 units in the first six months of the year.

A man cycles past CapitaLand Ltd.’s The Wharf Residence in Singapore. CapitaLand said July 25 it expects prices and sales of residential properties to moderate. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg

CapitaLand Ltd.’s The Orchard Residences, center, stands in Singapore. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg

“There have been successive rounds of measures coming through and with mortgage rates also beginning to move up, you will find that buyers are becoming more circumspect and wondering if these are the right entry levels,” said Vishnu Varathan, a Singapore-based economist at Mizuho, who forecasthome prices to fall 10 percent to 15 percent by 2016.

Singapore unveiled new rules in June governing how financial institutions grant property loans to individuals. Record home prices amid low interest rates raised concerns of a housing bubble and prompted the government to widen a more than four-year campaign to curb speculation in Asia’s second-most expensive housing market, according to a Knight Frank LLP and Citi Private Bank report.

The new loan framework requires that lenders take a borrower’s debt into consideration when granting property loans, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said June 28. Home loans should not exceed a total debt-servicing ratio of 60 percent and those that do will be considered imprudent, it said.

“Normalizing interest rates” will pose significant financial risks to individual borrowers and the economy, the Ministry of National Development said on its website in response to questions in parliament yesterday. The property curbs are needed to avoid a “major price correction,” it said.

 

Higher Rates

Singapore’s home lending rates have risen about 0.5 percentage points in the past year, according to Keff Hui, a director at Mortgage Supermart Singapore, a mortgage broker.

Executive condominiums made up almost half of the homes sold in August, an unprecedented level, according to SLP International Property Consultants. Including these apartments, offered with some restrictions such as a monthly household income cap of S$12,000 ($9,523), August sales were 1,468, according to the government data.

“The bulk of the sales in August was on the executive condo side, not on private sales, which shows demand for private home sales is still low,” said Vikrant Pandey, a Singapore-based analyst at UOB Kay Hian, who expects the number of residential properties sold to drop 30 percent in the next 12 months and as much as a 10 percent decline in prices. “The measures are having their impact.”

Record Prices

Among the developers that began sales of projects in August was Wing Tai Holdings Ltd. (WINGT), which marketed its condominium in the Tampines area, an eastern suburb of Singapore. It sold 218 units of 337 marketed last month, according to the data. RV Residences, offered by Allgreen Properties Ltd., in the central district sold 39 of 83 units marketed, the data showed.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-16/

 

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | #RobReportBlog

Leave a reply
Pound   Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report9/19/2013
Homes for sale86
Median Ask Price$967,500.00
Low Price$285,000.00
High Price$5,700,000.00
Average Size3624
Average Price/foot$348.00
Average DOM121
Average Ask Price$1,293,598.00

North Stamford Home Rocked By Fiery Explosion | Pound Ridge Homes

Leave a reply

An explosion ripped through a home in Stamford on Tuesday afternoon, causing heavy damage to the structure and spreading fire to neighboring buildings, according to Stamford Fire and Rescue.

Very little of the structure at 305 Webbs Hill Road in Stamford appeared to remain in a photograph taken by an eyewitness.

The cause was unknown as of Tuesday afternoon. No injuries had been reported as of yet.

UPDATE 4 p.m.: Yankee Gas spokesman Mitch Gross said that there is no natural gas service to that part of Stamford.

“Yankee Gas was requested to come to the scene by the Stamford Fire Department,” he said. “This is standard procedure.”

The Daily Voice will have more information as it becomes available.

 

 

 

http://newcanaan.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/