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Summer at SoundWaters: Outdoor experiences and lifelong memories | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Summer at SoundWaters: Outdoor experiences and lifelong memories   

This summer, more than 350 campers explored, examined, investigated and discovered the habitats, marine animals and waters of Long Island Sound as they experienced first-hand the natural world in a joyful and educational outdoor setting.

The unique location of SoundWaters Coastal Education Center in Stamford’s Cove Island Park multiplies the range of outdoor activities available to campers. Through the generosity of SoundWaters donors, one-third received full or partial scholarships, which provided shared opportunities for every boy and girl to feel connected to the Sound.

 

Depending on their ages, some campers used seine nets to gather plankton, went on scavenger hunts and engaged with Long Island Sound animals during “creature feature” sessions in our Teaching Aquarium. Others studied populations of crabs and small fish they found at the shore, and conducted scientific experiments such as dissecting squid in the Learning Laboratory.

 

Canoists learned the parts of the boat, paddling techniques and boarding and maneuvering a canoe. But canoeing was not their only objective: After paddling across Holly Pond, they discovered the animals of the salt marsh and while aboard performed water quality tests using scientific equipment.

Each day, Opti and Pico sailors rigged their boats and raised sails, developing both confidence and proficiency. Lessons in sail theory, navigation and currents, combined with a direct realization that they shared the Sound with living marine animals, enhanced their sailing experience.

A summer camp would not be complete without daily swimming sessions, outdoor games, and of course, camp songs.

The campers often shared their experiences at night with their families, sometimes persuading parents to sign them up for additional sessions. One 6-year-old has already told her mother that she loves “science camp” and wants to have her next birthday party at SoundWaters.

“I cannot thank SoundWaters enough,” said one mother whose son received a scholarship. “This was the best summer because of your camp. I am so grateful.”

Read other Snapshots

Regards,

Leigh Shemitz, Ph.D.
Executive Director
SoundWaters

Huguette Clark’s Legendary Estate Inches Closer to Subdivision | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The 52-acre Connecticut estate known as Le Beau Château—one of the many high-value real estate holdings of the late copper heiress Huguette Clark—may soon be subdivided under new ownership, after failing to sell intact. Currently listed for $15.9M, the estate was once publicly asking as much as $24M, but has seen swift price chops and some creative marketing following Clark’s 2011 death. Now the listing touts an approved “10-estate lot subdivision”—which the city signed off on back in 2008—along with the Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker-designed nine-bedroom mansion, which, curiously enough, Clark never moved into during her 60 years of ownership. Hopefully, the main house will not suffer demolition following a sale, but subdivision developers are generally not inclined to rehabilitate historic mansions.

 

read more…

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/08/20/huguette-clarks-legendary-estate-now-ready-for-subdivision.php

 

3 Strategies for Finding Customers With Social Media | Pound Ridge Realtor

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Do you need a strategy to reach your ideal prospects with social media?

Are you overwhelmed by all the social media options?

If so, you’re not alone. Social media overwhelm is one of the biggest challenges businesses face.

In this article, I’m going to show you three social media strategies so you can focus your efforts on the channels that best align with your business objective and target audience.

 

The Simple Solution

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution for it: only focus on where your customers are.

Where are your customers on social media? Image source: iStockPhoto.

Once you find out where your customers are on social media, it becomes easier to come up with a strategy that will help you find your future customers.

Here are three strategies you should consider:

Strategy #1: Ask Your Customers

Asking is the low-hanging fruit that’s easy for small business owners to overlook. It’s such a simple thing to do and allows you to further cement the personal connection you have with your customers.

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, when your customers visit your location, ask whether they use social media. If you have another type of business, figure out the best time and place to ask your customers whether they use social media.

If they do use social media, ask them what channels they spend their time on. Is it Facebook? Pinterest? Maybe it’s LinkedIn.

 

 

read more….

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-strategies-for-finding-customers-with-social-media/

 

U.K. Inflation Cools, But House Prices Race Ahead | Pound Ridge Homes

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The annual rate of inflation in the U.K. fell in July and is likely to continue cooling, but house prices are heading in the opposite direction, stoking fears of a new housing market bubble.

The Office for National Statistics said annual inflation slowed to 2.8% in July from 2.9% in June, aided by smaller rises in prices for items including airfares and clothing than a year earlier.

Economists said inflation is likely to continue falling this year and next, easing pressure on household budgets that have been squeezed for several years as wage growth has failed to keep pace with price increases.

Slowing inflation should help put a fledgling recovery in the U.K. economy “on a firmer footing,” said Rob Wood, chief U.K. economist at Berenberg Bank.

Economists added the anticipated slowdown in inflation toward the Bank of England’s 2% annual target should help Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney stick with a pledge to keep the central bank’s benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5% until joblessness falls to 7%, unless inflation looks poised to accelerate.

Unemployment averaged 7.8% in the three months to May, and the BOE doesn’t expect unemployment to hit the 7% target until 2016, a sign that it intends to keep British borrowing costs low for another two to three years to support recovery.

Yet even as price pressures in the economy overall are retreating, house prices are rising more sharply and broadly than in more than six years.

In the latest sign of housing market strength, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ monthly house prices balance surged to 36 in July from 21 the previous month, the highest since November 2006 when it reached 42.

The balance is calculated by subtracting the proportion of surveyors reporting house prices falls from those who say prices rose. The rise in the balance indicates that the increase in house prices is becoming sharper and broader based.

While it remains some way below the peak in the series of 68.6 in September 1999, what is striking about the pickup is its speed. After a 32nd straight negative or flat balance in March this year, house price growth has surged sharply in just four months.

 

 

U.K. Inflation Cools, But House Prices Race Ahead – WSJ.com.

With Mortgage Rates In A Holding Pattern, What Will Housing Prices Do? | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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After rising by more than a full percentage point from early May till the end of June, 30-year mortgage rates have more or less leveled off. However, the impact of higher mortgage rates on the housing market is still unknown.

On July 30, the latest figures for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that the housing recovery continued in May, and that their 10-city and 20-city composites posted their strongest year-over-year increases since early 2006. However, since those indices represent three-month averages ending in May, the latest figures just barely overlap the rise in mortgage rates. Thus, it is too early to tell what impact higher interest rates will have on home prices.

In part, the relationship between mortgage rates and home prices can be represented on a mortgage calculator. For any given level of monthly payment on a loan calculator, if you increase the mortgage rate the total size of the loan will shrink. That smaller loan size indicates that the lower price point that consumers can afford at that level of payment.

However, there have been several instances historically when home prices have gone up despite rising mortgage rates. Clearly, there must be a factor at work here beyond what you can see on a loan calculator, and that X factor is consumer wealth. If economic growth is improving, then consumers should be getting wealthier and can afford higher mortgage payments. If you increase the amount of the payment you target on a loan calculator, it can offset the impact of rising mortgage rates.

Because of the lag in home-price data, it will only be in the months to come that the impact of higher mortgage rates on the housing market will become apparent. Whether the housing rally can shake off the effects of higher rates depends a great deal on whether the economy starts to pick up any momentum.

Source: https://www.summit-mortgage.com/buying-a-house/.

With Mortgage Rates In A Holding Pattern, What Will Housing Prices Do? – Forbes.

Obama Housing Scorecard: Foreclosure starts reach 8-year low | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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President Obama spoke Tuesday about how far housing has come from its pit in the middle of the crisis. The latest housing scorecard from the Obama Administration only strengthened the president’s statements, yet serves as a reminder that there is still a long ways to go.

“As the July housing scorecard indicates, the Obama Administration’s efforts to speed the housing recovery are continuing to build upon the progress that has been made over the last four years,” said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs Kurt Usowski.

Home prices continue to trudge forward, with the S&P Case-Shiller home price index up from 152.4 in April to 156.1 in the latest report in May. Year-over-year the index is up from 139.2 in May 2012.

 

As rising mortgage rates begin to catch up with the housing recovery, less buyers are feeling the pressure to buy a home right now. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales fell from a revised 428,300 in May to 423,300 in June.

However, homebuilders can breath a sigh of relief, as new home sales continued to increase, up from 38,300 in May to 41,400 in June, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD.

 

The pool of existing-homes for sale has continued to grow, a positive sign for potential buyers, with inventory up from a 5.0-month supply in May to a 5.2-month supply in June, NAR reported. Surprisingly, the supply of new homes for sale dropped slightly to 3.9 months, down from 4.2 months in May.

Foreclosure starts take the cake for the most notable change in this month’s housing scorecard. Foreclosure starts dropped from 72,700 in May to 57,300 in June, data from RealtyTrac revealed.

According to a report from Lender Processing Services, mortgage delinquency rates for prime borrowers made a turnaround, heading upward from May. June’s delinquency rate was 3.5%, up from 3.1% in May.

“The annual home price increases over the last several months remain at levels not seen since 2006 and newly initiated foreclosures are at their lowest level since December 2005.  As we regain stability in our housing markets, it is time to begin the process of reforming the housing finance system to reduce the federal government footprint and ensure that private capital takes a sustainable central role,” Usowski added.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26083-obama-housing-scorecard-foreclosure-starts-reach-8-year-low

 

Home Prices Climb in 87% of U.S. Cities as Recovery Builds | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Prices for single-family homes climbed in 87 percent of U.S. cities in the second quarter as the national housing recovery accelerated amid competition for a limited number of properties on the market.

The median transaction price rose from a year earlier in 142 of 163 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report today. A year earlier, 75 percent of regions had gains.

Values are increasing as homebuyers, encouraged by improving employment, compete for a tight supply of listed properties. At the end of the second quarter, 2.19 million previously owned homes were available for sale, 7.6 percent fewer than a year earlier, according to the Realtors group.

“There continue to be more buyers than sellers, and that is placing pressure on home prices, with multiple bids common in some areas of the country,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in the report.

The median price for an existing single-family home was $203,500 nationally in the second quarter, up 12 percent from a year earlier. That was the biggest gain since the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Realtors group.

Cities with tight supplies of homes for sale had the strongest price growth, the Realtors said. Eight markets were added to the report in the quarter.

Biggest Gains

The best-performing areas were Sacramento, California, and Atlanta, where prices jumped 39 percent from a year earlier. Prices rose 36 percent in Fort Myers, Florida; 33 percent in Reno, Nevada; and 31 percent in Las Vegas.

 

 

Home Prices Climb in 87% of U.S. Cities as Recovery Builds (2) – Businessweek.

Colombia Inflation Remained Low in July As Housing Prices Fell | Pound Ridge Homes

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Colombia’s consumer price index rose less than expected last month as housing prices fell and food inflation was low.

The consumer price index rose 0.04% in July from a month earlier, the government’s statistics agency, known as DANE, said Monday. That was lower than the 0.11% rise in price economists were expecting, and it puts 12-month trailing inflation at 2.22%, well within the central bank’s 2% to 4% target range.

Colombia has seen persistently low price increases amid a slowing economy that’s crimped consumer demand for goods and services. With little pressure on prices, the central bank could reduce its benchmark interest rate further this year in a bid to spur economic activity, although analysts say the current, key lending rate of 3.25% is already low enough to foster higher growth.

Most economists expect the bank to keep rates unchanged until 2014, when rate increases begin assuming the economy picks up.

Housing prices fell 0.38% last month, while food prices, the sector carrying the most weight in the CPI, rose 0.21%. Entertainment prices saw the highest increases, rising 1.3%.

The moderate inflation last month suggests consumer price increases could end this year similar to last year, when inflation ended at 2.44%.

Colombia’s oil- and coal-driven economy expanded at a 4% clip in 2012, down from 6.6% growth in 2011 as global prices fell for many of the commodities that Colombia produces. During the first quarter of this year, the economy slowed further, to a 2.8% on-year rise.

 

 

Colombia Inflation Remained Low in July As Housing Prices Fell – WSJ.com.

Rising rates, shortages chill sales of U.S. homes | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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National home sales fell in June thanks to rising mortgage rates and inventory shortages, after reaching a six-year high in May, but stayed even in the Northeast.

The Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on home contract signings, fell by 0.4 percent to 110.9 in June, the National Association of Realtors said. Still, the index is nearly 11 percent higher than a year before.

The report added: “The PHSI in the Northeast was unchanged at 87.2 in June but is 12.2 percent higher than a year ago.”

In June, Massachusetts recorded its the best month for home sales since June 2010, according to the Warren Group.

The national decline comes after the index hit a six-year high in May, and seems to have been brought by rising mortgage rates and fewer homes for sale, the NAR said.

“Mortgage interest rates began to rise in May, taking some of the momentum out of contract activity in June,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.

The average 30-year mortgage rate was 4.31 percent last week, and reached a two-year high of 4.51 percent in late June. The rates jumped after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank could slow its bond-buying program later this year.

Also adding to the slowdown is a lack of homes on the market.

“The persistent lack of inventory also is contributing to lower contract signings,” Yun said.

 

Rising rates, shortages chill sales of U.S. homes | Boston Herald.