Tag Archives: South Salem NY Homes for Sale

The Strokes’ Nick Valensi & Wife Amanda de Cadenet List Home | South Salem Real Estate

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Does a home once showcased on a TV talk show help with a sale? It depends on the home, of course, but in the case of this New England-style traditional, the TV fame is just one more feature added to a list of amenities.

Located at 12701 Hortense St, Studio City, CA 91604, the home is currently owned by The Strokes’ lead guitarist Nick Valensi and wife Amanda de Cadenet, host of Lifetime’s “The Conversation.” The TV show is filmed in the residence, with the British actress and photographer interviewing Lady Gaga, Rita Wilson, Portia de Rossi and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others. Valensi and de Cadenet have it on the market for $1.799 million.

“An ideal buyer is a family with kids who love the proximity to Studio City’s best park and new library,” said listing agent Craig Knizek of The Agency. “It’s a wonderful neighborhood to walk your dog [or] have kids ride a bike past friendly neighbors.”

According to property records, Valensi and de Cadenet bought the home for $1.3 million in 2011. Built in 2009, the 4,000-square-foot house has an open floor plan, with the family and living rooms centered around a chef’s kitchen with center island. The 5-bedroom house includes a main-floor guest suite, and the space above the garage has been permitted for a 2-bedroom guest apartment. Currently, Valensi is using the space for his music. The walkable residence is filled with top-of-the-line finishes and tucked away behind every celebrity’s favorite feature: high-privacy hedges.

“A unique attribute about the house is what it retains from your own treasured past — memories of how you grew up and felt comfortable and safe,” Knizek said.

 

The Strokes’ Nick Valensi & Wife Amanda de Cadenet List Home | Zillow Blog.

Homebuilders are building homes Gen Y wants: NAHB | South Salem Real Estate

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Since June is National Homeownership Month, the National Association of Home Builders is urging Gen Y’s to invest in a home.

More than 80% of Gen Y home buyers — people born in 1977 or later — said in NAHB’s 2012 consumer preference survey that they prefer an energy-efficient home.

“As the economy recovers and young people who had to live at home with their parents move forward with their lives and achieve their dreams of homeownership, home builders are delivering homes that cater to the floor plans, features and affordability that this generation desires,” said Rick Judson, chairman of NAHB.

 

Homebuilders are building homes Gen Y wants: NAHB | HousingWire.

CoreLogic: 4.2 million homes in path of hurricane storm-surge | South Salem Real Estate

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More than 4.2 million U.S. homes are located within the risk-zone of hurricane-driven storm-surge along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, CoreLogic concluded in a study this week.

After analyzing residential property risk on the national, regional, state, metro and ZIP code level, CoreLogic ($26.430%) produced a Storm Surge Report, noting that $1.1 trillion in U.S. property is situated within at-risk areas.

Unfortunately, risk-prone areas are only increasing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency released a revised flood map for New York suburbs, adding another 35,000 homes and businesses to the list of at-risk properties along the coast.

“Public awareness of the risk hurricane-driven storm surge poses to coastal homeowners has never been higher coming off the heels of Hurricane Sandy last fall,” said Dr. Howard Botts, vice president and director of database development for CoreLogic Spatial Solutions. “Sandy was a harsh reminder of the potential destruction associated with storm-surge flooding, and of just how many communities are vulnerable to that risk, in areas typically assumed to be relatively safe from hurricanes along the northeastern Atlantic shoreline.”

Of the $1.1 trillion in property at-risk, $658 billion is located in 10 major metro areas.

States high on the list include Louisiana with 411,000 homes in storm-surge zones. Not to mention, New York with $135 billion in property at risk.

Long Island, N.Y., alone has an estimated $200 billion in residential property exposed.

CoreLogic says for the first time the report incorporates a climate-related rise in sea levels – a factor putting more neighborhoods at risk.

“These findings show that the Miami area could potentially have the highest increase in the number of homes at risk of the cities discussed in the report,” CoreLogic said. “Given a one-foot rise in sea level, total properties at risk would nearly double from just under 132,000 to almost 340,000, and estimated value would increase from an estimated $48 billion to more than $94 billion overall.”

 

CoreLogic: 4.2 million homes in path of hurricane storm-surge | HousingWire.

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales | South Salem Real Estate

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Bloomberg

The gap between Hong Kong home prices and sales is the widest on record as new taxes, rising supply and the prospect of higher mortgage costs deter buyers in the world’s most expensive housing market.

Enlarge imageHong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales

Residential buildings stand in the Mid-levels area of Hong Kong. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks Centaline Property Agency Ltd.’s weekly index of home prices against monthly sales of residential units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg dating back to 1996. Prices have fallen 4.2 percent from a record reached in mid-March, compared with a 77 percent contraction in sales from their post-global financial crisis peak in 2010. The lower panel shows the U.S. benchmark interest rate compared with America’s unemployment rate.

The Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the U.S. counterpart has kept borrowing costs in the city at near-record lows, underpinning a 109 percent gain in home prices since the beginning of 2009, even as the government imposed several property curbs to cool demand. The city’s housing market got an additional boost in January 2012 when the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low through at least late-2014.

“When people were expecting prices to rise, as they had been over the last couple of years, none of the government’s measures could deter buyers because borrowing costs were low,” said David Ng, an analyst at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Now, the opposite is happening.”

Since 2010, Hong Kong has charged an extra tax of up to 20 percent of the value of homes on buyers who resell them within three years and raised the minimum down-payment on mortgages for homes costing more than HK$7 million ($902,000). In October, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying imposed an extra 15 percent tax on all home purchases by companies and non-residents, and promised to raise land supply

 

 

Hong Kong Home Prices at Record Gap to Sales – Bloomberg.

Buying a home after short sales and foreclosures | South Salem Real Estate

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Back when the Great Recession began, Cary Schneider lost a wife and a job. Because of that, he lost his house, too.
He’s since replaced all three. His is a tale of loss and recovery, both in love and finance.
This being a personal finance column, we’ll stick to the money part. Schneider is proof that people can pick themselves up and become homeowners again after foreclosures and short sales.
More of that is happening these days. The giant mortgage players — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration — require people who defaulted on mortgages to spend years in credit purgatory before they can get another house.
Six years after the bursting of the housing bubble began, those sentences have expired for millions. In the meantime, they’ve found jobs and built some savings.
Now, some are ready to buy.
“I’ve done more FHA loans for people with foreclosures in the past six months than in the past 17 years,” says Jeff Griege of Paramount Mortgage, who handled Schneider’s loan.
And so Schneider is now the happy owner of a newly built home in Imperial, which he shares with his new wife and her children.
“All my friends and family are amazed,” he says.
Back during the real estate boom of the last decade, Schneider and his former wife bought a new house in Jefferson County. They bought before they had managed to sell their previous house.
So, they signed up for an adjustable rate mortgage. The rate started low, but would jump much higher after two years. “I was leveraged and gambling,” he said.
But he thought the odds were with him. The plan was to refinance into a long-term mortgage once the old house sold. Then things started to fall apart.
His marriage broke up, and Schneider no longer had two incomes to support the mortgage. He lost his job.
The old home did sell, but Schneider no longer had the income needed to refinance. After two years, the rate on the mortgage reset and the payment jumped from $1,500 to $2,200 per month. He fell behind.
“I couldn’t do it. I called the finance company and begged. They said there was nothing they could do,” he said. By 2008, he was facing foreclosure.
“I was sitting on the couch, drowning my sorrows. I’d just received my first foreclosure notice,” he said.
Then a real estate agent knocked on the door, suggesting that he try a short sale. That’s a deal in which a buyer pays less for the house than the seller owes on the mortgage. The bank agrees to eat the difference, calculating that it would lose more money by foreclosing and trying to sell the house.
Banks have become much more amenable to short sales in the last two years. But in 2008, they were hard to get. Schneider owed $300,000. The bankers accepted a second offer for $260,000.
“I felt bad. It’s unfair to make a mistake and walk away,” he says. But he thinks the bank is also to blame for making him a risky loan. “There’s no way I should have been in that house. I couldn’t afford it,” he said.
Schneider started working again. He did a smart thing; he kept up payments on his other debts even as he was losing his house.
Foreclosures and short sales are hell on credit scores, and a decent score is important in getting a mortgage. A foreclosure can knock 85 to 160 points off your credit score, and people with high scores suffer most, according to illustrations supplied by the FICO scoring company.
But if you pay other debts on time, your score starts to improve in as little as two years, FICO says.
“If you have late payments after a foreclosure or short sale, that’s really going to make it difficult to get a new mortgage,” says mortgage lender George DeMare, managing partner of Midwest Mortgage Capital in west St. Louis County.

 

Buying a home after short sales and foreclosures | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Another Housing Bubble Ahead? | South Salem Real Estate

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HOUSE PRICES in the US are heating up, as the flow of new homes and permits continue to steadily increase and the attraction of historically low mortgage rates motivates buyers, writes George Leong of Investment Contrarians.
The buyers that are driving up the housing market are not only the buyers of principal homes, but also the investors who are attracted to the relatively lower home prices and cheap financing.
What is interesting is that we are seeing major buying from not only the smaller investor who may dabble in an investment property, but also the large institutions and hedge funds that are getting into the swing of things, gobbling up hundreds and thousands of properties at lower prices.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index, comprising the 20 largest US metropolitan cites, increased a better-than-expected 9.3% in February, representing the 13th straight up month for prices.
While the housing market is far better than it was a few years ago, when the sub-prime mortgage crisis crushed the housing market and left a trail of destruction, my view is that there may be a bubble building as much of the current surge in prices is due to the cheap money.
Just consider the S&P/Case-Shiller index and notice the major jump in home prices in the housing market. For example, home buyers in the Phoenix housing market saw home prices surge 23% year-over-year, while those living in San Francisco reported an 18.9% surge in home prices.
My problem is that much of the buying in the housing market is being triggered by low-financing costs that can inevitably get homeowners in trouble once interest rates begin to ratchet higher—and they will go higher. For instance, carrying a $100,000 mortgage will become more expensive for many homeowners who were initially able to enter into the market only because of the low rates.
Even Robert Shiller, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index, is not that enthusiastic. He feels that the current housing climate is occurring in an “abnormal economy” that has been created by the money printing by the Federal Reserve. Shiller actually believes that home prices will do very little over the next decade. (Source: Napach, B., “Robert Shiller: Home Prices Will Remain Relatively Stagnant For Next 10 Years,” Yahoo! Finance, April 30, 2013.)
Years ago, after the last housing bubble, I said that if you have the money, go out and buy an investment property—you would be buying homes when they were cheap and, best of all, the money was cheap.
So as long as the Federal Reserve continues to pursue its bond-buying program and place downward pressure on financing rates, the housing market will continue to improve.

 

 

Another Housing Bubble Ahead? | South Salem Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.

Zillow survey: 5% home value growth expected in 2013 | South Salem NY Real Estate

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With more than 100 forecasters predicting Zillow’s Home Value Index could end the year up an average of 5.4% from last year, fears of a market bubble resurfaced.

According to the latest Zillow ($62.94 0%) Home Price Expectations Survey, the median U.S. home value is expected to rise to $165,280, on average by the end of 2013.

At the end of 2012, the U.S. Zillow Home Value Index stood at $156,800.

In the latest survey, conducted in late February, respondents reported they expected average home value growth of just 4.6% in 2013. In 2014, respondents predicted average home value appreciation of 4.4%, up from prior expectations of 4.2%.

While panelists were more skeptical on near-term value appreciation this year and into 2014, their expectations for nationwide home value growth in 2015, 2016 and 2017 were slightly more pessimistic than in prior surveys.

Panelists said on average they expect annual home value growth between 3.5% and 3.7% from 2015 through 2017. This is a modest drop from previously expressed expectations in the 3.6% to 3.8% range.

Cumulatively, respondents anticipate home values to rise 22.3% through 2017, on average.

“The panel’s expectations of near-term home value appreciation remaining above historic norms are consistent with a market struggling to satisfy strong demand from buyers attracted by rock-bottom interest rates and improving economic conditions,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

Humphries added, “But looking further out, that appreciation will have to moderate as interest rates rise, or else homes that seem affordable today – despite rapidly rising values – are going to look very expensive relative to people’s incomes as it gets more costly to finance a home. How the Federal Reserve handles the eventual winding down of its policy of quantitative easing will be critical in determining if the current period of rapid appreciation is a benign bounce off the bottom, or a more dangerous bubble being re-inflated.”

The more optimistic quartile of panelists predicted, on average, a 6.6% rise in home values in 2013. However, the pessimistic bunch expects an average increase of only 4.2%.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/fastnews

Understanding Facebook EdgeRank [Infographics] | South Salem Realtor

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Give your posts a higher probability of appearing at the top of users’ News Feeds.

Understanding Facebook Edge Understanding Facebook EdgeRank [Infographics]The News Feed — in the center column of your home page — is a list of stories from the people and pages you follow on Facebook. Customized and continuously updated, it is designed to make the most out of the time you spend on the social network by serving up the information that’s the most meaningful to you. News Feed stories include likes, status updates, app activity, photos, videos, and links.

According to comScore, 40% of time on Facebook is spent on the News Feed. When a user logs in, there are normally many more posts than can fit in their “top news”. EdgeRank is an algorithm developed by Facebook that governs what is displayed — and how high — on the News Feed. Knowing how Facebook decides what shows up (and what doesn’t) in news feeds is key for digital marketers. If you can write posts with an eye toward the EdgeRank algorithm, they will have a higher probability of being displayed at the top of users’ “top news”.

 

What is an Edge?

Every piece of content in Facebook is called an Object (for our purposes here, think “post”), and each interaction with that content is called an Edge. Examples of Edges include status updates, comments, likes, and shares. Each Edge is comprised of Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. Sounds pretty complicated, right? Stay with me and you’ll understand why it’s simple and effective — it’s very similar to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The EdgeRank algorithm

EdgeRank Algorithm Equation Understanding Facebook EdgeRank [Infographics]

EdgeRank is the sum of Edges. It looks at all of the Edges (actions on Facebook) that are connected to you and ranks them according to their importance to you. Objects (posts) with the highest EdgeRank typically appear at the top of the News Feed, although there’s a small amount of randomness.

What is Affinity?

Affinity is a one-way relationship between a user and an Edge. Think of it as a measure of the closeness between you and a brand. It looks at whether or not you’ve previously interacted with a post or whether your friends are engaging with it — actions taken into consideration include liking, sharing, commenting, and messaging.

What is Weight?

Weight is a system that increases or decreases the value of actions within Facebook. All Edges(Facebook actions) are assigned a value chosen by Facebook. Edges that take the most time to accomplish tend to weigh more — for example, commenting is more involved than simply liking a post, so it’s considered to be more valuable.

What is Time Decay?

Time Decay is the easiest of these variables to understand. It refers to how long the Edge has been alive — expressed mathematically, it is 1 ÷ (Time Since Action). The older an Edge is, the less value it has. This helps weed out old content and replace it with interesting new content.

Improve the EdgeRank of your posts

Here are some ways to get your posts to the top of Facebook’s News Feed:

1. Create and post more engaging content and post it often

Increase affinity for the people who like your Facebook page by posting content that appeals to them. Polls, questions, contests, and other interactive initiatives increase engagement. The more often you post, the less you’ll deal with post decay, which lowers content visibility.

2. Calls to action will encourage more people to like your page

facebook page evolution Understanding Facebook EdgeRank [Infographics]

Engagement increases with the size of your audience. Clear CTAs that raise interaction rates — sharing, liking, and commenting on your posts — improves the weight of that content. Post trivia questions and encourage people to answer by commenting on the posts, ask users to tag themselves in photos and like their favorites, etc.

3. Post links, photos, and videos frequently

Facebook pages that always include these have the best EdgeRank scores. Text-only posts don’t stand out or offer much opportunity for engagement. Adding links, photos, and videos to all of your posts increases visual interaction, making it more likely that users will view/watch, share, like, comment, and browse. This improvesaffinity and weight.

4. Avoid attracting Likers with low affinity

Contests that give away unrelated prizes attract many people who will never engage with your brand — they’re only liking your page to get the swag you’re giving away. Chances are that none of your messages will show up in their news feeds. If thousands of people like your page but only a few actually see your content, you’re not accomplishing your goal. It’s important to build an online community instead of going for the “low-hanging fruit” to increase the number of people who like your page, which creates an illusion of engagement.

5. Post consistently at strategic times

Post often — at least once a day — to decrease the time decay of your content. See my post, How to Improve Your Facebook Fan Engagement, for detailed analysis about the best times to post by industry. It includes a cheat sheet for effective wall post strategies.

 

 

 

http://www.pamorama.net/2013/05/05

Uninsured losses on property theft and fraud are tax deductible | South Salem Real Estate

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Fraud by building contractors is a distressingly common occurrence.

How’s this for a nightmare scenario: You agree to pay a contractor $400,000 to tear down part of your house and put in an addition. While the work is going on, you, your spouse, and five children stay with the wife’s parents. The contractor tells you that the work is progressing according to schedule and you make multiple payments.

Suddenly, the contractor dies. He was only 30 years old. It turns out he was a drug addict. You discover that the contractor failed to do much of the work he said had been done. Moreover, considerable damage was done to the house during construction because the contractor failed to protect it from the weather.

Naturally, you sue everybody you can. The only entity that has any money you can collect from is the deceased contractor’s insurer. Unfortunately, it turns out that the insurance policy lapsed because the premiums weren’t paid. In the end, you settle with the insurer for $10,000.

All this happened to James and Gaetana Urtis. They figured that at least they could deduct some of their losses from their income taxes. They claimed a $188,070 theft loss deduction — the amount they paid the contractor that they determined he had pocketed instead of doing the promised work.

But — you guessed it — the IRS denied the deduction.

via inman.com