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Teatown Lake Reservation | Chappaqua NY Homes
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Tag Archives: Westchester Homes for Sale
called “Ecology,” for those interested in working in environmental science is being offered by Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES and is being held at Teatown. In this course, learn and participate in hands-on exploration of several ecosystems including lake, stream and forest. The course will build students’ knowledge of science research and give them an opportunity to explore and learn about the field of ecology. 
Thursday, October 24, 7:30pm
Tuesday, October 29, 7:00pm
exploring the Hudson River and its
Debt Ceiling Debate Hurt Housing | Bedford Hills Real Estate
The bitter Congressional negotiations that led to a temporary raising of the debt ceiling last week may have a lingering effect on consumer attitudes and spending may pose significant downside risks to economic activity in the current quarter, Fannie Mae’s chief economist said.
Growth slowed in the third quarter, although recent fiscal risks threaten a previously expected pickup in growth in the current quarter, according to Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group. Consumers remain key to the outlook, but factors such as the recent federal government shutdown and the furlough of 500,000 workers, as well as the debt ceiling debate, which was resolved temporarily on October 16, appear to be weighing on consumer confidence and tempering real consumer spending. As a result of the fiscal events and the slowing momentum in economic activity from the second quarter to the third quarter, full-year growth is expected to come in at 1.9 percent, a slight downgrade from 2.0 percent in the prior forecast.
Fannie Mae’s October economic and housing forecast is largely unchanged from September’s forecast as it anticipated the modest levels of consumer spending seen toward the end of the third quarter.
However, fiscal uncertainties associated with the federal government shutdown, the protracted negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, and the timing of the Federal Reserve’s tapering of its asset purchase program, pose,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan.
“Our October economic and housing forecast is largely unchanged from the previous forecast as we anticipated the modest levels of consumer spending seen toward the end of the third quarter. However, fiscal uncertainties associated with the federal government shutdown, the protracted negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, and the timing of the Federal Reserve’s tapering of its asset purchase program, pose significant downside risks to economic activity in the current quarter,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “In particular, the contentious Congressional negotiations that led ultimately to Congress raising the debt ceiling may have a lingering effect on consumer attitudes and spending, as was seen following the 2011 negotiations,” Duncan said.
“On the bright side, these fiscal policy issues appear to have had only minimal effect on the housing market to date, which continues to improve overall,” said Duncan. “Notably, the rapid appreciation of home prices during the past year has contributed significantly to household net worth gains and may help to cushion some of the fallout from the fiscal policy debate. Also, the Fed’s continuation of securities purchases will likely keep mortgage rates low, enabling more homeowners to take advantage of refinance opportunities.”
Fannie still forecasts that total sales will end the year at 5.549 million units and home prices will rise 8.3 percent on the FHFA index.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/debt-ceiling-debate-could-hurt-housing/
Inventories Approach Normal Levels | Bedford NY Real Estate
Current inventories are now 13.4% lower than this time last year, closer to the 6-month supply recognized as a balanced market with an equal number of buyers and sellers, according to the latest RE/MAX Housing Report.
RE/MAX reported home sales and prices in September were lower than August, but remained significantly higher than September last year, making September the 20th consecutive month for year-over-year increases in both sales and prices.
September home sales were up 10.7% and the median price of $185,000 was 12.2% above the price in September 2012. With the current rate of sales, the number of months required to sell the entire inventory of homes on the market moved up to 5.0. This is closer to the 6-month supply recognized as a balanced market.
“It’s normal for the housing market to slow down a bit after the peak summer season, but it’s really encouraging to see that both sales and prices remain significantly higher than this time last year,” said Margaret Kelly, RE/MAX CEO. “The strong performance we saw this summer and throughout 2013 confirms we’ve passed the early stages of a housing recovery and are now moving toward a sustainable marketplace.”
The September RE/MAX National Housing Report showed an 18.5% decrease in Closed Transactions from August, but a 10.7% increase over September 2012. This makes September the 27th consecutive month RE/MAX reported higher sales than the same month in the previous year. After a strong summer season with sales peaking in May and July, lower numbers in September appear to be following seasonal trends. Of the 52 metro areas surveyed in September, 47 reported higher sales than September 2012, with 34 reporting double-digit gains, including: Chicago, IL +27.6%, Boston, MA +20.7%, Anchorage, AK +19.9%, Kansas City, MO +19.3%, Wichita, KS +19.1%, and Des Moines, IA +18.9%.
The median price of all homes sold in September was $185,000, a drop of 1.7% from the Median Price in August, but still 12.2% higher than the median price in September 2012. September becomes the 20th consecutive month with a median price higher than the same month of the previous year. Median price increases can be tied directly to the market’s low inventory and strong buyer demand. Of the 52 metro areas surveyed in September, 46 experienced higher sales prices than one year ago. Of those, 19 metro areas reported double-digit increases, including: Detroit, MI +44.4%, Atlanta, GA +36.0%, Las Vegas, NV +30.5%, San Francisco, CA + 28.5%, Miami, FL +24.4%, and Orlando, FL +24.3%.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/inventories-approach-normal-levels/
Smart Shopper: How to Choose a Sofa Bed | Pound Ridge Real Estate
Anyone who has spent a restless night on a friend’s fold-out couch will appreciate the importance of a good sleep sofa. Yes, there are comfortable models on the market — you just need to know what to look for when you shop. Here’s a rundown of some of the most important things to consider.
Do you need a sleep sofa? If you’ve never needed a sleep sofa before but are thinking about buying one “just in case,” you might want to think again. A sofa bed is more expensive than a conventional sofa, so unless you’re going to use it for sleeping, you’re better off buying a conventional sofa and stashing an air mattress in the closet. Due to their construction, sleep sofas have firmer seats than conventional sofas. While seniors often like the extra support (it’s easier to get up), others may find sleepers less comfortable.
What size? Measure the spot where you want to place the sofa bed, and figure out the ideal sofa width for that space. Sleepers come in four standard widths:
Chair: 51 to 58 inches Twin (like the model shown): 56 to 65 inches Full: 68 to 92 inches Queen: 79 to 101 inches
Chair: 51 to 58 inches Twin (like the model shown): 56 to 65 inches Full: 68 to 92 inches Queen: 79 to 101 inches
Will it fit through the door? Measure the height of the room’s ceiling and the width of the doorway (and any preceding doorways, stairs or elevators). Bring those figures to the store, so you’ll know whether you can get the piece into the room. Legs can usually be unscrewed.
Most bed frames are the same. Most sleep sofa mechanisms are made the same way (and by the same manufacturer), so there’s little difference from one brand to another: You’ll find a metal frame with coils around the edges holding canvas decking. (Although sofa beds still have that bar underneath the mattress, it now curves away from the body, preventing painful surprises in the morning.)
Four in Five Mortgages Seen Failing QM Rule | Chappaqua Real Estate
Only about 20 percent of today’s mortgage applications will pass muster with the new QM rule that takes effect January 10, according to a leading software platform used by lenders to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act and other federal rules and regulations covering mortgage lending.
The platform, ComplianceEase, analyzed the effects that the QM rules will have on current mortgage loans , finding that more than one in five loans originated today would not qualify for the QM Safe Harbor. Specifically:
- More than half of such loans have fees that exceed the new 3% points and fees threshold;
- Loans with fees that exceed the 3% threshold typically exceed it by nearly $1,500; and
- The rest have APRs that are too high to qualify for the safe harbor classification.
Loans that fail to comply with the QM rule will not be eligible for purchase, insurance or guarantee by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) or government agencies. Moreover, due to lack of marketability, lenders generally try to avoid originating loans known as “high-cost” loans, which are subject to restrictions in the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA).
With new, stricter points and fees thresholds in the amended HOEPA, close to 3% of loans in the study that previously weren’t HOEPA loans would move into the federal “high-cost” category. On average, those loans would exceed the new HOEPA points and fees threshold by more than $1,000.
“We simulated current lending patterns under the forthcoming rules. The results have given us a good idea of the impact that the new rules and, in particular, the new thresholds will have when January comes around,” said Jason Roth, CMT, senior vice president of Product Development at ComplianceEase.
As part of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is implementing broad regulatory changes to require that mortgage lenders verify that borrowers have the ability to repay their loans. The QM designation offers an alternative to those provisions in exchange for tighter limits on fees, APR, and other terms of the loan. Starting in January, loans that aren’t eligible for purchase, insurance, or guarantee by GSEs or government agencies must also comply with new underwriting standards.
Whether a loan is originated according to QM rules or the ability-to-repay provisions of Dodd-Frank, compliance requirements are both comprehensive and challenging. Lenders are especially concerned about non-compliance with the new rules because legal liability can potentially be assigned to their institutions and any secondary investors or servicers for the life of a loan. In all cases, lenders will need to retain detailed records of their process and their data to substantiate their findings, making technology a must in order to stay in compliance.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/four-in-five-mortgages-seen-failing-qm-rule/
Florida Foreclosure Sales Bring Chinese Drywall Homes to Market | Cross River Homes
The biggest court cases have been settled, and contractors have been working to fix houses built with defective contaminated Chinese-made drywall for years. But houses that contain the malodorous material are still appearing for sale on the Florida real estate market — with the problem undisclosed by sellers and unsuspected by buyers. That’s because homeowners facing foreclosure may have lost their homes — or simply walked away — without addressing, or even knowing about, the contaminated drywall, reports the Bradenton Herald-Tribune (“Bad drywall still a problem for home investors,” by Josh Salman).
“Surging demand from buyers has pushed lenders to rush distressed homes onto the market, many of which were built during the mid-2000s real estate boom, at a time when inexpensive Chinese-made drywall was abundant,” the paper reports.
Estimates of the number of houses containing the bad material don’t reconcile well with the amount of drywall known to have been imported into the country. “An investigation by the Herald-Tribune and the watchdog journalism organization ProPublica found that nearly 7,000 U.S. houses were built with bad drywall, yet enough material was imported to build at least 100,000 homes,” the paper reports.
Now, houses are coming onto the market that have never been inspected to determine whether they have the bad material—even though left in place, it can destroy air conditioner coils, plumbing, wiring, and electronics. “I’m bidding on houses and I keep finding out they have Chinese drywall,” Bob Tarlowski, an investor and contractor who buys and repairs homes in North Port, told the paper. “After I turn them down, they stay up for bid. The banks don’t disclose it, and there’s no recourse.”
Neiman Marcus Offers a Night at the Glass House for $30K | Cross River Real Estate
Photos via Neiman Marcus
Well, we’ve made it about a week into October before the ritzy department stores started rolling out the obscenely expensive holiday fare, and Neiman Marcus, everyone’s favorite peddler of totally unnecessary gifts—$100K Versailles chicken coop, anybody?—is leading the charge, having unveiled yesterday its annual holiday Fantasy Gifts guide. In previous years, this esteemed and gloriously mockable index has included $1.5M Dale Chihuly Pool Sculpture Installations custom-made for the swimming pool and $75K yurts outfitted with pillows made from 18th-century tapestries and hand-made crystal chandeliers. In its 87th holiday catalog? Oh, you know, a $150K “Bespoke Global Falconry Companion”, a Neiman Marcus Aston Martin, a $2.64M outdoor entertainment set-up, and—the perfumed scented clouds part, a warm glow suffuses the scene—a single night at The Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., which can be had for $30K.
Johnson’s 1949 Glass House is not just another utterly beautiful, privacy-eschewing glass residence, it’s the modernist icon that made Connecticut a hotspot for architectural minimalism and a structure that became the textbook definition of perfect form and proportion. Johnson and his longtime partner, art critic and curator David Whitney, lived at the weekend retreat for 58 years, cultivating a pristinely edited collection of art and midcentury furniture, so what Neiman Marcus has on offer is undeniably an incredible opportunity, though at $30,000 for one night (plus the opportunity to invite 10 friends over for dinner), it’s totally debatable whether this buy is anything approaching a value. That said, there’s a good cause involved: all the proceeds of the purchase are siphoned directly to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
http://curbed.com/archives/2013/10/09/neiman-marcus-offers-a-night-at-the-glass-house-for-30k.php
Price Hikes Help High-End Flippers | Waccabuc Real Estate
Recovering prices helped short-term flippers earn an average gross profit of $54,927 on single family home flips in the third quarter, up 12 percent from a year ago.
RealtyTractoday reported that in the third quarter there were 32,993 single family home flips – where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within six months – in the third quarter of 2013, down 35 percent from the second quarter and down 13 percent from the third quarter of 2012.
The higher gross profit was driven in part by an increase in high-end flips on homes that were sold by flippers for $750,000 or more. A total of 968 high-end homes nationwide were flipped in the third quarter, down 13 percent from the previous quarter but up 34 percent from a year ago. More than three-fourths of all high-end flips were in five markets: the New York metro area and four coastal California markets – Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego. Flips on homes priced between $1 million and $2 million increased 42 percent year over year, while flips on homes priced between $2 million and $5 million increased 350 percent year over year.
“Increasing home prices over the past 18 months combined with decreasing foreclosures have created a market less favorable to the high quantity of middle- to low-end bread-and-butter flips that we saw late last year and early this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “But the sharp rise in high-end flipping indicates there is still good money to be made for flippers willing and able to take on the additional risk of buying and rehabbing more expensive homes. With that higher risk also comes the potential for higher reward. The average gross profit on each high-end flip equals more than four times the average gross profit on each flipped home in the lower price ranges.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/price-hikes-help-high-end-flippers/
Shadow Inventory is a Shadow of Itself | North Salem NY Real Estate
The shadow inventory-the number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline–is down 33 percent from a year ago and now is at its lowest level since August 2008, at least one year before the notion of a foreclosure shadow inventory was recognized.
According to CoreLogic’s August National Foreclosure Report, the overall residential shadow inventory as of July 2013 was 1.9 million homes, accounting for a value of $293 billion and representing a supply of 3.7 months. This was down 22 percent from a year ago, when it was at 2.4 million, and down 38 percent from its peak in 2010, when it reached 3 million homes.
CoreLogic also reported there were 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in August of 2013, down from 72,000 in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 34 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 1.3 percent, from 47,000 in July 2013*.
As a basis of comparison to the 48,000 completed foreclosures reported for August 2013, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.
Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country. As of August 2013, approximately 939,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 33 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.2 percent from August 2013 to July 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of August 2013 represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.3 percent in August 2012.
At the end of August 2013, there were approximately 2.1 million mortgages, or 5.3 percent, in serious delinquency (SDQ, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned, REO). The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages is at its lowest level since December 2008.
“The foreclosure inventory continues to improve, as exhibited by these recent numbers,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “A surge in completed foreclosures and a rise in the foreclosure inventory is unlikely given continued house price improvements and shortages of supply in many markets.”
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/shadow-inventory-is-a-shadow-of-itself/
The Ten Most Insanely Expensive Houses in the Hamptons | Bedford Corners NY Homes
[Squabble Lane can be yours for a mere $45.5M]
Ah, the Hamptons, where a crummy teardown shack can cost you $8 million. None of the houses on our list are crummy teardown shacks, but some of them are definitely overpriced. $75 million for non-oceanfront property? Good luck with that. $65 million for six acres in North Haven? Sorry, not even if the seller (a Mr. Richard Gere) personally massages our feet every night for a year. Cody House, the most expensive property on the list, is also available at a money-saving $50 million with fewer acres. We left the $48 million Wooldon Manor off the list as it is currently in contract, proof that if you don’t ridiculously overprice your property, you can sell it quickly.