Tag Archives: Westchester Homes for Sale

Westchester Homes for Sale

1924 Plan to Drain the East River to Ease Traffic Congestion | Katonah Real Estate

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Ten years before Norman Sper proposed filling in the Hudson River to make New York larger, a different dude wanted to do something similar on the other side of Manhattan. An article in a 1924 issue of Popular Science details a plan to drain the East River and create a 5-mile stretch of new land for more roads, subway lines, and civic buildings. The crazy idea came from Dr. John A. Harriss, identified as a “special deputy police commissioner in charge of traffic,” and the goal was to ease traffic congestion, which was supposedly so bad it was causing the city to lose $1.5 million every day.

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Two new concrete dams would have been created, one near the Manhattan Bridge and the other near Hell Gate where the Harlem and East Rivers meet:

The river then would be drained, and the 500 feet between the Manhattan and the Brooklyn docks bridged with levels supported by steel uprights. Thus would be provided a vast traffic center on stilts, joining four boroughs. The plan contemplates removal of noisy elevated structures.

From the river bed would be built subway lines, vehicular subway, taxi stands, conduit, city equipment departments, parking spaces, and private and municipal garages. On the top level would be five 100-foot boulevards for autos and pedestrians. Ramps would be provided for cross-traffic. And midway along the great thoroughfare would be erected an imposing city hall and community center.

The new city hall would house the police and health departments, as well as a music and art center. A new theater district would be built, and public schools and playgrounds would surround the civic center.

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Since the plan would removed a busy shipping waterway, the proposal also called for digging a new canal through Brooklyn and Queens, connecting the Long Island Sound with the Jamaica Bay and Atlantic Ocean. It would probably have suffered the same polluted fate as the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, giving Brooklyn a trifecta of Superfund waterways. Such a shame that never happened.

 

 

1924 Plan to Drain the East River to Ease Traffic Congestion – Curbed’s Could Have Been – Curbed NY.

Investors Still Bullish on Real Estate | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Real estate ranks second as America’s favorite long term investment despite the three trillion dollars in equity homeowners lost during the housing depression, according to a new survey by Bankrate.com.

More than one in four Americans (26 percent) favor cash, edging out real estate (23 percent). One in six (16 percent) favor gold or other precious metals, even though those investments have been pummeled in 2013, while only 14 percent say stocks would be their choice. Just eight percent of Americans chose bonds. For money not needed for more than 10 years, 26 percent of Americans favor cash, 23 percent real estate, 16 percent gold/other precious metals, 14 percent stocks and 8 percent bonds.

“Americans not saving enough is well-documented, but hunkering down in cash investments and settling for low returns will only magnify the problem of not having a sufficient nest egg to meet longer-range financial goals such as retirement,” said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate.com’s senior financial analyst. “Other choices may not do the trick either, as real estate is not only very cash-intensive, but often illiquid. And precious metals spit out zero cash flows, with gains solely dependent on price appreciation.”

McBride said using a 401K or IRA to invest in residential real estate is not a good idea except for high end investors who are diversifying their portfolio. That real estate very illiquid and hard to access during an emergency and real estate investments are more cash-intensive that many investors realize.

A recent study by economists at the Atlanta Federal Reserve found that real estate was less profitable than securities as an investment. .

“We compute that 40 percent of homes owned for less than 13 years have negative average annual returns, compared to 12 percent of homes owned for 13 years or more. Interestingly, while a much greater portion of those owning for 13 or more years obtain positive returns, the average annual return was actually slightly higher for those owning fewer than 13 years (0.95 percent versus 1.03 percent),” said Ellyn Terry and Jessica Dill, two economists at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, in a working paper published June 12.

Bankrate.com estimates the average money-market deposit account yields just 0.11 percent, so a $10,000 initial investment would only gain $110.55 over a 10-year period. And the average five-year CD currently yields just 0.78 percent.

 

 

Investors Still Bullish on Real Estate | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

How to Use Facebook Power Editor, a Detailed Guide | Bedford Realtor

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Are you looking for a better way to manage your Facebook ads?

Do you want access to new Facebook advertising features as soon as they’re available?

Facebook offers a powerful and often overlooked way for marketers to do amazing things with ads.

In this article I’ll show you what Power Editor is, explore its benefits and show you how you can create campaigns using Power Editor.

What Is Power Editor?

The most powerful way to target your ideal audience on Facebook is with Facebook ads.

But clicking the “Boost Post” button and using the self-serve ad tool only scratches the surface. If you want to thrive and direct profits with your Facebook ads, you need to use Power Editor.

facebook power editor

Use Power Editor to have full control over your Facebook advertising.

Power Editor is a free browser plugin created by Facebook that lets you bulk-edit your ads. It was initially created as a Chrome plugin. Although it does sporadically work in other browsers, you’ll likely want to use the Chrome browser when working with Power Editor.

Go to Facebook.com/powereditor to test your browser or install the plugin.

But Power Editor is much more than just a bulk ad editor. It has many advantages over Facebook’s self-serve ad tool used by the vast majority of Facebook advertisers.

Here are the benefits of using Power Editor for your Facebook ads.

#1: Get Access to Latest Features

partner categories

Partner Categories is a feature available within Power Editor.

When Facebook rolls out new advanced features, they’re sent first to the Facebook ads API (which goes to third-party tools) and Power Editor. As a result, marketers using Power Editor tend to get these features well before those who use the self-serve ad tool exclusively.

Here are some examples of features you can currently find in Power Editor, but not in the self-serve ad tool:

Partner Categories: Facebook has partnered with three data-mining companies (Axciom, Datalogix and Epsilon) that collect mounds of data on users related to purchase history and lifestyle. Facebook uses this data to let advertisers do some powerful ad targeting with more than 500 categories.

Here’s a sampling of the targeting you can do with the help of Partner Categories:

  • Household size of 6 (8,842,800 users)
  • Upscale department store credit card user (34,618,400 users)
  • Home office supply purchases (2,638,300 users)
  • Aftermarket vehicle purchase over 48 months ago (11,952,800 users)
  • Baby food and products buyers (10,497,100 users)
  • Casino vacations (4,242,000 users)
  • Dog owner (12,643,500 users)
  • Fitness buyers—runners (5,950,600 users)
  • Teacher/educator (223,000 users)
  • Donate to veteran causes (7,016,400 users)

While Precise Interest and Broad Category targeting are dependent on users keeping their profiles updated, Partner Category targeting is based on a user’s actual buying history and completion of surveys.

Lookalike Audiences: Facebook’s recent rollout of Custom Audiences to the self-serve ad tool lets advertisers upload their customer lists into Facebook to target those users with ads.

Power Editor’s Lookalike Audiences builds a similar list of Facebook users based on your customer list.

 

 

How to Use Facebook Power Editor, a Detailed Guide | Social Media Examiner.

Closing Costs Keep Pace with Prices | North Salem Real Estate

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Cash-strapped home buyers struggling with soaring home prices have an unpleasant surprise awaiting them at the closing table. Closing costs are rising nearly as quickly as home prices.

On average, mortgage closing costs rose 6 percent over 2012 to $2,402, according to Bankrate.com. Origination fees accounted for the bulk of the increase, rising 8 percent, while third-party fees for services like title and appraisals edged up 1 percent to $672.

Hawaii’s average closing costs of $2,919 are the highest in the nation. Alaska ($2,675), South Carolina ($2,658), California ($2,639) and New Mexico ($2,566) join the Aloha State in the top five.

Wisconsin ($2,119), Missouri ($2,188), Kansas ($2,193), Michigan ($2,203) and Washington State ($2,208) comprise the bottom five.

“It’s unlikely that you will move to Wisconsin solely to pay lower closing costs, but you should shop around and compare fees from different loan originators to make sure you get the best deal in your area,” said Polyana da Costa, senior mortgage analyst, Bankrate.com.

Closing costs
2013
rank

2012 rank†

State

Lender’s
origination fees

Third-party
fees

Origination plus
third-party fees

12Hawaii$1,970$949$2,919
24Alaska$1,925$750$2,675
36South Carolina$1,935$723$2,658
435California$1,977$662$2,639
543New Mexico$1,807$760$2,566
68North Carolina$1,840$718$2,558
718New Jersey$1,804$741$2,545
834Oklahoma$1,919$600$2,519
920Florida$1,798$719$2,517
107Delaware$1,742$760$2,502
1127Ohio$1,803$693$2,496
1211Georgia$1,816$674$2,490
133Texas$1,690$778$2,468
14*26Pennsylvania$1,920$540$2,460
14*13North Dakota$1,797$663$2,460
1624District of Columbia$1,826$623$2,449
1722Montana$1,767$680$2,446
1819Louisiana$1,782$662$2,443
1933Maryland$1,816$624$2,441
2031Tennessee$1,806$631$2,437
2121Connecticut$1,757$680$2,436
2236Maine$1,761$647$2,408
2349Idaho$1,767$641$2,407
2438Iowa$1,757$647$2,403
2541Arkansas$1,782$614$2,396
2628Indiana$1,732$656$2,387
2748Colorado$1,758$625$2,383
2817Kentucky$1,732$649$2,381
2937Arizona$1,752$621$2,372
3046Oregon$1,707$663$2,370
3123Virginia$1,718$650$2,369
3244South Dakota$1,732$617$2,349
3339Alabama$1,721$627$2,348
3415Rhode Island$1,686$660$2,347
3551Nevada$1,642$704$2,346
3610Nebraska$1,656$689$2,345
371New York$1,504$827$2,331
3840Mississippi$1,682$639$2,320
3945Utah$1,663$653$2,316
4050Wyoming$1,678$623$2,301
4114Massachusetts$1,601$699$2,300
4216West Virginia$1,578$705$2,283
4329Minnesota$1,641$612$2,253
4412New Hampshire$1,576$676$2,252
4542Vermont$1,578$667$2,245
469Illinois$1,591$647$2,238
4747Washington$1,603$605$2,208
4832Michigan$1,591$611$2,203
4930Kansas$1,558$635$2,193
5025Missouri$1,542$646$2,188
515Wisconsin$1,438$682$2,119
Average$1,730$672$2,402

*Denotes a tie

 

 

Closing Costs Keep Pace with Prices | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Luxury Housing’s Latest Trend: ‘Limited-Edition’ Residences | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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When Louis Birdman and Gregg Covin decided to build a luxury condo tower on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard, the developers won approval for a 750-unit tower rising 60 stories. They enlisted internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid – it will be her first skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere — to design a $300 million concrete tower that will rise over Biscayne Bay.

 

But rather than carve out hundreds of studios and one-bedroom apartments, the Miami-based developers decided to try something less conventional: offer massive luxury spreads with enough square footage to rival standalone mansions. The resulting One Thousand Museum Tower plan consists of a mere 83 units spanning the full 60 stories.

 

“We are a very limited-edition building,” says Birdman of the project, which will break ground once a round of financing is complete. “We are not a small building, but we are small in terms of the number of units.”

 

One Thousand Museum Tower’s smallest units, half-floor apartments encompassing 4,600 square feet, start at around $4.9 million. Full-floor units will run up to $15 million and a duplex penthouse spreading across 11,000 square feet will likely have an asking price of $30 million. Units will have private balconies, 10- to 20-foot-high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and access to swanky building amenities like a rooftop helicopter pad, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, valet parking and “security” concierges.

 

Multifamily construction has roared back to life across the U.S. But rather than build low- to mid-range housing for the lion’s share of the population, more developers are going boutique, rolling out ultra high-end condo buildings with extra spacious, amenity-laden units promising a high degree of exclusivity.

 

Call them “limited edition” residences. Developers like Birdman and Covin are targeting this niche market because it translates into significantly more money for their efforts. “It’s a trend we saw in the marketplace of downtown Miami,” explains Birdman. “Units over 3,000 square feet are bringing a premium of almost double [the price per square foot] over average-sized units of 1,100 square feet.”

 

Other developers in the Miami area have caught on. Boutique hotelier Ian Schrager is peddling The Residences at the Miami Beach Edition, a luxury hotel-condo hybrid in Miami Beach comprised of 26 “limited-edition” condos scattered across the top floors of the existing hotel and in a new neighboring tower. The residences, set to be unveiled next year, are designed by architect John Pawson and will boast “outdoor rooms” stocked with private pools, dining areas and pergolas.

 

Seven weeks after the sales office opened in January, more than half of the 26 condos – which had been priced 200% higher than the local market — had reportedly already found buyers, for an average of more than $3,000 per square foot. In March two side-by-side Edition penthouses totaling more than 16,000 square feet (including 9,843 square feet of interior space) went for $34 million in South Florida’s most expensive condo deal to date.

 

Luxury Housing’s Latest Trend: ‘Limited-Edition’ Residences – Forbes.

Soaring Rates Spook Sellers | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Nearly half of all sellers in a recent survey are worried that rising mortgage rates will tank buyer demand, a doubling of concern since the first quarter.

Some 47 percent of sellers now are concerned that rising rates would cause a decrease in buyer demand, up from 23 percent in the second quarter, though 32 percent said they had no major concerns about selling.

“Of course home sellers are worried about interest rates, but the reality is that many buyers believe that rates will continue to go up,” said Los Angeles real estate agent Eric Tan. “They know if they don’t move now, they might be kicking themselves all over again in three months.”

Despite increasing concerns over interest rates, 48 percent of sellers believe now is still a good time to sell, up from 45 percent in the second quarter. Interestingly, belief that now is a good time to buy was up one percent from last quarter. Although slight, this increase in buying confidence is the first in more than a year.

However, only 17 percent of respondents believe that home prices will rise “a lot” in their area in the next 12 months, up from 15 percent in the second quarter; 85 percent of respondents believe that home prices will rise in their area in the next 12 months, unchanged from last quarter.

“Results from our seller survey point to growing confidence in the US economy, and recognition that broad economic gains could erode sellers’ advantages in the housing market as mortgage rates rise,” explained Redfin economist Ellen Haberle.

The survey, by Redfin, was based on responses from 1,448 homeowners across the U.S. who had used Redfin in the last three months. Data was collected from July 19 through 21.

Nearly half of all sellers in a recent survey are worried that rising mortgage rates will tank buyer demand, a doubling of concern since the first quarter.

Some 47 percent of sellers now are concerned that rising rates would cause a decrease in buyer demand, up from 23 percent in the second quarter, though 32 percent said they had no major concerns about selling.

 

 

Soaring Rates Spook Sellers | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Six Ways to Grow a LinkedIn Group, Tips From the Pros | Cross River Realtor

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Are you part of a LinkedIn group that has stalled?

Do you want to create a LinkedIn group?

LinkedIn groups can be a great way to network with your customers, peers and other professionals in your industry.

But it can be challenging to grow your group and get the people you want to join and participate in the discussions.

We asked the pros to share their best tips to grow your LinkedIn groups.

Follow these tips and you’ll find it easier to create the type of community you’re looking for.

#1: Use Email to Send Invitations That Convert

viveka von rosen

Viveka Von Rosen

You’ll need to send out invitations to get your contacts to join your LinkedIn group and LinkedIn has a form for you to do this.

The default LinkedIn message that’s sent when you fill out the form below is: “Subject: Name invites you to join Group” and “Welcome Message: I would like to invite you to join my group on LinkedIn.” Unfortunately this has about 1% chance of getting someone to your group.

linkedin tweetchat participants

Standard LinkedIn group invitations can be boring. (Note the link field at the bottom gives you the link to your group. Copy this and create a custom URL for your group to use in your email invitations.)

Let’s face it. There’s enough noise out there. If you want to get someone to join your group, you need to give them a good reason. Instead of using the standard LinkedIn invitation, use email to craft the kind of message that will get your contacts to join your LinkedIn group.

In my opinion, the person who does this best is Jill Konrath. She has created a beautifully branded email that she sends out to her email list. It not only shares the link, but some of the reasons you might want to join her group, Fresh Sales Strategies.

 

Six Ways to Grow a LinkedIn Group, Tips From the Pros | Social Media Examiner.

‘Sixth consecutive monthly rise’ for house prices | Armonk Real Estate

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House prices rose by 0.9% in July, a sixth successive monthly rise which brought the annual rate of growth to its highest level in three years, according to figures from lender Halifax.

The bank said demand for homes was being boosted by signs of improvement in the economy and government schemes to kick-start the market. Its report is in line with those from other players in the propertymarket, which have shown prices gathering momentum in the first half of 2013 and led several commentators to adjust their forecasts for the year upwards.

Halifax’s latest monthly snapshot of the housing market showed the average price of a UK home reached £169,624 during the month, and that prices were up by 4.6% year-on-year – the highest rate of increase since August 2010.

To work out the annual rate of house price inflation Halifax does not do a straight comparison of monthly figures, but compares the quarterly average of each year. When the monthly figures are compared the annual rate of growth is 5.7%

Three-month growth figures, which offer a better picture of the market than single monthly figures, showed a 2.1% rise – the same as recorded in June.

Figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that in the first six months of 2013 the number of home sales was up by 6% on 2012 at 495,000. Figures for the number of mortgages approved suggest that momentum has continued, with the number rising by 6% between the first and second quarter of the year.

Halifax’s housing economist, Martin Ellis, said: “Greater confidence is likely to have underpinned the increase in housing demand. Official schemes, such as Funding for Lending and Help to Buy, may also be raising demand.”

However, he added: “House prices are expected to continue to rise gradually through this year with only modest economic growth and still falling real earnings constraining housing demand and activity.”

The Funding for Lending scheme, launched in August 2012 to encourage banks and building societies to offer more loans to businesses and households, has been credited with making mortgages more readily available and affordable to homebuyers and remortgagors, and seems to be offering support to the housing market.

Recently, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that the number of first-time buyers reached a six-year high in May, and on Monday there were even signs of a return to sub-prime lending.

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “The outlook for the housing market continues to improve as increased mortgage availability, better rates and more choice at higher loan-to-values combine to make buyers more confident about their ability to get funding.

 

 

‘Sixth consecutive monthly rise’ for house prices | Money | theguardian.com.

8 Costs To Consider When Buying A Rental Property | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Even as home prices and mortgage rates rise, there are still bargains available for borrowers looking to purchase rental properties.

According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, investment-home purchases accounted for 24 percent of all sales in 2012, the second highest mark since 2005.

“Investors have been very active in the market over the past two years, attracted mostly by discounted foreclosures that could be quickly turned into profitable rentals,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement.

While rental properties are certainly appealing, offering the promise of monthly cash flow in addition to long-term appreciation, investment properties have a number of costs that are both visible and hidden, says Michael Whitbeck, real estate investor and founder of Residential Mortgage Underwriting and Processing Institute, a mortgage underwriting training firm in West Bloomfield, Mich. Even the most obvious expenses, like the monthly mortgage payment, might pack a few surprises.

Before you start searching for rental properties, run the numbers to understand whether investing in a rental property will be a windfall or a money pit.

 

 

Bedford New York Real Estate | Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor » Blog Archive » 8 Costs To Consider When Buying A Rental Property | Bedford Hills Real Estate.

Housing mini bubble begins to deflate | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Swimming in tax foreclosures, Michigan’s Wayne Countytreasury office is planning to bundle hundreds of dilapidated tax foreclosure properties into one package at its fall auctions, reported Crain’s Detroit Business.

In the past, the treasurer’s office has experimented with bundling for cases such as subdivision projects that fell apart. This would be the first time the county has bundled so many properties, however.

The bundling is part of a strategy to best position the properties for the future. The idea is to make the bundle appear so unappealing that the properties don’t sell. Many of the properties have dilapidated structures that should be demolished, said the chief deputy treasurer, Dave Szymanski.

The number of bundled properties could be as little as 400 or as high as 1,000. Solitary dilapidated structures that sit in an otherwise solid block of residents would be at the top of the list, as opposed to several dilapidated structures in a largely vacant block.

Builders’ sales offices are being filled on weekends byhomebuyers looking to purchase a house before prices and interest rates climb higher in the Phoenix metro area. While more homes are being built than in 2012, the pace of the recovery is not accelerating as fast as had been anticipated, according to AZ Central.

 

Housing mini bubble begins to deflate | 2013-08-04 | HousingWire.