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History of Pound Ridge NY | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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Originally home to the Siwanoy and Kitchawong Indians (Mohican tribes, a subgroup of the Algonquians), the town takes its name from a tribal “pound” or enclosure for game that was on one of the area’s many “ridges”. The Indians led a relatively peaceful life of planting, hunting, and fishing.

Pound Ridge was originally settled in 1640’s as part of a tract of land purchased from local Indians by Captain Nathanial Turner, and it was officially incorporated in 1788. For the last 250 years there has been much controversy over the spelling of “Pound Ridge” or “Poundridge”, but finally in 1948 the Town Board declared the name to be the two-worded version.

During the Revolution in 1779, Pound Ridge was the scene of the dramatic raid led by the British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton (his portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds shown at right). He overwhelmed the local militia commanded by Major Ebenezer Lockwood and the regiment of Continental Light Dragoons (mounted infantry) led by Lt. Col. Elisha Shelton stationed in the Hamlet area. Fortunately, Tarleton got a bit lost finding Pound Ridge, which enabled the Americans more time to prepare. However, with better than a 2 to 1 advantage, Tarleton (a.k.a. “The Butcher”) conquered, plundered, and burned much of the town. 

By 1920, the population dwindled to 515. Then, during the 1930’s things changed. Hiram Halle, an inventor and businessman, came to Pound Ridge from New York City and began renovating and reconstructing houses. 

He hoped to enhance the community, and it did attract actors, writers, artists, and musicians. They discovered that Pound Ridge was a charming and convenient getaway and began purchasing homes. Benny Goodman was one of the first of these residents, and he even composed a melody entitled “Pound Ridge”.  Many creative people and celebrities continue to move to Pound Ridge (sometimes referred to as the 2nd Hollywood).

By the 1940’s, Pound Ridge’s population rose to almost 800, and it continued to grow slowly and steadily to 4,000 in 1980 and 4,550 in 1990 to 4,700 in 2000.

Interest in the preservation of Pound Ridge’s architectural heritage has also been maintained throughout the years. These older landmarks and homes (with wells and barnegats for crushing seashells) are an integral part of the character of the town and provide the community a shared “pride of place”.

The current population of the residents of the Town of Pound Ridge, NY includes 4,918 people (2004 US Census) living mostly in single-family dwellings on 2 or 3-acre minimum zoning districts.

In addition there are deer galore, emus, swans, ducks and geese, foxes and coyotes, raccoons, otters, squirrels, chipmunks, frogs, crickets, etc..

And last but not least is the official Town of Pound Ridge Cemetery originally known as “Burial Hill”.
 

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8 Ways to Improve Your Credit in Pound Ridge NY | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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Credit scores, along with your overall income and debt, are a big factor in
determining if you’ll qualify for a loan and what loan terms you’ll
be able to qualify for.
  1. Check for and correct errors in your credit report. Mistakes happen, and
    you could be paying for someone else’s poor financial management.
  2. Pay down credit card bills. If possible, pay off the entire balance every
    month. However, transferring credit card debt from one card to another could
    lower your score.
  3. Don’t charge your credit cards to the maximum limit.
  4. Wait 12 months after credit difficulties to apply for a mortgage. You’re
    penalized less for problems after a year.
  5. Don’t purchase big-ticket items for your new home on credit cards
    until after the loan is approved. The amounts will add to your debt.
  6. Don’t open new credit card accounts before applying for a mortgage.
    Having too much available credit can lower your score.
  7. Shop for mortgage rates all at once. Too many credit applications can lower
    your score, but multiple inquiries from the same type of lender are counted
    as one inquiry if submitted over a short period of time.
  8. Avoid finance companies. Even if you pay the loan on time, the interest
    is high and it will probably be considered a sign of poor credit management.
  9. This information is copyrighted by the Fannie Mae Foundation and is used with
    permission of the Fannie Mae Foundation. To obtain a complete copy of the publication,
    “Knowing and Understanding Your Credit,” visit Home Buying Guide.
Reprinted from REALTOR® Magazine Online by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

 

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The Cost of Living in NYC | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The Price 20-Somethings Pay to Live in the City

ABE CAVIN QUEZADA, a 22-year-old aspiring music producer, lives with two roommates in a three-bedroom apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Mr. Cavin Quezada, who works as an unpaid intern at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, has kind words for his building, a renovated tenement near Marcus Garvey Boulevard, and for his apartment, for which he pays $500 a month and has a 10-by-6-foot bedroom. But as for the neighborhood, he is less enthusiastic.

“Before this I was living in a loft in Bushwick,” said Mr. Cavin Quezada, who grew up outside Washington. “This apartment is nicer, and has more amenities, but the neighborhood is noticeably fishier. In Bushwick, I never really felt threatened. Now, the sounds around are more aggressive. I’ll see 20 guys ride by on motorcycles, or hear gunshots outside my window.

“And one day,” he said, “in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, I saw a guy on a motorcycle with a handgun. It was not a reassuring sight.”

Mr. Cavin Quezada often works until 2 a.m. or later, and the first few nights after moving here, he considered asking one of his roommates to meet him at the subway after work and walk him back to the apartment.

Does his mother, who’s paying his rent, worry about him? “I don’t think I’ve given her enough details for her to worry,” Mr. Cavin Quezada said.

New York City was home to nearly 1.28 million people in their 20s last year, up from 1.21 million in 1980. In many respects, Mr. Cavin Quezada’s situation mirrors the way large numbers in that age group are living, three years after the Great Recession began.

To be sure, earlier generations had their share of hard-luck housing stories. But statistical evidence suggests that today’s new arrivals have a tougher struggle to live well, or even adequately, compared with their counterparts of just a decade ago. Battered by the one-two punch of persistent unemployment and the city’s high housing costs, they are squeezing into ever smaller spaces and living in neighborhoods once considered dicey and remote.

They are doubling, tripling, quadrupling and even quintupling up. According to the New York City Planning Department, 46 percent of New Yorkers in their 20s who moved to the city from out of state between 2006 and 2008 lived with people to whom they were not related, up from 36 percent in 2000.

Moving back in with parents is fast becoming the new normal. Those who do fly the family nest are paying an ever larger percentage of their often meager income for rent. Between 2006 and 2008, according to the Planning Department, the portion of New Yorkers in their 20s who moved to the city from other states and who paid at least 35 percent of their income for rent was 42 percent, up from 39 percent in 2000.

Even young people in high-paying fields like finance have to make sacrifices. There’s the investment banker who can afford only a 450-square-foot studio, and the financial analyst who lives in a third-floor walk-up studio illegally divided into two rooms.

In the words of Allison Gumbel, a 28-year-old photographer who lives in a third-floor walk-up in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn: “There’s always a compromise. And when I say compromise, I don’t just mean that you don’t have nice floors or good light.”

Still young adults swarm to the city, especially those eager to pursue careers in finance, the arts, media and other fields for which New York has long served as the nation’s heart. They come to find work, to find one another and to hang out in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and the Lower East Side that have become almost geographic extensions of college dorm life. Here are some tales from the front lines.

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Stefan Rurak, 26, a furniture maker, has lived for two years in a former furniture store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His roommate has the front room; Mr. Rurak has the 9-by-12-foot windowless space in the rear, for which he pays $325 a month. The arrangement isn’t legal, but it allows Mr. Rurak, an Oberlin graduate who moved to New York five years ago, to pursue work he loves.

“I really lucked out,” he said. “Without a doubt, I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without this space.”

“Like every artist,” he added, “I came to New York after college. I never planned on staying this long, but I did various things. I worked in construction, I worked as an art handler. Opportunities came up.

“It’s not that I like New York so much. But things happen here that wouldn’t happen in other places.”

And he has only good things to say about his neighborhood. “It’s not like Williamsburg, at least not yet,” he said. “You don’t see all those college kids in tight pants. It’s not quote unquote hot.”

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Mortgage Activity Logs Biggest Drop of the Year Says MBA | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Home loan demand fell 14 percent last week, as higher interest rates sent refinancing down 17 percent. This was the biggest drop of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey. 

Applications for mortgages to purchase homes fell 5 percent last week compared to the previous week on an adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, purchase applications decreased 8.2 percent compared with the previous week and were 11.3 percent lower than they were the same week a year ago. 

Purchase applications had been on the rise for the previous three weeks, but “rates increased sharply last week due to stronger economic data and lingering uncertainty regarding the structure and impact of the Fed’s QE2 program. Mortgage applications … dropped in response,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics.  

Here are the average rates: 

▪ 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.46 percent from 4.28 percent. 

▪ 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.87 percent from 3.64 percent. 

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (11/17/2010)

 

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9 Tips for Getting Vacant Homes Ready for Winter | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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Houses that will sit empty through the winter need attention to avoid frozen pipes, reports Long Island American Water, which is part of American Water, the largest investor-owned U.S. water and waste water utility company

The company offers these tips for ensuring that pipes don’t burst:

· Search for pipes that are not insulated, or that pass through unheated spaces such as crawl spaces, basements, or garages. Wrap them with pre-molded foam rubber sleeves or fiberglass insulation.

· Wrap really vulnerable pipes with electric heating tape with a built-in thermostat that only turns heat on when needed.

· Seal cracks and holes in outside walls and foundations with caulking to keep cold wind from pipes. Look for areas where cable TV or phone lines enter the house, to be sure holes are tightly sealed.

· If hot-water radiators heat the home, bleed the valves by opening them slightly. Close them when water appears.

· Before really cold weather sets in, make certain that the water to outdoor hose bibs is shut off inside the house and the lines are drained.

· Drain any hoses and air conditioner pipes.

· Wrap the water heater or turn it off.

· Make sure gutters and downspouts have been cleaned to remove debris that could freeze and cause clogs during cold weather.

· Know where the main water shut-off valve is located in case it needs to be shut off during an emergency.

Source: Long Island American Water (11/16/2010)

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10 Big-Impact, Low-Cost Remodeling Projects | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Working with sellers who have some—but not unlimited—cash for upgrades? Here are budget-minded enhancements you can suggest to make their home stand out.

1. Tidy up kitchen cabinets.

“Potential buyers do open kitchen cabinets and look inside,” says Morrissey. “Home owners can add rollout organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff.”

2. Add or replace tile.

“By retiling very inexpensively, you make a room look way cleaner that it was,” says Javier Zuluaga, owner of Home Repairs and Remodeling LLC in Tempe, Ariz. “Every city has stores that offer $1 to $2 tile, so home owners have to pay only for the low-cost tile and labor to replace a dated backsplash or add a new one. We also use inexpensive tile to upgrade bathrooms.”

3. Add a breakfast bar.

When a wall separates a kitchen from a family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar. “In one home, there was a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and living room,” explains Matthew Quinn, a sales associate at Quinn’s Realty & Estate Services in Falls Church, Va., who handles estate and real estate sales for family members whose loved ones have passed away. “We left the structure of the cutout, added an oversized granite breakfast bar, and put chairs in front of it. That cost about $600.”

4. Install granite tile instead of a slab.

“Everybody is hot for granite kitchen countertops, but that can be a $5,000 upgrade,” says John Wilder, a general contractor and owner of Fence and Deck Doctor in New Castle, Ind. “Instead, home owners can put in 12-inch granite tiles for about $300 in materials and get very high impact for little money.”

5. Freshen up a bathroom without retiling.

“With a dated bathroom, I recommend putting in a new medicine cabinet for $100 to $150, light fixtures for about $100, a faucet for $50 to $75, and a vanity for $200 to $300,” says Wilder. “And instead of replacing the tile, the existing grout can be lightly scraped and regrouted, which leaves a haze that can be buffed out and will make the tile look brand new. Also install glass shower doors. A French door adds a lot of panache and elegance for $250, and people will notice the door, not the tile. With all that, you’ve done a bathroom remodel for $1,000 to $2,000.”

6. Freshen up the basement.

“If home owners have cement block or poured concrete walls in the basement, I suggest they have a contractor fill in cracks with hydraulic cement, do a basement waterproofing, and paint it,” recommends Wilder. “They can then add a top coat to add color. They can also paint the basement floor with a good floor paint, which spiffs it up. The basement may not be finished, but it’s no longer a damp dungeon.”

7. Add a room.

Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom for just the price of creating a wall. “One time, we closed off a half-wall to an office and added a door to the other side of the room, thus creating another bedroom,” says Quinn. “That $400 procedure, which took a contractor one day, netted about $40,000 in the sales price.” Zuluaga has also added bedrooms inexpensively. “In a two-bedroom house, there was an archway that led to a third room that was used as a den,” he explains. “It had a dry bar where there would have been a closet, so we took out the dry bar and created a closet so the owners had a third bedroom.”

8. Spruce up cabinet fronts.

Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. Reconditioning is the least expensive move for under $1,000. “If the wood is starting to look shabby from use or contaminants in the air, we take out the nicks and scratches, recondition it with oil, and put new hardware on,” explains Heidi Morrissey, vice president of marketing and sales at Kitchen Tune-Up in Aberdeen, S.D. For $1,500 to $4,000, owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for $4,000 to $12,000, they can have all the cabinets refaced. “With refacing, owners can change the color of the cabinets by replacing the door and having a new skin put on the boxes,” says Morrissey. “If they have oak cabinets today, they can have cherry the next day.”

9. Replace light fixtures.

“In a foyer and in bathrooms and kitchens,” says Wilder, “replacing overhead light fixtures provides a lot of pop for a little money.” If the kitchen has track lighting, Zuluaga suggests the home owner spend $450 to $600 to have an electrician replace it with recessed canned lights on a dimmer switch to add ambience. For about $700, Zuluaga also suggests installing pendant lights over a kitchen island or peninsula.

10. Tech-up the garage.

“Sometimes we replace the garage door opener with a remote touchpad entry system,” says Zuluaga. “That costs about $425 and makes it look like a high-end system.”

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Banks Raise Credit Scores to Qualify for a Mortgage | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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Credit Score Requirements Stifling Borrowers

 
Despite record-low interest rates, an increasing number of Americans can’t afford to buy a house. 

The nation’s two largest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., have raised the minimum required credit score on FHA-insured loans to 640 from 620.  

Requiring a 640 credit score excludes about 15 percent of FHA borrowers, FHA commissioner David Stevens said.

Such a high limit will further delay a recovery in the real estate market, says Ron Phipps, president of the National Association of REALTORS®.

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Bedford NY Town Government | Bedford NY Real Estate

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A five member Town Board, made up of the Supervisor and four Town Board members elected at large, functions as the legislative body of the Town and is responsible for the “health, safety and welfare” of its residents. Terms for Town Board members are four years; the Supervisor’s term is two years.
 

The Supervisor functions as the Chief Fiscal Officer and Chief Executive Officer. A Deputy Supervisor is appointed to assist with the duties of the Supervisor during their absence.

The Town Board is a legislative body, responsible for setting policy, adopting the annual budget, and enacting laws and resolutions for the betterment of the Town’s residents.

Regular Town Board meetings are conducted the first and third Tuesdays each month at 8 pm in the Town House followed by a Public Open Forum. Work sessions are held as announced. All meetings are open to the public and only certain legally sensitive issues may be discussed in executive session.

Members of the Town Board may be reached by contacting the Supervisor’s Office or sending mail to the Town Supervisor’s Office at 321 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills, NY 10507

Supervisor
Lee V. A. Roberts, Supervisor
Two year term ending 12/31/11
Email: Supervisor@BedfordNY.info
Telephone: 914-666-6530
FAX: 914-864-1030

 
Town Board
 
Chris Burdick
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/11
Email: CBurdick@BedfordNY.info
 Peter A. Chryssos
Town Board Member, Deputy Supervisor
Term ending 12/31/13
Email: PChryssos@BedfordNY.info
 

Francis T. Corcoran
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/13
Email: FCorcoran@BedfordNY.info 
David Gabrielson
Town Board Member
Term ending 12/31/11
Email: DGabrielson@BedfordNY.info
 
Town Justices
The Town of Bedford has two Town Judges, each elected to a four-year term. The Judges hold sessions of Criminal Court, Civil Court and Traffic Court.

 
Kevin Quaranta
Term ending 12/31/11

 Erik P. Jacobsen
Term ending 12/31/13
 
Email: Court@BedfordNY.info
Voice: 914-666-6965
FAX: 914-666-2490

 
Town Clerk
The Town Clerk is elected to a four-year term and duties include, among many, running the Town Elections and serves as the Registrar of Vital Statistics.
Lisbeth (Boo) Fumagalli, Town Clerk
Term ending 12/31/13
321 Bedford Road
Email: TownClerk@BedfordNY.info
Voice: 914-666-4534

 
Westchester County Legislator
2nd County Legislative District
Peter Harckham
Westchester County Office Bldg.
148 Martine Ave.
White Plains, NY 10601
(914) 995-2810
Email: Harckham@westchesterlegislators.com

 Westchester County Clerk
Timothy C. Idoni
110 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
White Plains, NY 10601
(914) 995-3080
Email: cclerk@westchestergov.com
 
Westchester County Executive
Robert Astorino
148 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601-3327
(914) 995-2127

 New York State Senate
40th Senate District
Vincent L. Leibell (R-C)
1441 Route 22, Suite 205
Brewster, NY 10509
(845) 279-3773
Email: leibell@senate.state.ny.us
 
New York State Assembly
89th Assembly District
Robert Castelli
4 New King Street, Suite 125
White Plains, NY 10604
(914) 907-2900
Email: castellir@assembly.state.ny.us

 United States Senate
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D)
531 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
http://gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

 
United States Senate
Charles E. Schumer (D-IN-L)
757 Third Ave., Rm. 17-02
New York, NY 10017
(212) 486-4430
Email: senator@schumer.senate.gov

 United States House of Representatives
19th Congressional District
John J. Hall ( D)
1217 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
(202) 225-5441

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How to Comply with Westchester’s New Well-Water Testing Law | Westchester Real Estate For Sale

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By Edward I. Sumber, Legal Counsel

On May 23, 2007, the County of Westchester adopted Local Law No. 7 of the year 2007 which is entitled “The Private Well-Water Testing Law”. The new Law becomes effective on November 19, 2007. Regulations contemplated by the new Law were published by the County of Westchester on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 and the Law and the Rules and Regulations are posted on the Health Department’s website at http://www.westchestergov.com/health/.

Why Was the New Law Necessary?

The new Law, also referred to as “Laws of Westchester County §707.0 et seq.” is intended to identify properties throughout Westchester County which are served by substandard water supplies so that purchasers of properties and tenants residing in properties served by wells with contaminants, are aware of the circumstances, can remediate and address the issues and so that the Health Department can make available to the public a “general compilation of water test results data arranged or identified by municipality or appropriate geographic area…”. In addition, the Department of Health may establish a public information and education program to assist the public in identifying the potential health affects of consuming contaminated water as well as suggesting water treatment techniques, equipment strategies and identifying funding sources available for treating water from private wells which have failed a water test.

Who Must Comply With the New Law?

There are three aspects to the Private Well-Water Testing Law:

1. §707.03 relates to water testing when a property served by well-water is sold in Westchester County;

2. §707.04 relates to water testing requirements for properties served by well-water which are leased; and

3. §707.05 relates to water testing requirements for new wells.

The burden of compliance with these new sections falls upon a seller of real property upon the sale of the property, the landlord in connection with the leasing of property and the owner of property at the time that a new well is installed.

Requirements upon Sale of Real Property

When a contract of sale for any property served by well-water in Westchester County is signed, the seller must cause a water test to be conducted, which will identify contaminants, constituents, substances, metals, inorganic or organic chemicals (all refered to as “Parameters”) which affect the drinking quality of the water. The seller is required to arrange and pay for the cost of the testing and within ten (10) days of the signing of the formal contract of sale, provide to the purchaser confirmation that the test has been ordered. Within five (5) days after the receipt of the water test results from a certified laboratory, the seller is required to deliver the well-water testing report to the purchaser. The purchaser and seller are required to certify in writing that they have received and reviewed the water-test results. The County Health Department must receive a copy of the test results directly from the certified laboratory.

If the test fails any of the primary parameters (bacteria/total coliform or e-coli, nitrates, arsenic, lead, primary organic contaminants, vinyl chloride or MTBE) the seller will have a choice to a) correct the condition to achieve safe levels of contaminants b) cancel the contract of sale and return the down payment or c) agree in writing to consummate the sale upon terms negotiated between the buyer and the seller.

In addition, the purchaser or seller can test for additional parameters which are not considered “Primary Parameters” and which are referred to in the Regulations as “Secondary Parameters” which affect taste and water quality. Such secondary parameters include pH, iron content, sodium content, chloride content, etc.

Water Testing for Leased Properties

Landlords will be required to test a private well on or before November 19, 2008 and once every five (5) years thereafter. Every new tenant of an apartment in Westchester which is provided with water from a private well is entitled to a copy of the test results whenever a new lease is entered into.

New Wells and Wells Not In Use

Prior to its first use, any new well must be tested and any well which is not in use for a period of five (5) years for drinking purposes must be tested if it is placed into use for a resident or owner.

Who Can Perform the Test?

The test can only be performed by a certified laboratory. The certified laboratory must designate an employee or authorized representative of the certified laboratory to collect

the water sample. The water sample cannot be submitted by the homeowner, by a Realtor or by any other party.

There are highly technical requirements for how the sample is to be obtained including the designation of sampling locations and particular requirements for lead analysis. The format of the report to be provided by the certified laboratory is specified by the Westchester County Department of Health and will include the maximum contaminant levels, guidelines, optimum ranges and other data. The data is required to be reported by the laboratory directly to the Department of Health and to the person who requested the test. Results will not be made available to the public. A list of certified laboratories will be created by the Westchester County Health Department and can be found at the Department’s website at www.westchestergov.com/health.

What is the Estimated Cost of the Testing?

The Questions and Answers promulgated by the Department of Health on September 18, 2007 indicate that the Department believes that the average cost of the well testing will be Four Hundred to Four Hundred Fifty ($400 – $450) Dollars. The seller is required to pay the cost and the Law specifically prohibits an agreement between buyer and seller that the test be waived (§707.09).

What About Contracts Entered Into Prior to November 19, 2007?

The Law provides that it is applicable only to contracts on or after Monday, November 19, 2007. It applies solely to properties which are served by private wells that are providing potable water for drinking purposes (not wells used strictly for watering lawns, etc.). If there was an accepted offer with respect to a property as of November 19, 2007 but formal contracts have not been entered into, the well testing Law will apply. The Law does not allow the seller to pass the costs onto the purchaser. If a test is completed by a seller and the sale is not consummated, the seller can use the test results for a period of one (1) year from the date of the original sample collection although the test for coliform is valid only for six (6) months from the date of the sample collection. In such cases in which a test was already obtained, the seller is required to provide a copy of the test results within ten (10) days of the execution of the subsequent contract.

What are the Penalties for Non-Compliance?

The Department of Health has the ability under the Law to impose heavy fines upon a non-compliant landlord or a seller of real property. Under §707.12, a seller, purchaser or lessor who violates the new Law is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed One Thousand ($1,000) Dollars. In addition, when a contaminated well is not remediated or a test is not provided by a seller to a purchaser or by a landlord to a tenant as required

by the new Law, the County can impose a fine of One Thousand ($1,000) Dollars per day for failure to provide potable water until the condition is corrected or remediated. In addition, any violation resulting from the failure of an owner or landlord to remediate a known condition within one (1) month of the initial violation date is subject to a penalty not to exceed Ten Thousand ($10,000) Dollars for each violation.

What Rights Do Tenants Have?

In the event that a landlord fails to provide potable water to a rented property, the tenant is granted the right under §707.06 to remediate the condition and obtain subsequent tests of the water and to offset the cost of any remediation and subsequent water tests against the rent payable under the lease.

What is the Role of the Realtor?

When originally drafted, the Law imposed upon Realtors and other state licensees an obligation to provide information and assure compliance with the new Law. Through the work of the Westchester County Board of Realtors, the County deleted the sections placing this obligation on State licensees.

Notwithstanding the deletion from the Law of the obligations of Realtors, the self-interest of Realtors to ensure that the transactions which they work to bring about are consummated will necessitate informing sellers and providing information about the new Law and how to bring about compliance.

The Westchester County Department of Health’s website should be accessed by every Realtor to download a copy of the new Private Well-Water Testing Law, the Regulations issued by the Commissioner of Health which are effective on the effective date of the Law (November 19, 2007), as well as the Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) and Answers which are also available on the website. The FAQs are broken into fifteen (15) questions under “Applicability and General Requirements”, nine (9) questions under “Collection and Analysis of Samples” and eleven (11) questions under “Interpreting Test Results & Subsequent Actions”.

A review of these FAQs, the Law and the Regulations reveals that this Law is not simple and will no doubt cause compliance difficulties for some sellers and landlords as well as some unanticipated costs. The Department of Health has also issued a “Summary of Private Well-Water Testing Law” which includes a contact E-mail address for Ms. Nancy Birnbaum (neb1@westchestergov.com) to answer technical questions regarding the electronic transmission of data to the County

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U.S. Home Starts Close to Record Low in October | Armonk NY Homes

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Bloomberg News reports home building is still in the doldrums.  Armonk NY Homes sees the same in Armonk NY. 

Armonk NY Homes  |  Builders in the U.S. began work on fewer homes than forecast in October as the industry remained mired near the depths reached during the recession.

Housing starts fell to a 519,000 annual rate, the fewest since a record low reached in April 2009 and down 12 percent from a revised 588,000 in September that was less than previously estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Work on multifamily units, which is often volatile, plunged 44 percent, swamping a 1.1 percent drop in single-family homes.

Record-low mortgage rates have failed to boost demand, highlighting the limits of Federal Reserve monetary policy in undoing the damage from the bursting of the housing bubble. Companies like D.R. Horton Inc. are bracing for the worst in early 2011 as unemployment hovers near 10 percent and the lifting of foreclosure moratoriums swells the supply of houses.

“Starts are a reminder of just how miserable the situation is in housing,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. “Sales have been so weak for so long that we continue to see starts bouncing along the bottom.”

The cost of living in the U.S. rose less than forecast in October, indicating higher prices for commodities such as fuel aren’t filtering through into other goods and services, figures from the Labor Department also showed today.

Less Inflation

The consumer-price index increased 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent rise the prior month. Excluding food and fuel, so-called core costs increased 0.6 percent from October 2009, the smallest year-over-year gain in records dating back to 1958.

Treasury securities climbed after the reports, erasing earlier losses and propelled by the slowdown in inflation. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to prices, was 2.84 percent at 8:52 a.m. in New York, little changed from late yesterday. It had been as high as 2.88 percent earlier in the day. Stock-index futures held earlier gains.

Economists forecast housing starts would decrease to a 598,000 pace from a previously estimated 610,000, according to the median of 75 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 550,000 to 625,000.

The number of single-family homes started dropped to 436,000. Work on multifamily homes, such as townhouses and apartment buildings, fell to an annual pace of 83,000, the fewest since February.

Permits Stabilize

Building permits, a sign of future activity, rose 0.5 percent to a 550,000 rate, less than forecast, from 547,000 in September. The stabilization in permits indicates construction may not fall much more in coming months.

Building permits were forecast to climb to a 568,000 pace from a previously reported 539,000 the prior month.

Mortgage rates near record-lows have failed to prompt an increase in applications for loans to purchase homes. While the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has hovered near the all-time low of 4.21 percent in the week ended Oct. 8, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the group’s index of applications to buy a home is down 38 percent from a six-month high reached in April.

Moratoriums placed on foreclosures at banks threaten to prolong the time it takes for the housing market and prices to fully recover as properties slated for repossession take longer to come to market. Attorneys general in 50 states are investigating home seizure practices after court documents surfaced showing finance-company employees had signed papers without ensuring their accuracy.  |  Armonk NY Homes 

 

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