Tag Archives: Westchester Homes

Westchester Homes

Health Department Issues Heat Advisory In Chappaqua | Chappaqua Real Estate

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. — With temperatures soaring towards 90 degrees on Monday, the Westchester County Health Department has issued a county-wide heat advisory.

Residents are advised to avoid strenuous activity, drink plenty of non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverages, and take precautions to prevent heat-related illness.

The Health Department also stated to residents to be alert for symptoms of heat stroke.

Symptoms include hot, red, dry skin; shallow breathing; a rapid, weak pulse; and confusion. Anyone suffering from heat stroke needs to receive emergency medical treatment immediately. Call 911 if you suspect heat stroke and immediately cool the overheated person while waiting for emergency help to arrive.

“Heat stroke and dehydration can take you by surprise,” Westchester County commissioner of health Dr. Sherlita Amler said in a statement. “The elderly, young children and those with high blood pressure, heart disease, or lung conditions need to be especially careful to avoid heat-related illnesses. High humidity and some medications can also increase a person’s risk for heat stroke.”

While less dangerous than heat stroke, heat exhaustion also poses concerns. Seniors, children up to age four, people who are overweight or who have high blood pressure and those who work in hot environments are most at risk. Signs include headache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness and exhaustion, as well as cool, moist, pale or flushed skin. People suffering from heat exhaustion should be moved out of the sun and have cool, wet cloths applied to their skin.

For more information, visit the Westchester County Health Department Website.

The Real Estate Market Meets the Internet: How Zillow Came to Be (Z) | South Salem Real Estate

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The Fool is exploring Seattle. Today, CEO Spencer Rascoff introduces us to Zillow  (NASDAQ: Z  ) , telling us how the online home and real estate marketplace works, what he considers its greatest strengths, and what investors should know about it.

 

Spencer recounts how the idea for Zillow was born of his time at Expedia, and how far the company has come since then. He also offers some insight on what investors should look for when evaluating any tech company.

 

The Real Estate Market Meets the Internet: How Zillow Came to Be (Z).

Survey: 60 Percent of Homeowners Will Make a Home Improvement This Summer | Katonah Real Estate

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Home improvement big-box stores, get ready. If you think homeowners are sitting idly by this summer trying to beat the heat with their feet up, think again. According to the Zillow Digs Summer Home Improvement Trend and Spending Survey, 60 percent of homeowners plan to make a home improvement or addition this summer.

Zillow Digs Summer 2013 Survey graphic

The survey also provides some insight into the demographic and household makeup of the homeowners and what kinds of projects they have in mind: 

  • Younger homeowners and homes with children are significantly more likely to be planning a home improvement this summer and perhaps as many as three or more home improvements.
  • Homeowners plan to spend a median of $1,200 on summer home improvement projects.
  • Homes with children as well as homeowners 54 and younger plan to spend one-third more ($1,500) compared with homes without children and those 55 and older ($1,000).
  • Some of the most popular summer home improvement projects are outdoor spaces (40 percent) and bathrooms (17 percent).

Ideas for outdoor spaces

Summer Trends 2013 - outdoor space courtesy of Zillow Digs

Zillow Digs photo

Since 40 percent of the home improvement goals will be outdoors projects, we found a few ideas onZillow Digs, where users have shared photos of their favorite outdoor spaces. Instead of infinity pools and sleek modern decks with well-appointed outdoor kitchens, these summer home remodelers prefer camp-like settings that use a lot of stone, particularly stone fireplaces.

Summer Trends 2013 - outdoor space by Boyenga Team

Photo courtesy of Boyenga Team via Zillow Digs

Ideas for bathrooms

Summer Trends 2013 - bathroom courtesy of Jamie Herzlinger

Photo courtesy of Jamie Herzlinger via Zillow Digs

Of the survey respondents, 17 percent said they plan on redoing their bathrooms. But before you start, get out the squeegee and glass cleaner because frosted glass is out. From glass shower enclosures to glass tiles, Zillow Digs users want open and light bathrooms. Without shower curtains, many homeowners and designers take advantage of the free wall space to showcase beautiful glass tiles.

 

Survey: 60 Percent of Homeowners Will Make a Home Improvement This Summer | Zillow Blog.

Study finds attractive Realtors sell more | Cross River Real Estate

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To measure this effect, Sean Salter, associate professor of finance atMiddle Tennessee State University and co-author of a study on how an agent’s looks affect property sales, along with co-authors Franklin Mixon of Columbus State University and Ernest King of theUniversity of Southern Mississippi asked 402 people to rate agents, both male and female, on a scale of 1 to 10, from very unattractive to very attractive, based on online head shots. The researchers then looked at the agents’ property transactions over a seven-year period, writes The Wall Street Journal.

The findings: Every one-point increase in a listing agent’s attractiveness score added $10,989, on average, to the home’s list price. Every one-point increase in a selling agent’s score added $8,467 to the home’s sale price.

 

Study finds attractive Realtors sell more | HousingWire.

Obama administration extends Making Home Affordable Program until 2015 | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The Department of Housing and Urban Developmentteamed up with the Treasury Department on Thursday to announce an extension of the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program through Dec. 31, 2015.

The new deadline was determined in coordination with theFederal Housing Finance Agency to align with extendeddeadlines for the Home Affordable Refinance Program and the Streamlined Modification Initiative for homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The program deadline was previously set to end Dec. 31, 2013.

The Making Home Affordable Program is a critical part of the Obama administration’s efforts to provide relief to families at risk of foreclosure and help the housing market recover from the housing crisis, HUD explained.

“The housing market is gaining steam, but many homeowners are still struggling,” said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

He added, “Helping responsible homeowners avoid foreclosure is part of our wide-ranging efforts to strengthen the middle class, and Making Home Affordable offers homeowners some of the deepest and most dependable assistance available to prevent foreclosure. Extending the program for two years will benefit many additional families while maintaining clear standards and accountability for an important part of the mortgage industry.”

Since its creation in March 2009, roughly 1.6 million actions were taken through the program to provide relief to homeowners and, consequently, nearly 1.3 million homeowners were helped directly by the program.

As of March, more than 1.1 million homeowners received a permanent modification of their mortgage through HAMP, with a median savings of $546 every month — or 38% of their previous payment.

Since the fourth quarter of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed more than 2.7 million foreclosure prevention actions. Approximately half of these actions are permanent loan modifications, including more than 435,000 permanent HAMP modifications, according to the FHFA.

“One of FHFA’s priorities is to provide assistance to struggling borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes,” said Ed DeMarco, current acting director of the FHFA.

He added, “These extensions keep two valuable foreclosure prevention programs available to those who need them. The extensions also align the end date for three key assistance programs that were developed in response to the housing crisis.”

Since 2009, Freddie Mac has helped more than 830,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure and nearly 230,000 of these families were assisted through HAMP, said Tracy Mooney, senior vice president of single-family servicing and REO for the GSE.

The Making Home Affordable Program has also put into place important protections for homeowners that have helped inform efforts to create standards for the mortgage servicing industry.

This includes requirements for mortgage servicers regarding clear and timely communications with homeowners and protections to ensure that they are evaluated for assistance before being referred to foreclosure.

 

Obama administration extends Making Home Affordable Program until 2015 | HousingWire.

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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According to MarketWatch:
Hovnanian Enterprises ($6.04 -0.06%) shares rose 2.7% after the Commerce Department said that sales of new homes rose 2.3% to 454,000 in April, the second highest post-recession level, on pent-up demand and low interest rates.
Toll Brothers ($36.75 -0.85%) closed up 1.4%, Lennar Corp. ($42.79 -0.61%) gained 2.6%, KB Home ($23.11 -0.29%) added 1.6% and Ryland Group ($48.46 0.36%) advanced 1.1%.
To see the full analysis by MarketWatch, click here.

 

 

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | HousingWire.

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog

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Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report

5/23/2013
Homes for sale
88
Median Ask Price$1,045,000.00
Low Price$285,000.00
High Price$4,250,000.00
Average Size3903
Average Price/foot$354.00
Average DOM119
Average Ask Price$1,357,334.00

 

 

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog.

North Castle Supervisor Arden To Run For Re-Election In November | Armonk NY Homes

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A year and a half into his first term as North Castle Town Supervisor and Howard Arden is already planning to run for re-election.

He said he will run whether or not he is endorsed by the town’s Republican Committee—which is likely to endorse its candidates sometime soon.

“Since taking office a year and a half ago, I have taken North Castle in a new direction,” Arden said in an interview with The Armonk Daily Voice.

“As promised, I converted our town to a council-administrator form of government. I have used best business practices and technology to run our town more efficiently; carefully tracked expenses while taking every opportunity to increase revenue,” he added.

Arden is confident, if re-elected, that his approach will continue to pay off for North Castle—literally.

“My efforts have produced the lowest tax increase of any town in Westchester; and has allowed us to use our savings for significant town-wide upgrades in equipment, infrastructure, park facilities and resident services,” he said.

Though North Castle has flourished financially under Arden, it is no secret the town board has become split on several topics. Issues such as CVS and a dog park coming to North Castle have become polarizing, controversial hot buttons of discussion—not only among residents, but also the town board.

It remains to be seen if such a dynamic on the town board will attempt to come back next November.

Incumbent council members Diane DiDonato-Roth and John Cronin, whose terms expire at the end of the year, have not decided whether they would seek re-election. The two Republicans are expected to make their decision within the next two weeks about whether to run for a second term.

No matter who ends up on the town board, Arden hopes he’s at the helm.

 

North Castle Supervisor Arden To Run For Re-Election In November | The Armonk Daily Voice.

4 Time Saving Content Curation Tools | Katonah NY Realtor

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Content curation services, which had been one of the choice tools of marketing experts for some time now, are finally entering the mainstream.4 Time Saving Content Curation Tools

Some research done by the guys over at LikeHack showed that this service is now often used not by marketing consultants but by ordinary people. This is due to information overload and the rising need for content filtering.

For this reason, content curation is evolving from not being only a professional tool but a tool that saves web surfers time as personal service.

The demise of Google Reader is only going to accelerate the use of these tools as people switch to these emerging technologies to filter their content to save them time and increase content relevance.

What is content curation?

A content curator is a service that uses algorithms to show the user only the most relevant and appropriate content with respect to a specific niche or topic. It is a great marketing tool with unusually broad filtering capabilities and information selection that can be used to develop and promote a business. In 2012, Forbes called content curation one of the five hottest new web trends.

Companies like American Express and Whole Foods already actively use this marketing tool to curate content that might be of interest to their customers. Other companies use it to create their own online newspapers or select articles for the corporate blog.

The changing trend

However, content curation has been gradually developing from a niche marketing tool into a mainstream product. Personal content curation services are proliferating*:

Content Curation tools

Moreover, the team at LikeHack used SEMRUSH to analyze the search engine traffic  to curation sites like paper.li and observed that the increase in the number of visits slowed to nothing in the past six months.

Paper.li traffic:

Paper li content curation

It is important to note that the actual popularity of the phrase “content curation” has not decreased. On the contrary, GoogleTrends clearly show that the popularity of the keyword query and its various forms is growing.

What does this mean?

It means that more and more people are interested in content curation; it is no longer just for marketing professionals..

Why is this happening?

Everybody knows that the amount of information exchanged through social networks and feeds is growing exponentially, following the well-known Moore‘sLaw. According to LikeHack’s research based on 3 million user accounts, people spend approximately one hour every day looking through unnecessary information. There are several services available today which solve this problem, and they are growing in popularity:  Likehack, Storify, Pearltrees, Getprismatic and others.

For example, here are the stats for GetPrismatic:

Get Prismatic content curation tool

Traffic to the site has grown considerably. A similar trend can be observed with other services. Today there are services that allow you to filter your Facebook, Twitter and RSS feed, showing only what’s most interesting and relevant.


Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/23/4-time-saving-content-curation-tools/#A56VccFwCxiAC6dE.99 

 

4 Time Saving Content Curation Tools | Jeffbullas’s Blog.

Home inventory rises sharply in April | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

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Housing inventory rose significantly in April, easing a supply shortage that some experts say has constrained home sales.

Meanwhile, existing-home sales edged upwards in April. Still, sales remain hampered due to limited supply and tight credit, according to NAR.

Housing inventory rose 11.9 percent to 2.16 million homes in April, representing a 5.2-month supply of homes at the current rate of home sales. That’s up from 4.7 months in March. But inventory still remained 13.6 percent below a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month stock.

Existing-home sales ticked up 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March, according to NAR. That put sales at their highest level since November 2009, when a tax credit stimulated purchases, NAR said.

“The robust housing market recovery is occurring in spite of tight access to credit and limited inventory. Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million-unit pace,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Buyer traffic is 31 percent stronger than a year ago, but sales are running only about 10 percent higher.  It’s become quite clear that the only way to tame price growth to a manageable, healthy pace is higher levels of new-home construction.” Source: realtor.org.

 

 

Home inventory rises sharply in April | Inman News.