| Armonk NY Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog | ||
| 2013 | 6 months ending 11/4 | 2012 | |
| 74 | Sales | 53 | up 39% |
| $1,040,000.00 | median sold price | $875,000.00 | up 18% |
| $255,000.00 | low sold price | $150,000.00 | |
| $2,895,000.00 | high sold price | $9,300,000.00 | |
| 3857 | average size | 3515 | |
| $309.00 | ave. price per foot | $352.00 | down 12% |
| 179 | ave days on market | 187 | |
| $1,179,609.00 | average sold price | $1,297,501.00 | |
What’s the best way to use leaves in the garden?
Leaves are one of the main ingredients of the dark, rich humus that covers the forest floor — nature’s compost. A gardener can replicate that humus by mixing carbon-rich leaves with nitrogen-rich manure or grass clippings to make compost.
Maintaining an active compost pile in winter can be a challenge, however. An easier alternative is to use leaves in the garden in fall, says Abigail Maynard, associate agricultural scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who has studied the use of leaves as a garden soil amendment for more than 10 years.
If possible, shred your leaves first with a chipper-shredder or mower; the smaller pieces will break down faster. Spread the chopped leaf mulch over your garden soil, then incorporate it with a tiller or spade. “By spring, almost all of the chopped leaves will be completely decomposed,” Maynard says.
Maynard’s research has shown that amending soil with maple or oak leaves alone probably won’t boost yields the way adding finished compost does, but she says using leaves in the garden does add organic matter to the soil. Organic matter improves soil structure, holds nutrients and moisture that are released slowly to plants, and provides food for beneficial soil organisms.
Maynard suggests adding a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, such as aged manure, in spring. (Nitrogen added in fall could leach away by spring.)
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/print.aspx?id={152934F3-D318-4D8E-BF1C-9830C170F43A}#ixzz2jPEnYvbY
Nearly two-thirds of divorce attorneys report an increase in prenuptial agreements over the past three years. Protection of the increased value of property was the leading asset spouses want protected.
A clear majority of 63% of divorce attorneys cited an increase in prenuptial agreements during the past three years in a recent survey of American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyer (AAML) members. The top three items most commonly covered in prenups throughout this period of time were noted as “protection of separate property” by 80% of respondents, “alimony/spousal maintenance” at 77% and “division of property” with a 72% total. Interestingly enough, 46% also noted an increase in women initiating requests for these agreements.
“As the financial and real estate markets continue to improve, there is a greater awareness of risk to possibly sharing these gains in a divorce,” said Alton Abramowitz, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. “The trend of divorcing spouses fighting over which one has to take possession of a devalued home and other depreciated assets appears to be coming to an end.”
Overall, 63% of AAML members have cited an increase in the number of prenuptial agreements during the past three years, while 36% stated no change, and 1% saw a decrease. In addition to the top three prenup items selected, the next three most common coverage areas picked by respondents were “protection of the increase of value in separate property” at 62% followed by “inheritance rights” at 39% with 23% choosing “community property division.”
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/peaking-prenups-prove-housing-is-hot/
Housing largely dodged a bullet on the government shut down that went into effect October 1, the pending default, however, is an entirely different matter. As the October 17 default deadline nears, knuckle in the housing industry are turning white.
All the progress that the housing recovery has achieved since the crashed could be erased overnight if the US defaults on its debts, according to the president of the National Association of Realtors. But Gary Thomas is not the only housing leader raising alarms and the debt default clock ticks down.
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, NAR president Gary Thomas said that unless the debt ceiling is raised in “a timely manner,” the country would face a recession that would wipe out the recent progress made in home prices, home sales and new residential construction.
Robert Dietz, Vice President for Tax and Market Analysis for the National Association of Homebuilders, says the primary effect of a default or downgrade would be increased uncertainty. “Home buyers are making purchase of a capital asset that they will own, on average, for ten years. Given other sources of uncertainty, particularly from the labor market, the largest impact from a failure to reach a deal that increases the debt ceiling would be to further increase concern and anxiety of families attempting to make long-term economic decisions.
“What the housing market needs now is more, not less, certainty, with respect to housing policy and access to capital via the mortgage markets. This will help stabilize housing prices, thereby helping households repair balance sheets and set the stage for more robust economic growth.”
Writing in Friday’s New York Times, economist Paul Krugman argues that a default would create a shock to the economy on a scale of the Great Recession or the Housing Crash of 2007. The default would put the burden of paying interest on Treasury bonds. Currently the cash-flow deficit is a bit more than 4 percent of GDP, which would have to be closed immediately and the government would then fall even further behind on its bills, he says.
“So, when did we last see a spending shock this big? As it happens, we’re looking at something just about the size of the post-bubble housing bust, which was also about 4 percent of GDP:
NAR’s Lawrence Yun describes a similar scenario. “Should the government decide to pay bills other than interest obligations, we can expect interest rates on Treasury bonds to rise as investors look for more return to compensate for the increased risk of their not getting paid. And if that happens, mortgage rates will rise, because mortgage rates follow Treasury rates.”
Yun says home sales can be expected to drop by 350,000 to 450,000 units for each 100 basis-point rise in mortgage rates.
Yesterday, WLRN interviewed historian Dr. Paul George about Miami’s surprisingly extensive trolley system of the 1920s and 30s, which at its peak stretched from Coral Gables to Miami Beach and Buena Vista. (today’s Midtown/Design District) But in the late 30s and 40s it was already considered outmoded, and in the way of the private car, which was the real “wave of the future”. So, City leaders ripped all the tracks out and replaced the trolleys with buses that went faster and weren’t ‘fixed’ to a track. One of the old trolley cars is on display at HistoryMiami. Now, 80 or or so years later, we’re trying to put it back, or at least rebuild the portion that went over the MacArthur Causeway, with Baylink. Ironic, isn’t it? Listen to the whole radio segment over on WLRN.
As the leaves begin to change colors, Westchester County residents can look forward to the peak days of fall foliage season in the coming weeks.Photo Album
2013 Fall Foliage of Westchester County
“As of right now we’re a little behind where we would normally be,” said John Dlugoenski, a meteorologist with Accuweather.com.
The peak time for vibrant colors normally comes around Oct. 15 to Oct. 20, but warmer weather this year means that the peak should come around Oct. 20 to 25.
The weather in September and October has been cool, but not cold enough for the foliage to really start turning, Dlugoenski said. The leaves really start changing colors when the nights are cold, with lows in the 30’s, and the days are warm and sunny, with highs in the 60’s. Rain and moisture in the soil can also have an impact on the vibrancy of the colors. When the weather is really dry in September, sometimes the leaves can start to die before they change color, so the colors will not be as vibrant.
Farther north up in the Catskills the leaves have already hit their peak colors, but by the weekend, Westchester residents won’t have to travel that far, Dlugoenski said. Saturday, Oct. 19 will be a good day to observe the trees, as it is expected to be partly sunny and dry.
Westchester is home to more than 50 parks and recreation areas where leaf peepers can check out the changing colors in the weeks ahead. Westchester County Tourism also has a number of routes that you can take through the county to enjoy the sights. Recommended stops include the Water Grant Street area in Yonkers, Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow, and Riverfront Green Park in Peekskill. Along these routes you will be able to see the different colors among the hundreds of species of trees in Westchester.
“There are three trees that are particularly colorful,” said Michael Penziner, a long-time volunteer with the Rye Nature Center and the New York Botanical Gardens. “The sugar maple is a brilliant red, the red maple is a nice red, and the black tupelo.”
Parks around Westchester County will be holding a number of events for nature lovers to enjoy the fall foliage. On Saturday, Oct. 19, there will be a naturalist’s choice hike at 10 a.m. at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, and a foliage tour at 2 p.m. at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. There will be a fall foliage hike at the Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m.
http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/lifestyle/peak-fall-foliage-season-about-start-westchester
It snuck up so quietly that a lot of people didn’t even realize it was happening.
One minute you could post a comment on YouTube just by logging into your YouTube account, and the next you’re being asked to sign in through your Gmail or Google+ account. The same goes for Zagat and other Google owned digital web assets.
Google+ may not have caught on with users as a Facebook alternative yet, but the service’s “Plus 1” symbol is ubiquitous within social marketing, and top name brands are commonly listing the Google+ icon on television ads right next to their Facebook and Twitter symbols. Whether you like it or not, Google+ is quickly becoming a significant player in the social media marketing world because it has one thing going for it that no other social site has: Google.
Google plus is now the second largest social media network behind Facebook and can no longer be ignored.
So Google plus marketing needs to taken seriously in your marketing strategy.
Google’s approach for Google+ has been to seek success through visibility. Because of this, Google is constantly launching new applications that integrate Google+ with search results. A search for information about the election of Pope Francis in March 2013, for example, shows several Google+ post results from TIME, NBC and CTV, as well as author posts with images of the Google+ registered author catching the eye of the casual searcher.
For Google+ users, as long as you share blog posts with relevant, new (un-copied) information on a regular basis, you are that much more likely to be pushed up through the ranks of search results.
As with any search engine, keywords are a big factor in these results. How can you push your Google+ page up in search results?
There’s something about being able to look people in the eye that makes the advice or information you receive from them more reliable. But when you can’t look them in the eye, seeing a picture makes them seem a little more reliable and trustworthy. That’s the basic psychology behind Google+ authorship.
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/14/5-reasons-why-you-should-consider-google-plus-marketing/#HShJharmsiTdu4bF.99
Rendering via Patrick Blanc
Any building posed to have the tallest vertical garden on Earth isn’t just any ol’ boring monolith, no siree! And if Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Prize-winning French architect who’s simply obsessed with light, shadow, and ambitious, glassy structures, has anything to do with it, well, then the results promise to be fairly bonkers. Such is the case for One Central Park, a largely residential mixed-use project currently underway in Sydney and scheduled to be finished next year. According to Dezeen, half the façade will be covered in 350 plant species in a massive vertical garden-type thing designed and installed by French botanist and artist Patrick Blanc.
But that’s not all! The 624-unit building is actually two towers of different heights—the taller one rises more than 380 feet in the air, beating out a crazy vertical garden planned for Milan by about 20 feet—conjoined at the center, and
“The tallest tower features a large cantilever that contains 38 luxury penthouse apartments. On the underneath, there is a heliostat of motorised mirrors that direct sunlight down onto the surrounding gardens. After nightfall the cantilever is used as a canvas for a LED light installation by artist Yann Kersalé.”
Here now, a sketch, a rendering, and a 45-second video of Blanc talking about the project:
Sketch via Patrick Blanc
Rendering via Dezeen
http://curbed.com/archives/2013/09/09/a-look-at-the-future-tallest-vertical-garden-on-earth.php
Visits to the Miami Association of Realtors’ property search portal rose 47 percent on an annual basis in September, to 114,338.
Among foreign countries, house hunters from Venezuela topped the list last month, likely spurred at least partially by political instability, the Realtor association said. Rounding out the top 10 were Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Lithuania, France, Italy, Spain and the Philippines.
Source: MIAMI –
See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/interest-in-miami-real-estate-spikes/#sthash.wFBphAws.dpuf
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