Category Archives: Bedford

Luxury market’s ticking time bomb: If this were a virus, you would call it a full-blown epidemic | Bedford Real Estate

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There is a ticking time bomb hidden in the top end of the housing market that I don’t see the mainstream media addressing. And this is no hidden bomb — it is glaringly obvious and sitting right out in the open.

McMansions image via Shutterstock.
McMansions image via Shutterstock.

The question is not, “Will it blow up?” The simple question is, “What will the fallout be when it does explode?”

Do we still love our McMansions?

This is not a Tallahassee problem — this is a U.S. housing market issue that will be felt in most areas. Only the highest-growth, strongest economic areas of our country will be shielded from the blast when it occurs.

We have built too many McMansions; too many homes for an upper 10 percent of the market that is going to change dramatically when the trigger point is reached. As with any time bomb, you have to wonder just what is needed to make it explode.

 

 

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http://www.inman.com/next/luxury-markets-ticking-time-bomb-if-this-were-a-virus-you-would-call-it-a-full-blown-epidemic/?utm_source=20140519&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm

Fixed Mortgage Rates Remain at Six Month Low | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates easing slightly for the third consecutive week to remain at a six month low.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.20 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending May 15, 2014, down from last week when it averaged 4.21 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.51 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.29 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.32 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.69 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.01 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.05 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.62 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.43 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.55 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Mortgage rates were little changed amid a week of light economic reports. These lower than expected rates are welcome news with the spring home buying season underway and may even provide those who haven’t already refinanced possibly a reason to take another look. Of the few releases, advanced retail sales rose 0.1 percent in April, but below the market forecast consensus of a 0.4 percent increase. Also, the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.6 percent in April which followed a 0.5 percent boost from the prior month.”

 

 

 

Metro Detroit home sale prices rose 24% in April | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Home prices in metro Detroit jumped 24% in April from a year earlier as house hunters chased a smaller number of properties on the market, according to a Realcomp report released Monday.

Figures from Farmington Hills-based Realcomp show the median home sale price for the region was $121,900, compared with $98,250 in April 2013.

At the same time, there were 14% fewer sales than in April 2013 and housing inventory dipped 6%.

Housing experts say the slim inventory of for-sale homes is continuing to lift prices. Desirable properties are selling fast and often receiving multiple bids. The average days on the market for a metro Detroit home was down to 48 days from 70 a year ago.

 

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http://www.freep.com/article/20140512/BUSINESS04/305120145/Metro-Detroit-housing-prices-up-April-2014-Realcomp

Local Farmer’s Markets | Bedford Rel Estate

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Rye’s Down to Earth Farmers Market Opens this Sunday, May 11th

8:30 am-2:00 pm

In parking lot on Theodore Fremd Avenue behind Purchase St. stores

NEW TO THE RYE MARKET:
Fresh seafood from American Pride Seafood,
Pasture-raised meats from Karl Family Farm
and “Israeli soul food” from Taiim Falafel Shack!

Sunday is Mother’s Day! To celebrate, we’ll host music with Ed Packer on guitar from 11 am-1 pm.
Also, stop by the Market Manager’s tent and Make Mom a Card.
We’ll have colored papers, markers, crayons, gluesticks, and more for artists of all ages.
Rye2013

We’re excited to welcome back these vendors for the 2014 season:

Coach Farm
Artisanal goat cheeses

Dr. Pickle

Meredith’s Bread
On Sunday, they’ll have gluten-free & regular Mother’s Day cookies & cupcakes, along with other goodies.

Migliorelli Farm

Newgate Farms​
Find asparagus, fiddleheads, rhubarb, ramps, spinach, and more on opening day!

Our Daily Bread

Pie Lady & Son

Pika’s Farm Table

Tierra Farm
Locally-roasted nuts and coffees

Yellow Bell Farm
Open range chicken and eggs


And These Day Vendors* for 2014 Season:

Bombay Emerald Chutney Company
On Sunday, buy 4 or more items and get $2 OFF your entire order. Use code 051014.

Christiane’s Backstube
She’s back after after time in Germany, where she says, “I perfected my recipes and learned new ones!”
She’ll have Bienenstich, Mohnstreusel, and Linzer, as well as seasonal Rhubarb Almond squares.

Kontoulis Family Olive Oil and more to come

*Note: Day vendors are vendors who sell at the market on special occasion. Please visit our Rye Market webpage for the dates when your favorite day vendors will appear at the market.

The market runs every Sunday from May 11- December 7, 2014.

Thank you for supporting local farms and food businesses!

10 carpet-cleaning secrets from the pros | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Despite your best efforts at cleanliness, your carpet will eventually become the victim of drops, spills, accidents and whatever’s on the bottom of your shoes. To learn how professionals handle problem areas and keep carpets looking new, we spoke with cleaning expert Mark Tarbox, the owner of Best Carpet Cleaning Experts in San Antonio, Texas, who has more than 30 years of experience. Mark spent many years working in the family business with his father and mother at their shop, carpetkings in Sydney, before stricking out on his own. He is certainly making his mom and pops proud.

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http://realestate.msn.com/10-carpet-cleaning-secrets-from-the-pros

What $3,400/Month Can Rent You Around New York City | Bedford NY Real Estate

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7 images


Click here to view the full photogallery.

↑ This full-floor townhouse apartment on Saint Johns Place and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope has three bedrooms, which is good, and a cat sleeping on one of the beds, which is adorable. It’s asking $3,500/month.

See how other neighborhoods stack up >>


Click here to view the full photogallery.

↑ On the Upper West Side, a corner one-bedroom in condop building on 89th Street is asking $3,300/month. It does not allow pets, but the building offers such amenities as a gym, doorman, concierge, roof deck, and laundry.

 

 

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/02/what_3400month_can_rent_you_around_new_york_city.php

Florida’s Designer-Owned ‘Palace of the Eagles’ Wants $7.85M | Bedford Real Estate

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Named for a family of Bald Eagles that still nested on its grounds as of an Architectural Digest write-up in 2001 (in an issue that also devoted pages to the home of actor Paul Hogan, of Crocodile Dundee fame) Winter Park’s Palazzo delle Aquile is owned by Marc Thee and Michael Abbott, partners at Marc-Michaels Interior Design, a full-service Boca Raton firm that boasts on its website a “thorough understanding of the luxury buyer’s needs and desires.” Marc and Michael should know; they were luxury buyers themselves (at least) once, back when they commissioned the home from architect Carlos Martin for a lakeside lot on a brick-lined, oak-flanked street in the part of Winter Park that still wears proud its resort community roots. Apparently done with their five-bedroom Venetian-style villa, the two-time AD 100 designers listed the place last week for $7.85M.

Interiors, luscious interiors. >>

At least in their 13-year-old interview, Thee and Abbot chalk the home’s 10,000 square feet of opulent and largely traditional designer decor up to Abbot’s “long-standing antique collecting habit.” As the better than average listing photos show, the home—which we’re assured is “not for the Sesame Street set”—completely lends itself to being decked out that way. Tour the “Venetian plasterwork walls” and the “old-fashioned southernstyle pecky cypress ceilings” below, and keep an eye out for the “custommade commode”:

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/04/30/floridas-designerowned-palace-of-the-eagles-wants-785m.php

 

Australian architect with a flair for the unusual | Bedford Real Estate

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In the early 1960s, faced with the imagined scenario of total nuclear annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a dozen intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos were constructed in the Adirondacks in upstate New York near the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base. The crisis lasted less than two weeks, and because the silos didn’t work very well anyway and had a lifespan of around three years, most were decommissioned by 1964.

The military didn’t know what to do with the silos, which were vast, cavernous underground structures that went 185 feet down and housed Air Force squadrons. They donated the silos to different counties, who didn’t know what to do with them either. So they remained abandoned for more than 50 years.

Eventually, people like Australian architect Alexander Michael came along. He snatched one up near the Plattsburgh base in 1996 for $160,000 and has spent the years ever since plunking down more than $300,000 and restoring his silo to its original glory, while making it a part-time home along the way. He’s got a full kitchen, sleeping quarters and even the original launch control console to tinker with.

industrial entry by Alexander Michael & Assoc
Alexander Michael & Assoc
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Michael says he’s not a Cold War enthusiast or military fanatic. Rather, as a designer, he’s interested in such a utilitarian structure designed specifically for function. “I find things like these silos and military bunkers extraordinary in their focus on purpose,” he says. “They’re designed with nothing but functionality in mind, and that creates the most interesting architecture. Aside from the cool factor, of course. How many people do you know that can say they own a nuclear missile silo?”

He’s spent more than 15 years restoring the silo, financed by his work as an architect and the sale of a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney. “I didn’t like that apartment, so I thought I’d buy a nuclear missile silo instead,” he says. “I can’t tell you how much joy it’s given me.”

The front door, seen here, is known as the entrance portal. It leads to a stairway that immediately descends underground about 30 feet to the control center. The entrance portal was built with reinforced concrete designed to be expendable, Michael says.

If the silo were ever destroyed in a nuke blast, the entrance would deliberately collapse, and the only exit would be through an emergency escape hatch, a concrete tube filled with sand that leads from the control center to the surface. You’d open the hatch, release all the sand, put a big ladder up there and hightail it out. “Though I’m not sure why anyone would want to get out if there’s been a nuke blast,” Michael says.

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http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/26627321?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u494&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery2

6 market insights your real estate clients can use for a quicker sale this spring | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The spring housing market is about to get into full swing. And while agents may be fully aware of the state of this year’s emerging housing market, your clients may not be. It’s your job to get your sellers up to speed with what the 2014 home-selling season will bring.

Here are six market insights to share with your current or prospective clients that will give them a head start when it comes to a successful sale this spring!

Right now = a great time to sell

The winter home-selling season was crippled by the polar vortex, especially in the East and Northeast, so there’s pent-up demand from buyers who’ve been waiting for better weather to brave the house hunt. Mortgage rates are still at historic lows, so buyers ARE poised to buy and ready to hit the streets.

The numbers say sell now

Sixty percent of all homes in 2014 will be bought and sold between May and August. Sellers who put their home on the market at the beginning of the selling season will up their chances of snagging a winning offer before buyers turn their attention back to school starting in September.

Price it right

Many metros in the country have seen double-digit price increases in the past year. But this last quarter, prices started to slow nationally — and pricing is a critical component to getting a house sold. With this fluctuating market, sellers need to look at comps of similar homes in their area and rely on the expertise of their agent. Plus, remember, recency matters: Sellers should look back no more than 60 days and depend on their agent to help them set the price appropriately. The sale price of homes that sold recently paints a much better picture of what to expect than the price of homes that sold six months ago (or of homes that have yet to sell).

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/6-market-insights-your-real-estate-clients-can-use-for-a-quicker-sale-this-spring/?utm_source=20140428&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.9l9YMXTd.dpuf

Updates from The Town of Bedford | Bedford NY Homes

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Thursday, April 25, 2014

Dear Residents,

Bedford Police Taking Back Unwanted Prescription Drugs April 26 at 307 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills. Click here for the press release

2014 Town-Wide Clean-up Days 2014 – May 1-3

Join us at the Crusher Road Highway Facility off Route 22, just North of Route 172, in Bedford Village where Town residents can bring for a fee (listed – click on the link below) household debris and metal waste and, at no charge, bring brush and tree debris to the Beaver Dam Highway facility on Beaver Dam road off Harris Road. Days/Hours are:

Thursday May 1st and Friday May 2nd: 7:30am-3:00pm and
Saturday, May 3rd: 7:30am-4:30pm
For more information click here

2014 NYSEG Routine Tree Trimming:

NYSEG Tree Pruning – NYSEG will be trimming the Bedford Hills 225 circuit for routine maintenance in 2014. This will be done to help improve the reliable distribution of power throughout the circuit. Attached are the roads in your town that are on the mentioned circuit.

The trimming specifications are to cut vegetation 10 feet to either side of the primary line, that is the line at the top of the poles. Cut vegetation 10 feet below the primary line and cut overhanging vegetation 15 feet above the line.

It should be noted that trees that are within 10 feet of the line and have the ability to grow into the line will be evaluated for removal as well as dangerous/ hazardous trees outside 10 feet.

Employees from ACRT INC. will be pre planning the tree work. This company will be going to everyone who has property on this circuit and explaining the tree work that will be done prior to the tree crews starting the work. Attached is the notification letter the company will be using. We expect the tree work to start later this year.

If you would like to review the circuit maps and discuss any concerns, I and Nelson Tree Service General Foreman will be more than happy to meet with you.
Brewster Division, Sam Miller, 845.278.8120, extension 229

Notice:

The Bedford Water District will flush the water mains in Katonah, Bedford Village Bedford Hills and the Stanwood/Cedar Downs areas until Wednesday, April 30th.

2014 County & Town Tax Reminder- avoid a 2% penalty for late payments – due by April 30, 2014, without Penalty.

Reminders:

The Town of Bedford resident commuter parking permit applications for the 2014-2015 permit season will be mailed out after May 1st this year.

The Town of Bedford will be celebrating Arbor Day with a tree planting ceremony on Saturday, April 26 at 9:00 am at the Bedford Hills Memorial Park. Please join us!