Category Archives: North Salem

Shock, horror! Brokers are less sanguine | North Salem Real Estate

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Published: November 11, 2013 – 1:50 pm

It goes without saying that real estate brokers in the city are still confident about the state of the current market, but in a bit of a surprise that faith in a better tomorrow has ebbed a bit from the readings of earlier this year and what’s more brokers have lost faith that things will get better. Those shifts and more came out in an third quarter survey of both commercial and residential brokers conducted by the Real Estate Board of New York.

In all, REBNY polled about 350 brokers working in the city, and asked them 10 questions about their assessment of the markets, with each answer ranging from zero to 10 for the most optimistic response. Overall, the confidence index was 8.75 this quarter, down from a high of 8.9 earlier this year.

“I think both commercial and residential sides were generally optimistic but the report was done at the end of the third quarter, just about the time the government shutdown took place, and before the mayoral election had happened,” said Michael Slatterly, REBNY’s senior vice president for research.

But on the residential side, a lack of new affordable housing units drove confidence down to 8.33. While such a reading is still on the high side, it nonetheless stands as the lowest reading since the second quarter of 2012. Respondents told REBNY that the glut of luxury housing on the market, while relatively little is available for income groups other than the ultra-rich, was a driving factor behind the decline in confidence from 8.71 from last quarter, despite the fact that sales rose to record levels in the third quarter according to REBNY data.

One of the lowest metrics concerned financing. Residential brokers were less confident about the future of financing markets.

They averaged a response of 6.16, the lowest number since the second quarter of last year. When residential brokers were asked generally about their confidence in the current market, the average answer was 7.45, the lowest number all year, but about a point higher than last year.

The combination of major creditors like Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac have been tightening their criteria, and budget uncertainty in Washington, may have driven the numbers down, Mr. Slatterly noted.

On the other hand, echoing the concerns voiced by brokers, financing for ultra-luxury residential buildings continued to be plentiful. Hines’ tower adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art and Time Equities’ long-stalled tower at 50 West St. recently scored huge financing deals to allow them to move forward.

In contrast, commercial brokers had a much rosier outlook on leasing activity as the economy continues to pick up. Their confidence ticked up to 9.18 for the current overall market, the highest number since the second quarter of 2012, when the number was 7.48. And in contrast to concerns voiced by their residential peers about financing, commercial brokers rated the current borrowing environment a perfect 10.

 

crainsnewyork.com

 

 

 

The Grove’s Demolished Du Pont Estate Was Buried In Poison | North Salem Real Estate

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The end of Baymere, the lavish 33-room midcentury modern estate of Willis Du Pont in Coconut Grove that was listed on the market for $22 million, was sad and quick. After surveyors determined the property to be absolutely soaked with toxic waste—it was built on as much as 100,000 tons of toxic soil carted over from the “Old Smokey” incinerator over in the West Grove—the house sold for $11.4 million and was demolished. Perhaps it was appropriate for an heir to chemical fortune, Willis Du Pont, to build his house above a toxic wasteland in 1964. The current owners, who might be heirs to a Venezuelan oil fortune, demolished the house and apparently plan to build five luxury residences on impermeable surfaces and new top fill that should cap the contaminated soil, rendering it safe. · Live Like A Du Pont In The 1960s, In This $22M Grove Estate [Curbed Miami] · Du Pont Mansion In Coconut Grove Is Buried In Poison [Miami New Times]

New York Times Explores North Salem’s David Letterman’s Book Of Satire | North Salem Real Estate

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The New York Times recently visited with North Salem resident David Letterman to discuss his new book, “This Land Was Made for You and Me (but Mostly Me).”

Letterman teamed up with illustrator Bruce McCall to create a book of satire that pokes fun at some fictitious habits of the cultural and financial elite.

The Times describes the book as a vehicle for some of Letterman’s ideas that he wouldn’t be able express on his late night talk show.

Read the full article here.

 

 

 

http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/neighbors/new-york-times-explores-north-salems-david-lettermans-book-satire

Investors Have Doubled Purchases Over 2012 | North Salem Real Estate

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Though most observers forecast rising home prices would drive investors out of the market for single family rentals, that fact is that to date investors have purchased more homes than they did in all of 2012 or 2011.

Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years according to a new investor insight report released today by RealtyTrac.

The report also found that:

  • Investors have purchased more than $1 trillion in US real estate since 2011. Fifty-four percent were all-cash;
  • Fifty-seven percent of investor purchases re-sold, only 1 percent re-sold by 1,000+ purchasers. Investors with 1,000+ purchases bought 36 percent of properties as foreclosures
  • Out of the more than 950,000 purchases totaling more than $1 trillion made by investors since 2011, 54 percent were all-cash purchases. When the data is filtered for just entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties, the all-cash percentage skyrockets to 93 percent.
  • Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years.
  • The majority (54 percent) of properties purchased by investors were underwater but not in foreclosure. Meanwhile 24 percent of properties purchased by investors were in foreclosure or bank-owned, and 23 percent were a regular, equity purchases.
  • Among entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties during the three-year period, 36 percent were in some stage of foreclosure (22 percent auction alone), while 37 percent were underwater and 27 percent were regular equity sales.
  • Among all investor purchases during the time period, 57 percent have subsequently been re-sold, but only 25 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 100 properties, and only 1 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 1,000 properties.

RealtyTrac’s report, Real Estate Investor Purchase and Finance Patterns: 2011 to 2013, looks at a number of investor habits relating to real estate purchases since 2011, including the volume of properties purchased, breakdown of cash versus financed purchases, property situation (distressed, non-distressed, underwater etc.), investor purchases by property value, and number of investor-purchased properties that have since resold.

“The new investor insight report is the first of its kind and offers customers an exclusive look into investor decision making that has never been done on this scale before,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “We examined in-depth a variety of factors from cash sales to lender financing that impact real estate investing and offers key insight that no one else in the market can deliver.”

This report features purchasing activity of real estate investors across the U.S., identifying key variables by state and quarter within the last three years. The report identifies an investor as any person or entity that purchased three or more properties within a 12-month timeframe and provides key insights into the transactions made by investors over this time period, which was marked by the U.S. housing market moving from full distress mode to full recovery mode including.

Key metrics covered by the Investor Insight report:

  • Transaction by Financing Type identifies by investor name how many properties were purchased with 100 percent cash, 100 percent finance, mixed cash & finance, or unknown along with the amount identified for each category.

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/investors-have-doubled-purchases-over-2012-or-2011/

Angular Inverted Home Built For the Views Asks $5.3M | North Salem Real Estate

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Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We’d love to see what you’ve got.

Location: Bar Harbor, Maine Price: $5,300,000 The Skinny: If you’re building a home on a wooded lot just outside Maine’s Acadia National Park, how do you get to the ocean and mountains views without taking a bulldozer to the vista-blocking trees surrounding your plot? Simple: you build an angular four-level home that towers above the trees, stack the floors in ascending order according to square footage, cover the whole thing in wood shingle siding and call it a day. That’s exactly what “organic architect” James Schildroth did with his Starbird house, and while the home gives off an unmistakably dated whiff of the mid-1990s (we direct your attention to the built in dining table surrounding the central stairwell), the stupendous panoramic views from the open-plan top level cannot be denied. The rest of the five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 7,800-square-foot home continues the top floor’s theme of plentiful windows, high ceilings, and ample recessed lighting. There’s also a faux wood-paneled elevator to serve the stair-averse. The property, which was owned by the late regional watercolor artist Mary Anne Starbird, is listed for $5.3M. —Scott Garner

Bill Gates’ custom-built home in Medina, Washington | North Salem NY Homes

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Software tycoon Bill Gates turns 58 today. Because he’s the world’s second-richest person (topped only by Carlos Slim, according to Forbes), you might expect him to have some pretty impressive living arrangements — and guess what, you’d be right.

 

He built his 66,000-square-foot main residence on Lake Washington in Medina, Washington, over the course of several years. It was assessed this year (and the three years before that) at $120.6 million, down from a 2008 high of $150 million.

Some time ago, U.S. News & World Report ran a fairly extensive article plus slideshow (with renderings, not photos) about the home. But Gates — who was originally quite voluble about the home — hasn’t talked much about it since. Among its unique features:

• A 2,100-square-foot library has secret bookcases and a dome with oculus. The ceiling is engraved with a quote. “He had come a long way to this blue lawn,” it reads, “and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.” It’s from “The Great Gatsby.”

• It has a pool with a “fossil motif” floor. You can swim under a glass wall to emerge near a terrace outside.

• Only about 20 percent of the home is family living space, including four bedrooms and nanny quarters. Much of the rest of the square footage is given over to a reception hall, offices, conference facilities, a computer room and other gathering spaces.

• The compound has seven bedrooms and 24 bathrooms — and six kitchens, presumably because the home hosts receptions and conferences.

• It has a “trampoline room” whose ceiling is 20 feet up.

• “Miles of communication cable, largely fiber optic, run throughout the house,” U.S. News reported, “linking computer servers powered by the Windows NT operating system. In each room, touch-sensitive pads control lighting, music, and climate. Visitors will wear small electronic pins, which will let the computers know who and where they are. Lights and other settings will adjust automatically. Floors throughout the house (and the driveway) are heated.”

• Much of the home is nestled into the hillside and underground. According to the architects: “A sod-covered guesthouse is sited at the highest point of the property. Invisible on approach and entered between two concrete walls, the building is choreographed to give a sense of moving through the earth to discover the distant lake and mountains.”

But our favorite discovery of all when researching this post? You can own Bill Gates’ home too! Just download the paper toy version at PaperToys.com.

A virtual tour of the home:

Stabilizing September Prices and Inventories Build Market Equilibrium | North Salem Homes

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In September, inventories have returned to levels of a year ago and the buying season ended with the greatest price gains seen in years, according to realtor.com’s September trend report.

Many markets in California, Arizona and Nevada–plus Detroit–that were the center of the housing crisis now appear to be well on the road to a robust recovery. More than 20 percent of the markets covered by realtor.com reported exceptionally large year over year list price gains of 12 percent or more and exceptionally large inventory shortages.  As both prices and inventories become more balanced, affordability and availability will improve, creating better market conditions for both sellers and buyers, realtor.com said.

The recovery has yet to make an impact on markets where prices are the same or lower than they were last year at this time. Representing 20 percent of realtor.com’s markets, these are located in the Midwest, South and Northeast, including Cleveland, Trenton, Hartford, Cincinnati and Buffalo.  The impact of a weak economy continues to takes in toll in many of these markets but most have put in place the foundation for future growth.  Both inventories and age of inventories are down compared to a year ago.

The recovery is having an extraordinary impact on the heartland.  A number of major markets that didn’t suffer the brunt of the housing crisis nor face difficult local economic conditions had in an amazing buying season.  Chicago, Boise, Portland OR, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Ann Arbor, Washington, DC, Nashville, Houston, Denver and Corpus Christie have all achieved price appreciation of 12 percent or higher over last year.

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/stabilizing-september-prices-and-inventories-build-market-equilibrium/

Shadow Inventory is a Shadow of Itself | North Salem NY Real Estate

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The shadow inventory-the number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline–is down 33 percent from a year ago and now is at its lowest level since August 2008, at least one year before the notion of a foreclosure shadow inventory was recognized.

According to CoreLogic’s August National Foreclosure Report, the overall residential shadow inventory as of July 2013 was 1.9 million homes, accounting for a value of $293 billion and representing a supply of 3.7 months. This was down 22 percent from a year ago, when it was at 2.4 million, and down 38 percent from its peak in 2010, when it reached 3 million homes.

CoreLogic also reported there were 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in August of 2013, down from 72,000 in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 34 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 1.3 percent, from 47,000 in July 2013*.

As a basis of comparison to the 48,000 completed foreclosures reported for August 2013, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.5 million completed foreclosures across the country. As of August 2013, approximately 939,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.4 million in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 33 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.2 percent from August 2013 to July 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of August 2013 represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.3 percent in August 2012.

At the end of August 2013, there were approximately 2.1 million mortgages, or 5.3 percent, in serious delinquency (SDQ, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned, REO). The rate of seriously delinquent mortgages is at its lowest level since December 2008.

“The foreclosure inventory continues to improve, as exhibited by these recent numbers,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “A surge in completed foreclosures and a rise in the foreclosure inventory is unlikely given continued house price improvements and shortages of supply in many markets.”

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/shadow-inventory-is-a-shadow-of-itself/