Category Archives: Waccabuc NY

A Bubble in Rising Texas Markets? | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Trulia, the national real-estate data-crunching outfit, has been maintaining a “bubble watch” since May, 2013, tracking local markets where home prices are rising fast enough that the dollar signs threaten to outrun the “market fundamentals.” This week, Trulia’s bubble watch list puts four Texas metropolitan areas in its top ten, including the coastal markets of Houston and San Antonio.

Trulia chief economist, Jed Kolko, reports on the organization’s data in Forbes: “At the metro level, home prices are above their fundamental value in 17 of the 100 largest metros. Most of these overvalued metros are only slightly so: Of the 17 overvalued metros, just two–Orange County and Los Angeles–look at least 10% overvalued. (Austin rounds up to 10% but is actually slightly below.) Several California metros also stand out for having both overvalued prices AND sharp price increases, including Orange County, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Riverside-San Bernardino.” (For the full story, see “Trulia: Home Prices Are Simmering, Not Bubbling.”)

The Houston market, according to the Trulia report, is presently overvalued by 6% after rising 13.9% in the past year. San Antonio, the report says, is overvalued by 4% after rising by 11.1%.

Those numbers don’t qualify those cities for bubble status, even by Trulia’s reckoning—somewhat arbitrarily, Trulia reserves the “bubble” label for areas where it considers the prices to be more than 10% above what Trulia believes justified by underlying demand and production. But even so, Texans are taking exception to the inclusion of three Texas cities on the top ten list. Market watcher Steve Cook notes the controversy on his Real Estate Economy Watch blog (for Cook’s full post, see “Smile when you say ‘bubble,’ mister“).

“Dr. James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, responded that concerns about a price bubble in Texas’ housing markets are overblown,” writes Cook. “He said some of the recent increases are just making up for several years in the recession when Texas home prices were declining or flat.”

 

 

http://www.jlconline.com/home-prices/a-bubble-in-rising-texas-markets-.aspx

Nine Über-Grandiose Rentals and Their Mod Complements | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Say what you will about rentals—that they’re hard to decorate, expensive, orders of magnitude too small—there’s at least a smörgåsbord of options in any given locale. If variety is the spice of life, then the rental market is the most well-stocked and poorly organized spice drawer the world has ever known, wherein wasabi snuggles up next to vanilla bean. And, indeed, what field more convenient to have a jumble of balls-to-the-wall offerings than that of temporary homes? Take, as proof, these two listings in London. One (at left) asks £40,000 ($64,440) a week and comes with gold ceilings, two gazillion (an exact figure) pounds of drapery, and a ballroom with three massive crystal chandeliers and two equally monstrous flanking fireplaces. Oh, and let’s not forget the two elevators, 14 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and 11 reception rooms. In the same city: a penthouse apartment—also on the rental market, though at 12 percent of the cost—done up in clean lines and a much more pared-down (to say the least) aesthetic. Below, eight more odd couples:

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Grandiose house: Location: Paris Price: $54,100 a month Highlights: Architecture by Charles Garnier—the mastermind behind the Opera de Paris—plus a suite of yummy salons and reception areas, winter garden, steam room, and indoor pool.

Pared-down house: Location: Paris Price: $5,990 a week Highlights: Interiors like “a rocket ship of luxury,” with lots of angular upholstery and a rooftop patio.

 

 

 

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/nine-grandiose-traditional-rentals-and-their-mod-complements.php

Fantasy and reality meet head-on in photos of costume fans in their own homes | Waccabuc Homes

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Almost everybody has worn a costume at some point in their lives. For Halloween, a school play or just make-believe around the house. But for others, it’s an every-weekend thing.
For these costume enthusiasts, there are numerous communities. Cosplay followers dress up as characters from comics, anime, video games and film; LARPers (live action role players) get together to perform fantasy scenarios dressed up as cowboys, knights or other characters; furries wear furry animal suits for fun; and so on.
But most costume fans have normal day jobs, families and homes in which they put on regular clothes to cook dinner and watch TV. Looking to capture this strange world and the people behind it, photographer Klaus Pichler took photos of costume wearers in full regalia in their most revealing of spaces: their homes.

Pichler spent three years taking photographs for the series, titled “Just the Two of Us.” He spent most of that time “researching people or communities with interesting costumes,” he says. “Quite hard work.”
This homeowner created a custom Cookie Monster costume for a private Carnival celebration.
Cosplay (“costume” plus “play”) is a Japanese-rooted practice; its followers portray characters from Japanese comics (manga), cartoons (anime) and films. This handmade cosplayer costume depicts Jaken, a character from the InuYasha manga series by Rumiko Takahashi.
Star Wars is perhaps one of the most-loved sources of muses for costume adopters. The 501st Legion is the official worldwide Star Wars fan club, founded in 1997 and based on George Lucas’ film series. Here a young Stormtrooper sits in a living room.
Meanwhile, Boba Fett spins a DJ set at home.
Pichler says he chose not to reveal any personal information about the people other than what’s shown in their homes. “I consciously decided to depict the persons in a way that the civic identities disappear behind the mask,” he says. “I tried to create a special kind of tension that’s linked to the refusal of answering the crucial question, Who is the person behind the mask?”

Fed needs to detect asset bubbles when they’re forming | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, appeared every bit the monetary policy dove that investors expected during her first big hearing in front of the Senate Banking Committee as Fed Chair nominee.

Yellen reiterated her approach to Fed policy, showing a commitment to using the low federal funds rate and the ongoing $85 billion in monthly asset purchases to drive an economic recovery. The fed views economic success against the backdrop of two key indicators — unemployment and price stability.

Yellen eschewed suggestions from Senators that a souped up market – driven by recent Fed asset purchases and low interest rates – has caused a new bubble to inflate in areas such as housing.

“The Fed needs to detect asset bubbles when they are forming,” Yellen said. “By and large, I would say I don’t see evidence at this point of asset price misalignments at a level that would threaten financial stability.”

Yellen went on to ensure Senators that the Fed has a variety of tools at its disposal to pull back aggressive monetary policies should price misalignments or other issues surface.

The nominee then pointed to the housing market as a primary beneficiary of Fed policies.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27966-yellen-fed-needs-to-detect-asset-bubbles-when-theyre-forming

Experts mull over housing bubble expectations | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Despite rapid increases in home prices over the past year, prices are 4% undervalued in the fourth quarter — meaning the market is nowhere near another housing bubble, Trulia (TRLA) claims in a new report.

To put it into perspective, prices were as much as 39% overvalued in the first quarter of 2008 — at the height of the bubble — then dropped to being 15% undervalued in the fourth quarter of 2011, the real estate firm says.

“If prices nationally are 4% undervalued, why are so many people worried that a new bubble is forming,” questioned Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.

He added, “Because prices have risen quickly over the past year, and even with the recent slowdown in the past few months, rising prices stoke bubble fear.”

In October, asking prices were up 11.7% year-over-year, which is roughly the same sharp increases seen in 2004 when the housing bubble was inflating.

Consequently, some market analysts believe that housing is in the depths of a bubble.

Given the fact that home prices are rising faster than real median household income as well as mortgage purchase applications, it signals the same factors experienced in the previous housing bubble, explained George Mason University finance professor Anthony Sanders.

“For the average American household, they are in a housing bubble,” he said. “For Chinese and other domestics and foreign investors, house prices are a bargain.”

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27950-experts-mull-over-housing-bubble-expectations

Metro Detroit Real Estate Market Stays Red Hot | Waccabuc Real Estate

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When it comes to housing in metro Detroit, it’s once again a seller’s market.

New figures from the Farmington Hills real estate data firm Realcomp II Ltd. show home prices skyrocketed 40 percent in October from a year earlier. Sales were up only slightly, though, at an 0.7 percent increase.

The median sale price in the 10-county area surveyed by Realcomp was $124,800, up from $89,000 a year earlier. A total of 6,345 homes changed hands in the month, up from 6,298 in October 2012.

Big price increases were reported in Macomb County (up 46 percent) and Wayne County (up 44 percent). Prices in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights were up 41 percent. Areas reporting relatively modest price increases were Livingston County (up 14.5 percent) and Lapeer County (up 6.1 percent). Average prices actually fell in only one county, 2.2 percent in St. Clair.

The number of homes sold actually fell in some parts of the region — down 20.1 percent in St. Clair County, down 10.2 percent in Lapeer County, down 9.6 percent in Detroit and the cities of Hamtramck, Highland Park and Harper Woods.

That could actually be because of a lack of inventory — the number of homes on the market fell almost 11 percent from a year ago, to 22,309 homes listed for sale in the region, down from 25,035 a year earlier. Another sign of a hot market: The number of days a home stayed on the market before selling plunged 22 days from a eyar earlier, to 56 days, from 78. (During the depths of the recession it took over 100 days to sell a home.)

 

 

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/11/12/metro-detroit-real-estate-market-stays-red-hot/

Westchester pol considers challenging Cuomo | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Newly re-elected Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, paid a surprise visit to the all Democratic Somos El Futuro gathering of state politicians in Puerto Rico last week, delivering an address in fluent Spanish and impressing many who were there.

Gov. Cuomo, by contrast, skipped the event, disappointing many and reinforcing his image as aloof from, and even contemptuous of, his fellow Democrats.

Astorino’s visit wasn’t by accident. The Post has learned that he told several aides and key fund-raisers in recent weeks that if he won last week’s election by a comfortable margin, he would “seriously consider” challenging Cuomo next year.

He won by a landslide in a heavily Democratic county within the critical New York City media market, and challenging Cuomo is exactly what he said he is considering in an expansive telephone interview with The Post from Puerto Rico.

“I am considering it right now. I have to consider it,’’ declared Astorino. “New York is hemorrhaging jobs, I think we just went from 49th to 50th in terms of a bad business climate. We’re going in the wrong direction.

“I feel New York is fundamentally out of balance right now with extraordinarily high taxes, a terrible regulatory climate and an explosion of Medicaid and pension costs that is really killing counties, local governments and school districts. There have to be some fundamental changes going forward,’’ he added.

Astorino has been working on developing a range of policy positions that would be important in a statewide race for governor.

He said, for instance, that if he did become governor, he would move to create thousands of private-sector jobs by approving “with proper restrictions’’ drilling for natural gas — known as “fracking’’ — in the economically hard-pressed Southern Tier, something Cuomo, facing threats from radical environmentalists, has refused to do for three years, despite promises that he would.

Astorino did credit Cuomo with “baby steps’’ to improve the state’s economic picture during his first year in office.

And he conceded that the governor, who is popular with all but upstate voters, would be difficult to beat, saying, “He’s certainly the prohibitive favorite.’’

 

 

 

 

http://nypost.com/2013/11/11/westchester-pol-considers-challenging-cuomo-for-governors-seat/

Is This the Top Content Marketing Company in the World? | Waccabuc Realtor

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The rise of blogging , Facebook and Twitter has made us all publishers.

Add mobile HD cameras mounted to helmets streaming death defying leaps,  extreme bike moves and dives and you have an explosion of multi-media creators  and publishers. Mobile and modern camera technology coupled with global social  networks are providing platforms and networks with the media fodder that are  supercharging content distribution and sharing.

Content and media is no longer gathering dust in the bottom draw or the  filing cabinet but is published online. Often it is streaming and unedited. It’s  real and raw.

Content now comes in a wide variety of formats and media. It can start with a  140 character micro blog (tweet), a video. image or a long form content piece of  2,000 words on your blog. It can even be a 6 second “Vine” video or a filtered  snapshot on Instagram taken on a smartphone.

These fast changing opportunities and mediums are presenting the traditional  marketer with some thought provoking and uncomfortable choices. You can almost  hear the squirming.

Why content marketing upsets traditional marketers

The old school marketing habits and paradigms don’t cut it anymore because  content marketing requires a different way of thinking. It flips the marketing  model in many ways.

  1. Pull rather than push. Its about attracting the customer to  you rather than pushing advertisements. That’s different.
  2. Entertain and educate first and sell second. Traditional  marketing never heard of the term educate.
  3. You don’t talk  about your product. Mentioning your product in content marketing  is inappropriate. The old school thinking struggles with that.
  4. You must think and act like a publisher not an advertiser.  That is not in the comfort zone.
  5. You operate in real time. This means you have to be  thinking about “continuous marketing” as well as being campaign focused. That’s  demanding.
  6. Need different  resources. This includes staff and software. The status quo is  being challenged.
  7. Needs a different culture. Publishing culture is different  to an advertising mindset. Newsrooms, reporting and editing are a world apart  from corporate marketing and advertising.

These mind warps are presenting some challenges and potential disruption to  the marketing department and the CEO. What are the obstacles in moving from  traditional mass media habits to a publisher paradigm?

The challenges to becoming a media company

The challenges come from many angles. Some are larger than others. It means  adopting a flexible mindset that is open to change. That in itself is a  challenge.

Here are a few to keep in mind as you move to a content marketing culture  that  embraces the new.

  • Re-allocation of  resources. It is hard to discard old habits but it requires a hard look  at what isn’t working or appropriate and try something new.
  • Re-educating the  team. It will mean sometimes forgetting what was taught at university  or college because most of the changes in media are mostly less than a decade  old. YouTube is not yet 10 years old (founded in 2005), tablets have only been  around for 4 years and Facebook was launched in February 2004.
  • Changing the culture. Maybe change management is  needed.
  • Adapting to a mobile content world. Smartphones only  exploded into popular culture when the first iPhone was launched in 2007.  Websites need upgrading to be “mobile responsive” and content optimisation now  has to consider viewing on smartphones.
  • Understanding  re-purposing of content. With the broad range of multi-media formats  (30 plus at last count) and social networks, brands need to understand that we  have different  preferences for the media we read and watch and the social  networks we use to consume them on. Same message but different  media.
  • Developing an integrated mindset. This means weaving  content marketing into other marketing channels. This includes embedding content  marketing in and across all media channels including social, search, email and  traditional mass media.
  • Creating “conversations around the brand” not about the  brand. (Thanks Altimeter for that insightful phrase). This means creating content that has heart and  soul of the brand embedded but not mentioned.

So what does this adaptation look like?

The content marketing stages

Content marketing is still embryonic for most companies. Here is how  Altimeter sees the stages of content marketing maturity.

 

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/11/08/is-this-the-top-content-marketing-company-in-the-world/#5eVc09uyx9ypi8ic.99