Category Archives: Waccabuc NY

Hot housing markets that are cooling down | Bedford Hills Homes

Leave a reply

The national housing market is by most measures recovering at a healthy clip. Home prices in some of the hardest-hit markets — places like Reno, Nev., and Phoenix, Ariz. — were up by more than 30% in the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year. But while many cities have seen housing market activity heat up, others that were recently among the hottest in the nation have cooled off.

Realtor.com’s Quarterly Turnaround Towns Report measures the strength of the recovery in the nation’s large housing markets. The site ranked the markets with the biggest declines in inventory and inventory age, and the biggest increases in home prices, as markets leading the nation’s recovery in growth and demand. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the eight metropolitan areas that were, according to Realtor.com’s rank, among the hottest markets in the country at the beginning of the year, but as of the third quarter have cooled down considerably.

Many of these markets were among the hardest hit by the housing crisis. Cities like Lakeland, Fla., Reno, Nev., and Bakersfield, Calif., had homes lose more than half their value during the collapse. As Alison Schwartz, vice president at Realtor.com, explained, it is not surprising that these markets were among the hottest at the beginning of this year. “Markets that were significantly impacted by the housing crisis have further to accelerate in order to get back to equilibrium conditions — whereas, markets that were less affected by the housing crisis have less room for acceleration.”

It appears, however, that the rapid recovery in these markets has slowed.

One of the most obvious indicators of a cooling housing market is a slowing of home price growth. In places like Ventura, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., home prices rose by roughly 25% last year. But in the most recent quarter, prices rose by just 2.1% and 0.5%, respectively. In all but one of the hot housing markets that are now cooling off, home prices were up 7% or more in the second quarter of this year. Last quarter, however, most rose only 2% or less. In Orlando, home prices climbed 10% in the second quarter but did not grow at all last quarter.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/11/05/eight-housing-markets-cooling-down/3441321/

Charting the Changes Happening Around The Barclays Center | Waccabuc NY Realtor

Leave a reply

Today the Municipal Art Society named the year-old Barclays Center a 2013 MASterworks Winner for being a “Neighborhood Catalyst.” The distinction may be somewhat vague, but it’s certainly fitting. Even before the arena opened in September 2012, the surrounding neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Fort Greene started to see changes, but now that construction is underway on the first residential tower of Atlantic Yards, new development will no doubt increase. Property values are increasing, new retailers and restaurants are moving in, and old stores are being replaced with new buildings. For this microhood map, we charted the changes happening in the blocks closest to the arena. There’s likely a property or two that we missed, so leave a comment or hit up the tipline if you know something that we don’t.

Barclays Center
620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 (877) 772-5849, website

Map DataMap data ©2013 Google, Sanborn
Map Data
Map data ©2013 Google, Sanborn
Map data ©2013 Google, Sanborn
Atlantic Yards Microhood Map
Atlantic Terrace
Plans for the eco-friendly co-op building Atlantic Terrace began around the same time that Bruce Ratner first announced his grand plans for Atlantic Yards way back in 2003. The building is located on the site of a former gas station, so a brownfield remediation took place before construction could begin. The building opened in 2010, with 59 of the 80 units being affordable, and it sold out within a year and a half. Since then, the new building has been a residential anchor on this stretch of Atlantic Avenue, which faces the railyards. Before the Barclays Center opened, the developer had trouble finding a tenant for the street level commercial space, but the chain Tony Roma’s is supposed to open soon, much to the dismay of residents.
212 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6831583-73.97283479999998
Barclays Center
After nine years of lawsuits, fights, and delays, the controversial Barclays Center basketball arena opened in September 2012. The arena was the first piece of the megaproject to be completed, and it’s opening boosted changes in the surrounding neighborhood.
620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
(877) 772-5849
40.68312-73.975979
Atlantic Yards Tower B2
Three months after the Barclays Center opened, Forest Cit Ratner broke ground on the first tower of Atlantic Yards, the 32-story B2. It will be tallest modular building in the world when complete. The building will eventually be joined by 14 others, and the project’s new investor expects to complete everything within eight years. That may be overly optimistic, however, given that a platform must be constructed over the rail yards before work can begin on most of those towers.
461 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6817672-73.97543239999999
215 Flatbush Avenue
Directly across the street from B2, PRD Realty is building a new six-story apartment building at 215 Flatbush Avenue. The site was formerly home to the Bergen Tile Company, and now it will have 53 rentals and 9,875-square-feet of ground floor retail.
215 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.681482-73.97519499999998
474 Dean Street
The yellow clapboard house at 474 Dean Street went into contract just 22 days after hitting the market in early 2013, ultimately closing for $1.52M. The asking price was $1.95M. The owners wouldn’t discuss why they wanted to sell, but many believed the opening of the Barclays Center was a major catalyst. The new owners are a Richard and Angela Datlon. No permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings, so for the time being, they clearly aren’t planning any major changes, like demolishing the house and building something bigger.
474 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68139-73.974872
Shake Shack
Food critics have praised the selection of local eateries inside the new arena, and it seems that better dining choices are coming to the outside neighborhood. In February, restauranteur Danny Meyer announced that a Shake Shack would be opening across from Barclays at 170 Flatbush Avenue, formerly home to a furniture store.
170 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.682631-73.976789
182 Flatbush Avenue
Before the Barclays Center even opened, the owners of Triangle Sports at 182 Flatbush Avenue put their building up for sale. The store had occupied the location since 1916, but the owners saw an opportunity to make big bucks thanks to the arena. They didn’t put a price on the property, but rather let the market determine its value. Public records show that it sold to an LLC for $4.1 million, closing just one day before the arena opened.  No new building permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings, but Triangle Sports has long since closed.
182 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68213-73.97631799999999
Church of the Redeemer
A 150-year-old Gothic Revival Church at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street, just one block from Barclays, announced its imminent demolition in the summer of 2012, but neighbors have been fighting to save or repurpose the building. The priest in charge of the site said the church needed at least $8 million to repair the building, and at least $20 million to make is useable. At the time of the announcement came, the dwindling congregation had already relocated to a different church, and the priest admitted that they had made no moves to try to raise money. The church planned to tear down the building, and rebuild a more profitable residential mixed-use building. But as of April 2013, no final decision had been made, and neighbors were still trying to save it.
561 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6838032-73.97884529999999
U.S. Post Office
In August, a tipster told Brownstoner that the post office at 542 Atlantic Avenue would be closed, demolished, and replaced with a 7-story hotel. The closure of another post office would not be surprising given that it’s happening in other parts of the city, and a hotel near the Barclays Center would make sense for a property owner looking to make more money. The owner also owns the warehouse next door at 540 Atlantic Avenue. The post office is widely loathed, but it’s still open, and there are no demolition or new building permits on the DOB website. In September, a rep for the post office told DNAinfo that they were “still in lease negotiations on this location.”
542 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.684583-73.97981199999998
123 Fort Greene Place
In the immediate blocks around the Barclays Center, most new developments have been retail, but one of the first new condo buildings is 123 Fort Greene Place. The development, a conversion of two adjacent townhouses into six condos, hit the market in February, and they were snapped up in a hurry. By June, only one remained, and by the end of August, all six were sold and closed. As the Atlantic Yards towers grow, we expect more condo projects to pop up nearby.
123 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68581574674811-73.97606300000007
Atlantic Terrace
Plans for the eco-friendly co-op building Atlantic Terrace began around the same time that Bruce Ratner first announced his grand plans for Atlantic Yards way back in 2003. The building is located on the site of a former gas station, so a brownfield remediation took place before construction could begin. The building opened in 2010, with 59 of the 80 units being affordable, and it sold out within a year and a half. Since then, the new building has been a residential anchor on this stretch of Atlantic Avenue, which faces the railyards. Before the Barclays Center opened, the developer had trouble finding a tenant for the street level commercial space, but the chain Tony Roma’s is supposed to open soon, much to the dismay of residents.
212 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6831583-73.97283479999998
Barclays Center
After nine years of lawsuits, fights, and delays, the controversial Barclays Center basketball arena opened in September 2012. The arena was the first piece of the megaproject to be completed, and it’s opening boosted changes in the surrounding neighborhood.
620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
(877) 772-5849
40.68312-73.975979
Barclays Center
After nine years of lawsuits, fights, and delays, the controversial Barclays Center basketball arena opened in September 2012. The arena was the first piece of the megaproject to be completed, and it’s opening boosted changes in the surrounding neighborhood.
620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
(877) 772-5849
40.68312-73.975979
Atlantic Yards Tower B2
Three months after the Barclays Center opened, Forest Cit Ratner broke ground on the first tower of Atlantic Yards, the 32-story B2. It will be tallest modular building in the world when complete. The building will eventually be joined by 14 others, and the project’s new investor expects to complete everything within eight years. That may be overly optimistic, however, given that a platform must be constructed over the rail yards before work can begin on most of those towers.
461 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6817672-73.97543239999999
215 Flatbush Avenue
Directly across the street from B2, PRD Realty is building a new six-story apartment building at 215 Flatbush Avenue. The site was formerly home to the Bergen Tile Company, and now it will have 53 rentals and 9,875-square-feet of ground floor retail.
215 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.681482-73.97519499999998
474 Dean Street
The yellow clapboard house at 474 Dean Street went into contract just 22 days after hitting the market in early 2013, ultimately closing for $1.52M. The asking price was $1.95M. The owners wouldn’t discuss why they wanted to sell, but many believed the opening of the Barclays Center was a major catalyst. The new owners are a Richard and Angela Datlon. No permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings, so for the time being, they clearly aren’t planning any major changes, like demolishing the house and building something bigger.
474 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68139-73.974872
Shake Shack
Food critics have praised the selection of local eateries inside the new arena, and it seems that better dining choices are coming to the outside neighborhood. In February, restauranteur Danny Meyer announced that a Shake Shack would be opening across from Barclays at 170 Flatbush Avenue, formerly home to a furniture store.
170 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.682631-73.976789
182 Flatbush Avenue
Before the Barclays Center even opened, the owners of Triangle Sports at 182 Flatbush Avenue put their building up for sale. The store had occupied the location since 1916, but the owners saw an opportunity to make big bucks thanks to the arena. They didn’t put a price on the property, but rather let the market determine its value. Public records show that it sold to an LLC for $4.1 million, closing just one day before the arena opened.  No new building permits have been filed with the Department of Buildings, but Triangle Sports has long since closed.
182 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68213-73.97631799999999
Church of the Redeemer
A 150-year-old Gothic Revival Church at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street, just one block from Barclays, announced its imminent demolition in the summer of 2012, but neighbors have been fighting to save or repurpose the building. The priest in charge of the site said the church needed at least $8 million to repair the building, and at least $20 million to make is useable. At the time of the announcement came, the dwindling congregation had already relocated to a different church, and the priest admitted that they had made no moves to try to raise money. The church planned to tear down the building, and rebuild a more profitable residential mixed-use building. But as of April 2013, no final decision had been made, and neighbors were still trying to save it.
561 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.6838032-73.97884529999999
U.S. Post Office
In August, a tipster told Brownstoner that the post office at 542 Atlantic Avenue would be closed, demolished, and replaced with a 7-story hotel. The closure of another post office would not be surprising given that it’s happening in other parts of the city, and a hotel near the Barclays Center would make sense for a property owner looking to make more money. The owner also owns the warehouse next door at 540 Atlantic Avenue. The post office is widely loathed, but it’s still open, and there are no demolition or new building permits on the DOB website. In September, a rep for the post office told DNAinfo that they were “still in lease negotiations on this location.”
542 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.684583-73.97981199999998
123 Fort Greene Place
In the immediate blocks around the Barclays Center, most new developments have been retail, but one of the first new condo buildings is 123 Fort Greene Place. The development, a conversion of two adjacent townhouses into six condos, hit the market in February, and they were snapped up in a hurry. By June, only one remained, and by the end of August, all six were sold and closed. As the Atlantic Yards towers grow, we expect more condo projects to pop up nearby.
123 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217
40.68581574674811-73.97606300000007
Atlantic Terrace
Plans for the eco-friendly co-op building Atlantic Terrace began around the same time that Bruce Ratner first announced his grand plans for Atlantic Yards way back in 2003. The building is located on the site of a former gas station, so a brownfield remediation took place before construction could,…

Supporting a Wide-Span Floor With Structural Steel | Waccabuc Real Estate

Leave a reply

When my client described how he wanted to convert his home’s existing two-car garage into a spacious new living room, I knew it would be a great project for my design/build firm. Measuring 34 feet deep by 28 feet wide, the garage space was a blank slate — little more than an unheated box with a concrete slab for a floor. The garage had a full-height attic that he was planning to convert into a master suite, and the first floor had plenty of space for a nice living room and his many collectibles. The only problem was that the wide-open floor plan he wanted wouldn’t be possible until we figured out a way to support the second floor’s main girder, which was propped up by a steel I-beam running down the center of the garage (see Figure 1).

To transform this garage (top) into living space with an open floor plan, the author replaced the existing steel I-beam and supporting column with a framework of custom-fabricated decorative steel (bottom).

When we started the design process — specifically, figuring out how to create a unique space and support the second floor without posts or columns — I immediately thought of local steel fabricator and sculptor John Rubino, whose decorative steel beams are on display in various residential and commercial structures in northern Vermont. Although these structural elements function much like ordinary structural red iron, the stylized beams look anything but ordinary.

With the client’s go-ahead, John and I worked out a plan: We would support the top half of the building without intermediate posts and simultaneously create a living space using exposed steel framing that would become an integral part of the overall design. While John spent about a month fabricating the steel in his Morrisville, Vt., shop (see “Fabricating a Custom steel Beam“), my crew and I readied the building for its new structural elements.

The steel design was relatively simple — two upside-down U-shaped frames connected to another beam running perpendicular to them at the center. Designed with a graceful sweeping curve, the connecting beam would replace the garage’s existing center I- beam and eliminate the need for supporting columns; it would also add a sculptural element to the space.

Getting to Work

Before delivery of the steel, we built a pair of 2×4 walls that would temporarily support the second floor while we removed the existing steel I-beam and posts. Even though we had to frame new openings for a 6-foot patio door and several windows, we purposely left the existing garage-door openings in place to make it easier to bring the steel inside.

About a month after finalizing the plan, John backed his delivery truck into the garage and we lifted the beams off with a chain hoist (Figure 2). John had welded on lifting points near the center span of each beam, to help keep the components nice and level as they went up. This was good thinking, because this steel was meant to be exposed and had been spray-painted and finished with a water-based clear finish called Safecoat Acrylacq (AFM, 619/239-0321, www.afmsafecoat.com). This coating is pretty tough, but we still had to handle the steel with care so as not to scratch it. The lifting points made the process a lot easier and safer.

 

 

http://www.jlconline.com/framing/supporting-a-wide-span-floor-with-structural-steel.aspx

The 1916 Proposal To Expand Manhattan By 50 Square Miles | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

Screen-Shot-2013-11-03-at-9.27.06-PM.jpg

In the early 20th century, land reclamation was such a popular idea that at least once a decade, some engineer proposed filling in a New York waterway to make the city bigger and better. There was the 1934 plan to turn the Hudson River into land, which came 10 years after a plan to drain the East River. But both of those bonkers plans were preceded by an even more ambitious scheme, put forth by a Dr. T. Kennard Thomson in a 1916 issue of Popular Science. Not only did he want to fill in the East River, but the plan also called for creating a “New Manhattan” to the south that would subsume Governors and Liberty Islands. He also wanted to build new islands and tack new land onto Staten Island and New Jersey for a total of 50 square miles with 100 miles of new waterfront property.

Thompson was no crackpot engineer with fanciful ideas. He designed and built pneumatic caissons (water-tight supports) for dozens of bridges across the country, consulted on more than 20 New York skyscrapers by 1916, and helped create the New York barge canal system. Even still, he admits in the first paragraph of the Popular Science article that his new landmass idea “seems somewhat stupendous,” but he was convinced that creating new land and more shipping areas would ease congestion both on land and in the harbor.

Screen-Shot-2013-11-03-at-9.27.25-PM.jpg

Through his proposal, City Hall would become the literal center of the city, with a radius of surrounding land stretching for 25 miles. “…Within that circle, there would be ample room for a population of twenty-five millions,” wrote Thompson. The whole thing would take “a few years,” and supposedly hundreds of engineers supported his proposal.

The cost would be “a great deal more than the sum involved in the construction of the Panama Canal,” but Thompson believe that “the great returns would quickly pay off the debt incurred, and then would commence to swell the city’s money bags until New York would be the richest city in the world.” The Panama Canal cost the U.S. about $375 million, and Thompson’s endeavor would require “an annual expenditure” of $50 to $100 million. By today’s numbers, that’s a hefty amount more than $1 billion every year.

kennard-thompson-1.jpg

The plan would be carried out in phases, the first of which would be to extend Manhattan from the Battery to within one mile of Staten Island. Then the boroughs would be connected with new subway tunnels, which Thompson said would increase the value of Staten Island from $50 million to $500 million. Next, a large island would be built off the shore of Sandy Hook, which would protect a “new harbor” created by the addition of two new pieces of land jutting off Staten Island. The point? To create 40 miles of new docks, shipyards, dry docks, and coaling stations that could accommodate the biggest ships in the world.

After that, the East River would be wiped out. “Naval authorities agree that the East River is no place for the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” wrote Thompson. The Navy Yard would move to new land in Newark Bay, and a new East River would be cut through Brooklyn and Queens, connecting the Flushing and Jamaica Bays. A new Harlem River would be created as well, slicing through upper Manhattan from Hell Gate to the Hudson River.  The old East River would be filled in, upon which new highways and “business blocks” like Grand Central’s Terminal City would be built. And of course, more subways would run beneath the new acreage.

t.kennard-thompson-2.jpg

Obviously, his plan never came to be. By 1930, Thompson must have realized his ambitious ideas would never become a reality, and he drastically scaled back the plan to include only the “New Manhattan.” Instead of filling in the East River, he proposed fusing the new island to New Jersey and creating a Four Mile Boulevard with three tiers, one each for car, trains, and planes. But given that New York’s harbor looks much the same as it did when Thompson dreamt up his scheme, we all know how this story ends. · A Really Greater New York [Popular Science via Google Books] · 1916 Plan for NYC Proposed Fusing Brooklyn and Manhattan, Building New Islands [io9] · 486 – “A Really Greater New York” [Strange Maps on Big Think] · Curbed’s Could Have Been archives [Curbed]

Mortgage rates drop for second straight week | Waccabuc Real Estate

Leave a reply

Amid data that has lowered expectations for the performance of the housing market in the fourth quarter of this year, mortgage rates dropped for the second straight week.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.1 percent with an average point of 0.7 percent for the week ending Oct. 31, down from 4.13 percent last week but up from 3.39 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages and five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans also decreased, while rates on one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs increased.

“Fixed mortgage rates eased further leading up to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Oct. 30th monetary policy announcement,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac. “The Fed saw improvement in economic activity and labor market conditions since it began its asset purchase program, but noted the recovery in the housing market slowed somewhat in recent months and unemployment remains elevated.”

“As a result, there was no policy change which should help sustain low mortgage rates in the near future.”

Source: Freddie Mac

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/mortgage-rates-drop-for-2nd-straight-week/#sthash.Yi9iOhYW.dpuf

Dreaming in Color: 8 Eye-Opening Yellow Bedrooms | Waccabuc Real Estate

Leave a reply

I tend to associate the color yellow with the sweet corn my hometown, just outside the reach of suburban Chicago, is famous for. It’s also the color of one of the first flowers of spring in that part of the country, daffodils, which my mother planted in beds around the house to herald the end of our long, cold winters. To me yellow represents the color of sunshine, sustenance and rejuvenation. It reminds me of happy, idyllic days and makes me feel optimistic for the future. If you have similar positive associations with yellow, try using it in your bedroom to help you get revved up each morning for the day ahead.
Below you’ll find several sunny yellow bedrooms as well as tips for working the happy hue into your sleeping space.

If you have tall ceilings in your bedroom and lots of natural light, you can go super bold and intense with yellow. This particular shade of yellow packs a wallop, so I’d recommend limiting it to an accent wall. A room that gets this much natural light can handle a bold yellow on an entire wall, but be aware that if your bedroom has low ceilings and little natural light streaming in, then a yellow as bright and bold as this one could leave you feeling anxious.
Get a similar look with Babouche from Farrow & Ball.
Those seeking a mellower yellow should look at softer sandy and golden hues, such as this green-tinged gold. There’s quite a bit of brown and white in it, so it reads as a neutral hue — a pumped-up beige, if you will. This is a good color choice if you plan to paint all or most of your walls yellow, as it offers a nice wash of color without going overboard.
Add oodles of warmth to your bedroom with a generous dose of wood tones and a yellow hue such as this one that veers more toward warmer orange than cooler green. This is an ideal palette for getting a cozy bedroom vibe in even the coldest of climates.
If you’re a fan of wall coverings, choose one that really makes a statement. An interesting print on a bold yellow background is a great choice for an accent wall. Wall coverings can also provide protection from dents and dings, and many are scrubbable and therefore easy to clean, making them a smart choice in a kids’ room.

Mortgage originations expected to fall 32% in 2014 | Waccabuc Real Estate

Leave a reply

Mortgage originations are estimated to reach a total value of $1.2 trillion in 2014, a 32% drop from 2013 levels, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday.

The trade group elaborated on some of the trends expected next year:

“We expect mortgage rates will increase above 5 percent in 2014 and then increase further to 5.3% by the end of 2015. As a result, mortgage refinancing will continue to drop, and borrowers seeking to tap the equity in their homes will be more likely to rely on home equity seconds rather than cash-out refinances.”

“We will potentially see a small increase in refinances toward the end of 2015 as the Home Affordable Refinance Program 2.0 (HARP) expires but HARP activity during 2014 will still be low.”

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27690-mba-mortgage-originations-to-drop-32-in-2014

8 Facebook Apps to Enhance Your Facebook Page | Waccabuc Realtor

Leave a reply

Do you want to add more function and flair to your Facebook page?

Would you like to add storefront, generate leads or promote something special on a Facebook tab within your page?

In this article I’ll reveal Facebook applications that can help you easily add functionality to your Facebook page.

How Do Facebook Apps Work?

Before we get started, let’s review how Facebook apps (also known as custom tabs on Facebook) pages work.

Custom tabs are installed manually on your Facebook page and show up underneath the cover photo. If you’re visiting a page that has more than four tabs, you can click the down arrow on the right side of the tab cover photos to reveal them all.

Custom tabs appear under your cover photo.

 

There are four standard Facebook apps that come with every page—Photos, Events, Videos and Likes—and any other apps you add are created by a third-party developer (not Facebook).

Many of the apps are designed on the app website after you sign up, and then installed later onto your Facebook page when you’re ready.

Things You Should Know

There are a few important details about Facebook apps that will help with your design. The app width is 810 pixels. If you’re going to create graphics that go all the way across the tab, you’ll need to keep the graphic to that width to prevent scroll bars on your tab.

The graphic can be as long as you want it to be, but keep in mind that it should be shorter than around 500 pixels to appear “above the fold” on most computer screens.

You’ll probably also want to design a custom tab cover photo to draw attention to the tab. The dimensions of the tab cover photo are 111 pixels wide by 74 pixels tall.

Also note that some tabs will not appear on mobile devices. Some are “mobile-ready”; meaning they have a separate URL that they direct people on mobile devices to so they can see the content on that custom tab.

If you’ve been out there searching in the blogosphere, you may have come across Welcome Pages, where the content of your Facebook page could be “hidden” until the user clicks the Like button. That function no longer exists, but you can still hide the content of a Tab until someone clicks the Like button.

Hiding part of the content of your custom Tab is called “like-gating” or “fan-gating“, meaning that someone has to like your page (be your fan) before they can see the good content. This can work especially well for contests or sweepstakes on Facebook. By doing this, you can ensure that the person is a Fan before getting access to the contest entry form.

There are a lot of other apps available that provide a variety of features, like easily bringing in your Pinterest boards, running a contest or adding your blog posts.

These apps are more like a blank canvas, where you can do anything you can do on a website by either using custom templates to get you started or custom-designing something from scratch.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the top 8 apps (in alphabetical order) with some notes about each one.

 

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-apps-for-custom-tabs/

Luxury housing market lifts Hamptons | Waccabuc Real Estate

Leave a reply

Hamptons home prices ticked up in the third quarter over last year, according to two reports released Thursday, paced by a robust rise in the price of luxury homes.

However, the median sale price in the luxury market—defined in the Hamptons as anything above $2.8 million—hit $4.45 million this quarter, a 14% jump from a median of $3.9 million a year earlier, according to brokerage firm Douglas Elliman. That compares to a miniscule rise of less than 0.5% for the overall market, according to Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, the firm that prepared the report.

But even as prices rose at the top end, so did shoppers’ urge to jump into the market, which drove the number of sales up to 52 in the quarter, a jump of 27%. In turn, the potent combination of rising sales as well as prices, prompted more sellers to put their homes on the market, driving inventory up 123% over the same quarter last year. Miller said that supply had been extremely low over the past few years, and the jump signified more of a return to normal.

But looking forward, the larger number of properties on the market should begin to temper the same rise in prices that kicked off the growth in the first place.

“The market is sort of self-correcting,” Mr. Miller noted. “The supply, in response to the rise in price, is keeping prices from rising too quickly and that is a good sign for market stability.”

The hottest neighborhood for Douglas Elliman was Wainscott. There two homes sold for an average of about $12 million, followed by East Hampton, where the brokerage closed deals on eight properties for an average of $10.5 million, according to the report.

In the broader market median prices were depressed in the quarter by the large number of homes that were sold on the lower end of the cost spectrum, contributing to the highest quarterly sales numbers in eight years.

Mr. Miller partially attributes the rush on the more affordable homes to a spike in interest rates in May, and fears they will climb even higher.”You had a surge of people come who were on the fence and entered the market to finally buy,” he said.

The Corcoran Group reported similar gains in its 3Q report. In the luxury market, the firm charted a 29% increase in average median sales prices, and broker Ernie Cervi said few factors lead him to believe the area will cool off any time soon. At the end of the third quarter last year, the median price tag was about $4.5 million, while this quarter it hit $5.8 million.

 

 

 

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131024/REAL_ESTATE/131029946

Native Plants Inspire and Educate at NYC’s Botanical Garden | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

If you’re planning a trip to New York City, make sure to see the Native Plant Garden, which opened earlier this year at the New York Botanical Garden. There’s something for everyone here.  Shade gardeners will find plenty to look at in the dappled layers beneath a canopy of river birch, dogwood and sugar maple. Farther along the path, beneath an open sky, plants that love sun sprawl in wispy cascades that catch the wind or offer up their blooms in rigid, colorful spikes. And there are places for sitting and listening. In the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, the sound of bees and birds is very sweet.

Flared pots showcase native plants outside the entrance pavilion — you won’t find geraniums or begonias here. Instead, ornamental grasses welcome you to this state-of-the-art landscape with plants indigenous to eastern North America.
More than 100,000 plants cover this 3½-acre USDA zone 7a location, inspiring anyone looking for ways to develop a sustainable landscape or combine plants in new ways. On a recent visit, I found a new baptisia that I’d like to try — the short purple cultivar ‘Purple Smoke’ (Baptisia australis ‘Purple Smoke’), because I love anything with purple spikes.
Winding paths take you through a woodland and connect to other distinct areas. There’s a glade, wetland, wet meadow, dry meadow, native border and promenade walk that runs along an angular 230-foot-long water feature that cuts through the center of the landscape.
“The whole site is a tribute to the rich, diverse flora of the Northeast,” says principal designer Sheila Brady of Oehme, van Sweden. “We pivoted the design around the geology, all the beautiful rock outcroppings, the wet meadow and the mature forest nearby.”
One of the project goals was to integrate a sustainable water feature. “We capture all the surface runoff in a system that utilizes biofiltration and minimizes potable water usage,” Brady says. Storm water is filtered through plants like sweetflag (Acorus sp) and stored in cisterns belowground.
In the specially designed wetland, a pump recirculates rainwater, moving it through layers of gravel, sand and plant roots that filter and clean the water through this natural biofiltration system.
Slender blue flag iris (Iris prismatica ‘Exeter’), one of only three iris species native to New York, can be found along the boardwalk. If you’ve got wet soil, a pond or stream, you’ll be interested to know that this tough perennial naturally occurs in these types of areas and has a lovely spring bloom.
In the dappled light of the woodland, clumps of wild columbine (Aquelegia canadensis) mingle with prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), a delicate grass with wand-like seed heads.  Aquilegia canadensis ‘Little Lanterns’, called Canadian columbine, is mixed into the displays and is more intensely colored than the species.
Red Northern lady fern (Athyrium ‘Lady in Red’) forms a ground cover, along with eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) and Appalachian sedge (Carex appalachica).
Prairie dropseed cascades along the edges of walkways and adds a tactile element.
“What really intrigued me was how, even with a simplified plant palette, a very strong sense of place for each habitat area was communicated,” says garden photographer Karen Bussolini.
Grasses abound on rocky slopes, where they soften the hard contours of boulders.
For Bussolini, who also works as an ecofriendly garden coach in northwestern Connecticut, the plantings are inspirational. “The garden is full of really great plants, any one of which would be an asset in any garden, but here grown in community,” she says. “The patterns of intermingling plants were endlessly fascinating, and I left inspired to try quite a few of them.”