A MESSAGE FROM SUPERVISOR CHRIS BURDICK |
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Dear Residents,
We’re pleased to announce that the Town has launched an annual report, please click here for the 2014 Town of Bedford Annual Report. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. I can be reached at Supervisor@bedfordny.gov or at 666-6530. Warmest regards,
Chris Burdick Supervisor |
[Images via Wolfsonian-FIU]
Whatever the architecture blogs think, Miami did not discover great architecture just in the last ten to twenty years. We may not have always had Rem Koolhaas (although Rem’s been connected to this town longer than you’d think), but we’ve always had beautiful environments, and outstanding buildings. Just look at thesepostcards of Miami and Miami Beach though the decades, from theWolfsonian Museum’s archives. They’re all about architecture and edenic landscapes, be it Art Deco, the neoclassical Beaux Arts, or Mediterranean Revival. They also show a healthy zest for the good life, which Miami has always had in spades.
read more…
http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/11/postcards-of-miami-and-miami-beach.php
The albatross of student debt, underemployment and weak wage growth didn’t prevent millennials from accounting for the largest share of home purchases, according to data released Wednesday.
The National Association of Realtors said millennials, or those between 18 and 34 years old, accounted for the largest share of home buyers last year at 32%, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Millennials make up 23% of the U.S. population, according to separate data from the Census Bureau.
This is the third year of the survey, and the second year millennials had the top spot.
The median age of millennial homebuyers was 29, their median income was $76,900 and they typically bought a 1,720-square foot home costing $189,900.
Generation X, or those between 35 and 49, was closely behind with a 27% share. The median buyer in that group was 41 years old, had a median income of $104,600 and purchased a 1,890-square-foot home costing $250,000.
The median home purchase for all buyers was 1,870 square feet and cost $216,000.
According to the survey, 13% of all home purchases were by a multi-generational household, consisting of adult siblings, adult children, parents and/or grandparents.
read more…
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/millennials-accounted-for-largest-share-of-home-purchases-last-year-2015-03-11
A sharp jump in mortgage rates last Friday took its toll on home lending, leaving mostly high-end home buyers on the playing field.
Total mortgage application volume fell 1.3 percent week-to-week on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending March 6th, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The fall was driven by a 3 percent drop in applications to refinance. Refinance volume is now at its lowest level since January and accounts for just 60 percent of all applications. Refinances had seen as much as an 80 percent share of all applications in recent years, as rates dipped and home buying stalled.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose two percent for the week and are two percent higher than a year ago. The slight increase, however, was largely due to higher-end home buyers. The average purchase loan size last week soared to $294,900, the highest level ever recorded on the MBA survey. The median price of a U.S. home sold in January was $199,600, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“The record high average loan size indicates that the strength of the market remains at the high end. We have not yet seen an influx of first-time homebuyers,” noted Michael Fratantoni, chief economist for the MBA.
A stronger-than-expected February employment report last Friday pushed interest rates higher, as investors now expect the Federal Reserve to increase its lending rate by mid-year. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) increased to 4.01 percent, the highest level since the week ending January 2, 2015, from 3.96 percent, with points increasing to 0.39 from 0.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans, according to the MBA.
Interest rates edged back a bit Tuesday, as the stock market sold off, but 4 percent may be the new normal now for 30-year fixed rate loans, with the expectation that they would move higher later this year. While these moves may seem small, they can take away significant purchasing power, especially for lower income borrowers using small down payments. With home price gains accelerating, and still tight supply of homes for sale, home buyers are especially sensitive to every potential penny lost or gained.
read more…
https://homes.yahoo.com/news/weekly-mortgage-applications-drop-rates-110000215.html
After a tipster complained about the size of the units in the newly launched third Northside Piers tower, 1 North 4th Place, officially known as 1N4th, we were invited inside the brand new Williamsburg waterfront rental tower to take a look for ourselves. And while, yes, the units are indeed small (they’re rentals, after all), and expensive, they are also as advertised, containing condo-quality finishes, and, possibly more importantly, access to the building’s many amenities. There’s an enormous lobby as befits a building of this size (there are 509 units in total, 20 or so of which already have residents) with multiple lounging areas, a kitchenette, and a meeting room; a bike room with storage space for more than 250 bicycles; an approximately 3,000-square-foot gym; and more, as you will discover on the rest of the tour.
read more…
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/10/williamsburgs_new_rental_has_nice_views_but_tiny_apartments.php
The Federal Reserve Board recently reported that consumer credit outstanding rose by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2%, $138.7 billion, in January 2015. Consumer credit outstanding now totals $3.3 trillion.
The expansion of total consumer credit outstanding reflected an increase in the outstanding amount of non-revolving consumer credit. Non-revolving consumer credit includes auto loans and student loans. According to the report, non-revolving credit outstanding grew by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3%, $152.7 billion, in January 2015, 0.5 percentage points faster than the 5.8%, $140.2 billion, growth recorded in December 2014. There is now $2.4 trillion in outstanding non-revolving credit, 73.3% of the total amount of consumer credit outstanding.
The growth in non-revolving credit was partially offset by a contraction in the outstanding amount of revolving credit. Revolving credit outstanding is largely composed of consumer credit card debt. After recording an increase of 8.4%, $74.2 billion, in December 2014, revolving credit outstanding registered a 1.6% decrease, -$13.9 billion, in January 2015. As of January 2015, revolving credit outstanding totals $0.9 trillion, 26.7% of total consumer credit outstanding.
A previous post illustrated that depository institutions are the largest holders of outstanding consumer credit. According to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which collects banking statistics from depository institutions as part of its responsibility to guarantee the safety of depositor’s accounts, the growth in the amount of loans to individuals, which includes credit cards, other revolving credit plans, automobile loans, and other loans to individuals, but excludes loans to individuals that are secured by real estate, has been accelerating since 2012. As a result, the gap between growth in outstanding loans to individuals and growth in total net lending has converged.
According to Figure 2, loans to individuals made by depository institutions fell by 2.9% in 2009, but total net loans and leases fell by 8.4% indicating that the contraction in loans to individuals was not as severe as other lending made by depository institutions in 2009. Total net loans and leases is equal to the total amount of loans and leases less the reserve for debts gone bad. In 2010, loans to individuals rose by 24.4% while total net loans and leases grew by 1.3%, indicating that growth in loans to individuals exceeded the growth of total net loans and leases. However, the 2010 increase in consumer lending of 24.4% reflects financial institutions’ implementation of the FAS 166/167 accounting rules which moved loans from pools of securitized assets to the balance sheets of lenders. Since 2011, the gap between the growth in loans to individuals and total net loans and leases has closed as growth in loans to individuals has accelerated.
In contrast, the gap between growth in single-family and multifamily lending compared to growth in total net loans and leases had steadily widened until 2014. In 2014, the gap between lending secured by single- and multifamily real estate and total net loans and leases converged. Figure 3 illustrates this result. According to the figure, between 2009 and 2013, the widening gap in growth rates occurred during a period in which lending secured my single-family and multifamily residences was declining and overall lending by depository institutions was growing. In 2014, the gap between the growth in single-and multifamily loans outstanding and total net loans and leases closed as loans for single- and multifamily real estate returned to growth.
read more…
http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/03/consumer-credit-expands-on-auto-student-loans-2/
In London’s most upmarket districts, shovel-wielding teams are hard at work in what look like mines hidden beneath luxury homes, sidestepping the British capital’s planning rules by expanding underground.
Some of their more hi-tech kit may end up buried there — it is reported that the cost of bringing it back above ground is more than its value — and the bowels of the British capital have already become a graveyard for around 1,000 excavating machines.
The trend started in the late 1990s, when residents developed small basements, calculating it was a cheaper way of increasing floorspace than moving house while sticking to the strict height rules imposed by the city’s conservation bodies.
But Paul Schaaf, partner of architectural firm The Basement Design Studio, told AFP that since the 2008 recession, his firm has largely been called in to help with vast spaces beneath houses in the opulent neighbourhoods of south and west London.
“We ended up doing different ones, larger ones where people weren’t so much affected by the recession in well-established residential properties, in Kensington and north London,” he said.
Permit applications for this type of work have soared: in 2013, Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall received 450 compared to just 20 a decade ago.
“We’re talking about two or three floors down and extending beyond the boundaries of the garden. It can sometimes go under the road,” complained Murad Qureshi, a Labour member of the London Assembly, the elected body that holds the London mayor to account.
Often the new spaces house luxurious marble swimming pools, home theatres or garages for classic cars.
“This is really the super-rich extending very large properties even further, ” Qureshi said, calling the properties “iceberg homes”.
Last year, Qureshi unsuccessfully tried to impose limits on such developments in the capital.
“A lot of local residents are very concerned about these extensive developments causing floods, sink holes, structural damage to neighbouring properties and the construction of these deep basements is very disruptive to the immediate neighbourhood,” he said.
– ‘Living in a building site’ –
The work can take several months, even years.
At the chic Orme Square in Westminster, a sewer recently collapsed. The road above had been carrying trucks laden with soil removed from the home of a famous English television presenter.
For two fed-up residents, who wished to remain anonymous, the link is clear.
read more…
http://news.yahoo.com/londons-iceberg-homes-plumb-citys-depths-102322228.html
Key West’s Jeptha Vinning Harris School was “built as one of the first schools in Florida” in 1905. It was dedicated in 1909, and served as Key West’s elementary school until the last class graduated in 1986 (it also served as a high school until 1915, when another school was built). Then it was “used as the district’s alternative school site and as an office for various social service and government offices”, although in reality it was mostly abandoned. A developer bought it from the school board in 2009 for $4.25 million, and apparently did little with it, and now the old school, which, although the listing photos don’t include any interiors, appears hardly changed over the years, is back on the market for$12.5 million. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both floors have original 14 foot ceilings, lots of wood, and grand staircases.
read more…
http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/10/abandoned-key-west-school-listed-for-125-million.php
As the year ended, 39 percent, or 117, of the nation’s largest 300 markets achieved full price recovery, up 30 percent from the end of 2013. Hundreds of other markets moved closer to full recovery; by December, the average rebound percentage of all 300 markets was 95.85 percent, which was slightly higher than 95.49 percent recorded in November.
Markets that lost the least value during the Great Recession have been the first to rebound. Of the markets with a peak-to-trough decline of less than 10 percent, 25 had an average rebound of 107 percent in December. Of the markets that lost 10 to 20 percent of value, the average rebound reached 99 percent of the prior peak price in December. In the markets that suffered the most severe price declines, the average rebound percentage was 81 percent.
In December, 42 of the top 100 markets measured continued to show a complete price recovery, increasing by two from November. Jackson, MS and NashvilleDavidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN were the new markets rebounding at 100.15 percent and 100.16 percent, respectively. Additionally, 75 midsize markets saw a rebound above 100 percent, up by four markets from November’s report.
“Great progress was made in the housing market during 2014. It put the real estate sector within striking distance of a majority of the nation’s 300 largest markets reaching full price recovery. As markets reach new price peaks, they are restoring equity to millions of homeowners, making it possible for them to refinance or sell,” said David Mele, president of Homes.com.
read more…
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/02/8482/
Spring training has just started but thousands of homeowners are already striking out for the second time.
Black Knight reports that in January foreclosure starts reached at 12-month high. Repeat foreclosures were up 11 percent month-over-month and made up over half of January foreclosure starts; first-time starts were up just 0.33 percent.
The month’s data showed that both first-time and repeat foreclosure starts reached 12-month highs, although there was clear separation in the levels of increase between the two. According to Trey Barnes, Black Knight’s senior vice president of Loan Data Products, separation also continues to be seen between judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states across multiple performance indicators.
“Overall foreclosure starts hit a 12-month high in January, and that held true when looking at both first-time and repeat foreclosure starts individually,” said Barnes. “Repeat foreclosure starts made up 51 percent of all foreclosure starts and increased 11 percent from December. In contrast, first-time foreclosure starts were up just a fraction of a percent from the month prior. Similarly, Black Knight found that January foreclosure starts jumped about 10 percent from December in judicial states as compared to just a 1.7 percent increase in non-judicial states. Judicial states are also seeing higher levels of both new problem loans and serious delinquencies (loans 90 or more days delinquent, but not yet in foreclosure) than non-judicial states, although volumes are down overall in both categories.
One again the action is mostly in the judicial states. Foreclosure starts were up almost 10 percent month-over-month in judicial states vs. just 1.7 percent in non-judicial. “At the same time, foreclosure sale counts – essentially, completed foreclosures – have been decreasing more rapidly than the inventory of seriously delinquent loans in both judicial and non-judicial states. As a result, foreclosure pipeline ratios, the backlog in months of foreclosure and 90-day delinquent inventory based on current foreclosure sale rates, have been increasing across the board. In judicial states, the pipeline ratio now stands at 58 months; up quite a bit from the 47 months seen in 2013, but a far cry from its high of 118 months a couple of years before that. In recent months, non-judicial pipeline ratios have reached similar levels to judicial pipeline ratios. As of January, the non-judicial pipeline ratio was at 53 months, close to an all-time high. Throughout the housing crisis, non-judicial pipeline ratios were significantly lower than those in judicial states.”
read more…
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/03/striking-out-again-and-again/
