Category Archives: Westchester NY

American Horror Story: Floral Wallpaper | Chappaqua Real Estate

 

Floral House, not sane, stood by itself against its flowers, holding unimaginable horrors within…

What dark secrets lurk behind this house’s pleasant, unassuming exterior? Somehow, someone, possibly an escapee from a mental institution, committedunspeakable acts of wallpaper horror within. Not only the walls, but indeed the very ceilings are papered, closing in on you, yes, getting closer all the time… Not content, the interior desecrator added furniture upholstered in a contrasting floral. Then he or she slapped up a few Inuit plaques on the wall because why not and add a coffee table that looks like it’s going to get up and run away soon, and then it was time to wallpaper the next room.

Specifics: $895K for a 1900sf house with three wallpapered bedrooms and two rather nice baths. Plot is half an acre. House will probably be really nice after copious amounts of wallpaper stripper, holy water, and smudging sage.

 

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http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/21/american_horror_story_floral_wallpaper.php

 

Slump in mortgage rates fails to rally home buyers | North Salem Real Estate

More proof that low mortgage rates are not the key to home ownership: Rates dropped to their lowest level in nearly 18 months last week, causing an 11.6 percent rise in applications, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The gains, however, were driven entirely by refinances, just as they have been for several weeks.

Refinance applications jumped a whopping 23 percent week-to-week on a seasonally adjusted basis; volume was at the highest level since November. Mortgage applications to purchase a home saw no boost at all from lower rates, falling 5 percent from the previous week and 9 percent from a year ago.

“Continuing concerns about weak economic growth in Europe and a few U.S. economic indicators that came in below expectations caused a flight to quality into U.S. Treasurys last week, leading to sharp drops in interest rates,” said Mike Fratantoni, the MBA’s chief economist. “Mortgage rates have fallen close to 30 basis points over the last four weeks.”

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 4.1 percent, the lowest level since May 2013, from 4.2 percent, according to the MBA. Some lenders are now offering rates below the psychologically significant 4 percent line, but only to their highest credit-worthy customers. The average loan balance for refinance applications increased to $306,400, the highest level in the MBA survey’s history, suggesting that wealthier homeowners are benefiting most from the drop in rates.

Sales of existing homes did increase in September by just over 2 percent from August, according to the National Association of Realtors; however, they are weaker than a year ago, when investors were competing for distressed homes and pushing prices ever higher. The NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said sentiment among real estate agents was at its lowest level of the year, suggesting that sales may be weaker going forward.

“It’s turned into what I think is really a classic buyers’ market,” said Sherry Spinelli, a real estate agent with Long and Foster in Northern Virginia. “More days on market, prices are coming down, the offers are even lower and there are just a lot of houses out there, so it’s a challenge for sellers. I think you have to lower the price in order to sell it.”

Mortgage rates, while lower now than they were a year ago, have not been the biggest barrier to entry for home buyers in this recovery. Even the high 4 percent range on the 30-year fixed is historically low. The trouble is not the rate, but credit availability. Banks have required higher credit scores, full documentation and strict debt limits because they do not want to be forced to buy back any loans that might go into default. They have already paid billions to the government on bad loans left over from the housing crash.

This week, Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said in a speech that there would soon be better clarification for banks, “rules of the road,” on how to safeguard against these so-called ‘buybacks,’ but the details were general.

“We have started to move mortgage finance back to a responsible state of normalcy—one that encourages responsible lending to creditworthy borrowers while maintaining safety and soundness of the enterprises,” Watt said in prepared remarks Monday

 

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https://homes.yahoo.com/news/slump-mortgage-rates-fails-rally-110000745.html

Top Subprime Mortgage Firm Accused of Abuses | #WaccabucRealEstate

 

The nation’s largest servicer of subprime mortgages has engaged in abuses that could potentially harm hundreds of thousands of borrowers, according to the New York Superintendent of Financial Services.

The state regulator issued a letter Tuesday to Ocwen Financial Corp., documenting many of the same kinds of abuses that worsened the housing crisis and the Great Recession.

Ocwen inappropriately backdated foreclosure warnings and letters that denied mortgage loan modifications, making it nearly impossible for borrowers to appeal the company’s decision, according to the letter from Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services.

Many borrowers who had fallen behind on their payments also received warning letters months after the deadline for avoiding foreclosure had already passed.

The agency also determined that Atlanta-based Ocwen failed to investigate the backdating of its letters to borrowers nearly a year after an employee raised questions about the practice.

“The existence and pervasiveness of these issues raise critical questions about Ocwen’s ability to perform its core function of servicing loans,” Lawsky wrote in the letter.

The letter refrains from saying whether the backdating was intentional or the result of poor oversight by Ocwen.

In a statement Tuesday, Ocwen blamed software errors in the company’s correspondence systems for the improperly dated letters to at least 281 of its borrowers in New York who received letters with incorrect dates.

The company added that it is investigating two other cases and cooperating with New York’s Financial Services department.

“We believe that we have resolved the letter-dating issues that have been identified to date, and we continue our investigation as to whether there are additional letter-dating issues that need to be resolved,” the company said.

Lawsky launched a probe into Ocwen in August amid allegations that Ocwen overcharged struggling homeowners on a product called force-placed insurance, which servicers force borrowers to buy if they don’t maintain voluntary homeowners’ insurance.

If mortgage borrowers don’t pay up for newly purchased insurance, Ocwen forecloses on their homes.

 

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http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/top-subprime-mortgage-firm-accused-abuses-26348931

This Minimalist House in Queens Packs in Three Apartments | Cross River Real Estate

flushing_comp.jpgPhotos by Michael Moran/New York Design Hunting

If one had to guess where this pared-back residence would most likely exist, probably every city in minimalist-loving Japan would seem more likely than the truth, that it actually sits in the far reaches of Queens, New York. As architects Devin O’Neill and Faith Rose reveal in the latest issue of New York Design Hunting, the structure’s exterior form, with its compact shape and noted dearth of frill, is actually inspired by the Levittown-style more typical of the surrounding homes. While the edifice is an outward nod to its neighbors, the internal design has nothing to do with the New York architecture of old. O’Neill and Rose were working off an incredibly specific challenge from the client: figure out how to coherently accommodate three branches of a family into one single structure.

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/10/13/oneil-rose-architects-flushing-family-home.php

Ex-Clipper unloads mansion for just over a third of what he paid | Waccabuc Real Estate

Former Los Angeles Clippers guard-forward Quentin Richardson has sold his 10,900-square-foot mansion in Palos Heights, Ill., for $800,000.

The Chicago native and DePaul University star paid $2.2 million for the property in April 2006.

The contemporary residence, built in 2002, features a two-story floor plan with an indoor pool and spa, a chef’s kitchen, an office, five bedrooms and six fireplaces.

Among amenities is a finished basement level containing a home theater, game room, weight room and wet bar with custom lighting. The first-floor master suite has a walk-in closet and a separate sitting room set behind sliding glass doors.

Through a screened porch, the home opens onto half-acre grounds containing a paver patio, expansive lawns and a gazebo.

The 34-year-old was made the 18th overall pick by the Clippers in 2000 and played four seasons in Los Angeles before departing as a free agent in 2004. In August, he joined the Pistons’ front office as a director of player development.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hotprop-quentin-richardson-house-20141009-story.html

How high-cost housing conquered D.C. in a single decade | Waccabuc Real Estate

Back in 2005, before the new apartments went up in NoMa, and along 14th Street, and near the Nationals’ ballpark, there was more housing in D.C. renting for less than $500 a month than for more than $1,500*. In the decade since, fortunes at the top and bottom of the city’s housing market have swiftly flipped. By 2012, the most expensive rental units outnumbered the cheapest ones — by more than a three-to-one ratio.

The changing shape of the city’s housing over this short time reflects two powerful trends that are playing out in other big cities, too: Housing that was once more affordable has grown less so, while most of the new housing that’s been built has catered to wealthier (and newer) residents.

The below chart, from a stark new data visualization of the city’s housing market by the Urban Institute, tells the rental side of this story. It shows that, yes, the city has more rental housing today than a decade ago. But those gains have been to the benefit of people able to pay more than $1,000 a month for housing — and at the expense of residents who can only afford substantially less than that:

“We want to provide people with some context and some more hopefully objective information about the changes happening in the city, because everyone knows the city is changing — it’s very visible,” says Peter Tatian, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who worked on the project. “But people experience and perceive that change in different ways depending on their point of view.”

 

 

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/07/

17 Unexpected Things Converted Into Minimalist Homes | #WaccabucNY Homes

34 images

For an architect, there’s something undeniably god-like about synthesizing the old and the new. Adaptive reuse—in this case turning non-residential buildings into houses—lessens the physical proximity of the past to the future by sublimely juxtaposing sterile white voids with, say, a primal industrial exoskeleton. Modernizing doesn’t simply mean adding a kitchen island and green roof; it often comes with the responsibility of intense and demanding site concerns. A Victorian water tower comes with six-foot-thick walls, while the façade of a medieval castle is relegated to mere ornament in the pursuit of both safety and functionality. Inspired by Curbed’s avid Pinterest community, here’s a look back on a wide array of completely insane projects that (seemingly sane) architects have chosen to take on. Intrigued? Find some examples below, and visit the Pinterest board to see the ones that didn’t make the cut.

Onward! >>

Bedford Town Board Opts Not To Object To Proposed Katonah Group Home | Katonah Homes

Following a legal opinion from Bedford’s counsel, the Town Board approved countersigning an agreement of assurances from the provider of a proposed Katonah group home instead of making an objection to it.

The unanimous vote on Monday, Sept. 29, came following a review from Town Attorney Joel Sachs of state case law and correspondences from provider Cardinal McCloskey Community Services giving assurances for its plan. A letter from CMCS, dated Sept. 29, includes a signature from Chief Operating Officer William Ursillo and space for a town signatory.

Sachs explained that if the supervisor were to countersign, then the letter would be a legally binding agreement. The board’s approval was for Supervisor Chris Burdick to give his signature.

Ursillo, in his letter, mentions that the assurances are applicable if there is no objection filed and if there is no litigation that would seek to stop or delay the facility’s opening or closing on the property. Sachs also noted that the assurances would not be binding if there is an objection.

 

 

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http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/news/bedford-town-board-opts-not-object-proposed-katonah-group-home

Removing Wall to Wall Carpeting by Bob Villa | Katonah Homes

Source: charlesandhudson.com

Source: charlesandhudson.com

I am moving to a new house where the living room and dining area have wall-to-wall carpeting. I asked the previous owner, and he told me there is hardwood flooring underneath. Could you please tell me how to remove carpet?

Even with regular vacuuming, carpeting accumulates a great deal of dust, dirt and debris. So if and when you finally decide to rip it up, be sure to give the floor covering one last good vacuuming. Empty the room of furnishings, open the windows and don your dust mask — then get to work!

Materials & tools

  • Large contractor trash bags
  • Nail puller pliers
  • Steel putty knife
  • Flat pry bar (at least 15 inches)
  • Hammer
  • Utility knife (or tin snips)
  • Leather work gloves
  • Carpet padding adhesive remover (optional)
  • Scraper (optional)

Step 1

Was your carpeting installed under shoe molding? Assuming it was, the first thing to do is remove that trimwork with your putty knife and pry bar. Check the molding for damage: If it remains in good shape, save it for reuse. Chances are the trim is full of nails; when pulling them out, take care not to inflict any avoidable damage. If the molding looks a little worse for wear, consider giving it a fresh coat of paint prior to re-installation.

Step 2

Now that there is no obstruction between you and the carpeting, use a utility knife or a sharpened pair of tin snips to cut the material into three- or four-foot-wide strips. (Cut all the way through the backing but stop short of the flooring beneath.) Once complete, begin pulling the carpet away from the tack strips on the perimeter. Roll up the sections as you remove them, placing them into heavy-duty trash bags ready for disposal.

 

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http://www.zillow.com/blog/remove-wall-to-wall-carpeting-160890/

 

Historic Home Gets Youthful Update | Bedford Hills Real Estate

Bright colors make this older home feel new again. Source: Jamie Beckwith

The home is a classic and stately building but designer Jamie Beckwith wanted to bring “youthfulness and glamour” to the home, which reflected the homeowners’ lifestyle and worked with the architecture.

The challenge

This space was once a formal dining room with dark wood paneling. The dining room moved to another location, and this space was transformed into a contemporary living room.

Source: Jamie Beckwith

“We covered the paneling with a soft gray paint color that modernized the space,” explained Beckwith. “We added mirrors for more light in the room and reworked the seating arrangements for a new layout.”

Bold colors

Source: Jamie Beckwith

“My favorite part of the room is the unexpected strong color combinations,” said Beckwith. “The silk chartreuse drapery panels are out of this world!”

The rug and the furniture are shades of gray and the chartreuse and hot pink are merely accents, which is what makes the room work. The chairs are custom-upholstered with color stripes.

 

 

 

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http://www.zillow.com/blog/historic-home-gets-youthful-update-160738/