Tag Archives: Armonk NY Homes for Sale

Armonk NY Homes for Sale

ZERO WASTE DAY in North Castle | Armonk Real Estate

 

 

& Prescription Take Back Day Saturday, April 26 

9:00 am – 3:00 pm

(rain or shine)

Behind Town Hall

15 Bedford Road, Armonk

 

E-Waste computers, TVs, CRTs, monitors, copiers, scanners, fax machines, VCRs, DVRs, cell phones…

 

Used Motor, Antifreeze and Cooking Oil –

used motor oil, oil filters, antifreeze and oily debris, used vegetable oil (from a deep fat fryer)

Paper Shredding – up to 6 total boxes of personal papers and/or hardcover books per household

 

Scrap Metals

metal file cabinets, hot water tanks and heaters, bed frames, treadmills, basketball hoops…

 

Household Furniture – sofas, tables, chairs, rugs, lamps, dressers, bookshelves, artwork…

 

Spring & Summer Clothing and Linens – clothing and shoes for men, women and children, and gently used linens

 

Adult & Children’s Bicycles – in good working condition

 

Dog & Cat Supplies – crates, blankets, towels, canned food, collars, leashes and balls (basketball, soccer, tennis and football)

 

Volunteers will help unload your donations.

NOTE: These items will NOT be accepted:

Bulk items

Compact fluorescent light bulbs 

Alkaline & button cell batteries

Paint cans

Tires

Hazardous household chemicals

Medications 

North Castle Hosting Zero Waste Day | Armonk Real Estate

 

The Town of North Castle is showing why it is one of the most environmentally friendly towns in Westchester.

The town is hosting its 10th Zero Waste Day on Saturday, April 26 behind North Castle Town Hall from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Residents can donate gently used items to be reused and also recycle scrap metal and electronic waste. A shredder will be on hand to shred personal papers.

Groups like the Community Center of Northern Westchester, Adopt-a-Dog, Recycle-a-Bicycle and Furniture Sharehouse.

The event used to be held twice a year, but the recycling committee decided to hold it once a year to increase participation.

“This is all for a good cause,” Linda Trummer-Napolitano, the co-chair of the North Castle Recycling Committee said. “It keeps things out of the waste stream.”

 

 

http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/news/north-castle-hosting-zero-waste-day

Home buyers face tight inventories, rising prices this spring | Armonk NY Homes

 

Buyers, don’t get your hopes too high about a less competitive housing market this spring.

Despite rising prices and bidding wars, homeowners remain reluctant to put up for-sale signs, creating a shortage of available properties that is frustrating buyers and real estate agents across Eastern Massachusetts. Many are crossing their fingers that a flood of new listings will materialize to ease the pressure on the market and prices as the crucial spring selling season gets underway.

But don’t count on it.

“The recent stunning lack of inventory of homes for sale is still stunning — and it’s even getting worse,” said Mary Gillach, a real estate agent at Brookline’s Gillach Group, affiliated with William Raveis Real Estate. “It’s not just in Brookline and Newton and other areas we cover. I’m hearing it from others all over.”

 

Tight inventories have been the story of the region’s housing market for more than a year, tamping down sales, driving up prices, and showing few signs of easing. Listings of single-family homes statewide have declined for 24 consecutive months — including a 19 percent plunge in February — while median sale prices have increased for 28 straight months, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and Warren Group, a Boston real estate tracking firm.

Sales, meanwhile, have declined in each of the past three months — not for want of buyers, but of sellers, according to industry analysts.

The tight supplies have been felt most acutely in Boston neighborhoods and close-in communities, where median prices, or midpoint prices, have climbed significantly above the prerecession peak in 2005. Gillach said she recently represented a client who bid $1.4 million in cash — $300,000 over the asking price — for a four-bedroom home in Newton and waived the home inspection.

“And we still lost,” she said. “There were 15 other offers — 15 offers.”

Industry officials say a number of factors could be contributing to the supply shortage. First, construction of new homes has lagged in recent years even as the population has grown. In addition, home values have yet to regain their prerecession peak in many communities, leaving homeowners wary of selling at a loss.

Tom Grimshaw, a realtor at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston, cited another factor exacerbating inventory woes: homeowners worried they won’t be able to find a new home at an affordable price if they sell.

One of his clients wants to sell her South End condo and move, he said, “but she’s afraid there’s no place else for her to go in the area. She’s really balking at selling. This is a very intense market right now.”

 

 

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/05/homebuyershome-buyers-face-tight-inventories-rising-prices-this-spring/cAkBcaqpDcsDaEH1Ge18TN/story.html

1 in 3 homes is unaffordable and a bubble is forming | Armonk Real Estate

 

More than half the homes currently on the market in seven major American metros are currently unaffordable for local residents, and one-third of homes for sale are unaffordable by historic standards.

That’s the conclusion from a Zillow (Z) analysis of income, mortgage and home value data in the fourth quarter of 2013, which puts to question the regular industry claim that housing is more affordable than ever because of the current price and interest rate levels coming out of the housing crash.

“As affordability worsens, we’re already beginning to see more of the kinds of worrisome trends we saw en masse during the years leading up to the housing crash. These include a greater reliance on non-traditional home financing, smaller down payments and a greater pressure to move further away from urban job centers in order to find affordable housing options,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. “We’re not in a bubble yet, but we’re beginning to see the early signs of one in some areas.”

Homebuyers increasingly have to search on the perimeter of the country’s largest metro markets, as downtown properties become out of reach for buyers of typical means, the report found.

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29553-in-3-homes-is-unaffordable-and-a-bubble-is-forming

9 Tips for Creating Content that Gets Shared | Armonk Realtor

 

You already know that content is important. Smart marketers are using quality  content to build brand awareness and drive traffic to their sites. Many content  creators dream of their content going viral.

Here are 9 tips for creating content that gets shared.

#1. Identify and understand your target audience

Before you begin writing, take a moment to identify your target audience. It  is difficult to get people to share your content if they don’t care about it, so  figure out who you target audience is and cater your content to them. All you  need to do is ask some basic questions.

Who: Are you targeting stay-at-home moms, college students, retired  couples, teenage girls, marketing professionals, engineers, musicians, or  scientists?

What: What does your target audience need? Create something that will  help them.

When: When is your target audience online? Publish with those times in mind.

Where: Where do they live, work, and play? Someone who lives in Paris  doesn’t need a list of Calgary’s best restaurants.

Why: Why is your audience online? Are they looking for specific  information, socialization, entertainment, or validation?

How: How does your target audience experience the internet? Are they  using a computer, or do they do most of their browsing on a smart phone? Make  sure your content is compatible.

#2. Craft a headline that demands attention

First impressions are essential. It doesn’t matter how good your content is  if no one bothers to read it. There are many different ways to write an engaging  headline, but here are a few tips to get you started.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/03/31/9-tips-for-creating-content-that-gets-shared/#hoMxpQ6XRogU8lyM.99

The 9 Biggest Gardening Mistakes to Avoid | Armonk Real Estate

Putting shovel to soil and watching flowers and vegetables grow is one of the best parts about warm weather. Not only is gardening fun, it improves your well-being, too, since it gets you out and about in the fresh air and sunshine. But it can also become a costly and time-consuming hobby if you don’t know what you’re doing, for this reason we recommend that you uses the services from tree trimming Boise to keep your garden in a good shape. Whether you’ve been gardening for years or are just starting out, there’s always room for improvement. Read on to discover common gardening mistakes, and tips from the pros on how to correct them. Photo by: Diane Morey Sitton

Mistake #1: Not Using Enough Mulch While mulch (or any other type of material-from compost to newspaper-that’s used to cover the surface of your soil) is key to a healthy garden, many people just don’t use enough of it. “Compost is meant to suppress weeds and hold in moisture so your plants are able to grow properly,” says Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Bugs. But it does a lot more than that. Mulch also reduces the impact of heavy rain and helps maintain an even soil temperature, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. A good rule of thumb: Use three to six inches of compost on top of the soil around the base of your plants, recommends Stewart.

Mistake #2: Overwatering This common mistake is not only harmful to your plants, but it’s wasteful as well. “We use drinking water to water our plants when we need to be more efficient and conscientious about what kind of water we use, how much and how often,” says Jamie Durie, landscape designer, horticulturist and host of HGTV’s The Outdoor Room. If your watering system is on a timer, make sure to turn it off on rainy days. It’s also best to water your plants at dawn or dusk, especially on hot summer days, when water evaporates quickly. Drip irrigation, which conserves both water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots, is also an extremely effective-and inexpensive-option. While TLC.com recommends giving most plants and your lawn an inch of water per week, the key is keeping the soil moist without overdrying or oversaturation, as both can be damaging. If you’re looking for beautiful, yet easy to install and maintain landscaping addition, artificial grass is a great idea. At World Class Surfaces, we provide installation & supply of artificial grass/synthetic turf to any home or commercial properties in Perth. Using only the highest-quality Artificial Grass designed we supply to suit every kind of home, school, sport surface & recreational facility.

Mistake #3: Not Doing Enough Research Before Purchasing Your garden will never look as lush as you’d it like to if you’re planting the wrong flowers and shrubs, so always find out what types of plants grow best in your climate. First, check out your neighbors’ properties to see what’s in bloom and what’s not-if it grows in their yard, it will probably grow in yours. Then, make a sun map of your planting area, Stewart recommends. “Observe the sun and shade levels at 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. so you are aware of the light,” she says. And finally, if you want to be extra diligent, test your soil. “It basically involves filling up vials with soil and adding liquid agents to determine the pH levels,” says Jon Feldman, landscape designer and owner of G. biloba Gardens, Inc. in Nyack, New York. “Test kits are available from better garden centers and local Cooperative Extension Agencies.”

https://shine.yahoo.com/at-home/9-biggest-gardening-mistakes-avoid-192600695.html

Historic Aspen Cottage With New Wing Asks a Colossal $18M | Armonk Real Estate

 

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Location: Aspen, Colo. Price: $17,995,000 The Skinny: Some enterprising developers in Aspen have renovated a tiny historic cottage, added an adjacent modern wing, and slapped a mind-bogglingly huge $17.995M price tag on it, which is one way to get around pesky preservation ordinances while still cashing in on a perpetually hot luxury market. The cottage, which was built in 1885 by a local candyman and now functions as the compound’s guest house, has been returned to its original exterior appearance, while the interior has been renovated and modernized. Its two-story modern addition is crammed into the same lot as the old home, and adds 6,000 square feet of living space, including five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a rooftop patio with tremendous mountain views. The décor is what you might expect from a luxury spec home, tasteful and uninspired, creating the sort of atmosphere where, per the listing photos, you’d feel comfortable casually tossing your fur throw on an easy chair before heading out for a long day on the slopes

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/18/historic-aspen-cottage-with-new-wing-asks-a-colossal-18m.php

4 million renters want to buy. Can they? | Armonk Real Estate

 

As the housing market moves slowly into recovery, more and more Americans are gaining confidence and hoping to jump into home ownership. The home ownership rate has been dropping steadily since its high of 69.2 percent in 2004 to now just 65 percent. Millions lost their homes to foreclosure and millions more never entered the market, fearing falling home prices.

Now, 10 percent of U.S. renters say they would like to buy a home in the next year, according to a new report from Zillow (NASDAQ:Z), which surveyed renters in the nation’s 20 largest housing markets. If all the renters who said they wanted to buy a home in the next year actually did, that would represent more than 4.2 million first-time home buyer sales, about twice the number of first-timers in 2013.

First-time home buying has actually fallen to the lowest level ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors, at just 26 percent of sales in January. These buyers usually make up roughly 40 percent of the market. Interestingly, the majority of the renters who said they wanted to buy felt they could afford home ownership, despite rising home prices and rising mortgage rates. The trouble is there is just not that much out there to buy. Home construction is still recovering at a slow pace, and prices for newly built homes are far higher on average than for existing homes.The number of homes for sale is rising slightly but is still well below historical norms across most markets.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-million-renters-want-buy-130353560.html

HARP refinances drop off as interest rates for mortgages increase | Armonk Real Estate

 

The Home Affordable Refinance Program (or HARP) was instituted in 2009 to allow homeowners with negative equity to take advantage of today’s low interest rate environment. Before HARP, banks wouldn’t lend more than the home’s value. In real estate jargon, they won’t underwrite loans with a loan-to-value ratio (or LTV) greater than 1.0. So if a homeowner bought their home in 2006 with a 6.5% mortgage rate, they’d be unable to refinance if they owed more than the home was worth. The government created HARP with these people in mind. Since its inception, the HARP program has refinanced 2.5 million mortgages.

 

To be eligible for HARP, the borrower must have a loan guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, have an LTV ratio above 80%, and be current on their mortgage. The program was designed primarily to help people who wanted to stay in their home and who had adjustable-rate mortgages where they could afford the initial “teaser” rate but wouldn’t be able to afford the payment once the mortgage adjusted upward. The program gave them a new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at the initial teaser rate. Homeowners can check if they have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan by checking the respective company websites or by checking with their servicer.

HARP refinances decrease as rates climb

HARP refinances fell to 30,000 in December from 38,700 in November. Refinance activity has dropped across the board, so this result isn’t a surprise. Overall, HARP activity started falling off a cliff early last year as rates began to rise.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/harp-refinances-drop-off-interest-195918759.html

The X factor in the buy vs. rent equation: How long will you stay? | Armonk NY Homes

 

A home is the biggest purchase many people will ever make, and because home values can move abruptly in either direction, homebuyers are often advised to think of a prospective home primarily as a place. If it also happens to turn out to be a good investment, that’s icing on the cake. Even when home prices march steadily upward, it still takes time to for homebuyers who have financed a purchase with a mortgage to recoup their investment. Transaction costs — like mortgage origination fees and title insurance on the front end, and real estate brokerage commissions on the back end — can add up to 10 percent or more of a home’s purchase price. The way mortgages are structured, most of a homebuyers initial loan payments are going toward interest, rather than principal.

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/02/03/the-x-factor-in-the-buy-vs-rent-equation-how-long-will-you-stay/?utm_source=20140204&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.qKj4wttM.dpuf