Tag Archives: Armonk NY Homes

Armonk NY Homes

World’s Richest Woman Lists Wyoming Estate For $12.5M | Armonk Real Estate

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Christy Walton, the richest woman in the world, has put her 2.45-acre Wyoming estate on the market for $12.5M. Yesterday Forbes named her as No. 6 on its Forbes 400, a rank she held last year, and calibrated her fortune—which she inherited from her late husband, a son of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton—at $35.4B. To summarize: even if the estate commands its asking price, Walton probably won’t bat an eyelash. In fact, after her husband’s 2005 death, Walton went so far as to donate—yes, donate—the stately 1896 Victorian where she had raised her family, in National City, Calif.

About this Teton Village property: it’s “an architectural masterpiece,” according to the brokerabble, with 200-year-old reclaimed-oak floors, Albertini windows, cathedral ceilings, a two-bedroom, turn-of-the-century guest cabin, and direct access to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

The Case for Losing the Traditional Lawn | Armonk Real Estate

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I’m already nostalgic for this past summer. Warm days spent frolicking outside, picnics, ice cream, birds chirping and the nonstop sound of lawnmowers as the smell of freshly cut grass wafts over the garden. But that sweet grass smell is a chemical reaction, a warning signal that the lawn has been wounded and now it’s now open to attack by pests. And as a nation, the U.S. tosses 23 million tons of lawn clippings a year into already bursting landfills — material that could be turned into free fertilizer, namely compost.
Television and radio ads work hard to convince you that your landscape is imperfect and impure if you don’t slave over it, using fertilizers and pesticides and weed killers. Images of suburban cowboy husbands persist, wrangling weeds and farming one of the largest and most useless crops in the world.
Lawns are a noble’s ideal, literally, and since the 1800s Americans have been trying to emulate expansive aristocratic estates in Europe on quarter-acre lots. What’s the deal with lawn? And how and why should we lose some of it?

by Benjamin Vogt

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What is beautiful in nature can be quite subjective. A person’s idea of beauty in the desert Southwest surely is much different than someone’s idea in New England. Of course that’s OK, but I bet those ideas of beauty are based on regional, native, wild habitats, and of personal experiences living in those places that define cultural and personal ideals. It doesn’t matter whose idea is “better” or “right,” only that those beliefs lead to healthy people, plants and wildlife. All gardeners have choices that lead to the well-being of all life under our care, including our own. Prairie, forest, desert, marsh — it’s all relative.
In the photo here, do you wish to be in the lawn, or the garden? Or is the juxtaposition of the two somehow enticing? Which is more in tune with its region, and in turn, gets us in tune with our home ground?
contemporary landscape by debora carl landscape design

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If you love the look of grass but don’t need a baseball field (most folks don’t, unless you live in Iowa), consider letting your grass grow longer — or converting to native, water-sipping grasses like blue grama, buffalo and sideoats grama (just a few among many). Lots of places also sell no-mow seed mixes designed to be drought tolerant with slow growth habits but that mimic traditional lawns.
If you let your lawn grow taller, the roots will go deeper and the blades will shade the soil, trapping more moisture. Besides, doesn’t the bench and grass area here look stunning? With lawns taking up the same square footage in the U.S. as New York state, we have to ask ourselves: Do we really need all of that lawn, or is it just a default landscape setting? What are we sweating, spraying and fertilizing for?
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/17387539/list?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u362&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

Home-price growth slowing, Case-Shiller says | Armonk Homes

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Home prices rose 1.8% in July, down from 2.2% in June, according to the Case-Shiller report. After seasonal adjustments, prices were up 0.6% in July, the lowest gain since September.

It looks like higher mortgage rates are hitting the housing market, said David Blitzer, index committee chairman at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Among the 20 cities tracked by S&P/Case-Shiller, 15 saw slower monthly price growth in July. Elsewhere Tuesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reported that home prices rose a seasonally adjusted 1% in July, and were up 8.8% from the year-earlier period.

Mortgage rates started rising in early May on speculation that the Federal Reserve could start cutting its large-scale asset purchases that have helped keep home loans relatively cheap. The Fed announced last week that it is not going to start tapering these purchases yet, but that news is likely to have only a temporary impact on housing, Blitzer said.

“The rate of increase may have peaked,” he said.

A low number of homes for sale coupled with lots of pent-up demand from buyers have led to upward pressure on prices. Indeed, on a year-over-year basis, home prices grew 12.4% in July, the fastest annual pace since 2006. Still, home prices in July were about 21% below a 2006 peak.

“The latest rise in the annual rate of house price inflation in July may be the most eye-catching part of today’s Case-Shiller house price report. But the real story is a welcome slowdown in the underlying rate of house price gains in recent months,” Capital Economics analysts wrote in a research note.

According to details of the Case-Shiller report, Las Vegas saw the largest annual home-price growth in July at 28%, followed by San Francisco at 25%. New York had the lowest annual home-price growth at 3.5%.

Looking broadly at the housing market, recent reports have indicated that the rebound is slowing. Unemployment remains high and many can’t afford to establish their own household, meaning that pent-up demand may take a long time to translate into actual purchases. First-time buyers are having a particularly tough time, and make up a small share of existing-home sales.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story

 

More than half of Long Island’s 20- to 34-year-olds live with parents | Armonk Homes

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A severe shortage of rental housing on New York’s Long Island due to zoning restrictions is at least partially to blame for the high share of all 20- to 34- year-olds on the island still living with their parents: 55 percent, according to a new report.

Source: New York Times

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/more-than-half-of-long-islands-20-34-year-olds-live-with-parents/#sthash.v6NKK9tr.dpuf

Must-Know Modern Homes: Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat | Armonk Homes

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wenty years before Ludwig Mies van der Rohe realized his famous Farnsworth House, and seven years before emigrating to the United States, he designed Villa Tugendhat in 1930 for the wealthy couple Fritz and Grete Tugendhat.
As a wedding present, Grete (born Grete Weiss Löw-Beer) received about a half acre of her family’s land, a portion on a slope immediately adjacent to Černopolní Street in Brno, now in the Czech Republic. On the property Mies developed a split-level house with three floors: The entrance, bedrooms, nanny quarters, a terrace and play area, and a garage with chauffeur quarters are on the upper level; the living spaces, kitchen, winter garden and another terrace are on the middle level; and the utilities are on the lowest level.
The house can be seen as a domestic version of Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion from just one year before, with its flowing, open plan and structural columns distinct from walls. It is also a precursor to Mies’ later “universal space,” found primarily in the office towers he designed in the United States in the 1950s. But the design is sensitive to the particulars of place and the family who occupied it for only a short time — the Tugendhats, Jewish in origin, fled in 1938, first to Switzerland then to South America.
Perhaps due to Mies’ open plan, the building was able to serve later as a school and hospital (housing a child psychology department) before the municipality took ownership and restored the villa in the 1980s. In 2001 the house was named a Unesco World Heritage site, and 10 years later it underwent more restoration work, opening to the public in March 2012. The photos in this tour follow the latest restoration.
Villa Tugendhat at a Glance Year built: 1930 Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Location: Brno, Czech Republic Size: 2,600 square feet Visiting info: Guided tours with advance tickets available

modern exterior Villa Tugendhat

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The west side is where we find all three levels, but the massing does not make it appear so. The horizontal glass of the middle floor dominates, while the top floor is set back, almost out of sight, and the lowest floor is short and predominantly solid.
modern exterior Villa Tugendhat

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From the street side on the east, the house appears as one horizontal level. With its planar surfaces, glass expanses and garage front and center, the house must have made a stir in 1930. Even now it presents a very un-house-like face to the street.
Between the garage on the right and the glass expanse in the middle is a gap that frames the landscape beyond and draws one toward the entrance.
modern entry Villa Tugendhat

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The milk-white glass curves to subtly hide the front door from the street but also to encourage movement toward it once someone is beyond the gate. The cover is generous, but the step up to the door is subtle. Nevertheless the latter is important, particularly in the change from one stone to another.
modern entry Villa Tugendhat

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Inside, on the travertine flooring (a favorite of Mies’), the reason for the curved glass becomes apparent. The bedrooms are located to the left and behind us in this photo, while the stairs provide access to the main living space downstairs.
modern floor plan Villa Tugendhat

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Here is a plan of the main level, where we find the living area, kitchen, winter garden and terrace. The stair from above is located in the middle. The spiral below it on the drawing provides access to the lower (utility) level.
After the 180-degree turn from above, one enters a large, open space with the primary view to the right (bottom on the drawing). But two walls — one straight and one curved — break up this space, as does a grid of small columns. What looks open is actually made up of smaller areas defined in unconventional ways.

Selling With Social Media: A New Direction for Businesses | Armonk Realtor

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Do you use social media to grow your business?

Are you wondering how social media can help you sell more products and services?

To learn about why you need to rethink the sales process in this social age, I interview Tom Martin for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Tom Martin, author of The Invisible Sale: How to Build a Digitally Powered Marketing and Sales System to Better Prospect, Qualify and Close Leads. His agency is Converse Digital.

Tom shares the concept of painless prospecting and propinquity.

You’ll learn how to succeed in the changing social media sales landscape, and how your business can embrace these new strategies.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Listen Now

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You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry.

 

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Selling With Social Media

How the online world has changed the way businesses sell

Tom believes it’s more about how buyers buy than the way businesses sell. With the Internet, people can hide behind the anonymity of Google search.

You can do all your pre-purchase research without having to talk to a salesperson. You only have to talk to a person once you’ve made a short list of companies you are interested in and want to close the deal.

google search barBuyers use Google search for pre-purchase research.

Today’s buyer prefers this process, as it’s easier and more efficient. With this in mind, companies have to adjust.

In the early days, the power was with the salesperson, but with the knowledge available online today, the power is in the hands of the consumer.

Tom says as a business, you have to stop thinking about how you sell because you don’t really sell anymore. Instead you help buyers make a buying decision. When they make their decision, hopefully it will be in your favor. Although it won’t always be the case.

You’ll discover how your system needs to be set up properly and the approach you need to consider.

If you have a really good product or service, more often than not, you will win the conversion. Most people are turned off by people selling to them. The best way is to show them that you’re willing to help and that you always have their best interests at heart.

Listen to the show to find out more about how the approach to sales has changed.

An example of a business that has embraced new ways to sell

Tom talks about a camera store called Adorama based in New York that he used as a case study in his book, The Invisible Sale. Adorama only has one store, but does business in all 50 US states and 5 countries.

 

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/selling-with-social-media/

 

Armonk-based IBM Transforms Mortgage Fulfillment Process | Armonk Real Estate

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IBM Corp. has launched a new comprehensive digital-loan processing platform that will allow borrowers to engage in every aspect of the loan application process: applying online, uploading documents, acting on inquiries and monitoring loan approval status — all from their smartphone or tablet device.

“We believe delivering a transformational customer experience will differentiate future mortgage leaders from the pack,” Eric Ray, IBM general manager, Financial Services Sector said. “By partnering with IBM, lenders can out-maneuver the competition with a rich digital customer experience that gives borrowers the self service and transparency they desire.”

With the new IBM Digital Loan Platform solution, application forms are automatically aggregated and indexed to ensure consistency for efficient underwriting. As a result, both borrowers and lenders benefit from significantly compressed cycle times, lower origination costs, reduction in errors, and compliance enforcement.

 

 

Armonk-based IBM Transforms Mortgage Fulfillment Process | The Armonk Daily Voice.

Zaha Hadid’s Wild Miami Tower Will Have Normal Kitchens | Armonk NY Homes

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Zaha Hadid’s swoopy, otherworldly One Thousand Museum condo tower in downtown Miami will have – gasp! – normal kitchens, according to a new sales brochure put out on the project’s website. (h/t: BuzzBuzzHome) They will be really nice normal kitchens of course, with appliances that hide behind fancy shmancy cabinetry by Italian kitchen firm GattoCucina, but normal kitchens nonetheless. Check out the kitchen, above, and a few detail renderings of the building’s exterior we found lying around the web that haven’t been seen much, after the jump.

 

Rise in interest rates could be overdone, or just starting | Armonk Real Estate

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The first week of each month always brings the most news, the most important news and the newest news. The net result of this week’s load: a brief pause in the next leg up in long-term rates.

For 40 years, one of the most reliable economic indicators has been the monthly survey of manufacturing purchasing managers, renamed “ISM” (don’t ask). For August that value jumped to 55.7 (50 is breakeven, 60 a runaway) in an uptrend beginning early this year of the kind historically telling the Fed that it’s time to pull back.

The companion ISM for the five-times-larger service sector has a history less than half as long, thus a suspect indicator but rocketed to 58.6 in August.

After those two releases, the 10-year T-note on Thursday touched 3 percent, and mainstream low-fee mortgages reached 5 percent.

Today’s job data bought us some time, the 10-year down to 2.9 percent, mortgages in the high 4′s.

The headline 169,000-job gain was enough to maintain Fed-fear, but not the 74,000 jobs revised out of June-July, not the 2.2 percent year-over-year increase in wages (nominal; negative after inflation), and not the jobs themselves, heavy on the low-end.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/09/06/rise-in-interest-rates-could-be-overdone-or-just-starting/#sthash.tpBPTOi2.dpuf

 

 

Rise in interest rates could be overdone, or just starting | Inman News.

Armonk memorial brings out ‘silly season’ politics | Armonk Homes

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It’s been said that all politics is local. Here’s a corollary: All local politics is personal, especially at election time.

Such appears to be the case in the Town of North Castle.

You would think that politics would have nothing to do with honoring the memory of a beloved citizen, a woman who served on the Town Board for more than three decades and by all accounts personified the virtue of civic mindedness.

Becky Kittredge, who died Aug. 26 at the age of 69, was instrumental in getting the town recreation center built. She was a founder of the public library and was a devoted member of the historical society.

Machiavellian-style mischief does not readily come to mind upon consideration of the fact that Kittredge was instrumental in getting the hamlet of Armonk recognized, of all things, as the hometown of Frosty the Snowman.

A Democrat, Kittredge was born in North Castle. She knew everybody and apparently offended no one.

So once again, given her universal acclaim, it’s hard to fathom that Kittredge could be posthumously dragged into a partisan arena.

But that’s precisely what happened — and it has caused a huge outcry in this town of 11,840. And like all partisan disputes, it’s the “other guys” who are to blame.

From interviews and emails, it’s at least clear that the controversy centers on a split decision by the Town Board to not broadcast Kittredge’s memorial service on the town’s public service channel, NCTV. The service was held Friday on the steps of Town Hall.

The board’s decision arrived after an informal discussion and polling conducted through email by Anne Curran, the Democratic town clerk.

Against the broadcast were three Republicans — town Supervisor Howard Arden and Councilman John Cronin and Councilwoman Diane DiDonato Roth. Their reasons included the cost of paying for a videographer and an unelaborated feeling that broadcasting the service was somehow inappropriate.

However, Councilmen Stephen D’Angelo, a Republican, and Michael Schiliro, the board’s sole Democrat, were in favor of the broadcast.

 

Phil Reisman: North Castle memorial brings out ‘silly season’ politics (video) | The Journal News | LoHud.com | lohud.com.