Tag Archives: Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

New-home sales rebound in August | Bedford Corners NY Homes

Sales of new U.S. homes rose 7.9% — the fastest growth since the beginning of the year — to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 421,000 in August, with rising results in three of four regions, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected sales to climb in August to a rate of 420,000, compared with an original July estimate that pegged the rate at 394,000. On Wednesday, the government revised July’s rate to 390,000.

The new-home-sales series is volatile, and monthly results can be difficult to interpret. In August, the confidence interval for new-home sales was plus or minus 14.6%, meaning that government analysts think that sales growth likely fell somewhere within a range of negative 6.7% to positive 22.5%.

Looking at trends, over the three months through August, the average rate of new-home sales was 422,000, up 15% from an average rate of 368,000 during the year-earlier period.

Though there are signs that rising mortgage rates are slowing the housing market — the average rate for the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has climbed more than one percentage point since early May — Wednesday’s data point to a housing market that continues to gather steam. New-home sales in August were up 12.6% from the year-earlier period. Pent-up demand and mortgage rates that still are relatively low have been supporting sales.

While rising rates hurt some borrowers’ ability to buy homes, there’s evidence that others buyers are rushing to close deals soon before affordability declines further.

“The extent to which a rise in mortgage rates has affected momentum is still unclear,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

Indeed, home builders are reporting rising quarterly earnings and are the most confident in almost eight years. And economists expect the housing market to continue to add to economic growth this year. There’s certainly room to grow: New-home sales remain far below a peak rate of almost 1.4 million in 2005.

 

 

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-home-sales-rebound-in-august-2013-09-25?link=MW_pulse

Homeowners motivated by rising prices | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Analysts toss around the word bubble like it’s free money. But what does the term actually mean? While there is no clear answer, the classic 2004 housing bubble paper composed by Karl Case and Robert Schiller describes their version of a bubble:

Per CNBC:

We believe that in its widespread use the term refers to a situation in which excessive public expectations of future price increases cause prices to be temporarily elevated. First-time homebuyers may also worry during a housing bubble that if they do not buy now, they will not be able to afford a home later.

Following this definition, the article suggests we are not far from a bubble.

People buying homes are citing future price increases as one of the “key factors” motivating them to buy. The most recent survey by the real-estate company Redfin found that almost one third of buyers are motivated by rising prices.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/print/26800-homeowners-motivated-by-rising-prices

Dutch Architects Balance the Familiar and the Avant-Garde | Bedford Corners Homes

he avant-garde Dutch architecture firm MVRDV (an initialism of the names of the founding members, Winy Maas,  Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries) has tackled a wide range of projects, from a doghouse and people houses to whole sections of cities in and outside of the Netherlands.
Research is the consistency in the company’s projects; regardless of building type, size or location, the architects thoroughly analyze the contributing factors to design buildings best suited to the client and how they’ll be used. A number of books have documented the voluminous research MVRDV has produced since their its in 1993, but MVRDV Buildings (the most recent book and the firm’s first monograph), edited by Ilka and Andreas Ruby and published by nai010, focuses on 37 realized buildings.
With the importance of social housing in the Netherlands, MVRDV has realized many multifamily housing projects, but it has also designed single-family houses. This ideabook looks at six of the projects presented in MVRDV Buildings, an excellent monograph that lets readers learn about the buildings from the points of view of the clients and users, not just the architects.

contemporary exterior Didden Village, MVRDV

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Didden Village Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2006
MVRDV’s first project in its hometown was this small rooftop extension for the Didden family. Ghislaine van de Kamp and Sjoerd Didden wanted to add three bedrooms to the three-story building they were living and working in; the first two floors were for the latter and the top floor was for the former.
The blue addition, covered in polyurethane, seems to respond to the sky rather than the historical redbrick buildings it sits upon and next to.
contemporary deck Didden Village, MVRDV

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The three bedrooms sit atop the roof as two cubes topped by gables, floating within a terrace, also covered in blue. Even the planter is treated with the same material and color as the addition, reinforcing the comic-like aspect of the design.

Borrowers face difficulties qualifying for a mortgage | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Three out of 10 Americans are unlikely to qualify for a mortgage, despite historically low interest rates and levels of affordability not seen in years, data from Zillow (Z) revealed.

Zillow looked at 13 million loan quotes and more than 225,000 purchase loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in September, comparing them to a similar study conducted in September 2010.

What Zillow found was discouraging for borrowers looking to buy a home — especially those affected by the recent financial crisis.

Borrowers who have FICO credit scores under 620 who requested purchase loan quotes for 30-year fixed, conventional loans were unlikely to receive even one loan quote in September. This was unchanged from three years ago, even if they offered a relatively high downpayment of 15%-25%.

According to data provided by myFICO.com, nearly 28.4% of Americans have a credit score of 620 or lower.

At the same time, the bar has been set higher for those looking to get the lowest available mortgage rates. Typically, the best mortgage rates are reserved for borrowers with credit scores of 740 or higher, compared to 720 in 2010. Data revealed that 40.3% of Americans currently fall into this category.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27081-borrowers-face-difficulties-qualifying-for-a-mortgage

 

 

 

6 Ways to Use Embedded Tweets to Help Your Business | Bedford Corners Realtor

Are you looking for creative ways to embed tweets on your website?

Do you want to show off your customer’s kind words about your business?

Since Twitter allows the ability to embed tweets on websites, people have discovered lots of creative ways to use them.

In this post, I’ll show you six ways to use embedded tweets to enhance your content, drive engagement and establish social proof.

How to Embed a Tweet

From sharing spontaneous customer testimonials to increasing traffic and promoting events, embedded tweets can capitalize on or support engagement with your brand in a number of ways.

Before we get started, let’s quickly review how to embed a tweet on your website.

When you find a tweet you want to embed on your website, hover over that tweet and click on the More link. Then you should see an Embed Tweet option.

embed tweet option

Finding the Embed Tweet option on Twitter.

 

When you click on Embed Tweet, you are prompted to copy the sharing code for the tweet.

Copying the embed code for a tweet.

Then you paste the embed code in your website. If your site is on WordPress, use the HTML/Text editor. When you save or publish, you have a live, interactive tweet on your website.

Yes, it’s that simple! Now, let’s look at some ways to use embedded tweets.

Here are some creative applications of embedded tweets.

 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/embedded-twitter-posts/

 

RFK’s sex diary: His secret journal of affairs | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grappled with what he called his biggest defect — “my lust demons” — while keeping a scorecard of more than two dozen conquests, according to his secret diary.

The thick, red journal was found in their home by his wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who, distraught over their impending divorce and Kennedy’s serial philandering, committed suicide last year.

A copy of the 398 pages, reviewed by The Post, details RFK Jr.’s daily activities, speeches, political activism and the lives of his six children in the year 2001. But they also record the names of women — with numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry.

Modal Trigger

RFK’s dirty diary

The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning intercourse, Mary told a confidant. There are 37 women named in the ledger, 16 of whom get 10s, since sexual activities are really popular and that’s why men look for sexual satisfaction in women or even in toys, like the new range of sex robots which are made specifically for this.

On Nov. 13, 2001, RFK Jr. records a triple play. The separate encounters — coded 10, 3 and 2 — occur the same day he attended a black-tie fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria for Christopher Reeve’s charity, where he sat next to the paralyzed “Superman” star, magician David Blaine and comic Richard Belzer.

It was a hectic month for Kennedy, who traveled to ­Toronto, Louisiana and Washington, DC — and listed at least one woman’s name on 22 different dates, including 13 consecutive days.

Most women are identified only by first name in the ledger. They include a lawyer, an environmental activist, a doctor and at least one woman married to a famous actor. He also found out that there are also so many horny contacts online looking for naughty fun.

A Post reporter who questioned Kennedy Friday about the diary was first met with six seconds of stunned silence.

“I don’t think there is any way you could have a diary or journal of mine from 2001,” Kennedy then said. “I don’t have any comment on it. I have no diary from 2001.”

The diary is laced with Kennedy’s Catholic guilt over his infidelities, which follow the same pattern of affairs pursued by his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, as well as his own father.

On days without a woman’s name, Kennedy would often write “victory.” This meant he’d triumphantly resisted sexual temptation, according to a source close to Richardson. But for those days when he couldn’t resist such temptation, he would do everything to quench that. If you’re like him who thirsts for earthly desires and if you want some real fun, you need to find a Kinky Bitch as they are the ones that will do literally anything!

“Despite the terrible things happening in the world, my life is . . . great,” he wrote on Nov. 5, 2001. “So I’ve been looking for ways to screw it up. I’m like Adam and live in Eden, and I can have everything but the fruit. But the fruit is all I want.”

The 59-year-old son of the assassinated US senator was so tortured by his desire that spending a month in jail in Puerto Rico was a welcome respite.

“I’m so content here,” he writes during his July 2001 incarceration for taking part in protests of the US Navy’s bombing exercises in Vieques. “I have to say it. There’s no women. I’m happy! Everybody here seems happy. It’s not ­misogyny. It’s the opposite! I love them too much.”

Yet Kennedy adds, “I love my wife and I tell it to her every day, and I never tire of it and write her tender letters.”

Nine years later, Kennedy and his wife separated when he filed for divorce. And on May 16, 2012, Richardson, 52, committed suicide by hanging herself in an outbuilding on the couple’s Bedford ­estate.

Kennedy’s cheating had become a huge issue in the marriage.

Richardson told a friend that her husband noted the names of his romantic conquests on pages in the back of his journal under the preprinted heading “cash accounts.”

The journal begins with word that Richardson is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child.

The couple had known each other since Richardson was 14 and a boarding-school roommate of Kennedy’s younger sister, Kerry. They married in 1994, weeks after Kennedy divorced his first wife, Emily Black, with whom he had two children.

Richardson was pregnant with their first child, Conor, when they married. They moved into the 1920 clapboard house in Westchester County.

Modal TriggerKennedy, an environmental lawyer and board president of the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance, spent much of his time traveling to give speeches, according to his diary.

He had recently been weighing a possible Senate run for New York, before Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped into the race. Richardson stayed home with the children.

The beautiful brunette struggled with depression and alcoholism. Her husband described her at her funeral as “fighting demons.”

The couple was not yet divorced when she died and were bitterly arguing over issues involving custody and finances. Kennedy had temporary custody of the four children and was dating actress Cheryl Hines.

A sealed document in which Kennedy portrayed his wife as an abusive alcoholic who beat him up and threatened suicide in front of the children was leaked to the press.

Kennedy said in the affidavit that by 2001 he had “lost hope” in his marriage and was “committing numerous infidelities to keep my sanity,” according to a published report.

RFK’s sex diary: His secret journal of affairs | New York Post.

Bedford Corners NY Weekly Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog

Bedford   Corners NY Weekly Real Estate Report9/9/2013
Homes for sale43
Median Ask Price$1,495,000.00
Low Price$525,000.00
High Price$12,000,000.00
Average Size4927
Average Price/foot$478.00
Average DOM167
Average Ask Price$2,610,686.00

One Fifth of Top Markets Rebound to Peak Prices | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Some 19 out of the top 100 markets show a complete price recovery in July from the peak-to-trough decline amount attributable to the housing bubble – up from the 16 that showed full recovery in June.

Six of these markets again belong to the state of Texas, and two belong to Oklahoma, according to the Homes.com Rebound Report.  Some 41 markets showed more than a 50% rebound – up from the 38 in June.

The Homes.com Rebound Report uses the Homes.com Local Market Index data back to 2000, but it focuses on the period from 2005 forward when identifying peaks and troughs to isolate the impacts of the Great Recession, a recently marked global economic decline that also correlated with the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble.

The Homes.com Local Market Index report tracks repeat sales of properties for both single family and multi-unit/condominium sales in separate indices for the top 100 Local Markets as determined by the U.S Census Bureau Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs). The Homes.com Rebound Report tracks how far each market has recovered from its peak-to-trough decline in index value attributable to the Great Recession, a recently marked global economic decline that correlated with the bursting of the housing bubble.

 

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/08/one-fifth-of-top-markets-rebound-to-peak-prices/

 

How the truly smart home could finally become a reality | Bedford Corners Homes

The promise of the internet of things (IoT) is currently one of the most-hyped trends in technology circles. Back in 2010, Hans Vestberg, CEO of telecom giant Ericsson, boldly predicted that by 2020, 50 billion devices would be connected to the internet. The growing proliferation of connected consumer electronics, the falling costs of cellular-embedded modules and airtime, shrinking chip prices, and the emergence of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave drove this optimism.

The IoT is regularly associated with home automation; however, the market for home energy management systems and smart appliances, which many expected to track the rollout of smart meters and to give rise to truly connected homes, have both failed to take off. Today, many of these products are still involved in small pilot programs. The arrival of a number of glitzy cloud-enabled gadgets like Belkin’s WeMo line and the Nest Learning Thermostat could accelerate things rapidly. These devices, however, aren’t truly IoT; they are connected to the internet but remain isolated from one another.

For the smart home to ignite the IoT, home automation software platform vendors must provide open APIs. SmartThings and future open-API platforms could be the disruptive players that encourage a tidal wave of interconnected things.

Key findings from our analysis include:

  • Do-it-yourself (DIY) kits and high-end luxury installations are creating competition across previously separated home automation sectors. This, coupled with cloud-based services and general-purpose controllers built on apps, is driving much growth. Meanwhile, service providers like telecommunications companies (telcos) and utilities are raising category awareness with low-cost offerings.

  • Extensible software platforms from the likes of Alarm.com, iControl, and AlertMe mean that service providers can introduce new services to end customers over time. A home security-focused solution, like Comcast’s XFINITY Home package, easily can be extended to incorporate home energy management or home health capabilities. Open-API platforms would accelerate this extensibility and enable even more competition.

  • Currently the largest segment, custom-designed smart home systems will grow at only a 7-percent rate, compounded annually, to $2.2 billion in 2017. DIY kits will grow much faster but still only reach $200 million in annual sales by then. In contrast, connected home systems will explode from a $300-million base to $1.5 billion in 2017.

 

 

How the truly smart home could finally become a reality — GigaOM Pro.