Tag Archives: Bedford Corners Real Estate

Bedford Corners Real Estate

Inside Sunnyside Yards, New York City’s Next Megaproject | Bedford Corners Real Estate

In the past few weeks, the Sunnyside Yards has received an inordinate amount of attention from politicians and press, after being referenced as a possible development site for future megaprojects. Described as “a giant bowl of spaghetti,” this vast Queens train yard was included as one of the central proposals in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s State of the City address, where he called for a platform to be built over the yards holding 11,250 new affordable apartments. Not to be outdone, Governor Cuomo soon responded by giving support to a different proposal for a new convention center above the tracks. Based on their enthusiasm for these projects, it remains doubtful that either politician has personally explored the entire complicated reality of this 180-acre rail yard.

A circumnavigation of the Sunnyside Yards on foot reveals how huge and complex any plan to build above it would be. Almost two miles long, the perimeter of the yard is surrounded by elaborate fences and intersected by numerous bridges, but its day-to-day operations are largely hidden from public view. What few vantage points there are show a multi-layered system where LIRR, NJ Transit, Amtrak and MTA trains wind and weave above and below ground, enmeshed in a web of power lines and ancillary tracks. Meanwhile, an equally diverse array of neighborhoods borders the edges of the yard, ranging from the post-industrial side streets of Long Island City to the still-industrial warehouses of Sunnyside and the charming residences of the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.

02_kensinger_sunnyside_yards_DSC_3570.jpg

Walking through this convoluted landscape, it becomes clear that any local pressure to develop on top of the Sunnyside Yards is largely coming from its northwest boundary, where the creeping tide of luxury towers has swept aside industry in Long Island City and reached the very edges of the tracks. In the narrow strip of land between Jackson Avenue and the yards, cranes and construction dominate the skyline, as century-old warehouses are demolished to make way for new residential behemoths. West Chemical and 5 Pointz have now been completely destroyed, Eagle Electric is being gutted and renovated, and several new glass boxes now loom over the yards. The potential creation of up to 28 million square feet of “new” land in the backyard of these projects would doubtlessly benefit some developers enormously.

 

read more…

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/02/19/

Oil Price Drop and Houston Real Estate | Bedford Corners Homes

The ranks of million-dollar homeowners in Houston have swelled in recent years, with the number of sky-high home sales more than doubling since 2010. But the market’s swift surge is now threatened by strains in the energy industry that fueled much of the city’s high-end real estate boom.

Wealthy Houstonians purchased 1,411 homes that each sold for at least $1 million last year, up from 688 five years earlier, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

And Houston had the highest number of luxury home sales among Texas’ four major cities last year, a report released Monday by the Texas Association of Realtors showed. That represents almost 2 percent of this area’s total housing transactions.

Million-dollar-plus home sales were up 13 percent in 2014 over the previous year, according to the second-annual Texas Luxury Home Sales Report, which looks at high-end home sales in the state’s largest cities based on sales data from the first 10 months of the year.

With astonishing speed, however, the price of oil has fallen to levels not seen in five years, and the most dour economic predictions now show Houston at risk of going into a recession.

 

read more…

 

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Plunging-oil-could-chip-away-at-million-dollar-5995534.php

Freddie Mac Weekly Rate Report Lagging Reality | Bedford Corners Real Estate

 

The venerable Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS™) is a cornerstone of mortgage rate data.  It is both longstanding and highly accurate in capturing week-over-week movement.  The only problem is that it is unavoidably backward-looking due to its methodology.  There’s no scandal here and Freddie does a good job of convey that methodology, saying

“The survey is collected from Monday through Wednesday and the results are released on Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET. Survey reminder emails are sent out on Mondays and lenders are asked to  respond by close of business Wednesday. If we have received no response  on Tuesday, we follow-up with a reminder email on Wednesday morning.”

There’s no harm in this if one of two conditions are met.  Either rates need to be flat enough so that there’s a minimal discrepancy between Thursday morning’s rates and Freddie’s (which will be most similar to Monday or Tuesday’s rates) or mortgage rate watchers must be familiar enough with the methodology that they know it’s backward-looking.  The latter isn’t going to happen on a broad scale and the former is hit and miss.

This week is a miss.

The very best rates of the week (close to the best in more than 3 months!) were seen on Monday.  There would be no issues with today’s PMMS had it not been for the abrupt increase in rates over the past 2 days.  As it happens, the 0.09% drop reported is more like a 0.14% increase.  This is based on the average of actual lender rate sheets (not quotes that lenders subjectively report to Freddie) from last Thursday morning to this morning.

Mortgage News Daily’s “daily mortgage rate” is updated every day and adjusted for changes in closing costs that aren’t necessarily large enough to prompt a change in the actual “note rate.”  These typically move in .125% increments and rates typically don’t move that much in a day–many times even in a week!

This week they did.  Last Thursday morning, we calculated an adjusted “Best-Execution” rate of 4.35%, meaning that most borrowers would be quoted 4.375% with minimal closing costs and that some would be seeing 4.25%.  Apart from this Monday, that’s the closest we’ve been to 4.25% since February 10th.

Today’s calculated rate is all the way up to 4.49%!  It’s still early in the day for a final calculation as lenders may undergo price changes in the middle of the day, but as of right now, the true difference in cost–expressed in terms of interest rate–is indeed 0.14%.  That means that most borrowers will be at least .125% higher in actual note rate (i.e. a quote of 4.375% last Thursday is likely going to be 4.5% with minimal differences in closing costs.  4.25% would be 4.375%).

7 Ways You’re Ruining Your Wood Floor | Bedford Corners Real Estate

 

Our resident expert, Carolyn Forte, Director of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Department, shared these words of warning.

1. Vacuuming with a rotating brush Your vac’s rotating brush can be very abrasive to wood floors. Turn off the brush roll or use a floor brush attachment instead. But make sure you vacuum often — gritty dirt and dust particles can scratch your floor when they sit for too long.

2. Wet-cleaning too often Unless your wood floors get tons of foot traffic, you don’t need to wet-clean them more than every one to two months. Instead, keep your wood floors well-vacuumed (see number one) and spot-clean as needed.

3. Drenching the floor with cleaner Today’s wood flooring finishes are much more resistant to water than ones in the past, but that doesn’t mean you should flood your floors with cleaning solution. When it’s time to wet-clean, tackle small areas at a time with a damp, not wet, mop or cloth and dry them promptly.

 

http://shine.yahoo.com/at-home/7-ways-39-ruining-wood-floor-173700832.html

Roads: Traffic light on snowy roads; live traffic video, images | Bedford Corners NY Homes

Lower Hudson Valley roads are a snowy, treacherously dangerous mess Friday morning, and many drivers are staying off the roads.

“I normally don’t ask people to stay home, but this is one of those days,” said White Plains Public Works Commissioner Joseph “Bud” Nicoletti. “Because of the cold it’s much more treacherous than it looks. If you do have to go out, please make sure to go slow and give yourself plenty of space to stop.”

Traffic appeared light on many major roads, which remained snowy, about 9 a.m. But a rollover accident in the median of Interstate 84 east of the Taconic State Parkway was causing delays, according to hudsonvalleytraveler.com.

Also, an accident closed Exit 10B off the Bronx River Parkway to Bronx River Road in Yonkers shortly before 8:40 a.m. Icing had temporarily closed the ramp from the northbound Bronx River Parkway to the Cross County Parkway, but the road was reopened before 9 a.m., police said.

Talk about the storm in a live chat: http://lohud.us/1i1f3lc
School closings list: http://lohud.us/1bDzvmk
Latest mass transit updates: http://lohud.us/1iyMApq

Officials continued to advise people to stay off the roads if possible.

In New Rochelle, the main roads were passable, and snow plow crews were attacking the secondary streets, said City Manager Charles Strome III.

“I would say there passable, but if you don’t have to go out, don’t,” Strome said shortly before 9:30 a.m. The snow fell so heavily between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. that the crews were forced to plow and re-plow the main roads, he said.

The temperatures dropped so low overnight that liquid mix of sodium chloride and rock salt often used to pre-treat roads before snowfall loses its ability to prevent snow and ice from sticking to pavement.

“The problem is that once the temperature falls to about 10 degrees, salt and sodium chloride loses it’s effectiveness,” Nicoletti said. “That’s why we’re seeing packed snow instead of bare pavement right now.”

The New York State Thruway reopened to passenger cars at 5 a.m. and commercial vehicles at 8 a.m. Interstate 84 reopened at 8 a.m. after being closed overnight.

Roadways were said to be open in most municipalities. In Yonkers, on Warburton Avenue, near the city line with Hastings, a downed power line caused a partial road closure, police said.

In the pre-dawn hours, drives to White Plains from New Rochelle and Mamaroneck found main roads plowed but the surfaces packed with snow, visibility limited by wind-blow snow. The Hutchinson River Parkway was snow-packed, it was difficult to distinguish the plowed driving lanes from the shoulder in the dark, and snow was higher on the ramps. Speed was about 30 mph under the conditions, and few cars were on the parkway.

By about 6:40 a.m., major roads such as Palmer Avenue in New Rochelle and Mamaroneck Avenue in Mamaroneck remained snowy with light traffic easing along the roads.

In Rockland County, Route 304, Route 59 and a southern stretch of the Palisades Interstate Parkway were plowed and passable, with an inch or two of snow cover. Ramps connecting the highways were a little sketchy, though, requiring motorists to proceed at a crawl for a few white-knuckle minutes.

Police across Rockland reported no accidents as they said few cars were on the road, competing with plows pushing aside snow.

While the Thruway had been closed all night, there was still plenty of plowing work to be done on the road from the Palisades Parkway to the Tappan Zee Bridge. At 6:30 a.m., the southbound Thruway had better than 2 inches of snow and motorists were traveling single file, with only a few drivers daring to skirt around to create a second travel lane. Once on the Tappan Zee, the wind off the Hudson was whipping and, at the superstructure, had done the work the plows had not, clearing it to bare asphalt. The toll plaza was in bad shape, with packed snow left and right and drifting snow in the middle.

The posted speed limit on the bridge was reduced to 35 mph, but few drivers were going faster than 30 on the wind-swept span

http://www.lohud.com/article/20140103/NEWS02/301030036/Roads-Snow-covered-treacherous-I-87-I-84-open-live-video-ridealong

If you want to know more than read resources from Cohen Law Group.

Rentals in demand: Studios dethrone one-bedrooms | Bedford Corners NY Homes

Manhattan renters were hungry for studios last week, searching out such modest digs with more frequency than any other type of apartment, according to Zumper, an apartment listings website.

Studios were 55 percent of total inquiries, and the median rent query was $1,795 per month. One-bedrooms, often the most popular type, had 35 percent of the leads and the median query was $1,895. Two-bedrooms had the smallest chunk of leads – 10 percent – and an average query of $2,695.

“The searched prices for studios remained stable, [while] one-bedrooms dropped 16 percent,” Zumper COO Taylor Glass-Moore told The Real Deal. “Two-bedrooms climbed 45 percent.”

The top five most in-demand neighborhoods in Manhattan were, in order, the Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, Upper West Side, Soho and Lower East Side, data show.

 

 

 

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2013/12/30/rentals-in-demand-studios-dethrone-one-bedrooms/

 

 

 

Bedford Corners Real Estate sales up 14% | Median price up 187% | #RobReportBlog

Bedford   Corners NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 11/112012
16Sales14up 14%
$1,487,500.00median sold price$517,000.00up 187%
$468,000.00low sold price$381,500.00
$5,600,000.00high sold price$1,750,000.00
5176average size2721
$364.00ave. price per foot$264.00
132ave days on market189
$1,939,750.00average sold price$756,571.00
94.86%ave sold to ask93.59%

Happy Inspector takes pen-and-paper home inspections and makes them digital | Bedford Corners Homes

Happy Inspector takes traditional pen-and-paper based inspections and makes them digital, bringing more transparency and an easier, faster and professional process to inspections of residential real estate, commercial buildings, cruise ships, ski resorts, not to mention food and safety or fire safety inspections.

The company is one of 13 in the inaugural class of the Inman Incubator program, a yearlong mentorship, advisory and promotional program to help new companies in the real estate industry succeed.

 

 

– See more at:

 

http://www.inman.com/2013/11/05/happy-inspector-takes-pen-and-paper-home-inspections-and-makes-them-digital/#sthash.xrh206qL.dpuf

Guy Asks $14.8M For Castle He Built For His Three-Year-Old | Bedford Corners Homes

17 images

Location: Bolton, N.Y. Price: $14,800,000 The Skinny: In 1982, Upstate New York man John Lavender broke ground on a castle. In a promotional video, he explains that Highlands Castle “was born out of a promise to my three-year-old son, Jason. I told him I would build him a home where we could both live and create some nice memories. For some apparent reason, I made a promise to build him a castle.” The first part of that promise is very sweet, and the second part is maybe a little over the top (also, a three-year-old kid is definitely not going to remember what he was or wasn’t promised). But, to his credit, Lavender followed through and spent years painstakingly constructing this castle on Lake George, drawing up the plans himself, collecting castle-y items such as suits of armor and stained-glass windows, and putting 800 tons of stones in place, one at a time. “Dad, can we have a catch?” his son would ask. “Not now,” John Lavender would reply. “I have to build this castle so that we can create memories.” Once the castle was complete, Lavender and his wife began renting it out for weddings and honeymoons—rates start at $995 a night—but now the whole thing is also listed for $14.8M.