Tag Archives: Bedford Hills Homes

Bedford Hills Homes

Bedford Hills NY 2012 sales drop 3.8% – Prices fall 12% | RobReportBlog

Bedford Hills NY 2012 sales drop 3.8% – Prices fall 12%  | RobReportBlog

Bedford Hills NY Sales
2012 2011
25Sales263.80%DOWN
$565,000.00Median Price$642,500.0012.00%DOWN
$263,000.00Low Price$291,500.00
$3,995,000.00High Price$6,250,000.00
3176Ave. Size3464
$288.00Ave. Price/foot$333.00
186Ave. DOM176
92.68%Ave. Sold/Ask93.47%
$1,083,327.00Ave. Sold Price$1,250,932.00

Mortgage Rates Seen Staying Below Four Percent | Bedford Hills NY Homes

Though a number of critical questions face the US economy, from the unfinished business in Washington like the debt limit and spending cuts to lackluster growth, the outlook for mortgage rates is relatively predictable and not very exciting.

Rates will stay low, below 4 percent on a thirty-year fixed mortgage, predicts Bankrate.com senior financial analyst Greg McBride.  Even the prospect that Congress might finally act on reforming the GSEs does not deter him from his view that the Fed will not abandon QE3 in light of the fragility of both the national economy and housing economies.

With Fannie and Freddie originating 90 percent of new mortgages, removing the government guarantee that helps make these loans possible would ruin the recovery.  “Say what they want about ending the GSEs, it’s not going to happen,” said McBride.

Nor does he see significant changes in lending standards that many claim are making it too difficult for first-time buyers to get financing.  “Today’s median FICO of 750 and other financial qualifications are not insurmountable to young buyers with low debt and good jobs.” he said.

“Lukewarm jobs reports of 155,000 to 160,000 new jobs are not enough.  We need to see job growth twice that size before the Fed should even think about changing its policies,” he said.

This week on Bankrate.com’s  Rate Trend Index, 55 percent of the panelists believe mortgage rates will rise over the next week or so, 27 percent think rates will fall, and 18 percent believe rates will remain relatively unchanged (plus or minus 2 basis points).

Bankrate.com surveys experts in the mortgage field to see if they believe mortgage rates will rise, fall or remain relatively unchanged. The panel is comprised of mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers and other industry experts who provide residential first mortgages to consumers.

Foreclosure Supply Plummeted in November | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

Completed foreclosures fell 23 percent in November compared to a year ago and the national foreclosure inventory declined 18 percent from November 2011, from 1.5 to 1.2 million properties as demand from investors kept local inventories low.

According to CoreLogic, there were 55,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in November 2012, down from 72,000 in November 2011, a year-over-year decrease of 23 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures fell from 59,000* in October 2012 to the current 55,000, a decrease of 6 percent.

Approximately 1.2 million homes, or 3.0 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of November 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in November 2011. Month-over-month, the national foreclosure inventory was down 3.5 percent from October 2012 to November 2012. Year-over-year, the foreclosure inventory was down 18 percent. The foreclosure inventory is the share of all mortgaged homes in any stage of the foreclosure process.

(See National Foreclosure and Shadow Inventories fell by a Total 500K in 2012).

“The continued fall in completed foreclosures is a positive supply-side contribution in many regions of the U.S.,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “We still have a long way to go to return to historic norms, but this trend is firmly in the right direction.”

Historically, foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.0 million completed foreclosures .

“The pace of completed foreclosures has significantly improved over a year ago as short sales gain popularity as a disposition method. Additionally, the inventory of foreclosed properties continues to decline while the housing market demonstrates an ongoing ability to absorb the distressed sales that result from completed foreclosures,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Highlights as of November 2012:

  • The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November 2012 were: California (102,000), Florida (94,000), Michigan (75,000), Texas (58,000) and Georgia (52,000).These five states account for 50 percent of all completed foreclosures nationally.
  • The five states with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November 2012 were: South Dakota (10), District of Columbia (62), Hawaii (415), North Dakota (491) and Maine (597).
  • The five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Florida (10.4 percent), New Jersey (7.3 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Nevada (4.7 percent) and Illinois (4.7 percent).
  • The five states with the lowest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were: Wyoming (0.4 percent), Alaska (0.7 percent), North Dakota (0.7 percent), Nebraska (0.8 percent) and South Dakota (1.0 percent).

*October data was revised. Revisions are standard, and to ensure accuracy CoreLogic incorporates newly released data to provide updated results.

Online Video Weekly News Round Up – New Year’s 2013 Edition | Bedford Hills Realtor

Happy 2013! If 2012 was any indication on where online video is going, then 2013 is set to be a major year again for several parts of the industry. As we watch it unfold it’s always nice to see what’s going on in areas that we don’t quite cover here at ReelSEO, including, daily news.

It was both a short week and a fairly quiet one with the holiday and the tech industry practically holding its breath waiting for CES next week. So hang in there for now. Next week we’ll see what the TV makers will be pushing this year. I have to believe it will be a lot of connected TV and multi-device options.

Washington Post Political Video Channel In Works

The Washington Post is set to offer around 30 hours of online video for a dedicated political channel by summer 2013.

Source: Washington Post

Sony Looking to Become Virtual MSO Provider?

Variety reports that Sony is set to create its own multichannel TV service, which would most likely send content to its line of Bravia TVs and Playstation consoles most likely.

“The Japanese conglomerate is in active negotiations with at least two major content companies about licensing their channels for a package that could roll out in the U.S. later this year, according to sources.”

YouTube Expanding Content Beaming to More Devices and Players

We all know Google and Apple have been going at it on a variety of fronts with the latest being remote playback of content, or beaming content from one device to another.

YouTube’s take on AirPlay allows users to browse videos with the YouTube Android app for phones and tablets, and then initiate playback on the TV screen with the click of a single button. Device discovery is facilitated automatically as long as the devices are in the same network. Previous iterations of YouTube second-screen control functionality required users to first manually pair their devices.

Source: GigaOm

Rovi Selling VOD Venture

Rovi has announced that it will sell its CinemaNow, which powers Best Buy, but will retain the rights to the DivX codec.

In announcing the decision, Rovi president and CEO Tom Carson said the company is aligning “primarily around delivering enabling solutions for our service provider customers and using those efforts to also generate growth with our consumer electronics and other customers.”

Source: Multichannel News

Samsung Upgrading Smart TVs

A new year, a new CES, an upgraded Smart TV from Samsung. It makes sense.

The company’s Evolution Kit, announced a year ago, attaches into the back of select 2012 Samsung Smart TV models. The module provides additional processing and memory to provide faster Internet browsing speeds, enhanced voice and motion controls, and app multitasking while watching TV, according to Samsung.

Source: Multichannel News

Intel Stumbles on its Virtual MSO Service

With so many trying to get into the game, is it any surprise they’re having content licensing issues as well as hardware?

One person familiar with Intel’s thinking on Monday predicted the company would launch its offering by mid-2013. Another person said a service might not arrive until as late as the fourth quarter, citing delays in reaching content-licensing agreements with entertainment companies that own major TV channels.

Source: WSJ

Fiscal cliff deadline only hours away | Bedford Hills NY Realtor

President Barack Obama says it appears that an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff is “in sight,” but says it’s not yet complete and work continues.

Obama says this has been a “pressing issue on people’s minds,” and tells an audience of middle-class taxpayers the deal would, among other things, extend unemployment benefits for Americans “who are still out there looking for a job.”

He voiced regret that the work of the administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill won’t produce a “grand bargain” on tax-and-spend issues, but said that “with this Congress, it couldn’t happen at that time.”

Officials familiar with the negotiations say an agreement would raise tax rates on family income over $450,000 a year and increase the estate tax rate.

Any overall deal was also likely to include a provision to prevent a spike in milk prices with the new year, extend unemployment benefits due to expire and protect doctors who treat Medicare patients from a 27 percent cut in fees.

Both the House and Senate were on track to meet on the final day of the year, although there was no expectation that a compromise could be approved by both houses by midnight, even if one were agreed to.

Instead, the hope of the White House and lawmakers was to seal an agreement, enact it and send it to Obama for his signature before taxpayers felt the impact of higher income taxes or federal agencies began issuing furloughs or taking other steps required by spending cuts.

Regardless of the fate of the negotiations, it appeared all workers would experience a cut in their-home pay with the expiration of a two-year cut in payroll taxes.

Officials who described the negotiations did so on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussions.

A spokesman for McConnell, Don Stewart, said the Kentucky lawmaker and Biden “continued their discussion late into the evening and will continue to work toward a solution.” Underscoring the flurry of activity, another GOP aide said the two men had conversations at 12:45 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Unless an agreement is reached and approved by Congress by the start of New Year’s Day, more than $500 billion in 2013 tax increases will begin to take effect and $109 billion will be carved from defense and domestic programs

Though the tax hikes and budget cuts would be felt gradually, economists warn that if allowed to fully take hold, their combined impact — the so-called fiscal cliff — would rekindle a recession.

“This whole thing is a national embarrassment,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Monday on MSNBC, adding that any solution Congress would swallow at this late stage would be inconsequential. “We still haven’t moved any closer to solving our nation’s problems.”

In a move that was sure to irritate Republicans, Reid was planning — absent a deal — to force a Senate vote Monday on Obama’s campaign-season proposal to continue expiring tax cuts for all but those with income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

In one sign of movement on Sunday, Republicans dropped a demand to slow the growth of Social Security and other benefits by changing how those payments are increased each year to allow for inflation.

Obama had offered to include that change, despite opposition by many Democrats, as part of earlier, failed bargaining with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, over a larger deficit reduction agreement. But Democrats said they would never include the new inflation formula in the smaller deal now being sought to forestall wide-ranging tax boosts and budget cuts, and Republicans relented.

“It’s just acknowledging the reality,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of the GOP decision to drop the idea.

There was still no final agreement on the income level above which decade-old income tax cuts would be allowed to expire. While Obama has long insisted on letting the top 35 percent tax rate rise to 39.6 percent on earnings over $250,000, he’d agreed to boost that level to $400,000 in his talks with Boehner. GOP senators said they wanted the figure hoisted to at least that level.

Senators said disagreements remained over taxing large inherited estates. Republicans want the tax left at its current 35 percent, with the first $5.1 million excluded, while Democrats want the rate increased to 45 percent with a smaller exclusion.

The two sides were also apart on how to keep the alternative minimum tax from raising the tax bills of nearly 30 million middle-income families and how to extend tax breaks for research by business and other activities.

6 Lessons From the Social Media World Forum | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

If you go to as many social media conferences as I do, sometimes it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. At least that’s the excuse I’m going to give for having my associate at Renegade, Merlin Ward share the six unique lessons he gleaned from the recent Social Media World Forum (SMWF) conference in New York City.

1. Pair Your Social with Ads

Chris Thorne, Vice President of Social Media & Media at EA, the sports game developer, found that content was more effective when coupled with Facebook advertising. They put extra care into creating content that users could “play” with, essentially gamifying their Timeline; then they made the monetary spend to promote it to as many users as possible. The result was more than just extended reach—they increased virality and sales.

2. Your Content Doesn’t Work Everywhere

Morgan Baden, Director of Social Media and Internal Communications for the book publisher Scholastic, shared their failures and successes with Pinterest. Pinterest is a natural social network for this brand, but they found that not all content is created equal. While female users enjoyed sharing book covers and special quote memes from books, photographs for events and other physical spaces didn’t attract the same interest. It seems that content made for collecting does the best on Pinterest, while amateur point-of-view photography is better left on the shelf.

3. Branch Out Beyond Your Brand

Felicia Yukich, Manager of Social Media Worldwide for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, discovered the secret to using social media in the hospitality industry. The fundamentals of hospitality – thinking about your guests’ stay in and outside of the hotel – translates well into social media. Therefore, Four Seasons curates content far beyond the hotel brand, such as wedding planning ideas, sight seeing destinations and recreational activities. They get into the minds of their audience and focus on their interests, just like a good concierge would do.

4. Build Social Into Your Product

In keeping with one of the conference themes, Jesse Redniss, Senoir Vice President of Digital at USA Network, noted that social works best when it’s anticipated in the product creation phase. Brands should leverage natural user behavior by building social sharing into products and providing seamless social activity around their brands online. The consensus was that users are going to be social anyway, so why not enable them?

5. There is NO Crisis Plan

Morgan Johnston, Manager of Corporate Communications at Jet Blue, and Paul Fox, Director of Corporate Communications at P&G, talked about addressing crisis as a brand. The short of it is that there is no cure for crisis, but brand openness speaks volumes. P&G invited bloggers to their shop to talk about anything they wanted and write anything they wanted—good or bad—after negative news surfaced around a certain product line. After a dramatic employee exit, Jet Blue posted on their website that they didn’t know any more than anyone else about the situation but were trying to find the answers. These clear and open lines of communication helped bring the correct information to light in the end.

6. Brands Can Talk to Other Brands

Shane Steele, Director of Sales Marketing at Twitter, shared examples of brands talking with each other, which, in turn, created viral content and brand adoration by users. Oreo and AMC had a Twitter exchange about sneaking snacks into theaters, and Taco Bell and Old Spice had an exchange about their “spicy” ingredients. These conversations were both genuine and humorous and left the door open for consumers play along.