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The Town of Bedford NY

JPMorgan CEO meets with US Attorney General | Bedford Real Estate

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Whether the settlement hits $11 billion or not, talks are in the works to bring something into fruition to resolve the government’s lingering mortgage securities issues with JPMorgan Chase (JPM). The bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon arrived at the Justice Department Thursday as talks of a settlement intensified. Per The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Dimon arrived at the Justice Department building around 9:20 a.m. to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder from Phoenix Law Firm, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Mr. Dimon and Mr. Holder are meeting face-to-face to discuss terms of a potential deal, according this person. Like all visitors to the building, Mr. Dimon showed identification to the guards—in his case a New York State driver’s license—and proceeded inside.

                    Source: WSJ

Bridgehampton House by Architect Peter Cook Pictured in Beach Magazine | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Hamptons architect Peter Cook‘s houses gracefully reference classic Shingle Style, with modern updates. As a local, Cook knows that location is ultra-important in the Hamptons. He says, “Our clients buy these properties because of the views, so it’s very important to capture them as you move throughout the house. Orientation of the sun dictates a lot. Take a swimming pool, for example. You want to sit in the chair and face the sun without having your back to the pool. That decides how you place things on the property. The spaces you move through—the hallways, stairways, rooms—should have light and natural views that allow you to really experience the property.”

Purchase apps increase as interest rates slip | Katonah Homes

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Applications for purchase loans increased a seasonally adjusted 3 percent for the week ending Sept. 18 compared to a week earlier and were up 1 percent on an annual basis, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications survey.

During the same period, refinance applications jumped 18 percent, as the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a balance of $417,500 or less dropped from 4.8 percent to 4.75 percent.

Source: MBA

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/purchase-apps-increase-as-interest-rates-slip/#sthash.lKzd5toO.dpuf

Fed shocks market, decides not to taper | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The Federal Open Market Committee decided Wednesday to keep purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at its current pace to foster the ongoing housing recovery and fight unemployment.

In other words, the market was tricked — no tapering just yet — despite numerous predictions of a $10 billion reduction in monthly asset purchases by the Fed.

The FOMC made that conclusion after members met this week and announced that although the housing sector is strengthening, “mortgage rates continues to rise further and fiscal policy is restraining economic growth.”

As a result, the central bank will continue purchasing agency MBS at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion a month. Yields on 10-year Treasurys dipped from a daily high of 2.9% to below 2.8% on the news. Yields on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds also dropped, according to Bloomberg, with spreads between MBS and the 10-year swap winding 6 basis points closer.

“The committee sees the improvement in economic activity and labor market conditions since it began its asset purchase program a year ago as consistent with growing underlying strength in the broader economy,” FOMC members said.

They added, “However, the committee decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained before adjusting the pace of its purchases.”

The vote for the statement was 11 to 1 with Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City dissenting because she was concerned that the continued high level of bond-buying program increased future economic risks.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26914-fed-halts-qe-wind-down

 

 

Bedford has 3 candidates for open school board seat | Bedford NY Homes

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The Bedford Board of Education announced that three applications have been received for an open seat on the board of education: Joe Malichio (Pound Ridge); Edward Reder (Mount Kisco); Brian J. Sheerin (Bedford Corners).

The Board of Education will conduct public interviews of the three candidates at a special board meeting at 7 p.m.  Sept. 18, in the Little Theatre at the Fox Lane Middle School. The meeting will be televised live on BCSD-TV (Bedford Channel 18 and FIOS Channel 1982), available on the district website via live video streaming and subsequently rebroadcast on BCSD-TV and the website.  The League of Women Voters will moderate the interviews.

Copies of the completed applications will be available at the Sept. 18  meeting. To allow for input, members of the community are invited to provide feedback on the candidates by emailing the board of education at boe@bcsdny.org no later than Sept. 20th.

The board will consider each candidate based upon his/her application, interview responses and community input. The board plans to discuss the candidates in an executive session and to announce the appointment of the new member as soon as possible.

The new board member will assume his/her seat on the board and begin the mandated orientation program immediately.  The new member will serve until the May 20 general election for Board of Education members.

 

 

http://northernwestchester.lohudblogs.com/2013/09/13/bedford-has-3-candidates-for-open-school-board-seat/

A Rustic Zero Energy Home | Bedford NY Real Estate

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On the edge of Eagle Mountain Lake, just northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, sits  green builder Don Ferrier’s latest masterpiece — a zero energy home.  Sandwiched between trees and shrubs, the house is a rustic, two bedroom home  with a deep front porch. The exterior siding and interior beams are made of  reclaimed barn wood, giving the home a classic, aged look. This house, which  Ferrier calls the “zero energy casita,” looks like it has been here for years.  In fact, it’s a brand new, eco-friendly home thanks to the insulation, wind  turbine and many other influential features that leaves him with no energy  bills.

Ferrier is no stranger to green home building. His first green building was  an earth-sheltered home that he built in 1982. By 1985, he was designing green  homes and using structural insulated panels (SIPs), which are energy-efficient  building panels that are made by sandwiching pieces of polystyrene between two  pieces of oriented strand board (OSB).  He still uses these today to make  all of his buildings energy efficient.

“I stumbled into it and I can’t take credit for being a visionary,” he  says.

“Once into building green we were totally on board and passionate. I love it  that we have made such a positive difference in so many folks’ lives.”

In 2004, he founded Ferrier Custom Homes with his daughters and long-time  construction supervisor, Tom Grywatch. Ferrier went on to build the first LEED  platinum home in Texas, won the 2007 Green Building Advocate of the Year award  from the National Association of Home Builders and was named one of the “Godfathers of Green” by the Dallas Builder Association. Ferrier Custom Homes  only builds custom homes and the company is involved in the entire process. “Proper planning and design are essential to high performance building,” Ferrier  says.

When designing the zero energy casita, Ferrier’s No. 1 challenge was the hot  Texas climate. Ferrier designed the casita to be air tight and well-insulated by  using SIPS and low emissivity (low-e) windows. Ferrier also chose a galvanized  metal roof (because its silver color will reflect up to 73 percent of heat from  the sun), and installed a radiant barrier, Tyvek Home Wrap, to keep heat and  water out.

Because the house is tightly sealed and well-insulated, it holds in heat  extremely well. That’s an advantage in the winter, but during the summer it’s a  potential problem. However, the large front porch is designed to delay the sun  from hitting the windows until late in the day. A 50-foot oak tree and 40-foot  shrubs around the house also help block the sun in summer and keep the house  cool. Because of the hot climate, Ferrier also decided to install a high  performance air conditioner. He chose an air conditioner with a 16 seasonal  energy efficiency ratio (SEER), which measures the equipment energy efficiency  during the cooling season. This is higher than both the national requirement of  13, and Energy Star standard 14.

According to Energy Star, the average, non-Energy Star home in North Texas  experiences 13 air changes an hour, and the average Energy Star home has six air  changes an hour. Every time the air conditioner turns on in an hour indicates an  air change. In contrast, the tightly insulated zero energy casita, experiences  only one air change an hour. That improves the efficiency of heating and  cooling, but to be sure the home gets enough fresh air, it also has a fresh air  intake.

Ferrier knows the importance of good air quality, so a HEPA air filtration  system and central dehumidification system were also installed. He was careful  to use products without volatile organic compounds (VOC) and formaldehyde, so  the interior was painted with low- or no-VOC paint.

But to be a zero energy home, it must contain a source of power. Wind energy  was a natural choice for Texas, which has the most wind power potential of any  state, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. To utilize this  energy, a Skysteam wind generator was installed in the backyard of the  casita.

In addition to using recycled construction materials, 80 percent of the  construction waste from the casita was recycled. Tree trimmings were reused as  mulch for flower beds and newly planted trees.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/print.aspx?id={C04A19FF-F4F3-45CE-A035-58565FDEFA6A}#ixzz2f9n98hf3

YouTube playlists: a cool way to expose listings | Bedford Realtor

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Video has become an integral part of the real estate business. Have you ever considered how you could use this powerful tool over and beyond property tours, self-promotion and sharing the lifestyle in your market area? Are you willing to take the plunge and explore? According to Alexa.com, YouTube is currently the third most visited site in the world.

It ranks second worldwide in terms of average amount of time spent on the site, second only to Facebook. Consumers love video. In fact, they are much more likely to pay attention to your marketing messages when you attach a video. If you would like to reach more consumers and convert more listing appointments into signed listings using YouTube, here’s how to do it: Imagine that you have five listings in a single market area. You would like to find a way to market all five listings to local residents.

The challenge is that you don’t have their email addresses, door knocking is a chore, and using the backs of the brochures to market additional listings works only when someone stops by your brochure box. You can now market all five listings with a single URL from YouTube.

The secret is to set up your own personal YouTube channel. This is a powerful way to stand out from the competition. Furthermore, only a small percentage of agents have made the transition to integrating video into their business. Even fewer have created their own channel, and virtually no one is using the playlist feature as a marketing tool in conjunction with traditional mailing programs. I discovered the playlist tool on YouTube when I wanted to load 12 excerpts from our new agent training program into a separate YouTube channel.

Since I had already set up a YouTube channel with my name, YouTube would not allow me to create another channel, even when I tried using a different email address. I then noticed that YouTube had a feature that allowed me to aggregate multiple videos into a playlist attached to a single URL.

The process was simple. First, create your videos. Second, select the ones you want to include in your playlist. Third, name the playlist. Fourth, upload the videos into the system. YouTube then generates a URL that will allow you to play all the videos from a single link.

The feature works the same way you would create a playlist in iTunes.

read more…

 

http://www.inman.com/2013/09/03/youtube-playlists-a-cool-way-to-expose-listings/#sthash.oqTJLbpy.dpuf

House Cleaning Service Costs | Bedford NY Real Estate

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t’s a magical feeling to open your door and find your home all clean and smelling fresh. Like Samantha from “Bewitched” just wiggled her nose and, voila, everything shines. A reliable cleaning service can do wonders not only for your home but your state of mind. But keep in mind that the value cleaning services offer may go beyond polished floors and spotless toilets. Sparkling windows, pollutant-free ducts and clear gutters and downspouts are critical to home maintenance as well. How much you’ll pay for a cleaning service often depends on the extent of the cleaning job and the specialized services needed.
Maid Service

The most significant factors affecting the cost of any interior house cleaning or maid service are the number and size of your rooms, whether you own pets, and how often you schedule your cleanings. Many maid services will charge you less per cleaning if you have them come once a week rather than once a month. Some companies will charge more for specialty services, such as window washing, fireplace cleaning, dusting shelves where a large number of books need to be removed and replaced, and cleaning high shelving or ceilings that require a ladder. Some services also will add a trip charge if you live far away from their place of business.  Continue Reading

  • Clean Gutters & Downspouts Costs
    Most homeowners spent between:
    $159 – $203
    Average cost:
    $181
    Minimum
    cost:
    $90
    Maximum
    cost:
    $314

Select your Cleaning Service project

                Exterior Cleaning

                There’s a reason people talk about spring cleaning. During the winter, your property might be covered in snow, and doing exterior cleaning is nearly impossible. But once the snow is melted, you may find your home’s exterior and much of your property looking messy. Depending on the company (or independent contractor) external home cleaning and lawn and garden clean-up may be charged by the scale of the project or by the hour. An experienced cleaning service should be able to give an accurate price quote before beginning the job.

                 

                 

                House Cleaning Service Costs | Cleaning Service Prices.

                Foreclosure starts plummet to six-year lows | Bedford NY Real Estate

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                Foreclosure starts recorded during the 12-month period ending in July fell to an activity level not seen since 2007,Lender Processing Services said in its latest Mortgage Monitor report.

                The report overall showed loan delinquencies and foreclosures on a downward trajectory despite the new influence of rising interest rates and fears that the economy may be slowing coming out of the month of August.

                The delinquency rate month-over-month fell 3.96% with 6.41% of all U.S. mortgages delinquent, LPS data shows. Vintage loans originated after 2010 continue to outperform earlier vintages, which continually record higher delinquency rates.

                Meanwhile, the total U.S. foreclosure presale inventory rate hit 2.82%, down 3.46% from the previous month.

                Originations are beginning to feel the impact of higher interest rates, but July prepayment rates are equal to year ago levels, suggesting mortgage refis continue at a consistent pace.

                In fact, LPS notes that prepayments are equal to levels reached during the refi booms experienced in 2010 and 2009—time periods when interest rates were either higher or equal to current levels.

                Yet, Herb Blecher, senior vice president of LPS, suggests prepayments could decline as interest rates edge higher.

                Refinancing activity through the government’s HARP program in July showed a unique trend with prepayments on loans with 100% LTVs actually increasing during the month.

                And troubled assets are no longer a major headache, at least not at the same level they were in 2011. The real estate market continues to see fewer sales of troubled properties with distressed sales down 30% for the 12-month period ending in June. Short sales on their own fell 60% from last year, making up only 10% of sales for the 12-month period ending in June.

                The states with the highest percentages of distressed sales included Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona – all of which are recovering sand states.

                 

                Foreclosure starts plummet to six-year lows | 2013-09-03 | HousingWire.