Tag Archives: Chappaqua Homes

Chappaqua Homes

Police Advisory: Two Chappaqua Burglaries Thursday | Chappaqua Daily Real Estate

Leave a reply

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. — The following is an advisory from the New Castle police department.

New Castle Police are investigating two burglaries that were reported on Spring Valley Road. One house was entered through an unlocked door off of a second floor deck. The other house had a forced entry to a rear door. Electronic equipment and jewelry are reported stolen.

The burglaries occurred on June 6, 2013 between 11:30AM and 4:00PM. Both homes were unoccupied at the time of the burglaries. New Castle are investigating.

Anyone with information should call 914-238-4422.

Contact Information:

Charles Ferry

Chief of Police

914-238-4422

cferry@town.new-castle.ny.us

 

Police Advisory: Two Chappaqua Burglaries Thursday | The Chappaqua Daily Voice.

Upbeat buyers push prices higher: Clear Capital | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

Spring home buying activity picked up in May with home prices growing 1.3% over the previous quarter and soaring 8.2% annually, Clear Capital said Tuesday.

The yearly and quarterly gains are the result of market momentum and a low price floor, the data firm added.

“May home price trends confirm the recovery continues to mature,” said Dr. Alex Villacorta, vice president of research and analytics at Clear Capital.

He added, “While there’s no questioning the validity of the recovery at this point, performances at the local level remained mixed when considering strength, sustainability and relative positions to 2006 prices.”

At the metropolitan level, price trends remained mixed, a reminder that the recovery is locally driven.

Las Vegas takes the lead in the home value recovery, with yearly price gains of 27%. Phoenix, on the other hand, saw gains of 25.7%, putting Vegas ahead of the Arizona metro area for the first time since April 2012.

“Las Vegas’ strong yearly gains represent a rebound from a severe correction rather than bubble-like price growth. Despite 27% yearly growth, this market remains 53% below peak levels, significantly more depressed than most markets,” Villacorta stated.

While Las Vegas yearly gains continue to pick up steam, the market has a long road ahead of it.

Upbeat buyers push prices higher: Clear Capital | HousingWire.

How to Get Your Executive Team Active in Social Media | Chappaqua Realtor

Leave a reply

As a savvy inbound marketer, you already know thatsocial media is a must-have in your marketing strategy. You’ve spent time looking at what channels work best for your company, creating the best content you can for those outlets, and aligning the social media goals to the business’ bottom line. You live and breathe social media every day on the job.

But that’s not true for everyone else in your organization. Not everyone is sold on the importance of social media — never mind manage their own presence. What about that VP down the hall with tons of killer industry knowledge or that executive you know who spends hours talking to customers? These executives may not be active in social media just yet, but they should be.

This is where you come in. If you think there are executives in your company who could add credibility to what you’re already doing, it’s time to get them on board.

Why Should Your C-Suite Be in Social Media?

Often, executives may feel like there’s not much for them to do in social media. They hired a social media manager to watch over the company’s presence, so why would they need to be in social media as well? Though some executives at your company may have already made up their minds about their social media participation (or lack thereof), it’s incredibly important to have them in social media.

Having a presence in social media gives executives the opportunity to stay relevant with industry trends, engage with your prospects and customers, and show that they stand by and believe in your brand. By not listening and participating in social media, executives are missing out on numerous opportunities to improve your business. And ultimately, growing your business is every executive’s objective.

How to Get Your Executive Team in Social Media

Getting executives in social media isn’t as simple as signing up for a Twitter handle and asking them to tweet. Instead, you’ve got to be strategic if you want to get on board. By following these five steps, you can develop a socially savvy executive team.

1) Pick the right executives for the job. 

Not every executive is ready to dive headfirst into social media — and that’s okay. Instead of proclaiming that all executives must start tweeting immediately, start off with a select few that you know would be successful in social media if you were to show them the ropes. Think about who would be a good advocate for your brand and have the potential to be a thought leader. Also, see how active they are in social media already. You may want to check out LinkedIn first to see who’s active already, since executives prefer LinkedIn to any other social site. This will give you a good indication of who to approach about helping build your brand in social media.

After you understand who’s been up to what, it’s time to think about your approach. Asking an executive who isn’t that familiar with Twitter or Facebook to jump right in isn’t going to work. First, they need to get an understanding of what’s happening on social media for your brand.

 

How to Get Your Executive Team Active in Social Media.

5 Top Things Today’s Home Buyers Want | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

Many people shopping for real estate today are younger than previous generations of home buyers, and they’re extremely tech savvy. They grew up with smartphones, apps, and Google searches. And they want to use technology not only in their search for a home but throughout the home itself.

A recent survey by Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate shows that 77 percent of Gen X & Gen Y home buyers want their homes “equipped with the technological capabilities they have grown accustomed to.” And it doesn’t stop there. This new generation of home buyers is “rewriting the rules to home ownership and reinterpreting traditional norms to fit their values,” says Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate.

These aren’t your standard-issue young home buyers from 30 or 40 years ago, who were often married couples looking for a starter home in the suburbs to raise a family. Today, single women make up a large percentage of first-time buyers, as do gay couples and the always-connected mobile professional.

As the home buyer evolves, so does the home. Here are five major shifts in homes you can expect to see today and in the coming years.

home theater

1. Man Caves and Smart Homes

The media room or “man cave” emerged in real estate marketing a few years back. Many buyers now prefer high-tech rooms with surround sound, large-screen TV’s, and the most up-to-date A/V equipment to the coveted formal dining room of a generation’s past.

But some aren’t limiting technology to just one room. They’re transforming an entire property into a “smart home” with home automation systems.

At a recent Maple Ridge, N.J. open house, the real estate agent demonstrated the features of the home automation system to excited buyers. With one tap on a touch screen, the owner of that home could remotely lock/unlock doors to let in their kids from school, automatically turn on the A/C or heat before they leave work, or monitor the family dog via webcam.

Given how technology is only going to be more important in our lives, transforming a home into a “smart home” is likely to be a good investment.

Carrie Bradshaw closet

2. Carrie Bradshaw Closets

In the first Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshaw excitedly tours her future Manhattan apartment with Mr. Big — and is woefully disappointed at the tiny closet space. He surprises her by dramatically remodeling the cramped space into a dream closet, with glowing, glass-enclosed sub-closets.

That 2008 movie raised the bar and set the tone for closets. Today, the walk-in closet is a must-have on many buyers’ wish list. Some homeowners are paring down a four-bedroom home to three by transforming one bedroom into an oversized walk-in closet. It’s a far cry from the Victorian era, when bedroom closets were often the size of a coat closet today.

A large closet will probably never go out of style. If you intend to expand a closet or bedroom into a grand walk-in closet, just be careful not to overly customize it. The more specific you get with your taste, the fewer people your closet will appeal to when you go to sell later.

Home office

3. Home Offices

Even though a few companies (most notably Yahoo!) are instituting a ban on working from home, most encourage it. And so, in our always-on culture, many people entering the real estate market are tethered to email well into the evening hours and on weekends.

A home office tops this buyer’s wish list. Depending on the number of bedrooms, some will create a home office with built-in desks, shelving and cabinets. The customized home office with built-ins could deter some buyers, however, who feel they’ve lost a bedroom or other space. But many prefer to have one place dedicated to their laptops, printers and work-related stuff. (A dedicated home office is better for tax purposes, too). Either way, try to make your home office as appealing to the next buyer as it is to you. And keep in mind that, provided you don’t create a built-in a desk or bookshelf, the space can easily be reverted back to a bedroom.

hardwood floor

4. Hardwood Floors

If you walk into a home that hasn’t been on the market for decades, you’ll probably see a lot of wall-to-wall carpeting. This was common in the mid 20th century. Not only did carpeting help reduce heating bills, it was seen as physically comforting and less sterile.

Fast forward 50 years, a time when most buyers prefer gleaming hardwood floors. Hardwood floors make a space feel less confined and give it a new, clean feeling. No matter how many times the carpet has been cleaned Top Carpet Cleaning Services from Super Kleen, there’s something about stepping on someone else’s carpet with your bare feet that turns off today’s buyers.

If you see a home you love, with wall-to-wall carpeting you don’t love, ask the agent what’s underneath it. You might be surprised to find a hardwood floor that, with some sanding and polishing, will give the home that updated, lighter look you want.

community pool

5 Top Things Today’s Home Buyers Want | Zillow Blog.

Seller financing: an untapped resource for real estate agents | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply

While the residential real estate market is generally believed to be improving nationwide, some of the residual effects of the Great Recession still affect the ability of real estate agents to facilitate home sales.

Emerging employment opportunities in many parts of the country are bringing workers into new communities. Even though financial institutions have brought reserve levels back to all-time highs within the past few years, banks are unable to fund loans due to restrictive lending criteria.

For buyers, the regulatory pendulum has swung too far. Though fully capable of making payments, many are marked with imperfect credit or low cash reserves as a result of short sales, foreclosures or plummeting values of their prior residences. For sellers, this means a significantly smaller pool of potential buyers, which negatively impacts their home values as well as their financial well-being.

Prime opportunity

According to the Pew Research Center, about 10,000 people will turn 65 every day for the next 17 years. With baby boomers entering retirement at an exponential rate, many are looking to their homes as an additional source of revenue to supplement Social Security or other insufficient income.

Today’s rising home values present a perfect opportunity for sellers to capitalize on their homes’ increasing market values, and savvy real estate agents recognize the prime opportunity that seller financing presents. The trend of tight lending standards combined with willing buyers, sellers and an appreciating housing market is certainly not permanent, so this nontraditional financing option must be quickly leveraged to yield maximum benefit.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/05/22/seller-financing-an-untapped-resource-for-real-estate-agents/#sthash.glExI8Fd.dpuf

 

Seller financing: an untapped resource for real estate agents | Inman News.

Bernanke Says Premature Tightening Would Endanger Recover | Chappaqua NY Homes

Leave a reply

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said raising interest rates or reducing asset purchases too soon would endanger the recovery as the economy remains hampered by high unemployment and government spending cuts.

“A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further,” Bernanke said today in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress in Washington.

Bernanke lamented the human and economic costs of anunemployment rate at 7.5 percent nearly four years into the recovery from the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and he said the Fed’s record easing is providing “significant benefits.” His comments echoed remarks by William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who said in an interview that it would take three to four months before policy makers will know whether a sustainable recovery is in place.

Fed officials “need to see inflation expectations remain in a desired range, they need to see that the peak home-buying season goes as well as it can, and they need to see that we have absorbed the bulk of the huge fiscal consolidation” before they reduce the pace of purchases from $85 billion a month, said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC inJersey City, New Jersey.

Stocks erased an early rally and Treasuries fell after Bernanke said the Fed could “take a step down in our pace of purchases” in the “next few meetings.”

Brady Question

“We’re trying to make an assessment of whether or not we have seen real and sustainable progress in the labor market outlook,” Bernanke said in response to a question from Representative Kevin Brady, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee. “If we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that is going to be sustained, then we could in — in the next few meetings, we could take a step down in our pace of purchases.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.6 percent to 1,659.54 at 2:54 p.m. in New York. Yields on the U.S. 10-year note rose above 2 percent for the first time since March.

“The market reacts pretty wildly to any hint of exit,” said Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “It’s a small exit and a lot of people are trying to get out of it — like a rock concert.”

“The Fed is not looking to very quickly get out of this,” said Hanson, a former Fed economist. “There’s obviously a few members who want to wrap this up sooner than later, but Bernanke doesn’t seem eager to pull back on QE very soon. He wants to see more evidence that the economy really is moving on a forward path.”

More Progress

Many Fed officials said more progress in the labor market is needed before deciding to slow the pace of asset purchases, according to minutes of their last meeting released after Bernanke’s testimony.

“Most observed that the outlook for the labor market had shown progress” since the bond-buying program began in September, according to the record of the April 30-May 1 gathering released today in Washington. “But many of these participants indicated that continued progress, more confidence in the outlook, or diminished downside risks would be required before slowing the pace of purchases would become appropriate.”

 

Bernanke Says Premature Tightening Would Endanger Recover – Bloomberg.

Ratio of Sold to List Prices Shows Inventory Shortages Driving Price Hikes | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

The Sold-to-List Price Ratio, one of the leading market indicators for predicting home prices, is helping analysts predict home prices in markets with varying economic condition, shortages of available housing inventory and its impact on home prices. Pro Teck Valuation Services’ May Home Value Forecast (HVF) Update analyzes the Honolulu, Tucson, San Francisco, and Chicago metro areas to determine how the indicator has been useful from a historical perspective and in current market conditions.

“While many were predicting that REO and the ‘shadow inventory’ would keep real estate markets depressed, in reality the shortage of housing inventory has lead buyers to bid more competitively against one another leading to significant home price increases and tighter housing conditions,” said Tom O’Grady, CEO of Pro Teck Valuation Services. “Aside from anecdotal stories, Home Value Forecast shows that one of the most reliable leading indicators to support this theory is the Sold-To- List Price ratio.”

In May’s Home Value Forecast Update, the authors examine how the ratio of the sold price to the listing price (Sold-to-List Price Ratio) typically fluctuates between 92 percent and 98 percent, but in very hot markets can exceed 100 percent. The update takes a historical look (1978 to 2011) at the Honolulu metro Sold-to-List Price Ratio and the annual percent change in the median condominium sold price.

“The Sold-to-Listed Price Ratio has historically lead home prices by approximately six months over the past three real estate cycles and its turning points have been excellent signals for the same in condo prices,” added O’Grady.

In addition, the authors highlight quarterly value back to 1994 for the Tucson, AZ single family market and determine that the Sold-to-List Price Ratio exceeded 100 percent during the bubble period in 2006, which was indicative of a very frenzied market. The authors also demonstrate that the indicator moves directly with the market itself and can be a useful tool for determining if a market is “hot” as in San Francisco or in “normal” conditions as in Chicago, where the market could transition to heated conditions in the coming year.

This month’s Home Value Forecast update also includes a listing of the 10 best and 10 worst performing metros as ranked by its market condition ranking model. The rankings are run for the single family home markets in the top 200 CBSAs on a monthly basis to highlight the best and worst metros with regard to a number of leading real estate market indicators, including: sales/listing activity and prices, months of remaining inventory (MRI), days on market (DOM), sold-to-list price ratio and foreclosure and REO activity.

“Two of the top markets this month are in Nevada (Las Vegas-Paradise and Reno-Sparks), both of which had been very distressed since their respective market peaks in 2005 and 2006. Also, California continues to be well represented on the list by Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento metros,” said Michael Sklarz, Principal of Collateral Analytics and contributing author to Home Value Forecast. “Nashville’s metro area is a new entrant this month. Although the market has a more shallow correction than many of the other markets in the recent recession, it appears to be experiencing improving overall economic conditions and one of the most affordable markets in the U.S. now.”

May’s top CBSAs include:

Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN

Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA

Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA

Reno-Sparks, NV

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

Las Vegas-Paradise, NV

Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI

Salt Lake City, UT

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA

Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX

“The bottom ranked metros also represent an interesting mix around the U.S. While all have nine to thirteen Months of Remaining Inventory, many of the indicators are showing positive trends even for the bottom metros area this month,” added Sklarz.

The bottom CBSAs for May were:

El Paso, TX

Shreveport-Bossier City, LA

Akron, OH

Spokane, WA

Chattanooga, TN-GA

Dayton, OH

Peoria, IL

Baltimore-Towson, MD

Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Rochester, NY

Clarksville, TN-KY

About HomeValueForecast.com

 

 

Ratio of Sold to List Prices Shows Inventory Shortages Driving Price Hikes | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Monthly Inventory Rises for First Time in 33 Months | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

The number of homes for sale in April inched 1.6 percent higher than in March, the first month-over-month inventory increase since June 2010, according to the April RE/MAX National Housing Report.

The months supply of homes for sale at April’s pace of sales was just 3.6 months, the lowest supply since the RE/MAX report began in August 2008.   Closed transactions and median prices both remained 10 percent higher than last year’s levels, signs of a strong housing recovery in regions across the country.  Low inventories contribute to a limited growth in sales, preventing some buyers from closing on the home of their choice.

“April was exactly what we needed at this time in the housing recovery.  Home sales and prices continued to rise, while we started to see improvement in the number of homes for sale,” said Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX, LLC.  “It may take a few months, but as prices rise and more homeowners gain positive equity, we should see an increase in the inventory of homes for sale, resulting in a much better selection for potential homebuyers.”

The April RE/MAX Housing Report showed an 8.1 percent increase in closed transactions over March and a 10.5 percent increase over sales in April 2012, making April the 22nd month in a row experiencing higher sales than the same month in the previous year.  Real estate agents across the country are reporting increased traffic and expect the upcoming summer selling season to be even stronger than last summer. Of the 52 metro areas surveyed in April, 41 reported higher sales than April 2012, and 25 reported double-digit gains, including:  Honolulu, HI +53.2 percent, Burlington, VT +40.3 percent, Albuquerque, NM +40.2 percent, Charlotte, NC +39.4 percent, Raleigh & Durham, NC +38.1 percent and Chicago, IL +33.4 percent.

The Median Price for all homes sold in April was $177,200, which was 4.7 percent higher than the median price in March and 10.7 percent higher than the price in April 2012.  For 15 months in a row, the median price has been higher than in the same month of the previous year. Until the inventory balances, home prices should remain higher than those in the previous year. Of the 52 metro areas surveyed in April, four saw their median prices drop below last year’s price: Los Angeles, CA -9.1%, Albuquerque, NM -6.3 percent, Cleveland, OH -1.8 percent and Providence, RI -0.3 percent.

However, a total of 48 metros saw year-over-year price increases, with 21 reporting double-digit increases, including:  Detroit, MI +44.1 percent, San Francisco, CA +42.2 percent, Atlanta, GA +38.9 percent, Las Vegas, NV +31.6 percent, Orlando, FL +24.6 percent and Phoenix, AZ +23.8 percent.

 

 

RE/MAX: Monthly Inventory Rises for First Time in 33 Months | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

6 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Followers | Jeffbullas’s Blog | Chappaqua Realtor Reading

Leave a reply


Twitter has been my number one social media platform for quite a long time. That was actually the first social network I embraced after I started my blog.

6 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Followers

Over the course of more than two years I dedicated a lot of my free time to not only expanding my Twitter network but to also to actually engage with  people who cared about what I shared and who enjoyed my content.

As much as you’d like to say that quantity doesn’t matter, well, it does.

The more people I “persuade” to follow me, the more visitors my blog ends up receiving. The traffic Twitter brings me is now significant with 5,500 visitors a month coming from the 140 character social network.

If you’d like to increase your Twitter traffic the way I did, here are six of the most effective ways to get more quality Twitter followers that I have discovered.

Anyway, let’s get started:

1. Start with the profile picture

When someone lands on your profile, the first thing to catch their eye is your profile picture.

Especially now with the new profiles, where the photo is at the center of the header, it can really give people a hint of whether or not they should click ‘follow’.

Twitter profile

So, when it comes to choosing a suitable avatar, there are three golden rules:

1. Make sure it’s a photo of “you”

When you follow someone you expect them to be a real person. And unfortunately when it comes to Twitter, there are literally millions of fake accounts. That is why you have to make sure to add a real photo and not one you found on the internet for instance. Additionally if you are a business then you are far better off creating an additional Twitter account instead of putting a business logo on your personal profile just to promote your business.

2. Make sure it’s big enough

A lot of people tend to click on the avatar to see a person’s profile picture in a bigger size. There are a lot of folks out there however, whose photo is just as big as the size of the frame. What I’d advice you is to re-size your photo to say 300 by 300 pixels, so that it actually becomes bigger once someone clicks on it. A small, blurry and pixellated picture says that you don’t pay attention to the small details and that isn’t a good start.

3. Make sure your face is recognizable

What many Twitter users do is to simply upload a picture of them in full-size. Consider how small the avatar is, if you put a whole-body picture, then end result will be hard to distinguish. So absolutely make sure that the photo is only of your upper-body.

2. Don’t forget about hashtags

Hashtags are kinda like when you use a specific keyword within an article to make it rank higher in the search engines. When you use them, you are targeting your tweet to the people using the words you’ve included in your hashtags.

Twitter hashtag

I used to have a problem with hashtags. In my eyes they just didn’t look good and were making some of the tweets look quite unreadable.

But you know what?

Hashtags aren’t the problem. Using them is a great way to guarantee your message gains more exposure with the right people.

The problem is how you use them.

The 3 “Don’ts” of Hashtags

1. Don’t include too many

Let’s assume you are sharing an article of yours on Twitter and decide to add some hashtags to improve its visibility. Since the title is short and doesn’t take much of your 160 characters limit, you decide to include five hashtags. Is that a good move? No. It just looks spammy… And no one likes that kind of obvious self-promotion. I’d say two or three hastags at most.

2. Don’t be too specific

Twitter unlike Google doesn’t have a huge search volume. This basically means that you can get your message seen even if you use a broader term. On the other hand if you are too specific, probably no one is going to see your tweet via Twitter search. I’ve found that including more general terms like #Marketing,#SocialMedia, #Blogging or #Design results in the most retweets and favorites.

 

 

6 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Followers | Jeffbullas’s Blog.

Is Paying Down Your Mortgage a Bad Idea? | Chappaqua Real Estate

Leave a reply
Making extra payments on your mortgage?
Many people do — they’re anxious to get that mortgage paid down as quick as they can. But especially with interest rates this low, that might not be the best place to put that next dollar.
So what are the top five reasons to postpone that mortgage burning party?

Your emergency fund is on the scrawny side.

Before you send another extra dollar to your mortgage company, beef up your cash reserves.
Sure, you are saving more in interest than you’re earning in your bank account, but what happens if you lose your job?
You can’t rip out your bathtub and sell it on eBay for grocery money. And the bank isn’t likely to loan you the money back while you’re unemployed.
Likewise, if you’re still saving for retirement, putting that extra money toward your retirement savings is a smart move.
You’ll be taking advantage of the power of compounding by putting the money to work for you sooner. You get an extra bonus if adding to your retirement savings garners you more of an employer match.

You are carrying other debt, like credit card debt or a car loan.

Those consumer loans should be paid down first.
It’s likely your credit card interest is higher than your mortgage rate, and your mortgage interest may offer you a tax deduction that you’re not going to get from a credit card or car loan.
Work on reducing your consumer debt to zero before even considering paying down your mortgage.

Capture the arbitrage.

Remember not that long ago when online banks were paying 3.5%? That’s about what you can get a 30-year fixed mortgage for these days.
Economies are cyclical; it’s only a matter of time until those deposit rates return, and go even higher. And when they do, you’ll be glad to have your money earning more in the bank than the bank is charging you on your mortgage.
Imagine the scenario where you could pay off your mortgage if you wanted to, but instead watch the interest you’re earning outpace the interest you’re paying.

Those extra dollars could be put to use elsewhere.

Perhaps your career could use a boost from some coaching or certifications?
The additional money you’ll earn year after year from investing in your working future may return loads more than the savings on your mortgage.

 

Is Paying Down Your Mortgage a Bad Idea? | Chappaqua Real Estate | Bedford NY Real Estate | Robert Paul Talks Life in Bedford NY.