Tag Archives: Cross River NY Homes for Sale

Housing’s Share of GDP: 15.5% for the Second Quarter | Cross River Real Estate

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Housing is an important source of economic growth. As of the second quarter of 2014, housing’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) was 15.5%, with home building and remodeling yielding 3.1 percentage points of that total.

housing gdp_2q14

Housing-related activities contribute to GDP in two basic ways.

The first is through residential fixed investment (RFI). RFI is effectively the measure of the home building and remodeling contribution to GDP. It includes construction of new single-family and multifamily structures, residential remodeling, production of manufactured homes and brokers’ fees. For the second quarter, RFI was 3.1% of the economy.

The RFI component reached a $496 annualized pace during the second quarter. This is the second highest quarterly total for RFI since the middle of 2008. Overall GDP expanded by 4.6% (annualized) for the quarter, with RFI adding 0.27 points of that total.

The second impact of housing on GDP is the measure of housing services, which includes gross rents (including utilities) paid by renters, and owners’ imputed rent (an estimate of how much it would cost to rent owner-occupied units) and utility payments. The inclusion of owners’ imputed rent is necessary from a national income accounting approach because without this measure increases in homeownership would result in declines for GDP. For the second quarter, housing services was 12.4% of the economy.

Historically, RFI has averaged roughly 5% of GDP while housing services have averaged between 12% and 13%, for a combined 17% to 18% of GDP. These shares tend to vary over the business cycle.

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2014/09/housings-share-of-gdp-15-5-for-the-second-quarter/

‘Harmonious,’ Mystical Mansion in Pennsylvania Wants $10M | #CrossRiver Real Estate

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24 images

Location: Clarks Summit, Penn.
Price: $9,995,000
The Skinny: To take the rapturous brokerbabble for this home at face-value would be to believe that this mansion is no less than a nexus of mysteries, a magical place where the mystical traditions of the world’s cultures collide in a supernova of positive vibes and quasi-religious transport rarely seen outside of a William Blake poem or a freshman English major’s well-thumbed composition book o’ poems. Maybe upon entering the place it really does feel like you’re “embarking on a journey,” “floating on a cloud,” or discovering “little pieces of heaven everywhere,” but this kind of runaway prose feels more like copy for a Marin County Reiki retreat than a description of a house, no matter how many statues of Buddha it possesses. The $9.995M manse has plenty of space for exploring your inner space, with 16,000 square feet of “harmonious environment,” including a meditation room, a spa “carved basically out of the earth” and, incongruously, an offer of a $50k bonus to the broker who brings in an accepted offer. Namaste!

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/09/10/1-reynolds-road-clarks-summit-for-sale.php

 

 

Mortgage default rate drives down household debt | Cross River Real Estate

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Household debt continued to fall in July as the first mortgage default rate dropped to .88% from .89% last month, according to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices.

This is significantly down from 1.35% in July 2014.

“At just above one percent, default rates remain at historical lows. Mortgage default rates have been trending down while Auto and Bank Card are a bit higher than their historical lows set in April and March,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The second mortgage default rate slipped to .52%, down from .57% last month and .54% a year ago.

As a whole, the national composite hit 1.01% in July, down one basis point from last month and lowest level in over 10 years.

On the other side, non-housing debt increased slightly in the second quarter.

Auto saw its rate remain unchanged at 0.96%, falling only four basis points above its historical low, while the bank card rate declined 16 basis points to 2.86%.

 

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Mortgage default rate drives down household debt

 

21 years to save for the down payment on a house? | Cross River Homes

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Guardian reporter Jessica Glenza and her boyfriend are buying a house and decided to go with a Federal Housing Authority loan. Glenza explains (in a satirical way that catches your eye), how she can finally afford a home and why some might think this is a bad thing.

It was over a plate of linguine and cream sauce that I learned I could afford a home. The government-run program allows buyers to put down as little as 3.5% of the property’s sales price.

What I found out is that the Federal Housing Authority finances about one in five homes in the US, a huge proportion. FHA financing works by allowing people to finance part of the traditional 20% down payment.

Previously, Glenza assumed she would be forced to save for 10 to 15 years in order to pull together a 20% down payment.

However, as she learned about this new program, she also realized the opposition to it. This is where people like Norbert Michael from the Heritage Foundation, who would rather do away with Fannie, Freddie and the FHA, come in.

 

 

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21 years to save for the down payment on a house?

 

Realtor.com takes a swing at Zillow, Trulia | Cross River Homes

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In the ongoing war for online real estate domination, the combatants lob (metaphorical) grenades at each other quite frequently.

Most recently, Move (MOVE), which operates Realtor.com for the National Association of Realtors, and Zillow (Z) have been involved in what looks to be a particularly nasty legal battle over the hiring of Errol Samuelson.

Samuelson is currently the chief industry development officer for Zillow. He was hired away from Move and Realtor.com in early March. Later in March, Move and NAR sued Zillow for breach of contract, alleging that Samuelson stole trade secrets and intellectual property from Move and brought it with him to Zillow.

In early July, Move and NAR won the opening battle in the suit, when Washington State Superior Court Judge Barbara Linde issued a preliminary injunction in the case, finding that Samuelson misappropriated trade secret information by acquiring it using improper means, and by copying it without authorization.

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/30648-realtorcom-takes-a-swing-at-zillow-trulia

A Village With a Changed Image | Cross River Homes

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Two decades ago, Dobbs Ferry, then a working-class village in southern Westchester along the Hudson River, was considered by many the poor stepsister of its immediate neighbors — artsy Hastings-on-Hudson on its southern border and upscale Irvington to the north.

While Hastings and Irvington attracted well-heeled buyers from Manhattan and the tonier sections of Brooklyn, Dobbs Ferry, about 20 miles north of New York City, was often overlooked. Its housing stock was limited, and its school system lower-performing than those of its neighbors.

Thanks a good a HOA Management from the community you can learn about about this in https://realtybiznews.com/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-hoa-management-companies/98759826/, the village’s image has since changed. The turning point came in 1998, when the Dobbs Ferry Union Free School District became the first in Westchester to join the International Baccalaureate organization, based in Geneva — prompting home buyers to take a fresh look at the virtues of the 2.4-square-mile village of 11,000 residents. The Baccalaureate group offers junior and senior high school students a two-year, preuniversity course of study.

“The change in the high school program was what drove the engine,” said Linda Jo Platt, who moved from Manhattan to Dobbs Ferry with her husband, Bruce Platt, in the 1970s. “A lot has happened for the better in Dobbs Ferry,” said Ms. Platt, the director of the Community Nursery School, which is owned by South Presbyterian Church in the village. Mr. Platt is a systems analyst for a data firm in Manhattan.

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Freddie Mac June 2014 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook | Cross River Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) released today its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for June providing a mid-year assessment as well as how for-sale inventory and vacancy rates will affect the near-term outlook. The complete June 2014 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook and forecast table are available here.

Outlook Highlights

  • Low for-sale inventory will help to sustain house price and rent gains but at the expense of affordability in the short term.
  • While the total number of vacant units has decreased by 4.2 percent from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2014, the number of vacant units for sale has declined by 24.2 percent (485,000 units).
  • Home purchase applications have picked up a bit recently with the traditional homebuying season underway, yet they’re still currently 13 percent below last year. For this reason, we’re lowering our overall homes sales forecast from 5.5 million to 5.4 million.
  • We expect fixed rates to rise gradually during the second half of the year in part as a result of the Federal Reserve’s “tapering” of net mortgage-backed securities acquisitions. Expect the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to gradually rise higher, ending the year around 4.4 percent.

Quote
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

“We’re nearly half way through the year and single-family housing remains weaker than we projected six months ago, while multifamily appears to be right on track. With vacancy rates moving back in line with historical averages, even falling below historical averages in some markets, and for-sale inventories remaining tight, U.S. home price indexes are likely to continue their above-inflation growth for the remainder of the year, as will rent gains, albeit much slower than in 2013. The important question is how much further will prices and rents have to rise to give incentives for more existing owners to list their property for sale and developers bring more supply to the market. Construction has rebounded over the past two years but is still significantly below the levels one would expect to see given projections of household formations.”

U.S. mortgage collectors gag homeowners in loan deals | Cross River Real Estate

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Joseph and Neidin Henard thought they had finally fixed the mortgage that was crushing them.

In January, the couple reached a settlement with every company that had a stake in the mortgage on their house in Santa Cruz, California, a deal that would have slashed their monthly payment by almost 40 percent to $3,337. It was the end of a process that started with their defaulting in 2009.

But when they saw the final paperwork for their settlement, they found that Ocwen Financial Corp, the company that collected and processed their mortgage payments, had added an extra clause: they could not say or print or post anything negative about Ocwen, ever.

The Henards’ experience was not unusual. Mortgage payment collectors at companies including Ocwen, Bank of America Corp and PNC Financial Services Group are agreeing to ease the terms of borrowers’ underwater mortgages, but they are increasingly demanding that homeowners promise not to insult them publicly, consumer lawyers say. In many cases, they are demanding that homeowners’ lawyers agree to the same terms. Sometimes, they even require borrowers to agree not to sue them again.

These clauses can hurt borrowers who later have problems with their mortgage collector by preventing them from complaining publicly about their difficulties or suing, lawyers said. If a collector, known as a servicer, makes an error, getting everything fixed can be a nightmare without litigation or public outcry.

 

 

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-mortgage-collectors-gag-homeowners-loan-deals-052329273.html

Upcoming FHA rule could squeeze homebuyers and sellers | Cross River Real Estate

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Realtors, lenders and community associations are up in arms about forthcoming Federal Housing Administration rules they believe could make mortgage financing more expensive — maybe even impossible — for large numbers of buyers and sellers around the country.

The concerns are not about condo certifications this time around — an issue that has caused hundreds of condo developments to drop their eligibility for FHA mortgages on individual units. The new problem is even broader, affecting potentially tens of thousands of homeowner associations that routinely impose transfer fees whenever units are sold.

Florida condos image via Shutterstock.
Florida condos image via Shutterstock.

The fees, which range from $100 to $500 in most cases, frequently are used by HOAs to replenish capital reserves, make improvements to infrastructure or even fund environmental conservation activities.

Unlike the controversial investor-driven private transfer fees marketed by Wall Street’s Freehold Capital Partners in 2010 and 2011, most HOA transfer fees are used to benefit the community.

Here’s the problem: In response to the widely criticized private transfer fee programs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted guidelines in 2012 that banned private-purpose, investor-benefit transfer fees from eligibility for conventional financing. Their rule carefully distinguished between the Freehold Capitol type of fees — which generated income streams for bond investors for up to 99 years — and the typical HOA transfer fees designed to benefit the community’s residents.

More recently, lawyers in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s office of general counsel have warned FHA that under existing “free assumability” regulations, the agency is not permitted to insure mortgages on properties that come with “restrictions on conveyance” — encumbrances on the title that could hamper transfers. That includes fees required to be paid at the sale of units in communities governed by homeowner associations.

 

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http://www.inman.com/2014/05/06/upcoming-fha-rule-could-squeeze-home-buyers-and-sellers/?utm_source=20140506&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam

8 great estates for sale | Cross River Real Estate

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Pedigree: Encompassing nearly 2,000 acres of Big Sky Country, this postcard-perfect ranch is anchored by a two-story main residence. Porches wrap around much of the home, whose handsome log-cabin aesthetic complements the timber construction of two historic barns on the site.

Property values: The scenic grounds (about 100 miles north of Yellowstone National Park) include a handful of other buildings, chief among them stables for up to seven horses and a refurbished 1889 pioneer schoolhouse.

Talking point: A private airstrip and hangar allow for quick-and-easy arrivals and departures by plane.

 

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http://realestate.msn.com/8-great-estates-for-sale