Tag Archives: Mt Kisco Homes for Sale

Highest level of home equity loans since June 2009 | #MtKisco Real Estate

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A total of 797,865 home equity lines of credit were originated nationwide, up 20.6% from a year ago and the highest level since the 12 months ending June 2009, according to RealtyTrac.

The report also shows HELOC originations accounted for 15.4% of all loan originations nationwide during the first eight months of 2014, the highest percentage since 2008.

“This recent rise in HELOC originations indicates that an increasing number of homeowners are gaining confidence in the strength of the housing recovery and, more importantly, have regained much of their home equity lost during the housing crisis,” said Daren Blomquist. “Nearly 10 million homeowners nationwide, representing 19% of all homeowners with a mortgage, now have at least 50% equity in their homes, according to RealtyTrac data. Meanwhile the percentage of homeowners with severe negative equity has decreased from 29% in the second quarter of 2012 to 17% in the second quarter of this year.

“The rise in HELOCs also reflects a natural evolution for a lending industry looking for products they can offer to homeowners who have already refinanced their first position loan into a low fixed rate,” Blomquist added. “A HELOC enables homeowners to leverage additional equity they may have gained since refinancing while still preserving the rock-bottom interest rate on their first position loan.”

Among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas with HELOC data available, 49 posted year-over-year increases in HELOC originations in the 12 months ending in June 2014. The only metro area with a decrease was Rochester, N.Y., where HELOC originations decreased 1%.

Metro areas with the biggest year-over-year increase in HELOC originations were Riverside-San Bernardino in Southern California (87.7% increase), Las Vegas (85.1% increase), Cincinnati (81.0% increase), Sacramento (65.1% increase), and Phoenix (60.1% increase).

Major metros with the smallest increases in HELOC originations from a year ago were Minneapolis-St. Paul (0.2% increase), Louisville, Ky., (3.3% increase), Philadelphia (3.6% increase), Virginia Beach (4.3% increase), and St. Louis (5.6% increase).

Despite the year-over-year increases, HELOC originations were well below their peaks from the previous housing boom. Nationwide, the 797,865 HELOC originations in the 12 months ending in June 2014 were 313% below the previous peak of 3,299,007 in the 12 months ending June 2006. The 15.4% share of HELOCs year-to-date nationwide was also below the 24.7% share in 2005.

HELOC originations were below their previous peaks in 49 out of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. The only exception was Pittsburgh, where HELOC originations reached a new peak in the 12 months ending in June 2014.

Major metro areas with the biggest decrease in HELOC originations in 2014 compared to their previous peaks were Riverside-San Bernardino (down 1324.9%), Las Vegas (down 1307.3%), Miami (down 1228.3%), Tucson, Ariz., (down 1214.0%), and Orlando (down 1177.6%).

 

 

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/31650-credit-nation-helocs-up-206-year-over-year

Mount Kisco Restaurants Will Participate In ‘An Evening In Good Taste’ | Mount Kisco Homes

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Donate to charity on Thursday, Oct. 16, while enjoying delicacies from some of the region’s top restaurants and caterers at the Food Bank for Westchester’s 24th Annual Celebration of “An Evening in Good Taste” to end childhood hunger.

The event will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1133 Westchester Avenue, White Plains.

The signature annual event will feature more than 20 local chefs who donate their time, talents and delectable treats, as well as assistance from more than 100 volunteers for an event that attracts some 700 guests.

“We look forward to ‘An Evening in Good Taste’ every year and are always happy to have our local restaurants participate,” said Ellen Lynch, executive director of the Food Bank for Westchester.

“This year we welcome several new restaurants to our event.It’s a great way for the community to enjoy delicious food and support a great cause. The Food Bank for Westchester is confident that with the support of these restaurants the evening will be a success.”

 

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http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/events/food-bank-westchester-names-restaurants-evening-good-taste

 

You Know It’s a Tough Market When Ben Bernanke Can’t Refinance | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Ben S. Bernanke, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Ben S. Bernanke said the mortgage market is so tight that even he is having a hard time refinancing his own home loan.

The former Federal Reserve chairman, speaking at a conference in Chicago yesterday, told moderator Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics Inc. — “just between the two of us” — that “I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so.”

When the audience laughed, Bernanke said, “I’m not making that up.”

“I think it’s entirely possible” that lenders “may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions,” he said.

Bernanke, addressing a conference of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care in Chicago yesterday, said that the first-time home buyer market is “not what it should be” as the economy in general strengthens.

“The housing area is one area where regulation has not yet got it right,” Bernanke said. “I think the tightness of mortgage credit, lending is still probably excessive.”

 

 

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-02/you-know-it-s-a-tough-market-when-ben-bernanke-can-t-refinance.html

Mortgage applications decreased last week | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Mortgage applications decreased 0.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 26, 2014.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 0.4 percent compared with the previous week.  The Refinance Index decreased 0.3 percent from the previous week.  The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index remained unchanged from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 11 percent lower than the same week one year ago.  The seasonally adjusted conventional purchase index increased 1.3 percent to the highest level since July 2014.

The refinance share of mortgage activity remained unchanged at 56 percent of total applications from the previous week.  The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 7.6 percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 4.33 percent from 4.39 percent, with points decreasing to 0.31 from  0.35 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.  The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) decreased to 4.28 percent from 4.30 percent, with points decreasing to 0.15 from 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.  The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 4.07 percent from 4.08 percent, with points decreasing to 0.04 from 0.09 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.  The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.55 percent from 3.56 percent, with points remaining unchanged from 0.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.  The effective rate decreased from last week.

 

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http://www.mortgagebankers.org/NewsandMedia/PressCenter/89532.htm

For $2M, Buy an Uncompromising Bastion of ’80s Terribleness | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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The brokerbabble for this slice of L.A. county real estate calls the structure a “custom neoclassical estate,” but one peek at the listing photos reveals it’s much more likely to be, say, the set of an L.A.-based Wolf of Wall Street and American Psycho crossover. The listing text touts the 4,444-square-foot house’s “historical statues and carvings,” but that’s just scuffing the surface. The foyer is a shiny marbled expanse with no less than 12 white columns and a sculptural centerpiece of one Greco-Roman figure or another. (Mercury? Hard to tell.) There’s also an art gallery, several million-pound crystal chandeliers, bedrooms double dipped in ’70s-ish patterns, and, in the stunning prose of Curbed LA, “four glittery-disco baths.” The six-bedroom listed and re-listed a lot in the last decade (at one time asking as much as $9M!) though now it could all be yours for just $1.995M.

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/09/29/1980s-house-on-the-market-950-avonoak-terrace-glendale.php

 

10 places where home prices have fallen the most | #MtKisco #RealEstate

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Let’s call it cause for optimism. After one of the worst housing collapses in history seven years ago, price declines have pretty much halted across every major metropolitan area in the U.S. Alas, these 10 U.S. Census metro areas with population of more than 250,000 still had small drops (-0.71 percent to -4 percent) in existing single-family home prices for the year ending June 30. Prices come from CoreLogic, a data and analytics company.

In many of these cities, the housing markets never really boomed nor busted. Most of them have ample supply of homes and relatively cheap prices, which should favor buyers. But many also have low wage bases, or declining or aging populations. Others rely on an employment sector that hasn’t fully recovered from the recession. A couple of them are still burdened by a large share of distressed sales.

Benchmark statistics nationally (all are medians): One-year change in home prices: 7.5 percent. Median home price: $185,038. Change in price since 2006 peak: -12.9 percent. Months’ supply of homes: 5.5 months. Unemployment rate: 6.1 percent (seasonally adjusted), 6.3 percent (non-adjusted). City-specific unemployment rates that follow are non-adjusted. Rate of job growth: 1.8 percent. Distressed sales: 15.5 percent.

 

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http://realestate.msn.com/10-places-where-home-prices-have-fallen-the-most

Here’s an Inside Look at North Korea’s Dystopian Architecture | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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22.jpgAll photos by Julia Leeb courtesy of teNeues

Ballsy German photojournalist Julia Leeb has just dropped a stunning collection of photographic work exploring one of the most restricted places on earth. The book, North Korea: Anonymous Country, documents Leeb’s travels, peeling back the shroud that covers the country and stealing moments to take testimony for the rest of the world. Because architecture is so often used and commissioned as a symbol of wealth and power, the buildings of North Korea, a state founded in the aftermath of World War II, tell the story of dystopia—one filled with icons of dictators, dizzying towers of communal housing, and a hotel that, despite once being in the running for world’s tallest building, remains nothing but an empty shell.

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1Untitled-1.jpgIn many ways, North Korea is a time capsule of former era, both as one of the last remaining Communist strongholds and as an utterly isolated territory.

After Japanese occupation during World War II, the Soviet Union installed a new dictatorial government in 1946, and red nations across the globe helped rebuild the bombed-out capital city of Pyongyang. Monumental architecture presents a united front for the government’s public image; museums dot the city featuring falsified exhibits that proclaim the dominance of the country’s innovation and industry. That elaborate artifice is exactly what makes Leeb’s book so fascinating. Intrigued?

 

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/09/18/north-korea-architecture.php

 

National Weather Service: Mount Kisco’s Winter Won’t Be So Bad | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Despite several reports of doom and gloom about the upcoming winter, the National Weather Service is forecasting average temperatures and average precipitation for the season.

The National Weather Service is forecasting roughly average temperatures for much of the country with the exception of below average temperatures in southwest Texas and above average highs in the northern great plains and Pacific Northwest.

Precipitation estimates are expected to be around the typical norm as well in the Northeast.

The National Weather Service has also said that predicting long-range weather is far from an exact science. While prevailing weather patterns like El Nino do have an impact on weather trends, the week-to-week shifts play a much larger role and thus make long-range forecasting little more than guess work.

The National Weather Service, does, however, remind residents to be prepared when the snow starts to fall. This is, after all, still the Northeast.

 

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http://mtkisco.dailyvoice.com/news/national-weather-service-westchesters-winter-wont-be-so-bad

 

U.S. News & World Report Ranks Northern Westchester Hospital Among Best | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) announced that it has been ranked as one of the best hospitals in New York for 2014 – 2015 by U.S. News & World Report.

The annual U.S. News best hospitals rankings, now in their 25th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating the most challenging patients. In addition to being recognized as a best hospital, Northern Westchester Hospital was recognized regionally for expertise in gynecology, urology, geriatrics, orthopedics and neurosurgery.

For 2014-2015, U.S. News evaluated hospitals in 16 adult specialties and ranked the top 50 in most of the specialties. Just 12 percent of the nearly 5,000 hospitals that were analyzed for best hospitals in 2014-2015 earned a regional ranking in even one specialty. NWH was ranked within five different specialties.

“Providing the highest level of quality, patient-centered care is our priority at Northern Westchester Hospital,” said Joel Seligman, president and CEO of Northern Westchester Hospital. “We have designed and implemented numerous processes that help to ensure that high quality care is consistently delivered to our patients.

 

 

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http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/news/us-news-world-report-ranks-northern-westchester-hospital-among-best

JP Morgan; If Foreclosures Are More Difficult Then We’ll Lend Less On Mortgages | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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An interesting example of the verity that no good deed goes unpunished. JP Morgan has pointed out that precisely and exactly because foreclosure on a defaulted mortgage is more difficult these days therefore they are lending less on such mortgages. This is, of course, something of a pity as one of the great strengths of the US economy has always been the speed with which economic mistakes get cleaned up. Whether bankruptcies (corporate or personal), foreclosures, loan defaults and so on, the system has always, until now at least, been very swift in cleaning them up. So that economic assets can be moved on to someone who can make better use of them.

Here’s the point that JP Morgan is making:

JPMorgan Chase JPM +0.86% & Co, the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender, is backing away from making home loans to less creditworthy borrowers after losing faith in its ability to recover much money from foreclosing on homes, even with government guarantees.

We could, of course, say that this is a good idea. They’re now not looking just to equity value of the home itself, nor to the various government guarantees, but also taking a closer look at the credit worthiness of the borrowers themselves. But there’s a little more detail as well:

“The cost to take a customer through the foreclosure process is just astronomical now,” Kevin Watters, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase’s Chase’s residential mortgage banking business in New York, told Reuters in an interview.

In addition to federal standards, states, and in some cases local governments, have written their own rules making it more expensive for banks to recover loan losses, he said. According to foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac, it took an average of 120 days to foreclose on a home at the beginning of 2007, just as the housing bubble was starting to burst. In the first quarter of 2014, it took 572 days, or more than 1.5 years.

In any economic system there will be those who make mistakes. And sure, it’s great that the system starts to analyse those who are likely to make such mistakes a little more. But on the other side it’s also true that the speed with which such mistakes are cleaned up is important. There’s nothing worse for an economy in general than having useful economic assets sitting unused simply because the bankruptcy (or foreclosure, whatever) process takes too long to come to some sort of resolution. We do, of course, want to be fair to people who get themselves into financial trouble. We also would prefer not to be turfing families out into the streets. But at the system level it is also hugely important that such mistakes be resolved, and resolved quickly. One of the reasons for the vibrancy of the US economy is that bankruptcy is both easy and not all that big of a deal. Mistakes can be written off and dealt with and everyone can then go on to try again.

 

 

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2014/07/16/jp-morgan-if-foreclosures-are-more-difficult-then-well-lend-less-on-mortgages/