Tag Archives: Mt Kisco Homes for Sale

Mt Kisco Mortgage Rates | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing mortgage rates little changed after initially easing slightly higher from the previous week which was largely fueled by a better than expected jobs report showing labor markets improving.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.15 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending July 10, 2014, up from last week when it averaged 4.12 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.51 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.24 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.22 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.53 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.99 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.98 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.26 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.40 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.38 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.66 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

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

“Mortgage rates increased for the week as the labor market appears to be improving. Based on the employment report, released last week, the U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in June, gained 224,000 in May and increased by 304,000 in April. Also, the unemployment rate in June fell to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent in May.”

Foreclosure declines reverse as starts surge 9.5% in May | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Foreclosure starts unexpectedly reversed course and climbed 9.5% in May, according to Black Knight Financial Services, countering an eight-month streak of declines.

The survey found that more than half of these foreclosure starts were repeats, rather than new foreclosures, and almost 80% were on loans from 2008 or earlier.

Click the graphic to enlarge.

“While foreclosure starts did rise over 9% in May, it’s important to remember the historical trend is still one of improvement,” said Kostya Gradushy, Black Knight’s manager of Loan Data and Customer Analytics. “On a year-over-year basis, January through May foreclosure starts were still down 32%, and we are still looking at the lowest level of foreclosure starts in seven years.

“Additionally, over half of these starts are repeat foreclosures, rather than new entries into the pipeline, That is, these are loans that had been in foreclosure, shifted back to either current or delinquent status by way of modification, repayment plan or some action by the borrower, but have now fallen into foreclosure once again,” Gradushy said.

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30533-foreclosure-declines-reverse-as-starts-surge-95-in-may

Here Now, 7 Lovely Houses For Sale in World Cup Country | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Today, on the opening day of the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, we celebrate some of the realms Brazil rules: soccer—they’ve got the most World Cup wins, after all—and architecture. (There are other things—string bikinis, coffee, the largest rainforest in the world, for example—but let’s not touch those for now.) There’s a jumble of architectural styles on the luxury market right now in the Cidade Maravilhosa: French Neoclassical, contemporary, and Imperial dwellings, to name a few. The most intriguing of the Rio listings? Well, if one’s discounting the Airbnb offering listed by soccer stall Ronaldinho, it’s just too hard to choose, so, below, find eight mansions in the running.

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/06/12/rio-de-janeiro-mansions-for-sale.php

Laid-Back Comfort in the New York Woods | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Thomas Riker, the codesigner of this house and a principal at design firm jamesthomas, calls the area of upstate New York state where it sits the “anti-Hamptons.” The Hamptons, a collection of villages on Long Island bordering the Atlantic, is known as a summer retreat for business titans and celebrity moguls, and the area contains some of the most expensive real estate in the United States. In contrast, “There’s a very Adirondack feeling to this part of upstate New York,” Riker says. “It’s almost like a throwback to a 1950s camp. It’s an area where the homes are quirky and unpretentious.”

This is where a friend whom Riker grew up with in Detroit decided to stake his claim for a weekend family retreat. They purchased a little cabin that had a lot of charm, but they wanted more room for the family — which includes two adults and three teenagers — and large gatherings with friends. It also was in a major state of disrepair. Together he, business partner James Dolenc and architect Leonard Woods made the house much more comfortable for the family while retaining its rustic sensibility.

rustic exterior by jamesthomas, LLC
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rustic entry by jamesthomas, LLC
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Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and 3 teens
Location: Upstate New York
Size: 3,700 square feet (344 square meters); 5 bedrooms, 3½ baths
Year built: 1920s

Although the exterior looks much the same, the interior rooms were refreshed and two additions were added. On the front of the house, a single-story addition contains a gracious entry, pictured here, a powder room and a mudroom. A new two-story structure was added on the back. “This structure made way for a screened-in porch on the upper level and a master bedroom suite on the lower level,” says Riker. “The porch is an informal living room in the summer.”

rustic living room by jamesthomas, LLC
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A big goal was to make the house feel rustic, but also fresh and modern. “We didn’t want to do the expected wool plaid,” says Riker.

Although the room had a peaked roofline, it didn’t have the Douglas fir beams. The addition of the wood on the high ceiling brings it down to human scale and adds an element of casual rusticity.

rustic living room by jamesthomas, LLC
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Two bobbin armchairs wear the only plaid upholstery in the home. “But we chose a plaid in a bright color,” says Riker. This is horse country, he adds, so a coffee table with equestrian leather straps feels like a natural choice.

The windows are original, but the window seat and sconces were added. “This is where the kids like to go and read,” says Riker. It’s also where they like to play games, so there’s a game table to the left of the window.

“My client found several trays that are made to look like vintage game boards,” says Riker. “She wasn’t sure what to do with them, but she thought they were cool. They look great hanging on the walls in this room.”

Armchairs: Spindle Chairs, Wisteria; coffee table: Equis, Casamidy

rustic living room by jamesthomas, LLC
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The adults have staked their claim to this modern take on a wing chair. This is their comfortable spot for relaxing and reading by the fire. The original stone fireplace was crumbling; a new stone surround mimics the original.
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http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/26338734?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u506&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

Super Realtor Man rescues ‘urgent seller’ | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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Erick Motta, owner of Fresno, Calif.-based Home Star, is tired of watching YouTube videos of agents pitching themselves to potential clients.

So to set his brokerage apart, he decided to produce a different kind of promotional video. Motta — the latest winner of Inman News #madREskillz contest – cast himself as Superman.

In the video, Motta soars across Fresno, Calif. to answer the call of a client who must sell her home in 24 hours. The video is a spoof on the viral hit “Superman With a GoPro,” and is designed to showcase Home Star’s expertise with video marketing, Motta said.

Like “Superman with a GoPro,” Motta’s video features what is supposed be first-person footage of a superhero flying through the atmosphere.

The video opens with animation showing a conversation between “Super Realtor Man,” played by Motta, and a damsel in distress, the “urgent seller.” Home Star bought the animation sequence from VideoHive, and filled the dialogue bubbles with original content, Motta said.

“When do you need to sell it by?” Super Realtor Man asks in the video.

“By Friday,” she says — not next week, but tomorrow.

 

 

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http://www.inman.com/2014/05/02/super-realtor-man-rescues-urgent-seller/?utm_source=20140502&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam

‘I was right, the housing recovery was a sham’: The Guardian’s Heidi Moore | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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The housing market appears to be hurting. Last week we learned that sales of new homes plunged 14.5% in March compared to February, while sales of existing homes fell slightly month-to-month, too. Meanwhile, demand for home loans have hit a 14-year low in the first quarter, according to industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance.

But today the National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales in March rose for the first time in nine months. They were up 3.4% from February, but down 7.9% from a year ago.

Heidi Moore, U.S. finance and economics editor at The Guardian, called the housing recovery a sham last June and in the video above says the latest run of weak data suggests the same concerns she raised when the recovery was humming along last summer. Moore says the recent slowdown reveals the recovery was in fact “dubious” and based on investor demand versus real homebuyers.

Others blame this year’s unseasonably cold weather along with higher mortgage rates for the slow start to the spring selling season. “Weather has been blamed for a lot, and it’s true it has some role, but there are so many other metrics that go in the direction of real trouble,” says Moore. “People haven’t been able to borrow for a mortgage for years — that has nothing to do with the weather, I promise you.” The same goes for issues like rising prices and low supply, she adds.

When it comes to the impact of these real estate conditions more broadly, Neil Irwin argues in the New York Times’ Upshot that the housing market is still stalling the economy. He points out that investment in residential property remains a smaller share of the overall economy than at any time since World War II, contributing less to growth than in past downturns, including the early 1980s when mortgage rates were 20% (compared to 4.5% currently).

Irwin argues if more people were buying homes and building returned to its postwar average as a share of the economy, growth would jump to 4% and about 1.5 million more jobs would be created. He says the main factor holding housing back is demand: Fewer people can or want to start a household of their own.

In Moore’s view, it’s the other way around: It’s the economy that’s slowing the housing market. Factors including stagnant wages, high unemployment and high household and student loan debt are reasons why people aren’t able to buy houses, says Moore. In other words, because the economy is stuck, the housing market is too.

 

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http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/i-was-right–the-housing-recovery-was-a-sham–guardian-s-heidi-moore-191918931.html

Historic Miami Teardown Gives Way to $37M Modern Manse | Mt Kisco Homes

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Location: Miami Beach, Fla. Price: $37,000,000 The Skinny: Built on the site of a historic Maurice Fatio-designed manse that was the subject of a heated debate over preservation in Miami, this bayfront spec home (which had to be redesigned by architects Choeff + Levy when the original plan was rejected by the city) has just hit the market. At one time the Swiss-born Fatio was so famous that Cole Porter wrote a lyric singing his praises, but his reputation wasn’t enough to save the lot’s original home—a red brick manor that dated from 1935—from the wrecking ball. The ultra-modern home that replaced it weighs in at a whopping 13,000 square feet, features Miami skyline and Biscayne Bay views, and comes with an asking price of $37M. Jill Eber of Miami real estate power duo The Jills is handling the listing.

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/04/21/historic-miami-teardown-gives-way-to-37m-modern-manse.php

Shadow Inventory Down 23 Percent, Foreclosure Inventory Shrinks 35 Percent | Mt Kisco Homes

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The numbers of foreclosures and potential foreclosures have fallen dramatically over the past 12 months as the foreclosure picture rapidly returns to pre-2006 levels.  The decline in foreclosures in the pipeline has important ramifications for real estate investors and local markets that are returning to health as they recover from the foreclosure flood that produced 4.9 million foreclosures since 2008.

CoreLogic reported today that as of February 2014, approximately 752,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.2 million in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 35 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from January 2014. The foreclosure inventory as of February represented 1.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.9 percent in February 2013.

At the end of February 2014, there were 1.9 million mortgages, or 4.9 percent, in serious delinquency, defined as 90 days or more past due, including those loans in foreclosure or real estate owned (REO) that there were 43,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in February 2014, down from 51,000 in February 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 15 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 13.1 percent from 50,000 in January 2014.

The national residential shadow inventory was 1.7 million homes as of January 2014 compared to 2.2 million in January 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 23 percent.

“Although there is good news that completed foreclosures are trending lower, the bigger news is the impressive decline in the foreclosure and shadow inventories,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Every state has had double-digit, year-over-year declines in foreclosure inventory, which is reflected in the $70 billion decline in the shadow inventory.”

“The stock of seriously delinquent homes and the foreclosure rate are back to levels last seen in the final quarter of 2008,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The shadow inventory has also declined year over year for the past 3 years as the housing market continues to heal, including double-digit declines for the past 16 consecutive months.”

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/04/shadow-inventory-down-23-percent-foreclosure-inventory-shrinks-35-percent/

Russian sanctions have real impact on U.S. real estate market | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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It’s been easy to shrug off the U.S. sanctions against Russia as something that only impacts people half a world away. That could be changing. Anecdotal evidence suggests that wealthy Russians, who have become a big part of the luxury real estate market in places like New York and Miami, may be sitting on the sidelines while our two countries duke it out on the diplomatic stage.

Julie Satow, a contributor to The New York Times, took a closer look at the issue and told The Daily Ticker about a member of Russia’s parliament who “was looking for a $25 million-$52 million purchase and he sent [his realtor] an email after the invasion saying ‘I’m sorry. I’m pulling out.’”

The unidentified rich Russian isn’t the only one. Satow notes that anti-American propaganda runs rampant in Moscow and it may not be the best time for Russian citizens to flaunt the fact that they are making a big splash in the New York real estate market.

Gone are the days, perhaps, of record breaking buys like billionaire Dmitriy Rybolovlev’s $88 million condo purchase in 2011 (he purportedly bought it for his 22 year-old daughter). While that was the highest-priced example, Russians and other wealthy international clients have long used U.S. real estate as a shelter for their cash. Satow says 40% of the New York real estate market is made up of foreigners and 50% of new construction is snapped up by clients overseas.

So will frosty relations between Moscow and Washington send Russian money elsewhere for good? Probably not. While there may be a “momentary freeze” of such big purchases, Satow suggests the safety of the American market may soon bring in “more buyers…but they may not want to do the super high profile penthouses.” Instead, she says, they might opt for more “conservative” $2 million apartments that won’t make the papers here and back home.

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/rich-russians-bailing-out-of-luxury-real-estate-market-140506455.html

 

4 reasons the Fed won’t raise interest rates anytime soon | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said early Monday that the economy and the job market are still ailing and that they will need “extraordinary” assistance from the central bank in the form of low interest rates “for some time.”

It was three words about short-term interest rate policy that sent out more reassurance for investors than her three words March 19 – “about six months” – which sent markets into a spiral.

After last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Yellen said that the Fed could start raising short-term rates “about six months” after it completed its ongoing tapering of Treasury and bond purchases, which most expect to be unwound by the fourth quarter of 2014.

Speaking in Chicago Monday, Yellen also justified the change from a specific goalpost – 6.5% unemployment – to a more vague and subjective “quantitative guidance” needed given the slack in the labor market, despite the official unemployment rate now standing at 6.7%.

She gave four reasons why she thinks the employment market is still soft.

1) The large number of part-timers.

One form of evidence for slack is found in other labor market data, beyond the unemployment rate or payrolls, some of which I have touched on already. For example, the 7 million people who are working part time but would like a full-time job. This number is much larger than we would expect at 6.7% unemployment, based on past experience, and the existence of such a large pool of “partly unemployed” workers is a sign that labor conditions are worse than indicated by the unemployment rate. Statistics on job turnover also point to considerable slack in the labor market. Although firms are now laying off fewer workers, they have been reluctant to increase the pace of hiring. Likewise, the number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs is noticeably below levels before the recession; that is an indicator that people are reluctant to risk leaving their jobs because they worry that it will be hard to find another. It is also a sign that firms may not be recruiting very aggressively to hire workers away from their competitors.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29497-reasons-the-fed-wont-raise-interest-rates-anytime-soon