Tag Archives: Westchester NY Real Estate

Astorino Wins Second Term As Westchester County Executive | Bedford NY Real Estate

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Incumbent Rob Astorino has won a second term as Westchester County Executive.

Astorino, a Republican, leads Democratic challenger Bramson 55 percent to 45 percent with 81 percent of precincts reporting.

“The people of Westchester have spoken today and I like what they said,” Astorino told his supporters at the Crowne Plaza in Westchester in a speech that began at 10:55 p.m.

Astorino’s victory for a second term capped an often contentious campaign that featured numerous verbal barbs.

Astorino thanked Bramson and also called New York City Mayor Elect Bill DiBlasio to congratulate him on his election.

“They say there are two New York’s,” Astorino said, “but there is just one Westchester. We have to focus on what brings us together.

“We have to find a balance between what we want and what we can afford. We have to get a grip on overspending and overtaxing.”

Astorino’s victory speech came moments after Bramson, the mayor of New Rochelle, conceded at the Westchester Hilton in Rye Town.

In other county-wide races, incumbent Tim Idoni holds a 53 percent to 47 percent lead over Mary Beth Murphy in the battle for county clerk with 81 percent of precincts reporting.

Democrat David Everett leads Republican Montgomery Delaney 60 percent to 40 percent in the race for County Court judge, also with 81 percent of precincts reporting.

 

 

 

http://whiteplains.dailyvoice.com/politics/astorino-wins-second-term-westchester-county-executive

Mind-Boggling Former Real World House Asks $22M | Cross River Real Estate

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Now this is a Tuesday Townhouse. It’s got a wacky history, quirky decor, and a sizable ask of $22 million—plus, it was the filming location for the tenth season of The Real World, after which the owner opened it up for other film and photo shoots and events. The space is divided into several units, according to the brokerbabble, including a triplex with a 40-foot atrium, a solarium, and a roof garden; a floor-through apartment and a separate studio below; and commercial space on the ground floor, with a “prohibition-style” speakeasy “well known in event circles and constantly rented.” And that’s just the present-day use of the space.

Investors Have Doubled Purchases Over 2012 | North Salem Real Estate

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Though most observers forecast rising home prices would drive investors out of the market for single family rentals, that fact is that to date investors have purchased more homes than they did in all of 2012 or 2011.

Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years according to a new investor insight report released today by RealtyTrac.

The report also found that:

  • Investors have purchased more than $1 trillion in US real estate since 2011. Fifty-four percent were all-cash;
  • Fifty-seven percent of investor purchases re-sold, only 1 percent re-sold by 1,000+ purchasers. Investors with 1,000+ purchases bought 36 percent of properties as foreclosures
  • Out of the more than 950,000 purchases totaling more than $1 trillion made by investors since 2011, 54 percent were all-cash purchases. When the data is filtered for just entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties, the all-cash percentage skyrockets to 93 percent.
  • Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years.
  • The majority (54 percent) of properties purchased by investors were underwater but not in foreclosure. Meanwhile 24 percent of properties purchased by investors were in foreclosure or bank-owned, and 23 percent were a regular, equity purchases.
  • Among entities that purchased at least 1,000 properties during the three-year period, 36 percent were in some stage of foreclosure (22 percent auction alone), while 37 percent were underwater and 27 percent were regular equity sales.
  • Among all investor purchases during the time period, 57 percent have subsequently been re-sold, but only 25 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 100 properties, and only 1 percent of properties have been re-sold by entities purchasing at least 1,000 properties.

RealtyTrac’s report, Real Estate Investor Purchase and Finance Patterns: 2011 to 2013, looks at a number of investor habits relating to real estate purchases since 2011, including the volume of properties purchased, breakdown of cash versus financed purchases, property situation (distressed, non-distressed, underwater etc.), investor purchases by property value, and number of investor-purchased properties that have since resold.

“The new investor insight report is the first of its kind and offers customers an exclusive look into investor decision making that has never been done on this scale before,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “We examined in-depth a variety of factors from cash sales to lender financing that impact real estate investing and offers key insight that no one else in the market can deliver.”

This report features purchasing activity of real estate investors across the U.S., identifying key variables by state and quarter within the last three years. The report identifies an investor as any person or entity that purchased three or more properties within a 12-month timeframe and provides key insights into the transactions made by investors over this time period, which was marked by the U.S. housing market moving from full distress mode to full recovery mode including.

Key metrics covered by the Investor Insight report:

  • Transaction by Financing Type identifies by investor name how many properties were purchased with 100 percent cash, 100 percent finance, mixed cash & finance, or unknown along with the amount identified for each category.

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/investors-have-doubled-purchases-over-2012-or-2011/

Pleasantville’s thriving Farmers Market on Saturday | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Hundreds of shoppers enjoyed Pleasantville’s thriving Farmers Market on Saturday as the local market enjoys the final weeks of its first outdoor season under the village’s control.Photo AlbumPleasantville Farmers Market Grows And Thrives In Village

“We’ve grown the market, included all 12 of the varieties of vendors our shoppers prefer and enlarged the footprint this year,” Market Executive Director Steve Bates said. “And this tear we’re moving inside for the winter season at the Pleasantville Middle School on Dec. 7.”

The Pleasantville Outdoor Farmers Market is in its 15th year and runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Nov. 23 at the Pleasantville train station in Memorial Plaza.

The Farmers Market is the largest in Westchester County and is home for 50 vendors providing regionally-grown produce, humanely raised meats, wild-caught Atlantic seafood, prepared foods sourcing farms for ingredients, and many other new offerings.

“We enjoy the atmosphere, the convenience and the variety of locally grown produce,” said Pleasantville’s Steve Jacobs, who shops the market with his wife, Jean. “It’s great to have products come directly from local farms and producers each week.”

Bates said the outdoor market has grown over the years as live music, children’s events and vendors came on board.

“The three goals are the bring the community together, attract visitors to our downtown and provide great local farm-to-table products,” Bates said. “We’re having a great year and we welcome everyone to visit.”

The winter indoor market begins Dec. 7 and will run through May 23, 2014, Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

 

http://whiteplains.dailyvoice.com/lifestyle/westchesters-largest-farmers-market-wrapping-outdoor-season

Smart Shopper: How to Choose a Dining Chair | Pound Ridge Homes

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In Grandma’s day, newlyweds started out their marriages with a matching dining table and chairs. You never had to wonder if the pieces worked together. But the results were so predictable, they induced drowsiness faster than the tryptophan in a turkey dinner.
Today mix-and-match dining sets are in vogue. They’re more interesting, but also more challenging to put together. So before you invest in a set of dining chairs, make sure they’re going to work with the table, the room — and even the size of your guests.

Design
Although it can be chic to pair traditional chairs with a contemporary table, and vice versa, try to find pieces that share a common design element. If the table has a sinuous leg, look for a chair with the same line in the leg or back, or choose upholstery with swirls on it.
If the table is square or rectangular, consider chairs with a square or rectangular seat.
Dimensions
Twenty-two inches is a good standard width for an armless dining chair, but you can go larger than that if your dining table or dining room is especially big and would dwarf a normal-size chair.
Avoid chairs that are narrower than 17 inches; they just don’t provide enough support for the derriere. For maximum comfort, choose chairs that are 20 to 24 inches deep.

Pour a #Concrete Floor | #Armonk Real Estate

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Concrete floors are a major component of many buildings, from homes and garages to shops and sheds. Pouring a polished concrete floor is hard work, and it takes skill, strength and tools. You may wish to have this job done by the best concrete contractors Yakima WA, but you can do it yourself. The tools can be rented at many rental places, and the skills are not very difficult to learn. If you’re undecided as to whether to do it yourself or have the job done by a professional, the following steps on pouring both a slab or in-foundation floor illustrate the basics and may help you decide.Well many of experts female also gives their opinion about concrete sealers,you can check her latest blog.

A concrete slab on which a building is erected is a fairly simple concrete pour, but it takes more work in creating the forms needed to hold the concrete. A pour within a foundation requires little in the way of forming, but in some cases can be a bit more difficult to pour, especially on larger projects. Regardless of the type of pour, or whether you do it yourself or have the job done, the first step is to check with local building codes and regulations, and acquire any permits needed.

The first step is to lay out the slab, making sure it is square. Batter boards and strings are used to establish the building perimeter.

Creating a Slab

First step is to lay out the slab. Take your time with this step and make sure you get it right. Lay out the slab incorrectly, and the building can be a nightmare. The slab must be square. Mark the outline of the building with stakes at each approximate corner. Drive a nail into the top of the stake and, using a tape measure, measure diagonally from stake to stake. The measurements must be equal. Move the stakes in or out to create equal diagonal measurements.

Another method is to place string lines on the nails to mark a rectangular perimeter. Measure and mark 3 feet on one string and 4 feet on the adjoining line. The distance between these two marks should be 5 feet. Again, move in or out as needed.

After the corners are determined and the building laid out square, batter boards are used to create a permanent perimeter mark at all corners. These will stay in place until the forms for the slab have been constructed. Two-by-4 stakes are driven solidly in place and boards nailed to their outer edges. The batter board tops should be level with each other. A string line and string level or laser level can be used to make sure all boards are level with each other. Once the boards are established, a string line is run for all sides of the slab. A plumb bob is used on the intersection of the strings to position their crossing points, or the building corners, directly over the nails on the original stakes.

Mark the outline of the slab with lime, following the string lines. Then dig up the area and remove sod and debris. The area is normally recessed slightly, but the top of the slab must be well above ground level or fill level. In many instances the slab is raised and soil filled in around it to create a slope to drain rainwater away from the slab. In some instances local codes may require a footing be poured before the slab. In other cases, a “stiffener” method may be used, digging a deeper area below the frost line around the perimeter of the slab

– See more at: http://extremehowto.com/pour-a-concrete-floor/#sthash.VRZgeUKm.dpuf

Bill Gates’ custom-built home in Medina, Washington | North Salem NY Homes

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Software tycoon Bill Gates turns 58 today. Because he’s the world’s second-richest person (topped only by Carlos Slim, according to Forbes), you might expect him to have some pretty impressive living arrangements — and guess what, you’d be right.

 

He built his 66,000-square-foot main residence on Lake Washington in Medina, Washington, over the course of several years. It was assessed this year (and the three years before that) at $120.6 million, down from a 2008 high of $150 million.

Some time ago, U.S. News & World Report ran a fairly extensive article plus slideshow (with renderings, not photos) about the home. But Gates — who was originally quite voluble about the home — hasn’t talked much about it since. Among its unique features:

• A 2,100-square-foot library has secret bookcases and a dome with oculus. The ceiling is engraved with a quote. “He had come a long way to this blue lawn,” it reads, “and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.” It’s from “The Great Gatsby.”

• It has a pool with a “fossil motif” floor. You can swim under a glass wall to emerge near a terrace outside.

• Only about 20 percent of the home is family living space, including four bedrooms and nanny quarters. Much of the rest of the square footage is given over to a reception hall, offices, conference facilities, a computer room and other gathering spaces.

• The compound has seven bedrooms and 24 bathrooms — and six kitchens, presumably because the home hosts receptions and conferences.

• It has a “trampoline room” whose ceiling is 20 feet up.

• “Miles of communication cable, largely fiber optic, run throughout the house,” U.S. News reported, “linking computer servers powered by the Windows NT operating system. In each room, touch-sensitive pads control lighting, music, and climate. Visitors will wear small electronic pins, which will let the computers know who and where they are. Lights and other settings will adjust automatically. Floors throughout the house (and the driveway) are heated.”

• Much of the home is nestled into the hillside and underground. According to the architects: “A sod-covered guesthouse is sited at the highest point of the property. Invisible on approach and entered between two concrete walls, the building is choreographed to give a sense of moving through the earth to discover the distant lake and mountains.”

But our favorite discovery of all when researching this post? You can own Bill Gates’ home too! Just download the paper toy version at PaperToys.com.

A virtual tour of the home:

The Bay Window Goes Modern | South Salem NY Real Estate

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When modern and contemporary architecture “abandon” traditional architectural elements in favor of new forms, one of the elements left behind is the bay window. Yet if we think of these elements as reinterpretations of traditions in architecture rather than abandonments (columns, for example, are turned into skinny pilotis without details like capitals), then the idea of the bay window is alive and well, if less used than it should be.
Here you’ll find six examples that show the benefits of modern answers to bay windows — increased area, light and seating capacity — and the various means of expressing the idea in modern houses and in modern renovations of old houses.

However, we got our window blinds & shades at Affordable Blinds and we could not be more impressed.

This addition to a ranch house looks like the end of a square tube that runs from front to back, with large windows on each side. The front picture window is partially frosted to maintain privacy. In case that you need tile chip repair this company is the best reviewed one online.
Here we are looking toward the front window from the kitchen before it was furnished. Only one thin strip of glass is clear; the adjacent pieces are translucent. Adding cushions to the bay would make it a great window seat; one could peek outside through the vertical strip or just enjoy the light coming in through the painting-like panes of color.
Like the front window, the back window projects from the house, cantilevered a foot or two above the ground. But unlike on the the front, all the glass here is clear, and the area inside is an extension of the floor, giving more space for seating near the kitchen.
This house on New York’s Long Island has a fair amount of ins and outs on its exterior. I’m drawn to the tall portion facing right.
A view from the side reveals a tall bay window adjacent to a section of curtain wall set back from the stone facade. A stair can be seen below the large bay window.
It turns out the bay window is actually an extension of the stair landing. The Eames Lounge Chair in the previous photo indicates that this space is ideal for sitting, relaxing and enjoying the view.

Florida Foreclosure Sales Bring Chinese Drywall Homes to Market | Cross River Homes

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The biggest court cases have been settled, and contractors have been working to fix houses built with defective contaminated Chinese-made drywall for years. But houses that contain the malodorous material are still appearing for sale on the Florida real estate market — with the problem undisclosed by sellers and unsuspected by buyers. That’s because homeowners facing foreclosure may have lost their homes — or simply walked away — without addressing, or even knowing about, the contaminated drywall, reports the Bradenton Herald-Tribune (“Bad drywall still a problem for home investors,” by Josh Salman).

“Surging demand from buyers has pushed lenders to rush distressed homes onto the market, many of which were built during the mid-2000s real estate boom, at a time when inexpensive Chinese-made drywall was abundant,” the paper reports.

Estimates of the number of houses containing the bad material don’t reconcile well with the amount of drywall known to have been imported into the country. “An investigation by the Herald-Tribune and the watchdog journalism organization ProPublica found that nearly 7,000 U.S. houses were built with bad drywall, yet enough material was imported to build at least 100,000 homes,” the paper reports.

Now, houses are coming onto the market that have never been inspected to determine whether they have the bad material—even though left in place, it can destroy air conditioner coils, plumbing, wiring, and electronics. “I’m bidding on houses and I keep finding out they have Chinese drywall,” Bob Tarlowski, an investor and contractor who buys and repairs homes in North Port, told the paper. “After I turn them down, they stay up for bid. The banks don’t disclose it, and there’s no recourse.”

 

 

http://www.jlconline.com/drywall/florida-foreclosure-sales-bring-chinese-drywall-homes-to-market.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=jump&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=COCO_082713&day=2013-08-27

How The Shutdown Is Hurting The Housing Market | Mount Kisco Real Estate

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As with so many other types of economic activity, the government shutdown is causing more fear than actual harm in the housing market thus far.

But that doesn’t mean things won’t start going wrong in the very near future.

Various federal agencies play greater or lesser roles in real estate transactions. With most of them sidelined, simple matters such as closing on mortgages are becoming more complicated.

“It’s going to add up pretty quickly, because loans can’t be closed in many cases,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, a financial research organization. “The damage is going to start to mount and in a few days it’s going to be a significant problem for the housing market.”

The market, which had grown more robust over the past couple of years, was starting to cool off this fall anyway, due to rising prices and interest rates.

If interest rates go up due to the fear or reality of a debt default — and the costs for short-term treasuries are already starting to spike — that would have major consequences for real estate sales.

“This government shutdown, which is an artificial obstacle to the recovery, is clearly not a good thing,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

What’s Not Working

Anyone who has purchased or refinanced a house knows a lot of paperwork is involved. The tall stack of forms that buyers and sellers sign at closings is largely generated or required by federal agencies that may now be temporarily out of the game.

Still, real estate agents and mortgage lenders have thus far been able to work their way around many of the hurdles put up by the partial government shutdown.

 

 

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/08/230467533/how-the-shutdown-is-hurting-the-housing-market