Bedford NY Homes by Robert Paul Realtor: Cross River Real Estate

Showing posts with label Cross River Real Estate. Show all posts

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Let's Spy on Ira Rennert's Mega Mansion | Cross River Homes

[Photo credit: Jeff Cully, EFAAS]

This is why you should have majored in junk bonds in college: instead of the hovel in which you now squat, you could own Fair Field, the tastefully understated home of minerals magnate Ira Rennert. You'd have three swimming pools and two pool houses. (A single pool house? Ha! That's for the Poors.) You'd also possess a hot tub clocking in at a cool $150K, your own 164-seat theater, a 10,000sf playhouse, and a main house that's 62,000 square feet, with 21 bedrooms and a 91 foot-long dining room. Let's not forget the synagogue, squash courts, and tennis courts. All this is set on 63 acres of Sagaponack oceanfront. Yep, it's good to be the junk bond king. OK, fine, there's that spot of bother with the lawsuit lately, but even if he has to pay back $118M plus interest, that's pocket change to the guy worth $6B.

http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/10/lets_spy_on_ira_rennerts_mega_mansion_from_above.php

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Designs for Small-Space Living | Cross River Real Estate

In compact living space, each piece of furniture should earn its keep. These 12 ideas — including adjustable tables, sliding bookcases and nesting and expanding furniture — make the most of small-space living.

Kimball Starr Interior Design

1. Adjustable-height table. A sleek glass-top table with an adjustable base allows you to quickly change a lounge area with a coffee table to a dining area. With a cushy corner banquette, the zone will be just as comfortable whether you’re grabbing a bite or settling in to watch a movie.

Raad Studio

2. Sliding bookcase. Take advantage of potential floor-to-ceiling storage space over the stairs by mounting a bookcase on a track system. When positioned over the staircase, the shelving is out of the way, freeing up extra room in the living area. Simply slide it back into the room when you want to access the shelves.

See more smart storage features in this home

Black and Milk Residential

3. Murphy bed with a twist. Rather than folding down over empty space, this Murphy bed was designed to fit perfectly over a sofa, so no furniture shifting is needed at bedtime. Just flip down the back cushions of the sofa, lower the bed and voilà! — room transformed.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34663907?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u956&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

Monday, January 5, 2015

Design Practice | Cross River Real Estate

The resolution season is quickly approaching. It’s that time of year when we reflect on where we’ve been and make promises that will shape the year ahead. If you run a small business or you’re in the 60 percent of American Institute of Architecture member firms with five or fewer people, you may think that a yearly review is a luxury only larger firms can afford. But there’s a reason larger companies take the time to consider the impacts of their efforts at the end of each year — because it’s important. Here’s a look at how smaller firms like yours can benefit too.

McInturff Architects

Where you’ve been. We’re often so focused on keeping up with our daily tasks, the immediate actions that pay the bills, that we don’t stop to appreciate the hard work that’s landed us where we are today. The end of the fiscal year is an excellent opportunity to look back and survey your wake. Can you account for the 20 percent of your efforts that yielded 80 percent of your results? That’s a really useful thing to know, isn’t it?

Project postmortems are helpful for highlighting parts of your designs, delivery and execution that still need refining. Complete postmortems for any projects you’ve closed out over the course of the year while they’re fresh in your mind.

FINNE Architects

Securing client reviews is a part of that process too, and tying it to a project close-out procedure will ensure that your client is still engaged enough to provide helpful feedback. Houzz offers an easy and particularly relevant platform for doing this; and it will make your profile more complete too. These evaluations can reinforce what you did well and flag what needs improving. Keep a list and resolve to do better next year.

You might also ask yourself:

What did I accomplish?
Did I meet the goals I set for the business?
What am I most proud of?
What did I learn?
What worked?
What didn’t work?

Jay Sifford Garden Design

From these simple questions, you should be able to draft the chapter heading for your year. How would the abstract read? Certain themes will likely emerge; the essence of the review process is to take note of those themes and learn from them. Decide whether those are the ones that you want to define your business moving forward. If not, the year-end pause is a good time to figure out a way to pivot and change the narrative.

Francesco Pierazzi Architects

If your business is new, you may not have any prior year goals to measure against; we’ll work on those in the next step. If you have set goals and you’ve met them all, that’s good (and bad). This year you’ll need to level up. If you’re constantly meeting your prior year’s goals, you’re not thinking big enough.

If you haven’t met last year’s goals, find out why. Were they too ambitious? Did you have trouble executing week by week? Was there another reason? Something you had control over?

Marcus DiPietro, Architect

It’s normal to not achieve everything you set out for your business to accomplish — healthy even. There’s a balance between setting the bar too high and not high enough. Challenge yourself to find that tipping point that moves the business forward without sapping motivation.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34867913?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u918&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1

Thursday, October 16, 2014

No real estate bubble: JPM, Starwood, Morgan Stanley pros | Cross River Real Estate

Big names in real estate investing don't believe there's a market bubble.
Despite high valuations, homes, office buildings and other types of real estate remain attractive today, especially in comparison to other asset classes and given low interest rates, according to some deep-pocketed pros.
"We don't think there's a broad-based bubble in the real estate market today nor do we think there's one coming in the next year or two," said Chris Graham, a senior managing director at Starwood Capital Group, a $37 billion real estate investment firm.
"There's still room for upside here," Graham added during remarks Wednesday at iGlobal's Global Real Estate Private Equity Summit in New York.

"While these assets are fully priced, in my view, we are not in a bubble as that would require an extensive expansion in debt," Paul Vosper, co-head of the Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners Real Estate Fund, said after the same event in reference to prime markets like New York City and London. "While the debt markets are expanding, there is still discipline in the credit underwriting of that debt."
Mike Kelly, director of U.S. real estate commingled Funds at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, agreed there was no bubble.
"It's certainly a competitive market," he said, but noted that real estate remains attractive compared to other asset classes.

read more....

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102091518

Friday, September 5, 2014

When the next housing bust hits, blame the bankers | Cross River Real Estate

The U.S. economic recovery is being endangered by a slowing housing market, as prospective homeowners with lower incomes and credit scores are finding it nearly impossible to get a mortgage.

Six years after the collapse of home prices, the mortgage-lending industry is going through an upheaval. Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -0.04% has the largest share of the mortgage market, but CEO John Stumpf in an interview with the Financial Times last week said his company would be unwilling to lend to lower-income borrowers and those with relatively low credit scores. That is, unless regulators made it more difficult for investors to force banks to repurchase securitized loans.

“If you guys want to stick with this program of ‘putting back’ any time, any way, whatever, that’s fine, we’re just not going to make those loans and there’s going to be a whole bunch of Americans that are underserved in the mortgage market,” Stumpf said.

He was referring to loan-repurchase demands by Fannie Mae FNMA, +0.85%Freddie Mac FMCC, -0.28% and private investors.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, +0.17% CEO James Dimon, during a July conference call, said the bank’s volume of loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration was “way down,” and that the bank had “lost a tremendous sum of money on the FHA,” which had disputed roughly a third of all insurance claims.

“We want to help the consumers there, but we can’t do it at great risk to J.P. Morgan, so until they come up with some kind of safe harbors or something, we’re going to be very, very cautious in that line of business,” Dimon said.

Even Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in June: “It is difficult for any homeowner who doesn’t have pristine credit these days to get a mortgage,” which was one of the causes of the limp housing recovery.

The pace of home-price increases has slowed for the first time since 2008, according to the latest data from Case-Shiller released last week.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. HOV, +1.06% which builds homes in planned communities, said today that for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31, net contracts for new homes declined 6.3% from a year earlier, and its cancellation rate increased to 22% from 18%. CEO Ara Hovnanian said “the housing industry remains in the early stages of a recovery,” which is a remarkable statement, considering how many years have passed since the financial crisis.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-the-next-housing-bust-hits-blame-the-bankers-2014-09-04?link=kiosk

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Housing market getting ready to grow | Cross River Real Estate

Citing recent “encouraging economic and housing data,” analysts from Fitch Ratings expect an accelerated upturn in housing in the remainder of 2014.

In Fitch’s The Chalk Line report for Summer 2014, Fitch analysts Robert Curran, Monica Delarosa and Robert Rulla write that the projected growth in housing will last throughout 2015 and lead to a much stronger year than 2014 is proving to be.

“Demographics, attractive affordability/housing valuations, and a slow, steady easing in credit standards should sustain and ultimately accelerate the upturn,” the analysts write. “The latest economic and housing macro statistics are generally encouraging.”

The analysts say that 2014’s performance is fighting an uphill battle after an unexpectedly strong winter put a significant dent in the housing market in the first few months of the year.
“The spring selling season was underwhelming enough that this, along with more guarded expectations for the next few months, will lead to more modest growth for macro housing statistics before the year is through,” said Robert Curran, Fitch’s managing director and lead homebuilding analyst.

read more....

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30745-fitch-housing-market-getting-ready-to-grow

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Mortgage Rates Hold Steady | Cross River Real Estate

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages remained unchanged this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgages at 4.05 percent, up from 4.03 percent at this same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 4.02 and 4.08 percent for the majority of the week, dropping below 4 percent on Friday before rising to the current rate this morning.

“Last week rates dipped slightly after bank instability in Portugal triggered concerns about the broader European economy,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “This week we expect rate activity to remain somewhat subdued amid ongoing international uncertainty.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.03 percent and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.79 percent.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Orlando Bloom Leaps His Way Into $5M Franklin Street Loft | Cross River Real Estate

Actor Orlando Bloom has a lot to be happy about: his involvement as the bow and arrow-wielding elf Legolas in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, his son with ex-beau model Miranda Kerr, and now, his new home. The Post reports that Bloom picked up a three-bedroom loft in Tribeca's Sugarloaf Condominium at 155 Franklin Street for $4.875 million. Maybe Bloom first set his sights on the 1882 building when director Peter Jackson was living in its penthouse—now where Taylor Swift hangs/cries on her guitar. The Post says Bloom was wooed by the loft's cast-iron columns, exposed brick walls, and wood-beamed ceilings. Sigh, if only it were that easy.

read more...

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/19/orlando_bloom_leaps_his_way_into_5m_franklin_street_loft.php

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Dr. Dre Drops $40M on Tom and Gisele's L.A. 'Chateau' | Cross River Real Estate

Fresh off of selling Beats Electronics to Apple for $3B, rapper-turned-headphones-mogul Dr. Dre has closed a $40M deal on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen's 14,000-square-foot L.A. mansion. In a classic example of the magazine-coverage-to-open-market alley-oop, the power couple listed their custom-built five-bedroom McCastle for $50M a mere six months after it got a huge feature in Architectural Digest. Designed by megamanse master-builder Richard Landry, what AD described as their "French chateau via the Pacific Coast Highway" has a "double-height, wood-paneled library," a reclaimed-cobblestone motor court next to a "koi-stocked moat," a "rock-scaped pool with a waterfall and diving rock," and other such "normal" accommodations that let them "live in a place that feels like a real home, where you can put your feet up on the couch and just relax." Now that the LA Times has confirmed the long-rumored purchase, this Elysium-like pleasure palace is all Dre's to give demure interviews about.

Read on and tour the place. >>

If what the rabid celebrity journalists at TMZ reported last month still holds, the Good Doctor won't be putting up his feet on the same couches as Tom and Gisele. Though the initial $50M price tag included furniture, the $40M Dre talked them down to did not. Which is just as well, because team Brady-Bündchen has another Landry-designed mansion to think about furnishing. (Meanwhile, the Landry machine keeps on chugging, most notably with a 30,000-square-foot Xanadu for Marky Mark.) Explore the new chez Dr. Dre below...

read more....

http://curbed.com/archives/2014/06/04/dr-dre-buys-tom-brady-and-gisele-bundchen-mansion-for-40-million.php

Thursday, May 15, 2014

6 Housing Trends That May Surprise You | Cross River Homes

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced Tuesday that they would loosen lending rules to make credit more available to Americans.

Whether this will take the sting out of rising interest rates and help the housing market for the remainder of the year is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, here are six trends you need to know if you stumble into a real estate conversation at your next neighborhood party:

Home prices are through the roof. Prices continue to rise this year, albeit at a slower pace than last year. The median existing single-family home price was $191,600 in the first quarter, up 8.6 percent from $176,400 in the first quarter of 2013. The median existing single-family home price increased in 74 percent of markets, as measured by the National Association of Realtors, with 125 out of 170 metro areas showing gains based on closings in the first quarter 2014, compared with the first quarter of 2013. The housing price bubble is especially pronounced in California and at the higher end of the market.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Palm Beacher That Checkers Built On The Market For $14.8M | Cross River Real Estate

This is Villa Isola, built by Jim Mattei, one of the founders of greasy burger chain Checkers, on Palm Beach's Everglades Island. It's on the market for $14.8 million, oozing with Venetian details, dripping with loggias, absolutely arabesque with archways and stonework, drowning in views of Lake Worth. Where's the drive-through.

read more...

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/05/06/palm-beach-villa-that-checkers-built-on-the-market-for-148m.php

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Rising food, housing costs push up U.S. inflation | Cross River Homes

Rising food, housing costs push up U.S. inflation | Reuters

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Luxury Digs Stake out New Turf | Cross River Real Estate

Market forces are changing the shape of luxury locations, expanding borders to enlarge the supply of million dollar plus homes just outside of historically affluent neighborhoods. Unlike homes at the other end of the price scale where inventory shortages fueled double digit price increases, the new growth is a result of the reviving economy

Coldwell Banker Previews International® released its first Luxury Market Index, which analyzed U.S. cities with at least 25 home sales of $1 million and higher in 2013 and ranked the best performing markets by a number of factors including annualized sales in units, volume, average and median sale price.

Topping the list was Woodside, Calif., home to venture capitalists and international entrepreneurs, was the top performing luxury market for 2013 based on critical metrics including annualized sales in units, volume and average and median sale price. Two other hot Silicon Valley communities, Portola Valley and Hillsborough, Calif., ranked in the top five, with all based less than 30 minutes from the Northern California corporate headquarters of Apple, Facebook and Google.

Inventory is very tight in markets like Woodside, a reserved community with many homes hidden down long tree-lined driveways and private lanes, where 24 of Forbes’ richest people in America own property. Much of Woodside is owned by Stanford University, which is selling any land. With inventory low, the ultra-wealthy are flocking to other surrounding suburbs in the region, including Portola Valley, Hillsborough and Atherton depending on their lifestyle needs.

But unlike lower tiered markets, inventory is not the real powerhouse behind today’s Silicon Valleyu boom. Rather, the exploding tech economy, which is creating immense wealth on a daily basis when start-ups get bought out and new venture flourish.

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/04/luxury-digs-stake-out-new-turf/

Friday, March 28, 2014

Las Vegas cool down continues | Cross River Real Estate

For the second month in a row, home sales in Las Vegas were at the slowest pace in five years. Las Vegas’ February home sales figures reached their lowest level since 2009, according to data released by DataQuick. In fact, sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis in each of the past five months.
In February, 3,230 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was down 0.1% from the month before, when 3,232 homes sold.

February’s numbers were down 19.6% from 2013. February’s home sales were 14.5% below the average number sold during every February since 1994.

Of the homes sold, resales of houses and condos combined were 9.0% above average for the month of February; while sales of newly built homes were 60.5% below the February average. Condo resales in February were 26.0% higher than the February average since 1994.

In February, sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 47.9% compared with a year earlier, while sub-$200,000 transactions fell 36.1% year-over-year. February sales of homes priced from $200,000 to $500,000 increased 20.2% from a year ago, while the number selling for $500,000 or more rose 17.7%.

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29471-las-vegas-cool-down-continues

Friday, March 7, 2014

Renovated Sag Harbor Property is Ambitiously Priced | Cross River Real Estate

12 Breezy Drive Sag Harbor

We do wish brokers would stop using "new construction" to mean anything other than a house just built from the ground up. This place has been newly renovated but isn't new construction. The results are really beautiful, we must say: kitchen lovely, baths gorgeous, everything fresh and bright and stylish. The price even includes the furniture (indoor and outdoor), artwork and accessories. But has it been overimproved? The property sold in October 2012 for $415,000. Now the asking price is $2.185M. Sorry, we just can't see it. There's less than half an acre of property (0.47 acre) in an unexciting area of Sag Harbor. Thoughts?
· 12 Breezy Drive [Elliman]

http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/06/renovated_sag_harbor_property_is_ambitiously_priced.php