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• 7 lessons from the U.S. housing crisis
  With 2012 ahead and four years since the housing collapse helped push the nation into a severe recession, it might be time to sort out the  lessons from the crisis. Here are changes and trends that will -- real estate experts hope -- revive the housing market and everyone's financial future.
  
  
• Mortgage Rates Reach New Record Lows
  Mortgage rates reached new all-time lows this week, pushing home buyer affordability even higher, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. "Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages have been at or below 4 percent for the last eight weeks and now are almost 0.9 percentage points below where they were at the beginning of the year, which means that today's home buyers are paying over $1,200 less per year on a $200,000 loan," Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said in a statement.
  
  
• Which Seller Incentives Tempt Buyers?
  Sellers trying to get buyers attention are offering up plenty of incentives, everything from closing-cost assistance to re-modeling credits — even hot tubs, home theatre systems, flat-screen TVs, and cars, reports The Washington Times.

• More Luxury Home Owners Opt fo Short Sales
  Though short-sale shoppers can expect, on average, to save “at least 10 percent off a traditional sale,” Mr. Baumann said, there is so much inventory out there that unless the short sale represents a “compelling value,” buyers are not going to sift through the litter and “pick one that is a short sale.”
  
  
• It's a Good Idea To Buy A Foreclosure. Here's How
  Shopping for a new home on Long Island after the birth of their daughter, Chris and Diane Moore fell in love with a 1920s Mediterranean-style home with a storied history. For additional information on buying distressed properties on Long Island visit: www.lihomeauction.com
  
  
• Hamptons Home Sales Fall Most Since 2009 as Snow Impedes Manhattan Buyers
  Home sales in the Hamptons, Wall Street’s summer retreat, fell 22 percent in the first quarter after snowfalls hampered buyer interest and sellers made deals late last year in anticipation of higher capital gains taxes.
  
  
• LIers less gloomy about housing market
  Long Islanders are a little less pessimistic about the real estate market than they were in the fourth quarter of 2010, and like consumers in other parts of the state they expect the overall health of the market to improve in the coming year, according to a new poll released Thursday.
  
  
• Big Deal | Top Hamptons Sales Regained Traction
  While much of the country is still struggling to pull itself out of the worst economic downturn since Gatsby gave way to Tom Joad, the ultraluxury market along Long Island’s sought-after coastlines has found its footing again.
  
  
• CoreLogic Home Price Index Shows Year-Over-Year Decline for Seventh Straight Month
  Home Prices Down 6.7 Percent; However, Non-Distressed Properties Showing Signs of Stability
  CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its February Home Price Index
  

• Stop losing homes to higher bidders
  Q: My daughter and her husband-to-be, who are both 21, are trying to buy a house and have put many offers in on various homes. Every time they put an offer in, even on houses that have no other offers, and that have been on the market for a long time, all of a sudden many offers come in -- sometimes within 24 hours!
  
  
• 5 factors that affect home values
  Today's buyers are less willing to overlook 'incurable' defects. Location has long been touted as the most important variable affecting the value of residential real estate. Recently, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices suggested that location is still a front-runner in terms of determining valuation.
  
  
• Finding solutions for overwhelmed mortage servicers
  Mortgage servicers are the heart pump of the home loan world. You don't see them but you know they are there, as without their presence who would process all the loan payments?
  
  
• Sell later, sell higher? A reality check. REThink Real Estate
  Q: Although we have our home up for sale, we have so many people interested in renting that we are considering taking it off the market to have it rented, as we need to have monies coming in to cover the mortgage.
  
  
• Little-known secret to reduce mortgage payment
  Request loan recast when financial disaster strikes. A mortgage recast is an adjustment in the monthly payment that makes the payment fully amortizing.
  
  
Homes With The Most Outrageous Amenities
From koi streams to water parks, homeowners went wild adding amenities to these abodes.

• Target Rock Wildlife Refuge
  The 80-acre preserve on Lloyd Neck is one of 9 wildlife refuges on Long Island that protect migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway
  
  
• US Pending Home Sales Index =2.1% To 90.8 In February
  National Association of Realtors WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Signed contracts to buy previously owned homes rose more than expected in February, providing a glimmer of hope to the sickly housing industry.
  
  
• Realtors Report Jump in Long Island Home Sales
  Long Island home sales in February jumped 7.5 percent over a year ago, the first such increase in eight months, a new report said. The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island reported that there were 1,784 closings last month and 1,660 in February 2010. It marked the first time since June 2010 that monthly sales figures had increased from the same month a year earlier.
  
  
• New Real Estate Show Features Long Island Company
  In the premiere, airing this Tuesday, March 22, at 10 p.m., Brian Elenson, who runs an estate-sale company called 2 Much Stuff 4 Me, sells off the contents of a house on Long Island, N.Y., owned by what seem to be compulsive collectors.
  
  
• Brother Can You Spare A Million?
  For most buyers, the ability to purchase a home and the price they can afford to pay is directly related to their ability to get a mortgage. By the way, the borrower doesn't "get" a mortgage. It "gives" a mortgage, a specific voluntary lien on the property to the lender, as security for the loan.
  
  
• The Fading Glory Of Long Island's Gold Coast Caught In Pictures
   At the turn of the last century, Long Island's Gold Coast was the most fashionable escape for America's wealthiest citizens. The Vanderbilts, Astors, Pratts, and Morgans all lavished huge sums on the construction of impressive estates with dozens of rooms, opulent materials, and acres of formal gardens.
  
  
• Where The Young Singles Live
  Dr. Salierno is one of a fairly rare breed on Long Island — a single 20- or early 30-something who hasn’t moved away and isn’t living with parents. Like many compatriots, he lives in one of the Island’s few singles hot spots, among them Port Jefferson, Long Beach, Patchogue and Westbury. 
  
  
• Long Island Board Of Realtors Market Update for February 2011
  The closed median home price on Long Island, which includes Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens, for February 2011, was $355,000 representing a 1.4 % increase over the year prior. Nassau County reported a closed median home price of $396,750 representing a 3.1 % increase from the prior year.
  
  
• Real Estate: Now Is The Time To Plant A New Vegetable Garden
  Much of Long Island’s soil is naturally acidic, she said, and much of what hasn’t been gardened before is sandy and needs a good deal of organic material added. Both backyard compost piles and any one of the East End’s many municipal compost facilities are good sources of soil additive..
  
  
• Hamptons Real Estate Back in the Game
  Wall Street's comeback lifts East End home market. It's happy days for the Hamptons again as Wall Street's comeback is lifting the summer real estate market. Rentals and purchases of beach homes on the East End are up as Wall Street's bonuses are healthy again, according to a the New York Post.
  
  
• New Rules For First Time Home Buyers
  Without a house to sell , first-time home buyers have had a field day in the depressed housing market. Until recently, anyway. A series of new rules, regulations and policies have changed the landscape, making buying that new home harder and more expensive.
  
  
• New Worries for Buyers Seeking Mortgages
  Changes proposed by the Obama administration to limit the role of the federal government in the mortgage market could further alter the rules of the road, for borrowers and lenders alike.
  
  
• Betting on a Spring Housing Market Rebound for Long Island
  THE spring selling season is usually under way by Super Bowl Sunday, but it got a late start this year. The reasons for the delay included the snowy winter, the uncertain economy and the extinction of the first-time buyer tax credit that ignited the market last year.
  
  
• Rich Cribs: Bridgehampton home sells for $17.5M, and more
  BIG SALE. A Bridgehampton home with views of the ocean and Sagg Pond recently sold for $17.5 million, according to the Long Island Real Estate Report. Public records show that the owner is Vito Errico, the co-founder of Equinox fitness clubs, and his wife, Robin; the buyer was listed as 713 Ocean Road LLC. The six-acre property contains a newly constructed 8,000-square-foot home with an infinity edge pool and a tennis court. There are eight bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms.
  
  
• Inspirational 'Gatsby" house faces demolition
  Sands Point - Bert Brodsky is seeking to demolish the deteriorating Land's End estate in Sands Point and divide the property into five parcels for custom homes. The mansion is said to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration for Daisy Buchanan's home in The Great Gatsby.
  
  
• Real Estate Outlook: Existing-Home Sales Rise
  The housing market continues to keep experts and analysts on their toes. While existing-home sales rose again in January and are outpacing year-ago levels, we are still seeing a drop in home prices across much the country.
  
  
• Swimming Pool Construction Industry Keeps Afloat
  Bridghampton - The swimming pool construction industry is learning how to thrive in the new economy in much the same way as real estate brokers. Nationwide there is an active debate regarding the value of a home for sale with a swimming pool as opposed to a home without a pool. Is the value increased? Decreased? Does it pay to renovate an existing swimming pool?
  
  
• Home Price Stabilization Seen In Most Metro Areas During Forth Quarter 2010
  Home sales rebounded in 49 states during the fourth quarter of 2010 with 78 markets experiencing price gains from a year ago, while most of the rest saw price weakness, according to the latest survey by the National Association of REALTORS®.
  
  
• National Home Sales Data 2010
  Even though last year was tough for the new home industry, there were a few market areas that experienced gains in both median prices and new home sales volumes when compared to 2009.  The Hanley Wood data featured this week, looks at those areas which recorded at least 1,000 new home closings over the course of 2010, and made positive progress in terms of both volume and median price.  The list is geographically diverse, ranging from the Midwest to the Hawaii. The supporting reasons are also equally diverse, once again demonstrating that housing markets are inherently local.
  
  
• Club Mom Comes to Long Island, There's Finally a Place Just For Moms on Long Island.
  Did you ever wish that someone could watch your toddler for an hour or two so that you could get some work done? Or maybe you would like to sit on a couch, drink a cup of coffee and talk to other moms who are in a similar situation?
  Now you can. 
  
   
• 70 PERCENT OF AMERICANS VIEW HOMEOWNERSHIP AS PART OF PERSONAL AMERICAN DREAM
  Trulia.com, a top site for homebuyers, sellers and renters, today released the results of its biannual American Dream survey, which has tracked American attitudes towards homeownership since 2009. Harris Interactive conducted this online survey on Trulia’s behalf in January 2011 among 2,079 U.S. adults aged 18 and over.
  
  
• One Long Island City condo building takes drastic measure to move units
  In the Long Island City real estate market, it pays to be creative. After a year without a single sale, one Long Island City high-rise resorted to auctioning off about a quarter of its luxury condominiums. Other condos are anteing up with incentive programs, offering buyers everything from free storage units to closing costs when they purchase a unit.
  
  
• Premium Price for Trailer Lot Near the Hamptons
  One of the nation's largest owners of trailer parks has quietly entered Long Island with the purchase of a 328-lot property near the Hamptons and the Long Island Sound. Hometown America Corp., of Chicago, paid nearly $22 million for the 101-acre Thurm's Estates community in Calverton, about $66,000 per lot. That's more than double the national average, says Buddy Martin, one of the deal's brokers.
  
  
• U.S. Home Sales Sats Doubted
  The housing crash may have been more severe than initial estimates have shown. The National Association of Realtors is examining the possibility that it over-counted U.S. home sales dating back as far as 2007.
  
  
• Are Home Price Declines Overstated?
  Home prices ended 2010 on a sour note. The question now is whether or when those declines will moderate.The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed that prices fell by another 1% in December, following a 1% drop in November, a 1.4% decline in October, and declines of 0.8% in September and 0.3% in August. Home price declines that began in 2006 were interrupted for more than a year beginning in 2009, buoyed low interest rates, low prices, and tax credits to spur sales. When those credits expired last summer, home prices resumed their decline. But price declines in recent months have also been driven by a rising share of distressed sales, including homes sold by lenders out of foreclosure. Banks are typically much faster to reduce prices and unload properties quickly.
  
  
• The View Inside The Gates. Long Island Gated Communtites
  In the last two decades, gated communities have sprung up across the Island like daisies. Some offer simply a barrier to screen nonresidents while others are more resortlike, with guard-attended gatehouses and amenities like snow plowing, landscaping and yard maintenance. A certain number are geared toward those 55 and older, but proponents of intergenerational gated enclaves say they offer a nostalgic neighborliness reminiscent of the close-knit era before scheduled play dates, when children simply went outside and played.
  
  
• Long Island Is Horse Country
  From Madonna’s 26-acre Bridgehampton horse farm to more modest parcels scattered from Muttontown to Manorville, Long Island is, indeed, horse country. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the land that was once home to the original Rough Rider, Theodore Roosevelt, is home to hundreds of residential horse properties, and to the Long Island Riders, a cowboy mounted shooting team.

 

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