| Commercial Real Estate and the Community by Joseph Rand |
Sometimes, people think that commercial real estate owners and brokers work at cross-purposes with community residents. The typically cliched situation is a commercial broker who wants to build something i the area, facing opposition from local community residents who don't want the (pick one) traffic/pollution/crowds/noise/etc. Examples are too legion to link.
But sometimes, you find a commercial tenant, and a commercial broker, who helps create value in a community. The Journal News recently ran an article about a great new commercial venture in Ardsley, in Westchester County, that was brokered by Rand Commercial Services and our agents Paul Adler and Ann Silver. Essentially, the owners of the property turned a dismal trucking warehouse into a state of the art play space, "with state-of the-art laser tag, mini bowling alleys, a climbing wall and a gleaming cafe, along with vast, customizable spaces for private parties." It's a wonderful addition to the community, and the entire Hudson Valley, and we're proud of the role that Rand Commercial Services played in it.
As Paul put it:
Ann Silver and I were pleased to list&lease this very dated 30,000 sf warehouse perfectly located in Ardsley @ Exit 16 on the Saw Mill River Pkwy because we knew that we could market this warehouse as an adaptive re-use.
Any commercial real estate company could put another low-end warehouse user in place, but only Rand Commercial Services could attract visionaries like Steven & Sharon Zukerman to open a unique party and play space during the recession of 09.
If you want to see the space, it's called "Life: The Place to Be". |
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| Is Real Estate Really a Good Investment? by Joseph Rand |
| The Times Herald Record wrote last week about a study on the housing market that the writer called "pretty grim," and calls into question whether real estate is a good investment. Essentially, the article pointed out that a buyer in Orange County at the peak of the last cycle in 1989 would have had to wait eight years to break even
Orange County's average home-sale price in 1989 was $142,235, according to the Orange County Associ ...Read More |
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| Business Group Advocates for Housing Recovery by Matthew Rand |
| The Business Roundtable, an association of CEO's of the leading US companies issued a set of recommendations for the White House and Congress that are aimed at jumpstarting the housing market in order to stimulate a broader economic recovery.
Their recommendations include:
· Keep mortgage interest rates at historically low levels (below 5 percent) for at least one year;
· Expand the current First-Time Homebuyer Tax Cr ...Read More |
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| Home Sales Rise in April and May by Joseph Rand |
| So is the housing market recovering?
Recent figures indicate that the housing market might be showing "green shoots" signs of recovery. According to the National Assocaition of Realtors, the number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes rose 6.7% in April.This was the fourth increase in the past five months, and the biggest increase in more than seven years.
That's good news, but let's keep a few thin ...Read More |
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| How to Get Your $8,000 Tax Credit Up Front. by Joseph Rand |
| The government announced this week that first-time home-buyers who qualify for the up-to-$8,000 tax credit for buying a home by the end of the year will be able to get an advance on that tax credit to help them build a down payment, cover their closing costs, or pay down the rate of their mortgages. This is a terrific new twist on the first-time home-buyer tax credit that was announced a few months ago, which we discussed here.
Essentia ...Read More |
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| New Refinancing and Home Financing Options Available by Joseph Rand |
| I asked Drew Kessler, the Director of Sales for Rand Mortgage, to help me put together an overview of all the interesting new opportunities for refinancing and financing of home purchases available.
First, rates are still in the 5% range. Although mortgage rates have crept up in the past few days, we are still seeing rates at what are historically low levels, around 5% for qualified borrowers for 30-year fixed loans. Just in case you li ...Read More |
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| Where will Hudson Valley real estate prices go this year? by Joseph Rand |
| So what will prices do this year?
Amid news that the national real estate market continues to see year-on-year price depreciation as much as 14%, the Times Herald Record reported this week that April prices in Orange County real estate inched up from March. Even though prices were down significantly from last year, they were up from March.
I expect that we will see the same trend play out throughout the Hudson Valley real estate ...Read More |
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| Sullivan County Real Estate Market Analysis -- the Duplicate Listing Issue by Joseph Rand |
| We saw an interesting article in the Times Herald Record this week about the Sullivan County real estate market, using some of the data that we provide in our Rand Quarterly Market Report. Mike Levensohn of the Record pointed out that the two MLS systems that cover Sullivan -- the Sullivan County MLS and the Greater Hudson Valley MLS -- reported fewer "dual sales" in the most recent quarter. That is, some brokers report Sullivan Count ...Read More |
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| So how did Make Your Move work out? by Joseph Rand |
| So what were the results of the "Make Your Move" program?
As you might remember, Rand Realty initiated an innovative program in January this year, making a guarantee to home buyers that if they bought a home through us, and that home went down in value by the time they sold, then we would re-list the home for free at the time they decided to sell. As far as we know, we were the only broker in the country to make this offer, to put ...Read More |
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| What's going on in the Hudson Valley Real Estate Market? by Joseph Rand |
| The real estate market in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, and Sullivan Counties (collectively, the Hudson Valley real estate market) experienced a shock to the system in the first quarter of 2009, with significant declines in activity and pricing in every county of the survey. The number of homes sold in the quarter was the lowest in the decade, and pricing in most of the counties is now close to or below 2004 levels.
Obse ...Read More |
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