Showing posts with label Newsday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newsday. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Long Island Population declines
With all its wonderful attributes, Long Island's biggest problem should be dealing with all the people who WANT to move here. Instead we see population declines as delineated in Newsday this morning. Click here for the full story.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Home loan applications doubled last week
Newsday's Ellen Yan reports today that mortgage applications are up and keeping mortgage brokers busy. Click here to check it out or read it below.
Newsday.com
After rates drop, mortgage brokers get busy
BY ELLEN YAN
ellen.yan@newsday.com
11:48 PM EST, December 3, 2008
On an average day, Gregory Frank's Woodbury mortgage brokerage would get 20 new inquiries, but lately phones and e-mails have been tied up with about 100 new inquiries a day.
Yesterday, he reversed an interest rate lock, from 6.5 percent to 61/8 percent, when a client set to close Friday on a $1.2-million loan asked him to renegotiate with the bank.
"My loan officers are very active now, writing new deals and pricing out new deals," said Frank, president of Blackstone Mortgage Corp. "We're definitely feeling the heartbeat."
It's been a Thanksgiving to remember for many brokers and lenders as a cornucopia of calls and loans has spilled open. The federal government said last week it would start buying up to $600 billion in bad loans and mortgage-backed securities. That caused home-loan interest rates to fall. They were hovering around 5.5 percent yesterday for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. The drop, in turn, led to borrowers' calling about refinancing, homeowners' trying to turn their adjustable rates into fixed ones, house hunters' committing to buying and others' asking to be notified if rates dropped more.
Home loan applications last week doubled despite the shortened workweek, the Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday. Refinancing last week accounted for 69.1 percent of all mortgage activity, up from 49.3 percent the week before, the trade group said, while home purchase loans increased 38 percent.
That report backed claims from lenders of banner times. The day after the federal announcement, a top-20 home mortgage lender, Ohio-based AmTrust Bank, said in an e-mail that rates had been locked on $1.5 billion in mortgages for the day, "historic levels" for the company. In its e-mail to mortgage brokers before the holiday, Wells Fargo said it had a "remarkable day" with "huge activity."
Borrowers learned a lesson when they missed locking onto rates that went down briefly in September after the federal government took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Orawin Velz, the trade group's associate vice president of economic forecasting. With the federal government's latest move, he said, "many of those on the sidelines decided to quickly jump in and take advantage of lower rates before they began to rebound."
At a Westbury-based mortgage banker, Financial Equities, there's been a 30 percent to 40 percent jump in calls from stable borrowers who carry a 6.5 percent or higher interest rate and now want the current rate of 5.5 percent and lower.
"Over the last year, maybe 20 percent of my business was refinancing, now today it's probably closer to 40 to 50 percent," said company president Walter Stashin.
But he said house hunters have not inundated phones lines and probably won't until early next year, when federal loan purchases free up cash for lenders and the impact trickles down to consumers.
For one thing, Stashin said, the National Bureau of Economic Research on Monday confirmed that the country is in a recession, and that countered optimism over the federal government's loan buybacks. Also, he said, standards for federally backed mortgages, which is mostly what's available now, have not eased much, with fully documented loans required for the most part. On top of that, many house hunters in high-cost places such as Long Island need jumbo loans, which are more than $417,000, but these loans carry higher interest rates of 7 percent and are harder to get, he said.
"We have quite a bit of pre-approvals," Stashin said. "But have people found a home yet? No. People don't know if it's the bottom yet as far as the housing market, and with the way the economy's going, people are talking recession."
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
Newsday.com
After rates drop, mortgage brokers get busy
BY ELLEN YAN
ellen.yan@newsday.com
11:48 PM EST, December 3, 2008
On an average day, Gregory Frank's Woodbury mortgage brokerage would get 20 new inquiries, but lately phones and e-mails have been tied up with about 100 new inquiries a day.
Yesterday, he reversed an interest rate lock, from 6.5 percent to 61/8 percent, when a client set to close Friday on a $1.2-million loan asked him to renegotiate with the bank.
"My loan officers are very active now, writing new deals and pricing out new deals," said Frank, president of Blackstone Mortgage Corp. "We're definitely feeling the heartbeat."
It's been a Thanksgiving to remember for many brokers and lenders as a cornucopia of calls and loans has spilled open. The federal government said last week it would start buying up to $600 billion in bad loans and mortgage-backed securities. That caused home-loan interest rates to fall. They were hovering around 5.5 percent yesterday for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. The drop, in turn, led to borrowers' calling about refinancing, homeowners' trying to turn their adjustable rates into fixed ones, house hunters' committing to buying and others' asking to be notified if rates dropped more.
Home loan applications last week doubled despite the shortened workweek, the Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday. Refinancing last week accounted for 69.1 percent of all mortgage activity, up from 49.3 percent the week before, the trade group said, while home purchase loans increased 38 percent.
That report backed claims from lenders of banner times. The day after the federal announcement, a top-20 home mortgage lender, Ohio-based AmTrust Bank, said in an e-mail that rates had been locked on $1.5 billion in mortgages for the day, "historic levels" for the company. In its e-mail to mortgage brokers before the holiday, Wells Fargo said it had a "remarkable day" with "huge activity."
Borrowers learned a lesson when they missed locking onto rates that went down briefly in September after the federal government took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Orawin Velz, the trade group's associate vice president of economic forecasting. With the federal government's latest move, he said, "many of those on the sidelines decided to quickly jump in and take advantage of lower rates before they began to rebound."
At a Westbury-based mortgage banker, Financial Equities, there's been a 30 percent to 40 percent jump in calls from stable borrowers who carry a 6.5 percent or higher interest rate and now want the current rate of 5.5 percent and lower.
"Over the last year, maybe 20 percent of my business was refinancing, now today it's probably closer to 40 to 50 percent," said company president Walter Stashin.
But he said house hunters have not inundated phones lines and probably won't until early next year, when federal loan purchases free up cash for lenders and the impact trickles down to consumers.
For one thing, Stashin said, the National Bureau of Economic Research on Monday confirmed that the country is in a recession, and that countered optimism over the federal government's loan buybacks. Also, he said, standards for federally backed mortgages, which is mostly what's available now, have not eased much, with fully documented loans required for the most part. On top of that, many house hunters in high-cost places such as Long Island need jumbo loans, which are more than $417,000, but these loans carry higher interest rates of 7 percent and are harder to get, he said.
"We have quite a bit of pre-approvals," Stashin said. "But have people found a home yet? No. People don't know if it's the bottom yet as far as the housing market, and with the way the economy's going, people are talking recession."
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Builders to the rescue, face flak anyway
Amidst the reports this past week about the economic turmoil and financial chaos that looms on the horizon were two news stories about builders looking to develop significant housing projects on Long Island.
Given the Island's well-documented housing shortage - not to mention the utter lack of building activity of late that has idled every aspect of the industry as well as dried up several revenue streams for local municipalities - you would think that such announcements would be greeted with huzzahs, if not a parade down Main Street.
But no - this is Long Island. Both stories featured headlines highlighting the fact that local civic groups plan to fight the development.
The first, "Groups to fight planned development in Middle Island", appeared in Newsday on Wednesday. The following day saw this article, "Hicksville developer struggles to win over Islandia neighbors", appear in the Long Island Business News Flash Report.
There is hope, however. To her credit, Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert supports the project. She gets it, if you will, and is quoted in the article as saying, "the 39-acre project would be a boon for Brookhaven's tax base and fit into the town's development plan for Middle Island. She said the project includes about 18 acres of open space and would be a walkable, urban alternative to typical Long Island sprawl."
The article also mentions that the developer, Frank Weber of Sandy Hollow Estates, has the right to build 34 single-family homes on the property under the current zoning. Kepert smartly points out the sewage treatment plant planned for the development would release less nitrogen than 34 homes built without the plant.
The developer plans to leave 18 acres for open, walkable space at no cost to the local taxpayer. That fact is buried six paragraphs into the story, however, and is conveniently ignored by Dick Amper, the leader of the groups vowing to fight the effort.
The second article reports on Pinewood Development Corp.'s plans to build a condo community where a horse farm now stands. The neighbors say the "traffic will be a nightmare," even though the horse farm itself at one time accommodated hundreds of customers and tractor-trailers coming and going all week long. The owner of the horse farm, according to the article, can no longer keep his farm operating at a profit and is perfectly within his right to sell his property to Pinewood.
The Long Island Builders Institute will keep a close eye on both projects. We salute Councilwoman Kepert for her willingness to consider the big picture, although we fear in doing so we will make her a target of Amper's Army. Of course, her day job involves teaching teenagers in high school so we have no doubts about her ability to deal with the angst Amper plans to send her way.
Given the Island's well-documented housing shortage - not to mention the utter lack of building activity of late that has idled every aspect of the industry as well as dried up several revenue streams for local municipalities - you would think that such announcements would be greeted with huzzahs, if not a parade down Main Street.
But no - this is Long Island. Both stories featured headlines highlighting the fact that local civic groups plan to fight the development.
The first, "Groups to fight planned development in Middle Island", appeared in Newsday on Wednesday. The following day saw this article, "Hicksville developer struggles to win over Islandia neighbors", appear in the Long Island Business News Flash Report.
There is hope, however. To her credit, Brookhaven Councilwoman Connie Kepert supports the project. She gets it, if you will, and is quoted in the article as saying, "the 39-acre project would be a boon for Brookhaven's tax base and fit into the town's development plan for Middle Island. She said the project includes about 18 acres of open space and would be a walkable, urban alternative to typical Long Island sprawl."
The article also mentions that the developer, Frank Weber of Sandy Hollow Estates, has the right to build 34 single-family homes on the property under the current zoning. Kepert smartly points out the sewage treatment plant planned for the development would release less nitrogen than 34 homes built without the plant.
The developer plans to leave 18 acres for open, walkable space at no cost to the local taxpayer. That fact is buried six paragraphs into the story, however, and is conveniently ignored by Dick Amper, the leader of the groups vowing to fight the effort.
The second article reports on Pinewood Development Corp.'s plans to build a condo community where a horse farm now stands. The neighbors say the "traffic will be a nightmare," even though the horse farm itself at one time accommodated hundreds of customers and tractor-trailers coming and going all week long. The owner of the horse farm, according to the article, can no longer keep his farm operating at a profit and is perfectly within his right to sell his property to Pinewood.
The Long Island Builders Institute will keep a close eye on both projects. We salute Councilwoman Kepert for her willingness to consider the big picture, although we fear in doing so we will make her a target of Amper's Army. Of course, her day job involves teaching teenagers in high school so we have no doubts about her ability to deal with the angst Amper plans to send her way.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Races Worth Watching - Trunzo in the Lead
A Newsday article this morning points out that a Siena Market Research study shows the races across the state for New York Senate positions are still very much up for grabs.
According to the article, written by Rick Brand, "Veteran Republican state Sen. Caesar Trunzo, facing the toughest race in his 36-year career, has a 6-point lead in a new poll, but his foe, Brookhaven's Democratic Supervisor Brian Foley, says the survey shows he's "within striking distance" and that Trunzo has "already peaked."
The article goes on to report: "The Siena Research Institute poll of 405 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, shows Trunzo leading Foley 46-40 in a race where Senate Democrats have so far spent $291,000, their most money statewide. The poll also showed Long Island's newest state senator, Democrat Craig Johnson, leads Plandome Manor Mayor Barbara Donno 49 percent to 25 percent."
The Senate races bear watching because the Democrat-controlled Assembly passed a number of bills that were detrimental to the building industry. These bills - listed below - died in the Republican controlled Senate. This is why LIBI co-hosted with the New York State Builders Association a fund-raising event for NYS Senate Majority Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre. We know we can count on Dean to keep a watchful eye on matters that could present problems for Long Islanders in general and builders in particular.
LIBI encourages all of its members to do what they can to support the elected officials who understand how valuable the building community is to the economic well-being of Long Island. We will spotlight these officials in this space as time goes on. Stay tuned.
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS APPROVED BY THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED ASSEMBLY:
• Allows a person to institute an action for a violation of the provisions of the environmental quality review even if the injury does not affect the public at large.
• Prohibits home improvement contractors from also acting on behalf of mortgage brokers; prohibits a mortgage broker from paying a home improvement contractor directly unless they perform their own inspection of the completed work
• Authorizes the commissioner of labor to implement rules and regulations regarding the removal of lead, asbestos, and other hazardous waste
• Provides for riparian/littoral property lines to be shown on subdivision maps that are contiguous to water bodies of the state.
• Requires the commissioner of health to take action when areas of lead poisoning are designated; the commissioner of health is also required to provide written notice instructing such condition be discontinued within a specified period of time
• Directs the department of environmental conservation to update any forms or documentation prepared by such department which are designed to assist applicants and lead agencies in determining whether certain projects or actions have a significant effect on the environment; and provides such updates shall ensure the consideration of certain changes, including, impacts on sensitive populations such as children
• Establishes requirements for notice, access to information and public comment period with respect to uniform procedures for pending environmental protection agency projects and regulation.
• Requires applicants seeking land use approval from a municipal corporation to certify compliance with applicable state zoning and building procedures and requirements.
• Relates to requiring notice to neighboring landowners of intention to develop in wetland areas.
• Requires agencies to post contractor utilization plans on the agency website
• Requires state agencies, departments or authorities which let more than ten million dollars in service and construction contracts to establish mentor-protege programs to enable the development and success of small, minority, and women-owned businesses.
• Enacts the "New York State fair pay act"; provides that it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, race and/or national origin by paying different wages.
According to the article, written by Rick Brand, "Veteran Republican state Sen. Caesar Trunzo, facing the toughest race in his 36-year career, has a 6-point lead in a new poll, but his foe, Brookhaven's Democratic Supervisor Brian Foley, says the survey shows he's "within striking distance" and that Trunzo has "already peaked."
The article goes on to report: "The Siena Research Institute poll of 405 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, shows Trunzo leading Foley 46-40 in a race where Senate Democrats have so far spent $291,000, their most money statewide. The poll also showed Long Island's newest state senator, Democrat Craig Johnson, leads Plandome Manor Mayor Barbara Donno 49 percent to 25 percent."
The Senate races bear watching because the Democrat-controlled Assembly passed a number of bills that were detrimental to the building industry. These bills - listed below - died in the Republican controlled Senate. This is why LIBI co-hosted with the New York State Builders Association a fund-raising event for NYS Senate Majority Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre. We know we can count on Dean to keep a watchful eye on matters that could present problems for Long Islanders in general and builders in particular.
LIBI encourages all of its members to do what they can to support the elected officials who understand how valuable the building community is to the economic well-being of Long Island. We will spotlight these officials in this space as time goes on. Stay tuned.
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS APPROVED BY THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED ASSEMBLY:
• Allows a person to institute an action for a violation of the provisions of the environmental quality review even if the injury does not affect the public at large.
• Prohibits home improvement contractors from also acting on behalf of mortgage brokers; prohibits a mortgage broker from paying a home improvement contractor directly unless they perform their own inspection of the completed work
• Authorizes the commissioner of labor to implement rules and regulations regarding the removal of lead, asbestos, and other hazardous waste
• Provides for riparian/littoral property lines to be shown on subdivision maps that are contiguous to water bodies of the state.
• Requires the commissioner of health to take action when areas of lead poisoning are designated; the commissioner of health is also required to provide written notice instructing such condition be discontinued within a specified period of time
• Directs the department of environmental conservation to update any forms or documentation prepared by such department which are designed to assist applicants and lead agencies in determining whether certain projects or actions have a significant effect on the environment; and provides such updates shall ensure the consideration of certain changes, including, impacts on sensitive populations such as children
• Establishes requirements for notice, access to information and public comment period with respect to uniform procedures for pending environmental protection agency projects and regulation.
• Requires applicants seeking land use approval from a municipal corporation to certify compliance with applicable state zoning and building procedures and requirements.
• Relates to requiring notice to neighboring landowners of intention to develop in wetland areas.
• Requires agencies to post contractor utilization plans on the agency website
• Requires state agencies, departments or authorities which let more than ten million dollars in service and construction contracts to establish mentor-protege programs to enable the development and success of small, minority, and women-owned businesses.
• Enacts the "New York State fair pay act"; provides that it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, race and/or national origin by paying different wages.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Truth Shall Set Us Free - or At Least Shed Some Light on the Situation
Good morning!
There was some interesting reading over the weekend pertaining to the home building and home remodeling industries.
First was this week's Long Island Business Newscover story: "sex, lies and property taxes". David Winzelberg's well-researched piece debunks the notion that housing development equals over-whelmed school districts. It's must reading for anyone planning to seek approval(s) for a housing project in the near future.
The second article "Debating How Green to Go" was written by Marcelle Fischler and appeared in the real estate section of the Sunday New York Times. It draws attention to Southampton's well-intentioned-but-flawed attempts to became the first town in the nation to tie HERS ratings to the size of the house (in other words, the bigger house the more energy efficient it has to be).
The third article was by Mark Harrington in Newsday. It reported on a study issued by the Network for New Energy Choices. The study examines how the trend toward local municipalities demanding more energy accountability is further encumbering the permit approval process.
Hopefully these articles will help shed some light on the realities of home building and remodeling on Long Island. LIBI members strive to do the right thing - especially when it comes to energy efficiencies. Sometimes the "right thing" gets muddled in the process, however, especially when other factions' idea of what the "right thing" is impossible to achieve.
I would to hear your comments on these pieces.
There was some interesting reading over the weekend pertaining to the home building and home remodeling industries.
First was this week's Long Island Business Newscover story: "sex, lies and property taxes". David Winzelberg's well-researched piece debunks the notion that housing development equals over-whelmed school districts. It's must reading for anyone planning to seek approval(s) for a housing project in the near future.
The second article "Debating How Green to Go" was written by Marcelle Fischler and appeared in the real estate section of the Sunday New York Times. It draws attention to Southampton's well-intentioned-but-flawed attempts to became the first town in the nation to tie HERS ratings to the size of the house (in other words, the bigger house the more energy efficient it has to be).
The third article was by Mark Harrington in Newsday. It reported on a study issued by the Network for New Energy Choices. The study examines how the trend toward local municipalities demanding more energy accountability is further encumbering the permit approval process.
Hopefully these articles will help shed some light on the realities of home building and remodeling on Long Island. LIBI members strive to do the right thing - especially when it comes to energy efficiencies. Sometimes the "right thing" gets muddled in the process, however, especially when other factions' idea of what the "right thing" is impossible to achieve.
I would to hear your comments on these pieces.
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