housing

Vanity Pricing Consolation Prize for Luxury Real Estate

You have 320 choices if you're looking for a home that costs more than $20 million – though if you're smart, you shouldn't have to pay nearly that much. Why? As you'd expect, real estate agents are having trouble moving these houses, so they are staying on the market for a while, and age doesn't do much for a property's value.

The top listing right now belongs to Aaron Spelling's widow – at least until she can sell it. This is a difficult proposition, however, with a price tag of $150 million. Four years ago, the highest price on the market was half what Spelling is asking. This year, $75 million isn't good enough to make the top 10.

Since the number of listings is up, you'd expect sales to be down ... and that's how it's working out. In the Hamptons, year-over-year sales were off 43 percent in the second quarter, with the median price down 17 percent. Homeowners who can't sell are trying to rent instead, with mixed results. Joseph Farrell, who has a home in Bridgehampton, would like to sell it for $59.5 million. Until that happens, he has to be content to rent it, which he's doing now at $425,000 for two weeks.

So, if homes aren't moving, why continue to price them above $20 million? The answer is as old as consciousness: vanity. An absurd price is guaranteed to get some attention (as I've just demonstrated).

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Tags: aaron spelling, AaronSpelling, beachfront, bridgehampton, estate, estates, hamptons, housing, housing bubble, housing market, housing sector, HousingBubble, HousingMarket, HousingSector, real estate, RealEstate, villa

Eco-friendly Flooring Made of Peach Pits?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Green

Think "eco-friendly home design" and a lot of different options come to mind, but I'm willing to bet fruit pits as flooring isn't one of them.

Alla le Roux feels differently however, and after being inspired by personal experience has started a business (Stone Fruit Floors) that designs and sells handmade flooring created out of peach pits. The pits are sanded down (to get rid of sharp edges and make them more comfortable to walk on) and set into the floor by hand along with glue, sand, and a resin mixture. The end result looks like a strange mix between hardwood, tile, and linoleum.

Interesting... I'm not really sure what else to say about this!

Via Luxury Housing Trends

Gallery: Stone Fruit Floors

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Tags: decor, eco friendly, EcoFriendly, floor, flooring, floors, green, home improvement, HomeImprovement, housing, peach, peach pits, PeachPits, pit, pits, remodeling

Second Kitchens A Hot Trend In Luxury Homes

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

Think about it....who really has a second kitchen? A full second kitchen? They're rare indeed, but the new trend in luxury housing is to start changing that.

People with money to spend want kitchens for both themselves and for their personal chefs and caterers, and they don't want to be bumping around together in the same space. But it's not just about whether or not you can afford it, as the building has to be approved and depending on the rules and regulations in the area an additional full kitchen may or may not be allowed. But in the areas where it does work houses generally run in the $5 million range and higher when they include 2 kitchens.

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Tags: chef, cooking, home, homes, housing, kitchen, kitchens, real estate, RealEstate

Plaza Sets A New York Record

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

When I first started hearing about the plans to turn the Plaza Hotel into condos, the predictions that records would be set began to be bandied about. Now it looks that it has come to pass. The New York Observer is reporting that an apartment at the recently redone Plaza Hotel has gone to contract for at least $50 million, making it the biggest apartment sale in New York City. The Plaza will also be home to real estate kingpin Harry Macklowe, Bear Stearns C.E.O. James Cayne, race-car mogul Flavio Briatore, Tommy Hilfiger and Jocelyn Wildenstein. The big question is who is the buyer.

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Tags: apartments, housing, new york, NewYork, plaza, prices, real estate

Prototype of Eco-Friendly Luxury Home Revealed

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

A Scottish building company has plans to create a luxury home that is also environmentally friendly home. The Stewart Milne Group has designed a home that has a wind turbine, solar chimney and water-saving devices. The UK government has announced that all new homes should be carbon neutral within the next ten years and this home meets the government's code for sustainable homes. The homes other features include an open floor plan with flexible interior spaces and large terraces which are built into the design so that the home can be used in urban environments. All of the environmentally friendly add-ons increase the cost of the new house by 20% at this point but the company expects that number to go lower later. The design isn't bad but it seems to me that those wind turbines might be of issue in some communities.

[via The Herald]

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Tags: design, eco-friendly, environment, housing, scotland

Jeriko House, Another Entry In The Hot Prefab Market

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Anyone who has ever flipped through an issue of Dwell knows that prefab homes can be quite attractive and deluxe these days. A new option in prefab comes from a New Orleans-based business owner, Shawn Burst, who is the founder of Jeriko House. Burst met with a German engineer to develop an interlocking aluminum framing system that is the basis of his new housing system. Each section is manufactured with the electrical and plumbing infrastructures already incorporated for ease of setup. There are five major design models and they will have details like Asian teak finishes, coconut skin walls, marble and ceramics sourced from around the world. The first Jeriko House will go up on May 1 in New Orleans and there are tentative plans for a 100-house development in Utah.

Burst has also promised a portion of Jeriko's first $7 million in profits to help build a Community Outreach Center on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. He has also planned that for every 10th Jeriko House sold, those ten homeowners will form a committee that votes to give a Jeriko House to a family in need somewhere in the U.S.

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Tags: building, housing, prefab, real estate

Sunday Real Estate Round-Up

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Leonard Bernstein's apartment in the Dakota is on the market again for $25.5 million. The listing is here.
--The apartment belonging to late author Rona Jaffe has sold for $1.72 million.
--Judd Hirsch has bought a two-bedroom apartment on the East Side for $925,000.
--A townhouse once rented by Will Smith is on the market for $12.5 million. The listing for this gorgeous home is here.
--The seller of Susan Soros' Philippe Starck-designed duplex, David Mimran, is paying $65,000 a month in rent at Trump Park Avenue.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Robert F. Fairchild, a Burgundy expert, has paid $2.95 million for a high-floor apartment on West 56th Street condo.
--Recently on-trial Washington, D.C., developer Norman Jemal has closed on a six and-a-half-room apartment at Trump Palace for $3.25 million. The apartment is for his parents.
--The Silk Building, which has been home to Keith Richards and Britney Spears, is now home to a member of a Japanese fashion dynasty. Adam Taki, part of a dynasty that founded the textile and retail group Takihyo back in 1751 and more recently owned the Anne Klein label, has bought a 1,831-square-foot duplex for $2.1 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties
--Johnny Damon and his wife, Michelle, have agreed to sell their Boston-area home for more than $5 million. The Damons paid $4.75 million for the six-bedroom house in late 2004. Former Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez recently cut the asking price for his Brookline house for the second time and former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra has yet to find a buyer for his two-bedroom Boston-waterfront condo.
--San Francisco Giants outfielder Moisés Alou and his wife, Austria, have put their San Francisco home on the market for $1.949 million. The home was rebuilt in 2005 and is our estate of the day later today.
--Democratic activist and businesswoman Bren Simon, wife of shopping-mall magnate and Indiana Pacers co-owner Melvin Simon, is looking to sell a mansion in Los Angeles's Bel-Air neighborhood for $17.5 million, a whopping $4.5 million more than she paid for it last year. The listing for the 18,000-square-foot home which was modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles, is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Producer Brian Grazer and his wife, novelist Gigi Levangie Grazer listed their 8,800-square-foot Pacific Palisades home of nine years at $27.5 million. It was unlisted last week. The listing still seems to be up here.
--More Manhattan Beach sports real estate. L.A. Clippers forward Yaroslav Korolev is the latest athlete who has lived in this five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style home in Manhattan Beach.
--Kenneth Brown, the decorator who is host of HGTV's "reDesign," has sold his loft in West Hollywood for slightly more than $1 million.
--Five years ago, former KTLA and KCBS anchor Terry Anzur put her Pasadena home on the market for $600,000 and went to Florida. She's now returning and has put her West Palm Beach home on the market. The listing for the four bedroom home is here.

Tags: estates, homes, housing, real estate, real estate news, RealEstate

Flint Hills National Residences

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Another golf community for those who want to live life on the links has been created in Andover, Kansas just outside Wichita. The residences are surrounded by the Tom Fazio-designed Flint Hills National Golf Course. The large residences are either club estates or park estates and are all designed to create a harmonious neighborhood. Golf memberships sell from around $27,000 and the course has been chosen as one of the 100 best in the country by Golf Digest. The golf course also has five lodges available for members and their guests for overnight accommodations. Available homes remaining cost over $1 million, making them (according to the MLS) by far the priciest homes in the area.

[Thanks, Steve]

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Tags: community, development, golf, housing, kansas

Avalon Beach

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

The latest luxury development in Florida comes from Gary Shear who is famous for his luxury developments. Avalon Beach in Vero Beach, Florida is a luxury community of 39 private estates bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Intracoastal Waterway to the west and Avalon State Park – a wildlife and bird sanctuary – to its north and south. The development also includes the Beach Club House located on the ocean with beachfront party rooms, catering kitchens and a zero-edge pool. It will be available for all Avalon Beach residents to use.

There are nine different models of homes at Avalon Beach, ranging from a 3,700 square-foot three bedroom, two-bath model to a 8,947 square foot beachfront mansions with eight bedrooms and a two bedroom, one bath guest house. Prices range from under $2 million to just over $7 million.

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Tags: avalon beach, AvalonBeach, florida, housing, luxury development

2626 West Lake, Luxury Condo in Minneapolis

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

More condo downsizing news this time from Minneapolis. The 2626 West Lake luxury condo project was originally planned to be 70 units but the developers are now cutting the number of units from 70 to 46. The reason given is that they were receiving too many complaints from neighbors but given the slowing condo market it's probably not a bad move for that reason too. The 2626 West Lake project overlooks the Midtown Greenway and Lake of the Isles and has direct access to walking paths. The 46 units are spread out over four buildings which are from four to seven stories high. The condos range from 1,450 to 3,000 square feet and sell for $500,000 to over $3 million.

[via The Star Tribune]

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Tags: condominium, housing, minneapolis, condo, Minneapolis,Condo, real estate

Oslo and London, World's Most Expensive Cities

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

It seems like a new list of the world's most expensive cities is released every month, with Moscow on top just a few weeks ago. Compiled by Swiss bank UBS, the list was based on the cost of a group of 122 goods and services. Oslo topped the list, followed closely by London, Copenhagen, Zurich and Tokyo. The highest ranked North American city was New York. The cost of housing was not included in the main study, but when it was taken into account, the two most expensive cities were listed as London and New York.

The least expensive cities were Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Buenos Aires and Delhi.

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Tags: cost, housing, least expensive cities, london, most expensive cities, MostExpensiveCities, new york, norway, oslo

Home For Sale: Vegetarians Only

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Mumbai is one of the most desirable cities to live in in India, with a forward-thinking population and a booming economy. As in most places, desirability also makes it expensive and family-sized apartments can sell for more than £250,000, even in the suburbs. It turns out that price is not the only barrier to finding housing. Housing associations are being set up all over the city that exclude non-vegetarians from buying flats - even if they make a higher offer than a vegetarian bidding on the same property.

Since apartments are allowed to enforce Catholic-only or Hindu-only building, judges have not sided with the omnivores when they have taken housing associations to court on discrimination charges. A supporter of the associations said he felt "vegetarians should be given the right to admit who they want."

And to think: some people in the US complain about how their housing association picks out the exact color of pots they can use in the front yard and determines the appropriate style of front door knocker. At least they're not (yet) making lifestyle choices for the families who live there. It does beg the question about what the strictest housing associations would have their residents do for the privilege of living there. Stepford wives, anyone?

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Tags: discrimination, housing, housing associations, india, lifestyle, meat, mumbai, real estate, vegetarians

Luxury Living for Students

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

The moniker of "starving students" may not have applied to all of your friends at university, but it's a fair bet that at least one or two were on the cautious side with their cash. Housing and food seemed to be the first two things that students wanted to compromise on, but now students are able to raise their standards as universities introduce more luxurious housing options. In 2002, at Manchester, a privately-owned dorm opened that offered a swimming pool, spas, saunas, apartments with en suite bedrooms, a full gym and an internet cafe. One student reported that she paid £89 per week for her accommodation there, a rate that is no more than average for a room in the area. The dormitory was met with such resounding success that they are building an addition to accommodate 25% more students this year, and other universities in England are following the trend by putting in similar complexes.

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Tags: dorm, dormitory, england, housing, luxurious, student, university

Riverfront Newberg Oregon Home, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

This French County-style home in Newberg, Oregon sits on a 3/4 mile stretch of Willamette riverfront and overlooks Champoeg State Park. The 25-acre estate has a private gated drive, courtyard, tennis court, pool Jacuzzi, two docks, a boat house, playground, tree house and a six-stall barn. The seven-bedroom home is 9200 sq. ft. with a gourmet kitchen and four fireplaces. It is listed at $12.95 million.

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Tags: estate, home, housing, luxury, newberg, oregon, real estate

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