Archive for March 23rd, 2008
Filed under: Estates
For a while it seemed that Miami might be one part of Florida that was if not immune from the real estate slowdown, protected a bit by its size and cachet. But now prices have started to plummet and putting many real estate speculators in trouble. The Miami skyline is dotted with cranes as buildings continue to go up but thousands of condo units are waiting either unsold or in foreclosure.
The numbers in Miami are startling, According to a report in Canada’s Globe and Mail, prices citywide were 17.5 per cent lower in December than a year earlier with the value of some condos down by as much as half. And as more condo projects in progress are finished up the numbers could even go lower. Condos with sexy names and alluring promotions such as Jade and Vue are now facing millions of dollars in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. It’s been a disaster for both investors and developers. In fact, two prominent Miami condo developers who were facing condo problems have died of heart attacks.
The problem in Miami is just part of Florida’s boom and bust cycle. Whole towns sprung up over the last few years and many have gone bust just as quickly often leaving half-built homes abandoned (for a great pic series on this check out this piece on Rotunda Sands in Mental Floss). At this point, practically the entire say of Florida is in some sort of foreclosure crisis making it easy pickings for those from across the country and around the world looking for a real estate deal. Both homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth and developers forced to sell condos at cost or in some cases for even less than it cost to build them are ready to accept all sorts of offers.
For now, the temporary bandage seems to be real estate auctions. The other day I mentioned that two prominent real estate firms in Florida are working with a major real estate auction company. And just about each day I learn of a new auction of a condo complex in Florida. Many of the auctions are absolute, meaning that bidders will take whatever they have the ability to get. The good news is that this slump cannot last forever and for those who have the means to pick up a warm weather getaway there are major bargains to be had. Maybe this is the time for Miami developers to reach out to Russian investors looking for a place to wait out the winter chill.
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Filed under: Estates
Usually I don’t write up pieces of land without homes on them but this one is pretty impressive, a huge 1,507-acre spread (1,374 deeded along with 133-acre BLM lease) in Montana on the Yellowstone River. This area was named Black Bluffs by Capt. William Clark of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery and has been basically untouched for over 200 years. The property is bordered on the north by 2.5 miles of private Yellowstone River frontage and has dramatic upriver views framed by the Beartooth Mountains, Montana’s tallest peaks. The river is full of wild brown and rainbow trout and the area is rich with wildlife including sage grouse, wild turkey, elk, moose, black bear, antelope, eagle and osprey. The property is located about 30 minutes away from Billings, Montana. Hopefully whoever buys this land will preserve this beautiful open space. It is listed at $5,750,000.
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Filed under: Estates
A new building in the West End/Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington D.C. is one of the priciest complexes in the area. The $100 million building called 22 West, is located at 22nd and M streets and will be home to 92 condominiums ranging in price from $838,500 one bedrooms to penthouses going for as much as $3,868,500. All two bedroom and bigger units get two parking spaces and the smaller units get one space each. Also each unit gets a storage locker. Each unit has floor-to-ceiling windows, natural oak wood flooring and plenty of wiring for all audio-visual devices and building wireless and high-speed internet access. The building will have a rooftop pool, a garden terrace, a restaurant and retail stores on the ground floor. The GW Hatchet reports that the building is currently around 30% sold. it is scheduled to be completed this summer.
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Filed under: Estates
For $12.5 million this gorgeous estate in Potomac, Maryland could be your new abode. A colonial style home built in 2004, this big home has ten bedrooms, eleven baths and five powder rooms. With 2.7 acres to enjoy, including the 50-foot swimming pool with waterfalls and lighted outdoor tennis court, this 25,000 square feet home affords plenty of space for pleasing guests or hosting massive family gatherings. Each room that could be conceived of is included — media room, wine cellars, staff quarters, exercise room and sauna, and a six-car garage. Plus it is conveniently close to downtown Washington D.C. and a few nearby airports. All it needs is a barn for horses to make it complete — at least in my eyes.
[Thanks, Matthew F.]
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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping
 Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has become the latest member off the celebrity foreclosure club. According to the Detroit Free Press she has said that an attorney’s mistake is the reason that her $700,000 mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has slipped into foreclosure over a mere $445 in 2005 taxes and late fees. She now owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes on the property through 2007. She has plans to pay up and get the slate-roofed brick mansion on Hamilton Road (see pic at the Detroit Free Press article) back before the March 31 foreclosure deadline. TMZ has Aretha’s official foreclosure documents.
In related celebrity foreclosure news, Michael Jackson’s attorneys state that he has worked out a deal with Fortress Investment Group to save Neverland, his big California estate which has been flirting with foreclosure for months now. The move will avoid the March 19 auction date for the home. I still say this is just a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Jackson likely can’t afford the home and he can’t seem to find anyone who will buy it from him.
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Filed under: Estates
Another prime Newport, Rhode Island estate has gone on the market. Like Beechwood, another Newport estate we have covered as an estate of the day, Oakwood has a connection to the Astor family. It was the 19th-century summer residence of Mary Alida Astor Carey, the daughter of William Backhouse Astor, a son of John Jacob Astor. The home was built in the late 1860s and was one of the first summer retreats for the rich in the area. It was added to in the 1870s with a three-story tower, music room, ballroom and kitchen wing all added.
The Boston Globe reports that the current owner is J. Brian O’Neill, a Pennsylvania-based real estate developer who bought the property in 2004. He has shepherded it through a redesign that included expanding the master suite and adding a luxury loo above the enclosed rear terrace that overlooks the pool. The home has maintained some of its grandeur, the most beautiful room in the home is the dining room that has walls lined with 56 hand-painted Chinese panels, but has also been updated for today’s less formal society with a family room and a home theater. Key details in the seven-bedroom home include parquet floors, a Baccarat chandelier in the music room, carved mantels and beautiful woodwork. The almost six-acre property includes a six-hole putting green, a lawn tennis court, a reflecting pool stocked with koi, a rose garden, and ancient oak and split-leaf beech trees. It is listed at $10.75 million.
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Filed under: Estates
 Need more proof that Florida’s real estate market is in deep trouble? Here it is, both Sotheby’s Realty and Coldwell Banker are making moves on the real estate auction front. Sol Sotheby’s International Realty and Nestler Poletto Sotheby’s International Realty have announced they will hold their first luxury property auction for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties on March 28 in Fort Lauderdale, putting more than $200 million in high-end properties on the block. Most of the properties will be sold to the highest qualified bidder with no limiting conditions or amounts.
The same company that is working with Sotheby’s, Daniel DeCaro Real Estate Auctions, is also helping Coldwell Banker Real Estate Florida with auctions. They now offer clients the option of auctioning off their homes in Central Florida rather than selling in the traditional manner.
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Companies Improve Career Sites To Lure Top Quality Candidates - Wall Street Journal
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Filed under: Estates
Like me, the Real Estalker Mama has a weakness for gawking at truly outlandish homes. And he unearthed a doozy. La Reve, the home of Hubert and Norma Humphrey in Cumming Georgia has just about everything you could think of. Private bowling alley? Check. Golf course? Yup. How about a big move theater, a complete gym, massage room and a toy train room. The train room is a replica of Atlanta’s Fox theater and the train room is a replica of the old Central Georgia Railroad from Atlanta to Macon to Savannah that Hubert Humphrey worked on for 17 years as a train conductor.
This home is another in the long line of what I call Xanadu homes, the ones where someone spends a great deal of cash constructing a home of epic proportions and then finds it a little unlivable. This one is approximately 47,000 square feet on 90 acres and is a stunning monument to excess. There are 82 rooms, two elevators and 62 TVs. The grounds include a heated swimming pool, pool home, spa, private playground, stables, tennis court, formal gardens and a guest home. At $45 million this is easily the most expensive estate in Georgia. As the Atlanta Constitution noted, it might be a while before this one is sold, homes of this magnitude often sit on the market for a while and even though the home may well be worth the price, finding someone willing to pay it will be a challenge.
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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping
From Berg Properties Huge Time Listings:
–Eddie Van Halen and his brother, Alex Van Halen, have sold a home in the gated Summit neighborhood (where Britney Spears lives) in Beverly Hills for an undisclosed price expected to be in the $2 million and $3 million range (it had been on the market for $2,200,000). The house was the home of their mom who died in 2005.
–A vacant, 2.08-acre lot in Pacific Palisades area that was once was owned by Michael Keaton sold for $7.8 million.
–Actor Jesse Metcalfe has sold his home in the Hollywood Hills which was listed at $1.495 million for an undisclosed price.
–via the NY Times, Musician Duncan Sheik’s Tribeca loft, shown above, is on the market for $2,850,000, down from $2,925,000 (he bought in 1999 for a little over $850,000). The loft is currently configured as a one-bedroom, one and a half bath unit with a soundproof recording studio. He is selling the unit, because he would like his home to be solely his home, and not also the place where he also works. The listing is here.
–Purchase price revealed, Tobey Maguire paid an even $10 million for nearly an acre in Brentwood.
From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Julio Iglesias, who recently tore down his home in Indian Creek Village, Florida to build a new Spanish-style hacienda has picked up a place to hole up while he’s waiting for his new home to be completed. He purchased a four-bedroom home for $7 million in the same community.
–A Greenwich, Connecticut house that once belonged to cosmetics queen Helena Rubenstein and was most recently renovated by Sheryl Leach, the creator of Barney the purple dinosaur, has been sold. It was most recently listed at $4 million.
–A private island compound in the Florida Keys built by late Alcoa Chairman Arthur Vining Davis is for sale for $20 million. The estate is 63 acres, has a helicopter pad and runs partly on solar power.
From the International Herald Tribune’s Raising the Roof blog:
–via the Palm Beach Post, Donald Trump has lowered the price of his 6.5-acre Palm Beach estate from $125 million to $100 million.
–via the Telegraph, David and Victoria Beckham put their house in Madrid’s La Moraleja neighborhood on the market last year for
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