I’ve done a lot of traveling over the past years, and for a while I spent a lot of time traveling through Orlando’s airport. What a zoo! All those families with Disney backpacks, Mickey Mouse ears, etc. It’s not that I don’t love Mickey and the gang; I just don’t want to stand in line behind him at the security checkpoint.

Last week I was in Dulles Airport and saw the new CLEAR system at work. CLEAR collects information from you (like fingerprints and iris prints) and gives you a very thorough security screening. Then when you go through airport security checks, you can use the special lane, and zoom right through.

Not many airports have this service yet, but I’m betting it won’t be long. The cost is currently $128.00. If you’re a frequent traveler, it might be worth it. I’m thinking about it. Especially if it comes to Chicago O’Hare.

Tags: Boomer Travel, CLEAR, Dulles Airport, O’Hare Airport, TSA

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Are you the job?  If you are then what are you going to be without a job?  If you define yourself by work, well then that’s another thing all together.

My wife has an 86 year old aunt who works for the Social Security System.  Without that job she’d be dead.  Remember Woody Hayes, legendary football coach of Ohio Say.  I don’t think he lasted a month after he retired.  Died of a heart attack as I remember.  Off hand, I don’t think those situations are healthy.

When I talk about a job, I mean something you do for pay for someone else, sleeves rolled up type of work.  I don’t mean the senior member of a law firm stopping in at a 11 and leaving at 2.

In the past men have always had a job identification problem when they retired.  Now, with so many women in the workforce it is becoming more prevalent with women also.

Understanding the relationship between how you define yourself and your job isn’t something you should put off until the day after you retire.  It’s not an simple question.  A more interesting question and a corollary is “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Answer the one and you may answer the other.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Controversial pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright is getting a luxurious retirement home. The Tinley Park Southtown Star reports that Barack Obama’s former pastor will have a four-bedroom home in Tinley Park, Illinois, a southern Chicago suburb. Wright’s home, which is being paid for by his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, will include an elevator, butler’s pantry, exercise room, a master bedroom with a whirlpool and a spare room for a future theater or swimming pool. The mansion is estimated to cost $1 million.

Wright was recently in the news for his controversial polemics against U.S. foreign policy and Obama’s Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. He has retired from preaching and it is the policy of the church to provide housing for retiring clergy although I’d guess that usually the lodging isn’t quite so lavish.

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Filed under: Estates

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be checking out some homes in the most pricey zip codes in the United Says, up this day, 33037. This zip code lands us in Key Largo, Florida, an island paradise in the upper Florida Keys archipelago . This getaway famous for tourism diving and sport-fishing has been celebrated both in a Humphrey Bogart movie and a 1980s pop song by Bertie Higgins. This tropical vacation spot has a median price of $2,740,000 with an appreciation rate of 385% since 1990.

Today’s estate isn’t the most high-priced one for sale in the area but it exemplifies the more luxurious side of Key Largo real estate. The property has both a five-bedroom main house and a guest house. The two-acre retreat on the water has tropical landscaping, a dock and a pool and spa. There’s a big gourmet kitchen a double-height great room and plenty of windows and veranda space. One particularly nice detail is the loft which has a spiral staircase leading to a roof sun deck. This home is listed at $5,395,000.

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Another grand old home in Newport, Rhode Island has hit the market. Braden Keil’s Gimme Shelter column in the NY Post alerted me to the fact that Hopedene, a grand home on Newport’s famous Cliff Walk is for sale. Hopedene was built in 1889 and is called Peabody and Stearns’s most monumental Colonial Revival residence. The home is on six acres and is approached via a private lane to gilt and wrought iron gates, The property includes a main house, a huge carriage house with guest quarters, an ocean facing pool and spa, tennis court, gated service entrance, and an FAA approved heliport.

The home itself has gorgeous details including a marble vestibule with a mosaic floor and Italian Renaissance style center hall and a beautiful wood-paneled library. The semi circular ballroom is currently used as a dining room. The home includes remnants of a grander age such as a butler hall, parlor, and cooks and butler’s pantries, kitchen library and a flower room. The upper floors are given over to bathrooms and bedrooms, many of which with marble fireplaces. The carriage home includes a game room with a bar, a full bath, a nautical library and French doors opening to bluestone terraces and the pool, and a heated garage. On the second level there are five bedrooms a full kitchen and laundry and bathrooms.

The NY Post reports that the owners are Palm Beach socialites Craig Millard (the retired chairman of Prudential Preferred Properties) and his wife, Michele. This home is listed at $22.5 million.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Donald Trump is asking a truly stunning amount of rent for one of his unsold Park Avenue penthouses: $200,000 per month for a three-bedroom condominium, shown above, that is listed at $45 million. The listing is here.
–We first heard rumors of this back in December but now it seems that it is official that the listing for Oscar-winning producer Marty Richards’ apartment went to contract. It’s selling for somewhere just below its $22.7 million asking price. The buyer is said to be fashion-show mogul Elyse Kroll. Her 23-room townhouse is on the market for $29.75 million. The listing is here.
–Hopedene, a fabulous mansion on Newport, Rhode Island’s famous Cliff Walk has hit the market. It’s our estate of the day later this day.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–Steven Croman who has been named to The Village Voice’s 10 Worst Landlords List, has picked up a townhouse at 7 East 75th Street,paying $14.5 million to a family that had owned the home for decades. (The home’s facade was used as home on the Television show The Nanny). Croman says he has no plans to make it into a single family home or to raise rent for existing tenants.
–Writer and Oprah scapegoat James Frey has picked up a $985,000 one-bedroom apartment which is next door to his three-bedroom apartment at 505 Greenwich Street.
–One of New York city’s most coveted homes, Brooke Astor’s 778 Park Avenue duplex may soon be on the market. Agents from five of the city’s top brokerages met in the 778 Park duplex’s library to audition for the listing which could be as much as $46 million.

From The Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Bear Sterns Chief Executive Alan D. Schwartz has taken his Buy, New York house off the market and is renting it instead. The home was listed for $4.5 million. Bear Chairman and former CEO James Cayne shut last month on a $27.4 million buy of two adjacent apartments at the Plaza in New York.
–Allman Brothers Band drummer Claude “Butch” Trucks has cut the asking price on his Palm Beach, Fla., house again this month to $3.995 million, down 17% from the original $4.8 million. The listing is here.
–In Manhattan, a few new high-profile condo buildings with uncommon designs are selling at high prices for downtown neighborhoods. At 100 11th Ave., an irregular, glass-faceted tower designed by France’s Jean Nouvel, 70% of the building’s 72 original units have sold since sales began in April. Eight of the nine units at Shigeru Ban’s “Metal Shutter Houses” development have sold at full asking price of up to $10.25 million. Herzog & de Meuron’s 28-unit green-glass 40 Bond building still has one original unit for sale after two years on the market, in addition to several resale listings.

From Berg Properties Huge Time Listings:
–via WSJ Private Properties, retired quarterback Drew Bledsoe is selling his home in Westlake, Texas. He already lives in Bend, Oregon. The listing is here.
–Sitcom actress Jaime Pressly has paid $2,250,000 for a new five-bedroom home in Sherman Oaks.
–British TV presenter and Simon Cowell girlfriend Terri Seymour, has paid $4.6 million for a home in the Bird Streets area of the Hollywood Hills. Pictures of the beautiful contemporary home are here.
–A modern home in the Hollywood Hills that once was owned by actress Milla Jovovich has been listed for $2,399,000. The virtual tour is here.
–Michael J. Fox has paid $6,300,000 for a new six-bedroom house in Quogue, N.Y.
–Charlotte Bobcats shooting guard Jason Richardson has listed his five-bedroom home in Oakland, CA for $3,100,000. The listing is here.
–O magazine editor-at-large and Oprah BFF Gayle King has closed on the purchase of a $7,100,000 condo in Manhattan.
–Rumor has it that Jessica Simpson may have purchased a huge house in Nashville, Tennessee but so far she has denied this.
–Danny Masterson has sold his four-bedroom, Spanish-style house in the Beachwood Canyon area of Los Angeles for $1.2 million.
–via TMZ Tom Arnold has listed his five-bedroom, 4,211-square-foot home in Tarzana for $2,275,000. The virtual tour is here.

From the Real Estalker:
–The $81.5 million Sidney Kimmel home in Palm Beach may have already gone to contract for a number over $75 million.
–Actor Enrique Murciano has listed his home in Los Angeles for $1.795 million. The listing is here.
–via NY Daily News, Mary J. Blige has paid $12.3 million for a home in Saddle River, NJ that was originally listed at $17 million.

From the LA Times: Hot Property:
–Another look at the home that DJ Paul Oakenfold has put on the market for $10 million. It was our estate of the day in February.
–Hotelier Jason Pomeranc has bought a former Hollywood Hills home of actress Sandra Dee and singer Bobby Darin for about $3 million.
–Frank Sinatra’s Palm Desert hideaway,Villa Maggio, has hit the market for $4.995 million. The compound sleeps up to 22 people and there is a helicopter pad, movie theater and outdoor dance floor. The listing is here.
–Actress Dedee Pfeiffer, sister of Michelle Pfeiffer, has listed her home in Mandeville Canyon for $1.195 million. It looks like the three-bedroom home with hot and cold Japanese-style dipping pools has already gone to contract. The listing is here.
–Actor Gregory Harrison has listed his southern Oregon home at $5.9 million. We covered this home as an estate of the day back in January but were unaware of its celebrity provenance

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Last January, we heard about the plans for a $155 million home planned for the Yellowstone Club, the exclusive millionaires’ playground in Montana. The AP reports that Tim Blixseth, the founder of the Yellowstone Club has sold the parcel of land where he had planned to build the home. Huge Sky resident Loren Bough bought the 160-acre parcel.

Earlier this month, The Desert Sun did a comprehensive story on Blixseth’s fight to keep his wealth. He and his wife Edra Blixseth have been involved in a bitter divorce. He’s also been fighting a multimillion-dollar settlement with former cycling star Greg LeMond. When Tim and Edra first split in December 2006 after a 25 year relationship, they were lauded for dividing their property and assets without fights and lawyers. But since then, they’ve been involved in a protracted battle for their shared assets.

Also Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, his parents-in-law David and Sacia Morris, and Jorge Jasson, a family friend have claimed i ncourt that Blixseth tried to buy their shares at the Yellowstone Club for a total of $13 million, which they state was a fraction of their value. The celebrations reached a $38 million settlement in the case. Blixseth paid the first installment on the suit but missed a payment in January and interest is now accruing.

Blixseth is trying to sell the 13,400-acre gated community. In January he was working with CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC, the Boston-based private- equity firm founded by Yellowstone member Sam Byrne to sell assets of the club for $455.7 million.

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For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most pricey zip codes in the United Says, up this day, 33404. This zip code is is in the Riviera Beach/Singer Island section of Palm Beach County, Florida and has a median price of $2,890,000 with an appreciation rate of 563% since 1990. Singer Island was founded by Paris Singer, the Singer Sewing Machine company founder who, rumor has it, purchased the island as a present for his mistress.

Much of the Singer Island area is given over to condominiums which so far don’t seems to have suffered the real estate disaster that has plagued so many Florida condominiums. Perhaps this is because there’s only so much of Singer Island to go around. This condo is in One Singer Island, a new complex stocked with amenities that include a private and enclosed parking garage, lobby with a grand salon, social room and Versace patio, private theater, wine room, billiard room, fitness center and a pool and spa deck. There are just 15 residences in the building. The first five floors have two residences per floor. The top five floors have one “ocean to intracoastal” penthouse each. This unique unit is the top full floor and it has a truly dramatic feature, a spiral staircase leading to your own private rooftop terrace with a lounge area and sheltered hot tub. This apartment is listed at $5,995,000.

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For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most costly zip codes in the United States, up today, 33480. This zip code is is in the exclusive town of Palm Beach in South Florida and has a median price of $2,910,000 with an appreciation rate of 426% since 1990.

Palm Beach has been a place for the wealthy to wait out the winter since Henry Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, made the Atlantic coast barrier island accessible through his Florida East Coast Railway. The town was incorporated in 1911 and way by then home to many beautiful mansions. Over the years the building has continued and Palm Beach is one of the most affluent areas in the U.S. and is host to a variety of luxury events. Over the past couple of years there have been many homes in the $30-$40 million range in Palm Beach and since 2005 Donald Trump has been trying to sell a home in the area for the astronomical price of $125 million.

Today’s home is nowhere near that expensive but it is still a display of Palm Beach wealth. The home is located on directly on the Atlantic and has a fantastic beachside pool and cabana. There are five bedrooms total and the scale of the home, include what looks to be a large marble art gallery, all continue the legend that is Palm Beach. This home is listed at $25.75 million.

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

It’s the season for worrying every last deduction you can possibly take on your taxes. As you’re sweating those last minute details here’s a story to make your blood boil. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will get a $3 mllion tax break because his Japanese-style home in Woodside, California is “functionally obsolete.”

Ellison’s Octopus Holdings LP bought the 23-acre site in May 1995 for $12 million and then sent to work on a nine year project constructing his version of Xanadu, a lavish 8,000-square-foot home based on a Japanese emperor’s 16th century estate. Ellison seems to have a taste for all things Japanese, he also bought a home in Atherton in 1987 and turned it into a Japanese-style palace with seven bedrooms, a traditional tea home, bath house, gardens, a koi pond and waterfalls on 2.8 acres. That home was quietly put on the market in 2005 for $25 million. The property website for that home is here.

According to the Chronicle, the assessor’s office based its January 2005 valuation of Elllison’s Woodside home on reproduction costs, the $166.3 million it should have cost to build the home. The construction actually cost more than $200 million. But attorney William Bennett representing Octopus Holdings argued that the property was worth only $64.7 million at that time and in the two tax years, since entitling Ellison to a $3 million rebate on taxes paid. The appeals board concurred and so the $3 million will come from San Mateo county’s property taxes paid this year. Of that $3 million it is estimated that almost $1.4 million would have gone to schools in the area .

Ellison’s home decline in value is shocking in an area that boasts very high-priced real estate thanks to the Googleaires, people who made their fortune at Google and invested in big homes locally. The reason for the dip in value is essentially that Ellison created a home that no one else would want to purchase. The home is said to suffer from “significant functional obsolescence” because the Japanese architecture, elaborate landscaping and over improvements to the property have made it a home that’s high-priced to maintain and has reduced value to to others.

Ellison, who has a net worth of $25 billion according to Forbes, has turned his attentions to Southern California in recent years. In 2005 he picked up five lots in Malibu’s expensive Carbon Beach area for a reported $65 million and is stated to be looking into buying an NFL franchise for Los Angeles.

As the Chornicle article points out, perhaps the only good news out of this might come from the fact that it draws attention to the fact that homeowners can have their property values reassessed. With the declining real estate market in many regions some people may be in a situation where their property is being over-assessed but they are not aware of it.

[Thanks to Uncle Roger and Lana for calling our attention to this one]

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