Homeowners across America are selling their homes for bitcoin to cash in on the cryptocurrency bubble.

Over the last year, an increasing number of real estate listings have begun accepting or requesting cryptocurrency for payment. Some sellers only accept bitcoin as payment.

According to Mashable, real estate site Trulia had about 80 listings that mentioned cryptocurrency last month, while Redfin said it's seen the number of listings accepting cryptocurrency rocket from 75 in December to 134 in January.

To make it work, you need two parties to agree on the transaction, according to realtor Piper Moretti, who has closed five sales using bitcoin.

Typically, the buyer and seller agree on a fixed price in dollars and then decide on a fair exchange rate at closing. The bitcoins are then converted to cash by a third party, like BitPay, and the cash is then given to the seller. The buyers take on all the risk, Moretti said.

The opportunity has allowed newly-minted bitcoin millionaires to offload some of their cryptocurrency, which changes value constantly, for a more stable asset.

But skeptics warn that the bitcoin bubble is about to burst. Fears over tighter regulation led the price of bitcoin to fall to $5,947 in February, or about 225% below its record high in December. The currency is now trading over $10,000 per coin, though it remains extremely volatile.

Check out what bitcoin millionaires are buying.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is so expensive that even Facebook and Apple employees can't afford to live near the office

According to the listing for this lake house on the edge of California's Joshua Tree National Park, it's a "money maker." The previous owner rented it out as a vacation home.

Source: Zillow

The four-bedroom, three-bath house has an in-ground pool, stunning lake and mountain views, and a gated entry. The asking price was $599,000 or the equivalent in bitcoin.

"It's just crazy what's going on," Michael McCrae, the seller, told Money magazine about his decision to accept bitcoin. The lake house sold for $570,000 (near asking price) in January.

Source: Money

• The Hamptons is one of the most elite vacation destinations in America.
• Many rich celebrities, hedge fund managers, CEOs, socialites, and politicians own multi-million dollar summer homes in the Hamptons.
• The high volume of mansions in the Hamptons — and its waterfront locale — makes it one of the most expensive real estate markets in the US.

The Hamptons is the preeminent summer vacation destination in the tri-state area.

The Hamptons encompasses more than two dozen villages and hamlets on Long Island. While people live there year-round, it's the months between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend each year when visitors infuse the Hamptons with energy — and money.

The Hamptons is hallmarked by its countless famous and flush residents, including hedge fund managers, celebrities, CEOs, and socialites. Bill and Hillary Clinton have long vacationed on Georgica Beach in East Hampton. And Southampton even has its very own "Billionaire Lane" reserved for the rich and powerful.

Such prestige doesn't come cheap. At least seven towns in the Hamptons have a median home listing price of around $1 million. That means half the houses for sale in those places are priced under seven figures, and half are priced above. What's more, at least 11 towns have median home prices between $2.2 million to $5.6 million.

That's according to StreetEasy, which recently launched a new Hamptons platform, Out East, for sale and rental listings in the Hamptons. Out East provided Business Insider with a ranking of most expensive towns in the Hamptons based on median list price.

Below, we've featured the 21 towns in the Hamptons where the median list price is highest as of February 22, ranked from least expensive to most. Towns with fewer than 20 homes for sale were excluded from the list.

SEE ALSO: America's richest people buy homes in 'power markets' — here are the 17 most expensive and exclusive places

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Hampton Bays

Homes listed: 109

Median list price: $799,000

Cutchogue (Nassau Point)

Homes listed: 21

Median list price: $949,000

Southold

Homes listed: 26

Median list price: $997,000

People are leaving San Francisco in droves as the cost of living reaches a new high.

A recent report from real estate-site Redfin revealed that San Francisco lost more residents than any other city in the country in the last quarter of 2017. The great migration is far from over. Last month, 49% of Bay Area residents said they would consider leaving California because of the cost of living, according to a survey of 500 residents by public-relations firm Edelman.

Here are all the crazy things happening because of the Bay Area's insane housing prices:

SEE ALSO: San Francisco's housing market is so dire that people are spending over $1 million on the 'earthquake shacks' built after the 1906 fires

This is how people outside the area imagine living in San Francisco.

And this is the reality.

The median-priced home in San Francisco sells for $1.5 million, according to Paragon. It's not uncommon for buyers to bid hundreds of thousands above asking and pay in all cash.

Source: Paragon

Whether you want to admit it or not, we’ve all dreamed of living in a mansion. And though some celebrities chose to live modestly, others live in homes anyone would envy.

And if you’re going to blow some money, investing in an insanely extravagant home looks like the way to go.

From a trampoline room with 20-foot ceilings to a personal vineyard, these are the most lavish and expensive not-so-humble celebrity abodes that are sure to make any resident feel like royalty.

Oprah's expansive California estate has its own tea house.

Although Oprah owns multiple estates across the US, her42-acre estate in Montecito, California, known as “The Promised Land,” takes the cake as the most lavish.

Purchased for $52 million in 2001, it is now worth over $100 million thanks to Oprah’s over-the-top renovations. The expansive mansion has six bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 10 fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen, two theatres (one inside and one outside), a wine cellar, a barn, ponds and orchards, a tennis court, a lake, an outdoor entertainment area, and a huge guesthouse with a pool. There is also a teahouse, because why not?

Beyoncè and Jay-Z recently dropped $88 million on a Los Angeles estate.

Legendary hip-hop artists Beyoncè and Jay-Z recently bought a home together in LA with a steep purchase price of $88 million, making itamong the most expensive real estate deals ever in L.A. County. The Bel-Air mansion has six structures with about 30,000 square feet of interior space along with expansive patios and terraces adding an additional 10,000 square feet of outdoor living space.

The home includes amenities such as a spa and wellness facility, a full-size basketball court, a media room, and four swimming pools. Doors and windows on the two-acre estate are bulletproof.

Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion was infamous for its parties.

Though Hugh Hefner bought the 22,000 square foot Playboy Mansion for $1.1 million in 1971, itwas sold in 2016 for a whopping $100 million to the co-owner of Hostess Brands, Daren Metropoulos. The mansion was purchased with the stipulation that Hefner could live in the property until he passed.

The iconic estate features a catering kitchen, pool, wine cellar, tennis court, and 29 rooms in addition to a four-bedroom guest house.

Since Hefner’s passing, it is unclear what renovations will be done to the famed mansion.

• Canada's frothy real estate market has pushed the Bank of International Settlements to note several warning signs of a pending financial crisis.
• While it's hard to say when or even if that crisis could happen, high credit-to-GDP gaps, debt service ratios, and property gaps tend to be red flags.

Canadian real estate prices have helped push Canada into a warning for a financial crisis. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) published their quarterly review of central banks. The review is an exhaustive assessment of banking indicators, looking for any signs that could lead to stress at domestic banks. Canada is now flashing a warning signal for all four categories, which would typically lead to a financial crisis.

The Bank of International Settle-what?

The BIS is known as the bank for central banks. The Swiss-based organization does research and advisory for the 60 central banks that fund and own it. The goal is to make sure that monetary policy is more “predictable” and “transparent.” It’s a club, where central bankers can meet, without the prying eyes of their local governments. You know, so they can get advice from each other, that may not be all that helpful for regular people.

The BIS is one of the few organizations that flagged the US for a banking crisis. Despite knowing what was coming in the mid-2000s, the Great Recession still hit in 2008. Knowing something doesn’t mean you can do something about it. Although some of the world’s largest fund managers appreciate the warnings.

Credit-to-GDP gaps, debt service ratios, and property gaps

The most useful thing the BIS produces is the Early Warning Indicators (EWI). The EWI are a set of binary indicators, that look for rapid changes that can cause stress to the banking system. Binary indicator means they either warn or don’t, there’s no estimate of how serious the crisis will be. The Credit-to-GDP gap, debt service ratio, and the property gaps are the big EWIs you’ll want to know.

These are elaborate calculations, but they’re pretty simple concepts. The Credit-to-GDP gap is the speed of credit changing, in contrast to GDP (we actually touched on a similar observation on Friday). The debt service ratio (DSR) is the level of debt servicing, which are the payments required to maintain credit in good standing. The property price gap is how quickly home prices jump. I know, your real estate agent says quick moving property prices are a good thing. The BIS thinks it leads to banking instability.

Canada is flashing three warning signs

The BIS quarterly, 196 page report notes that “Canada, China, and Hong Kong SAR stand out.” They can’t tell us when a financial crisis is going to happen. However, they do assign red or amber warning indicators. Either warning, has been indicative of a financial crisis, two-thirds of the time. Canada is the only country flashing warning indicators for all four categories.

The BIS notes special attention to credit-to-GDP warnings, when combined with a home price gap. Canada has the third highest credit-to-GDP gap, of countries that also have a home price gap. Only Hong Kong SAR, and Switzerland rank higher. Once again, a higher number doesn’t mean the correction will be more severe. It means the likelihood of the issue resolving itself is more slim.

Canadian real estate debt has been the primary driver of three of the four EWIs. This warning follows the US Federal Reserve calling Canadian real estate buyers “exuberant,” UBS ranking Toronto as the largest bubble in the world, and IMF expressing concerns to senate. It’s probably nothing.

SEE ALSO: Baby Boomers and Millennials are saving differently from earlier generations, and it could cause some big problems

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Tiger Woods and his ex-wife, former Swedish model Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010 after six years of marriage.
• In 2011, Nordegren purchased property in North Palm Beach, Florida, and custom built a mansion.
• The 11-bedroom mansion is now listed for $49.5 million.

Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren, who was married to the pro golfer for six years, has placed her 11-bedroom Florida mansion on the market for $49.5 million. Woods and 38-year-old Nordegren divorced in 2010.

The property was purchased by Nordegren in 2011 for $12.25 million, and the custom-built mansion was completed in 2014.

The 23,176 square-foot oceanfront home is in Seminole Landing — a private, gated community in North Palm Beach, Florida. The property comes with 11 bedrooms, 15 full baths, a guest house, and a four-car garage.

Other perks inside include a wine cellar, theater, fitness center, a catering kitchen, and a three-story Swarovski crystal chandelier. The home is inspired by British West Indies architectural design, and if the beach doesn't impress, there's also a swimming pool equipped with a waterslide and spa, lounge areas with fire pits, a half basketball court, and a putting green.

The listing is held by Cristina Condon and Todd Peter of Sotheby's International Realty.

Keep scrolling for a full tour of the mansion.

SEE ALSO: An elite networking group that counts professional athletes and fashion executives as members is turning an island off Finland into the next Soho House

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In total the mansion is 25,878 square feet.

The home sits on 1.4 acres of land.

The design was inspired by British West Indies architectural design.

• Home decor is usually a matter of personal taste, but there are a few instances where "ugly" is undisputed.
• @pleasehatethesethings is an Instagram account that documents the most epic fails in design and home decor.
• Some of the worst offenses are a blood-red bathtub, carpeted walls and ceilings, and a shower head that sprays the toilet.

Home decor is usually a matter of personal taste, but there are a few instances where "ugly" is undisputed.

The Instagram user @pleasehatethesethings is keeping tabs for the rest of us with an ongoing catalog of "Absurd, ill conceived & just plain stupid things in home decor." 

Dina Holland is an interior designer based outside of Boston and her alternate social media account has taken off. Apparently people hate the same things she does — horrendous houses with humorous design flaws. Her account now has over 16,000 followers.

Holland's business account — @honeyandfritz— showcases work from Dina Holland Interiors. She said the origin of @pleasehatethesethings came from posting photos of designs she didn't like on her business account.

"Then people started messaging me the things they hate and I kept posting it to share," Holland told Business Insider. "It was going on for days and one of my followers was like, 'You need to make a whole other account for this.'"

Holland said the reaction has been mostly positive: "People think it's funny."

Holland previously told Architectural Digest these design disasters happen because "a lot of younger designers don't have the confidence to go in and say, 'No, that's not the right look.'"

From misplaced toilets to poor carpeting decisions, the design faux pas Holland highlights on her Instagram page all have one thing in common: They look terrible.

Below are some of the funniest design flaws featured on @pleasehatethesethings:

SEE ALSO: The way Trump decorates the Oval Office could influence design trends across the entire US

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The color scheme may be harsh on the eyes, but at least there is knit carpeting for when you decide to walk on the ceiling.

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Live. Laugh. Love. Garlic. All good wall-pasted quotes need a smelly clove.

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No word if this room, complete with purple carpeted walls, belonged to a Prince superfan.

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• White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's company faked paperwork about three apartment buildings it owned in order to make a huge profit.
• In the documents, obtained by the AP, the company said it didn't have any tenants living in rent-controlled units in the apartment, when in fact it had hundreds.
• The company pushed people out of the buildings in order to sell the properties at 50% more than it paid for them.
• People reported being forced out and harassed once the company took over the buildings.

NEW YORK (AP) — When the Kushner Cos. bought three apartment buildings in a gentrifying neighborhood of Queens in 2015, most of the tenants were protected by special rules that prevent developers from pushing them out, raising rents and turning a tidy profit.

But that's exactly what the company then run by Jared Kushner did, and with remarkable speed. Two years later, it sold all three buildings for $60 million, nearly 50 percent more than it paid.

Now a clue has emerged as to how President Donald Trump's son-in-law's firm was able to move so fast: The Kushner Cos. routinely filed false paperwork with the city declaring it had zero rent-regulated tenants in dozens of buildings it owned across the city when, in fact, it had hundreds.

While none of the documents during a three-year period when Kushner was CEO bore his personal signature, they provide a window into the ethics of the business empire he ran before he went on to become one of the most trusted advisers to the president of the United States.

"It's bare-faced greed," said Aaron Carr, founder of Housing Rights Initiative, a tenants' rights watchdog that compiled the work permit application documents and shared them with The Associated Press. "The fact that the company was falsifying all these applications with the government shows a sordid attempt to avert accountability and get a rapid return on its investment."

Kushner Cos. responded in a statement that it outsources the preparation of such documents to third parties that are reviewed by independent counsel, and "if mistakes or violations are identified, corrective action is taken immediately."

"Kushner would never deny any tenant their due-process rights," it said, adding that the company "has renovated thousands of apartments and developments with minimal complaints over the past 30 years."

Details of the company's fraud

For the three Queens buildings in the borough's Astoria neighborhood, the Kushner Cos. checked a box on construction permit applications in 2015 that indicated the buildings had zero rent-regulated tenants. Tax records filed a few months later showed the company inherited as many as 94 rent-regulated units from the previous owner.

In all, Housing Rights Initiative found the Kushner Cos. filed at least 80 false applications for construction permits in 34 buildings across New York City from 2013 to 2016, all of them indicating there were no rent-regulated tenants. Instead, tax documents show there were more than 300 rent-regulated units. Nearly all the permit applications were signed by a Kushner employee, including sometimes the chief operating officer.

Had the Kushner Cos. disclosed those rent-regulated tenants, it could have triggered stricter oversight of construction crews by the city, including possibly unscheduled "sweeps" on site by inspectors to keep the company from harassing tenants and getting them to leave.

Instead, current and former tenants of the Queens buildings told the AP that they were subjected to extensive construction, with banging, drilling, dust and leaking water that they believe were part of targeted harassment to get them to leave and clear the way for higher-paying renters.

"It was noisy, there were complaints, I got mice," said mailman Rudolph Romano, adding that the Kushner Cos. tried to increase his rent by 60 percent, an accusation the company denied. "They cleaned the place out. I watched the whole building leave."

Tax records show those rent-regulated units that numbered as many as 94 when Kushner took over fell to 25 by 2016.

The company broke the law and harassed tenants

In Kushner buildings across the city, records show frequent complaints about construction going on early in the morning or late at night against the rules, improper or illegal construction, and work without a permit.

At a six-story walk-up in Manhattan's East Village that was once home to the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the Kushner Cos. filed an application to begin construction in late 2013 that, again, listed zero rent-regulated tenants. Tax records a few months later showed seven rent-regulated units.

"All of a sudden, there was drilling, drilling. ... You heard the drilling in the middle of night," said one of the rent-regulated tenants, Mary Ann Siwek, 67, who lives on Social Security payments and odd jobs. "There were rats coming in from the abandoned building next door. The hallways were always filled with lumber and sawdust and plaster."

A knock on the door came a few weeks later, and an offer of at least $10,000 if she agreed to leave the building.

"I know it's pretty horrible, but we can help you get out," Siwek recalls the man saying. "We can offer you money."

Siwek turned down the cash and sued instead. She said she won a year's worth of free rent and a new refrigerator.

New York City Council member Ritchie Torres, who plans to launch an investigation into permit applications, said: "The Kushners appear to be engaging in what I call the weaponization of construction."

Rent stabilization is a fixture of New York City that can bedevil developers seeking to make money off buildings. To free themselves of its restrictions, landlords usually have to wait until the rent rises above $2,733 a month, something that can take years given the small increases allowed each year.

A pattern of abuse by landlords

Submitting false documents to the city's Department of Buildings for construction permits is a misdemeanor, which can carry fines of up to $25,000. But real estate experts say it is often flouted with little to no consequences. Landlords who do so get off with no more than a demand from the city, sometimes a year or more later, to file an "amended" form with the correct numbers.

Housing Rights Initiative found the Kushner Cos. filed dozens of amended forms for the buildings mentioned in the documents, most of them a year to two later.

"There is a lack of tools to go after landlords who harass tenants, and there is a lack of enforcement," said Seth Miller, a real estate lawyer who used to work at a state housing agency overseeing rent regulations. Until officials inspect every construction site, "you're going to have this incentive for landlords to make life uncomfortable for tenants."

New York City's Department of Buildings declined to comment specifically on the false application documents but said it is ramping up its monitoring of construction, hiring 72 new inspectors and other staff under city laws recently passed to crack down on tenant harassment.

"We won't tolerate landlords who use construction to harass tenants — no matter who they are," said spokesman Joseph Soldevere. He added that two of the Queens buildings are under investigation by a tenant-harassment task force.

Exactly how much money the Kushner Cos. earned from the buildings mentioned in the documents is unclear. Of those 34 buildings, only the three in Queens and a fourth in Brooklyn appear to have been sold. The company also likely made money by reducing the number of rent-regulated tenants and bringing in those who would pay more.

Jared Kushner, who stepped down as CEO of the Kushner Cos. last year before taking on his advisory role at the White House, sold off part of his real estate holdings as required under government ethics rules.

But he retained stakes in many properties, including Westminster Management, the Kushner Cos. subsidiary that oversees its residential properties. A financial disclosure last year showed he still owns a stake in Westminster and earned $1.6 million from the holding.

Back in Queens, the mailman Romano was one of the few rent-regulated tenants who fought back.

He hired a lawyer who found out he was protected from the 60 percent rent hike by law, something Romano did not know at the time. And he said his rent, which was set to increase to $3,750, was restored to $2,350.

Romano is still in the building where he has lived for nine years, with his wife, four children and his guests from the construction days — the mice.

"I still haven't gotten rid of them."

SEE ALSO: Qatar reportedly says it has unearthed damaging information on Jared Kushner — but didn't give it to Mueller because it's scared of Trump

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Buying a home in America is the most affordable it's been since 1980, according to new data from Trulia.
• Mortgage rates have dropped, which increases long-term affordability for homeowners.
• Only three of the 100 largest metros — Denver, Miami, and Portland, Oregon — have become less affordable since 1990.
• Rising mortgage rates and the new tax law, which reduced the mortgage-interest deduction cap, could threaten affordability.

The US housing market is favorable for sellers and tough for buyers right now. Prices are steep thanks to strong demand and low supply, particularly for starter homes.

But all things considered, buying a home is more affordable for millennials now than it was for their parents, according to new data from Trulia's housing-economics research team.

"Thanks to low mortgage rates, buying a home is actually more affordable now than in the past 40 years,"Alexandra Lee, a housing data analyst at Trulia, told Business Insider.

Mortgage interest rates hit 16.6% in 1981 in response to massive inflation in the US. In 2016, interest rates fell to about 3.5%, and they're about 4.5% right now.

But if interest rates continue rising as expected, homebuying affordability could soon be threatened.

Because of the Republican tax bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in December, new homeowners who deduct mortgage interest are limited to deducting the interest they pay on $750,000 worth of debt, down from $1 million.

The mortgage-interest deduction has been a huge incentive to homeownership, but the new limits could deter first-timers. Millennials are increasingly renting longer and are able to save up a bigger pot of money for a larger down payment, Zillow's CEO, Spencer Rascoff, said on an episode of Business Insider's podcast "Success! How I Did It." Ultimately, he said, millennials are skipping starter homes and going straight to the $1 million range.

Mortgage rates are crucial for affordability

Mortgage interest rates are a crucial variable for homebuyers. For a fixed-rate mortgage, the interest rate remains the same for the life of the loan. When interest rates are low at the time of purchase, monthly mortgage payments remain low. This increases long-term affordability for the homeowner, regardless of home price or interest-rate swings.

In its latest report, Trulia found the "maximum affordable price" for the median-earning household in 100 metros every year since 1980, assuming a 20% down payment and a 30-year fixed mortgage at the annual average interest rate. The calculation included the cost of property taxes and insurance.

An affordability score for each metro was calculated by dividing the maximum affordable price by actual home prices, and multiplying by 100. Anything above 100 is considered affordable.

Trulia found that the typical household in 1980 could afford only about three-fourths of the median home price, compared with the median household in 2016, which could afford a home 1 1/2 times the median home price.

Twenty-two US metros crossed the threshold from unaffordable to affordable over the past four decades, according to the data. The markets that are too expensive for the average buyer now, including San Francisco, Seattle, and San Jose, California, were always too expensive.

"Of the largest 100 US metros, only Miami flipped from being affordable in 1990 to being unaffordable in 2016," Lee said.

Trulia ultimately found that Americans' homebuying power has strengthened in the past 40 years.

Take Salt Lake City, for example. From 1990 to 2016, home prices increased 53%, but the affordability index jumped to 131 from 122. That is because interest rates dropped to 3.4% from 10% during that time. Homeownership in Salt Lake City became even more affordable over the 26-year period — and the case appears the same for many of the largest US metros.

Only the Denver, Miami, and Portland, Oregon, metro areas dropped in affordability during that time, Lee said.

By the end of 2017, a monthly mortgage payment on the median home in the US required just 15.7% of the typical household income, according to a report by Trulia's parent company Zillow. Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, a mortgage payment took up 21% of the typical American's income.

Still, this doesn't make buying a home any easier, especially for first-time buyers, Lee said.

"Starter homes have become increasingly scarce and priced higher each year," she said. According to the National Association of Realtors, millennials represent the largest share of homebuyers at 36% — 65% of whom are becoming homeowners for the first time.

"To be a competitive buyer in today's market, we recommend working with an agent that knows the market, getting pre-approved for a loan, and having your down payment ready," Lee said.

SEE ALSO: Owning a $1 million home is no longer considered a luxury in America

DON'T MISS: How Trump's new tax law affects homeowners at every income level from $83,000 to $336,000 a year

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NOW WATCH: What it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

Elon Musk is working on something out-of-this-world in Los Angeles.

The founder of SpaceX has spokenfor years about building the Big Falcon Rocket: a giant reusable launch system designed to get people to and from Mars (and perhaps around Earth).

Most recently, Musk said SpaceX hopes to begin short up-and-down launches of the BFR system's 157-foot-tall spaceship in early 2019. The testing will occur on the company's McGregor, Texas, campus.

Until now, however, SpaceX has been mum about where, exactly, it plans to build such enormous rockets.

On Monday, a member of the r/SpaceX community on Reddit noticed a curious move by the Board of Harbor Commissioners in Los Angeles. The organization recently and quietly approved a 788-page plan by SpaceX to lease an 18-acre site in the Port of Los Angeles, including a 200,000-square-foot facility to "to manufacture large commercial transportation vessels".

Eric Berger at Ars Technica has since anonymously confirmed that the facility "is, indeed, intended for the manufacture of the BFR."

A source close to the matter told Business Insider that SpaceX is likely just weeks away from being officially offered a lease to the site.

Here's what we know about the proposed plan, and what SpaceX's "state-of-the-art" Mars rocket factory may look like when finished.

SEE ALSO: SpaceX has some competition — here are 9 futuristic rockets of the new space race

DON'T MISS: Elon Musk has achieved an incredible feat: Making SpaceX launches increasingly boring

Musk has dreams of colonizing Mars with reusable BFR spaceships that can carry up to 100 people or 140,000 lbs into space. Eventually, he'd like 1 million people to colonize the red planet over decades, as a backup plan for Earth.

Source: Business Insider (1, 2)

Fully assembled, the BFR will be about 348 feet tall — some 40 feet bigger than the Statue of Liberty.

To transport the rocket's enormous spaceship and booster to a launch site, the company will need to use a boat. Because of that, SpaceX's campus in Hawthorne isn't a practical location to build and assemble the BFR since it's not on the water.

• Chinese regulators have been buckling down on major real-estate investors, including Anbang Insurance and HNA group. 
• In efforts to pay off debts, the two companies have been selling US commercial real-estate assets.
• The sell off could hurt sales and put upward pressure on cap rates, or the rate of return on investments, for American hotels.

Two huge real-estate investors based in China are strapped for cash, and that could mean trouble for some commercial property valuations in the US.

Chinese regulators started buckling down on Anbang Insurance (AI) and HNA Group (HNA) last year, and now the companies are scrambling to pay off debts. They're getting rid of properties left and right, many in the US. 

The selloff will likely hurt sales and put upward pressure on cap rates (the rate of return on an investment) for commercial real estate assets in certain American cities, according to Jonathan Woloshin, head of Americas equities at the chief investment office in wealth management at UBS.   

"We agree that there could be some near-term disruption in certain asset classes as these two companies divest CRE assets," Woloshin wrote in a note to clients. 

SEE ALSO: Real estate players are looking to corner the market on both baby boomers and millennials

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Chinese regulators have been buckling down on major real-estate investors, including Anbang Insurance and HNA group. 
• In efforts to pay off debts, the two companies have been selling US commercial real-estate assets.
• The sell off could hurt sales and put upward pressure on cap rates, or the rate of return on investments, for American hotels.

Two huge real-estate investors based in China are strapped for cash, and that could mean trouble for some commercial property valuations in the US.

Chinese regulators started buckling down on Anbang Insurance (AI) and HNA Group (HNA) last year, and now the companies are scrambling to pay off debts. They're getting rid of properties left and right, many in the US. 

The selloff will likely hurt sales and put upward pressure on cap rates (the rate of return on an investment) for commercial real estate assets in certain American cities, according to Jonathan Woloshin, head of Americas Fundamental Research at UBS Wealth Management's Chief Executive Office.   

"We agree that there could be some near-term disruption in certain asset classes as these two companies divest CRE assets," Woloshin wrote in a note to clients. 

SEE ALSO: Real estate players are looking to corner the market on both baby boomers and millennials

Join the conversation about this story »

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• A New York City building regulator is investigating Kushner Companies for allegedly filing false paperwork when applying for construction permits. 
• The false filings were made while Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and his senior adviser, was the head of the company, the regulator claims.
• The false documents allowed the Kushner Companies to escape extra scrutiny during construction at 34 of its buildings, according to the regulator,

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s buildings regulator launched investigations at more than a dozen Kushner Cos. properties Wednesday following an Associated Press report that the real estate developer routinely filed false paperwork claiming it had zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings across the city.

The Department of Buildings is investigating possible “illegal activity” involving applications that sought permission to begin construction work at 13 of the developer’s buildings, according to public records maintained by the regulator. The AP reported Sunday that Kushner Cos. stated in more than 80 permit applications that it had zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when it, in fact, had hundreds.

The false filings were made while Kushner Cos. was run by Jared Kushner, now senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. The false filings were all signed by a Kushner employee, sometimes by its chief operating officer. None were signed by Jared Kushner himself.

The false documents allowed the Kushner Cos. to escape extra scrutiny during construction at 34 of its buildings, many which showed a sharp decline in rent-regulated units following the work. Housing Rights Initiative, a watchdog group that uncovered the false filings, says that made it easier for the Kushner Cos. to harass the low-paying, rent-regulated tenants so they would leave, freeing up apartments for higher-paying tenants.

The Kushner Cos. said Wednesday that it is the victim of “politically motivated attacks.” It said it values and respects its tenants and operates under “the highest legal and ethical standards.”

In earlier statements the company said it outsourced preparation of its permit applications to third parties, and described the wrong information as “mistakes or typographical errors.” It also said it corrected mistakes as soon as it spotted them.

The buildings department confirmed on Wednesday that its building marshal’s office had launched investigations into possible false paperwork.

“Our building marshal is a key part of our Tenant Harassment Task Force,” spokesman Joseph Soldevere said. “And when they inspect a building they look into everything from the roof to the cellar to find illegal construction, and that’s what they are doing.”

The agency has disciplined a contractor involved in false filings at two Kushner buildings, he said.

The Kushner Cos. filed more than one permit application at many of the buildings under investigation. At least 10 of the 29 applications under investigation were filed by prior owners.

On Monday, the city council launched a joint investigation with Housing Rights Initiative into the false filings.

The heads of the joint investigations, Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, and Housing Rights Initiative founder Aaron Carr, said in a statement that they were encouraged by the buildings department probe, but that more needed to be done.

“The predatory practices of Kushner Companies is symptomatic of a systemic failure in DOB enforcement,” it said.

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• Steve Chen purchased a $4.85 million condo at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco in 2007. 
• Between fixing the condo up and property taxes, Chen spent millions on the condo.
• Chen decided to sell the Ritz-Carlton property, losing a net of $4.53 million.

A lot, as the co-founder of YouTube is finding out.

At a certain level of wealth, these things aren’t the end of the world. But they do add up.

Back in September 2007 – so 10.5 years ago – at absolute peak frenzy of the Housing Bubble in San Francisco, the co-founder of YouTube, Steve Chen, purchased a two-level 3,030 square foot condo, #2402, at the high-rise Ritz-Carlton Residences on 690 Market Street for $4.85 million. At the time, it was an unfinished empty shell.

He then built it out as “überswank bachelor pad,” as SocketSite called it, including a double-height and double-wide living area, with a build-out budget “estimated to have been nearly as much as the shell.”

So in terms of the build-out costs, let’s round that down to the nearest million: $4 million. OK, bear with me; if we’re off by a few hundred thousand bucks, no big deal because these are adding up to be really big numbers.

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• Exotic locales from Canada to South America draw millions of tourists every year.
• But some vacationers are looking for more than a one-time visit — they want a home away from home.
• Based on Google searches originating in the US, these are the top 30 countries in North, South, and Central America where people are eyeing a vacation home.

If you've ever fantasized about turning your getaway dreams into reality, you've got company.

Approximately 14% of realtor respondents in the National Association of Realtors' Profile of International Activity in US Residential Real Estate said they had a US client seeking property abroad — 87% of those clients sought to use the property as a vacation home.

In a recent report, Point2 Homes revealed the most popular spots Americans were looking tobuy a vacation home.

To compile this data, they ranked US users' Google searches from January 2017 to January 2018 using keywords regarding homes for sale abroad in countries located in the Americas. The countries were then ranked based on average monthly search volume.

Below, check out the top 30 countries Americans are dreaming of making their home away from home.

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30. British Virgin Islands — The 60-island archipelago has specifically seen an uptick in demand for high-end properties, particularly in Tortola and Virgin Gorda, its two most populated islands.

Monthly Google searches: 1,990

Source:Global Property Buying Guide

29. Saint Martin — The French side of the island has no shortage of luxury villas and sea views, with homes for sale under $200,000.

Monthly Google searches: 2,160

Source:Point2 Homes

28. Turks and Caicos Islands — It's easy to see the appeal of the last outpost of the Caribbean thanks to its 250 days of sunshine. With the promise of its first-ever cliffside residences come 2020, the islands might rank even higher on this list in a few years.

Monthly Google searches: 2,210

Source:Turks and Caicos Tourism,AOL

• Vacationing in the Hamptons is one of the most elite destinations in America.
• Many rich celebrities, hedge fund managers, CEOs, socialites, and politicians own multi-million dollar summer homes in the Hamptons.
• The high volume of mansions in the Hamptons — and its waterfront locale — makes it one of the most expensive real estate markets in the US.

A waterfront home in the Hamptons— whether that's bayfront or ocean view — will cost you millions.

Hallmarked by countless famous and flush residents, hedge fund managers, celebrities, CEOs, and socialites alike own vacation homes in the Hamptons. Bill and Hillary Clinton have long vacationed on Georgica Beach in East Hampton. And Southampton even has its very own "Billionaire Lane" reserved for the rich and powerful.

Such prestige doesn't come cheap. At least seven towns in the Hamptons have a median home listing price of around $1 million. That means half the houses for sale in those places are priced under seven figures, and half are priced above. What's more, at least 11 towns have median home prices between $2.2 million to $5.6 million.

That's according to StreetEasy, which recently launched a new Hamptons platform, Out East, for sale and rental listings in the Hamptons. Out East provided Business Insider with a list of 14 of the best waterfront homes for sale under $10 million right now — a relative bargain in a place with oceanfront properties listed for up to $175 million.

Below, take a look at the stunning waterfront homes:

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Water Mill: $5.495 million

Set on half an acre, this bungalow has only 1.5 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, but the sunset views over Mecox Bay are unparalleled.

Source: Out East

Montauk: $5.75 million

• Millennials today represent 36% of homebuyers in the US.
• A new housing community called New Haven, in Ontario, California, reports a millennial homeownership rate of more than 50%.
• New Haven offers modest homes from $200,000 to $500,000.

California is no paragon of affordability, particularly when it comes to housing.

In five California metro areas — including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego — the salary needed to qualify for a mortgage to buy a median-priced home is over $100,000 a year.

Homeownership in California on a typical income isn't feasible for many of today's would-be buyers, at least in the state's biggest metropolitan hubs.

In the US, millennials (generally defined as people born between 1981 and 1996) represent 36% of all homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors' most recent trend report. Their median income is $88,200.

As a result, millennials who want to own homes are moving to the suburbs.

"I've wanted to be a homeowner for a while — it was high on my priority list," Sam Shwetz, 25, told Business Insider.

Shwetz and his wife, Sydney, were renting in Costa Mesa, California, when they started to seriously consider becoming homeowners after Shwetz left the Army in 2016. They realized that buying in Orange County, where the median home price hovers around $714,500, was not feasible for them.

The young couple looked to the so-called Inland Empire, the large swath of desert and foothills that broadly includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It's the fastest-growing US metro area as measured by the number of new millennial residents, according to data from RCLCO, a real-estate-analytics company.

In a sleepy town about 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, called Ontario, a community named New Haven — part of Ontario Ranch, a subdevelopment spanning 8,200 acres — caught their eye.

"You have to drive through ranches and cows," Sam Shwetz said. "It's like, am I still in California?"

It's remote, but that doesn't matter. There are parks, pools, recreation centers, new shops, and schools under construction, plus some of the fastest internet speeds in Southern California.

New Haven is a gigabit community, meaning that for $60 a month residents enjoy download speeds of 1,000 megabits per second (so it takes about six seconds to download a movie). It's great for streaming and gaming, Shwetz said.

Millennials accounted for 53% of all home sales in New Haven last year, according to Brookfield Residential, the developer and builder of the community and many others like it throughout Southern California and across the US.

For new homes, "the price range was fantastic," Shwetz said. Townhouses, condos, and single-family homes in New Haven start in the high $200,000s and top out about $500,000 — a bargain the Shwetzes couldn't pass up.

They both found new jobs in the area (he's a property manager; she's an events assistant at a university) and last October they purchased a 1,900-square-foot home in New Haven for $445,000.

After the 20% down payment, Shwetz said, they pay about $100 more a month for their mortgage payment than they were paying to rent an 800-square-foot apartment in Costa Mesa, a 45-minute drive away.

"It takes us less than an hour to get to the beach," Shwetz said. And they still attend the same church in Orange County and meet up with friends there on the weekends.

Even though New Haven is a Mello-Roos district, which imposes a special tax on homeowners in new communities in California, and a $117-a-month homeowners-association fee, Shwetz said it's worth it.

Ontario Ranch won't be fully developed for another decade, at least, as it aims to house about 162,000 residents in 47,000 homes, with enough schools and retail and business space to accommodate. The Shwetzes are early adopters of sorts.

"It's a trade-off — there are not a lot of amenities yet, but there are plans to do it," Shwetz said. "In my mind, that's why housing prices are cheap, and as they build up, housing values will go up."

He added: "It's a pretty screaming deal."

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San Francisco can be a tough place live for a lot of reasons.

Sky-high housing prices can make it nearly impossible to find a place to live. A thousand-square-foot home with no working plumbing and a pile of rotting mattresses stacked in the kitchen sold for more than $520,000 in February. Even tech moguls and startup founders are having trouble finding homes in an area where nearly every spare piece of real estate is gobbled up by the highest bidder. One real estate firm estimates that a home-buyer needs to make around $300,000 a year just to afford a median-priced abode. 

But San Francisco isn't just perilously overpriced. It's also perpetually teetering on the edge of disaster. If earthquakes don't shake down your workplace, consider the fact that the city is literally sinking into mud and trash in certain places.

Real estate woes aside, here are all the various ways that scientists know living in the Bay Area is not for the faint of heart:

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The Bay Area is a veritable smorgasbord of complex fault lines. No less than seven different faults converge here.

The well-known San Andreas Fault is just one of the seven "significant fault zones" the US Geological Survey cites in the Bay Area. The others are the Calaveras, Concord-Green Valley, Greenville, Hayward, Rodgers Creek, and San Gregorio Faults.

People who live in the area experience small earthquakes and shakes all the time. Just this week, there has been a 2.9 and a 3.0-sized shake in Aromas, California, about an hour and 40 minutes south of the city. 

It's the bigger, disastrous quakes scientists are really worried about. And they say San Francisco is due for another soon.

In 2007, the USGS determined that there's about a "63% probability of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake in the Bay Area" by 2037. 

Estimates have only gotten worse since then. One recent report suggests that there's a 76% chance the Bay Area will experience a magnitude 7.2 earthquake some time in the next 30 years.

Seismologists are most concerned about two fault lines in particular: the San Andreas and the Hayward.

Anything higher than a 7.9 on the San Andreas Fault line, which runs from Mendocino down to Mexico, would put "approximately 100%" of the population of San Francisco at risk, while a 6.9 quake from the Hayward Fault could spell trouble for nearly everyone who lives and works there, according to the city. 

• President Donald Trump and then-wife Ivana purchased a Connecticut mansion for $4 million in the early 1980s.
• During the couple's divorce, Ivana got the house.
• Ivana sold it in 1998 for $15 million — and it's now on the market again for $45 million.

A Connecticut mansion, once owned by President Donald Trump and then-wife Ivana is currently on the market for $45 million.

In the early 1980s, Trump and Ivana purchased the Greenwich mansion for $4 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The home's current owners, financier Robert Steinberg and his wife, Suzanne, purchased the home from Ivana in 1998.

After Trump and Ivana divorced in the early '90s, the home went to Ivana — who sold it to the Steinberg's for $15 million. Listing agent Tamar Lurie of Coldwell Banker told the Wall Street Journal that when the Steinberg's moved in, there was much more gold decor: "When Donald and Ivana had it, they had it decorated very lavishly," Lurie said. 

The Stienberg's have since redecorated. Originally, they put the home on the market for $54 million — then reduced its price to $45 million as Trump's presidential campaign was ramping up. It was taken off the market for some time, but is once again listed for $45 million.

See below to peek inside the home that President Trump and then-wife Ivana once lived in.    

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The home sits on 6-acres of property in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The house is 19,773 square-feet, and has eight bedrooms.

Its green lawns overlook the Long Island Sound.

• The median price of a single-family home in San Francisco in March increased 25% year-over-year.
• But in February, it was even higher — at $1.7 million.
• Over six years, the median price has surged 143%. 

Condo price volatility causes whiplash. But the single-family house price surge is just crazy.

Get this: The median price of a single family house in San Francisco in March soared by 25% year-over-year, or by $337,500, to $1,687,500. But that’s down a notch from February, both in magnitude and nuttiness, when the price had skyrocketed 31% year-over-year, or by $410,000, to the record of $1.7 million flat.

Over the six years since March 2012, the median house price has ballooned by 143%:

Condos – a category we lump together with TICs (tenancy in common, a specialty in San Francisco), co-ops, and lofts – had been about flat-lining since early 2015, despite major ups and downs in between. The construction boom is putting a lot of new units on the market, though most of them are high end.  So in February the median price dropped 7% year-over-year, or by $80,500, to $1,104,500.

SEE ALSO: An eerie trend that helped caused the financial crisis is back

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