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13 Things Tenants Can't Do At Swanky 15 Central Park West

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15 central park west penthouse

When it comes to gracious New York City living, few places outdo 15 Central Park West. But maintaining a high standard of decorum requires a few ground rules.

The standard lease rules for tenants of the Zeckendorfs-developed condominium building run the gamut, from the banning of flammable materials to feeding pigeons, according to a standard Brown Harris Stevens lease obtained by The Real Deal. The agreement, put together by the brokerage, which manages the building, is geared toward apartment owners who want to rent out their units.

A spokesperson for Brown Harris Stevens declined to comment, and the firm’s Awilda Vicens and Brenna Clarke Bell, co-directors of the closing department at 15 Central Park West, did not respond to requests for comment.

Some rules, such as one forbidding barbecuing, derive from New York City laws, according to one broker who has done numerous deals at the property but requested anonymity. And many are standard. But others seem tailored to the 202-unit building itself. For example, because the blockbuster development is something of a tourist attraction, a rule banning tours and exhibitions is on the books.

Restrictions against shaking carpets out of unit windows and only using skateboards and strollers in a certain elevator, meanwhile, could be specific to Brown Harris Stevens-managed properties, rather than the building itself, another source said.

“But there are other buildings that have far more weird house rules,” the source added, noting that in smaller buildings it can be far easier to “get weird rules passed.”

Here are a few of the most colorful rules at 15 Central Park West, in all their glorious legalese:

1. No bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, skateboards or similar vehicle shall be taken into or from the building through the main entrance hall or shall be allowed in any of the elevators of the building other than the elevator designated by the Condominium Board or the Managing Agent for such purpose or ridden in the building or courtyard.

2. Trunks and heavy baggage shall be taken in or out of the building only by the elevator designated by the Condominium Board or the Managing Agent for the purpose and only through the service entrances.

3. Nothing shall be hung or shaken from any doors, windows, or placed upon the windowsills of the building.

4. There shall be no playing or lounging in the entrances, passages, public halls, elevators, vestibules, corridors stairways or fire towers of the building.

5. Residential unit owners shall, at their own cost and expense, obtain and keep in full force and effect for each residential unit, storage bin and wine cellar owned by them comprehensive personal liability insurance against claims of bodily injury, property damage coverage with a minimum combined single limit of liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence. The Condominium Board may, from time to time, increase the amounts or types of insurance required hereunder to reflect changes in economic conditions.

6. There shall be no barbecuing in the residential units, residential common elements or in the common elements.

7. No residential unit owner shall make, cause or permit any unusual, disturbing or objectionable noises or odors.

8. No residential unit owner shall play upon or suffer to be played upon any musical instrument, phonograph, radio, television set or other loudspeaker between 11:00 p.m. and the following 9:00 a.m.

9. No pigeons or other birds or animals shall be fed from the windowsills or other public portions of the building, or on the sidewalk or street adjacent to the building.

10. No “visiting” or “guest” pets shall be permitted in the building.

11. No group tour, open house or exhibition of any residential unit or its contents shall be conducted without the consent of the Condominium Board or the Managing Agent in each instance.

12. Not less than 80 percent of the total floor area of each room of the residential unit (excepting kitchens, pantries, bathrooms, closets and foyers) must be covered with rugs, carpeting or equally effective noise-reducing material.

13. Plantings shall be placed in containers impervious to dampness and standing on supports at least four inches from the terrace or roof surface.

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California Just Saw Its First Monthly Increase In Real Estate Agent Licenses Since 2007

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Way back in 2005, I posted a graph of the Real Estate Agent Boom. Here is another update to the long term graph of the number of real estate licensees in California through August 2013.

The number of agents peaked at the end of 2007 (housing activity peaked in 2005, and prices in 2006). 

The number of salesperson's licenses is off 32.4% from the peak, and is down 3.3% year-over-year.  However, in August, licensees increased slightly month-to-month for the first time since early 2007.

Brokers' licenses are only off 8.4% from the peak, but are still slowly declining (down 1.1% year-over-year, and down slightly month-to-month).

This might be the bottom (or near the bottom) for real estate licensees in California, but so far there is no sign of a new bubble in real estate agents! 

CAREAug2013

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Yuppies Are Moving Into Notorious East Harlem [PHOTOS]

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east harlem gentrificationEast Harlem, aka Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, is still one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York City, but that hasn't stopped an influx of young professionals, with rising rents and other signs of gentrification.

You can spot the rapid change in real estate data (see map on right) or, better yet, just by walking around the  neighborhood.

The new Spanish Harlem.



The demographics are clearly in flux, as the number of self-identified Whites and Asians have doubled over the past two decades.



This isn't the first demographic turnover for the area. Always a working-class neighborhood and originally a German area, by the early 20th century East Harlem was largely inhabited by Irish, Italian, and Eastern European Jews.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 10 Most Expensive Streets In The World

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princess grace monacoWhether they boast a stellar view, excellent weather, or proximity to top shopping and dining, for years certain streets around the world have consistently attracted the globe's wealthiest people. 

As part of their recent Billionaire Census, international wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X evaluated average property prices to find the most expensive streets in the world.

According to their census, the world's billionaires hold an average of $78 million worth of real estate. Keep reading to see the streets they choose to call home.  

#10 Avenue Montaigne, Paris

This upscale street in the Champs-Elysees quarter is considered one of the world's top avenues for high fashion — Harry Winston, Christian Dior, and Salvatore Ferragamo all have locations here —but it's also one of the most exclusive residential neighborhoods on the globe. 

Average price per square meter: $26,000

Who lives here: Marlene Dietrich (before her death in 1992), Canadian Embassy

Source: Billionaire and Wealth-X



#9 Fifth Avenue, New York

Fifth Avenue, especially the homes that front Central Park between 59th and 96th Streets, has long been a destination for the rich and famous. It's also home to every designer boutique imaginable and the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center, and, of course, the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship. 

Average price per square meter: $28,000

Who lives here: Bill Murray, Tom Brokaw

Source: Billionaire and Wealth-X



#8 Ostozhenka, Moscow

This street in downtown Moscow is at the center of Russian history, dining, and luxury living.  A five-level apartment on Ostozhenka Street once sold for $48 million, the most expensive exchange on this trendy avenue. 

Average price per square meter: $29,000

Who lives here: Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov

Source: Billionaire and Wealth-X



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Massive SoHo Triplex Hits The Market For $28 Million

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OneVandamRooftopPHA

The largest penthouse at Soho’s One Vandam has just hit the market asking $28 million, Stribling Marketing Associates’ Sean Turner, the director of sales at the building, told The Real Deal exclusively.

The 5,268-square-foot, four-bedroom triplex apartment offers nearly 2,000 square feet of outdoor space.

The 14-story condominium project at 180 Sixth Avenue is being developed by Quinlan Development Group and Tavros Development Partners and is designed by BKSK Architects.

“When you work on a new building rather than a conversion,” Turner said, “you have so many more options to expand the floor plan and lighting opportunities.”

The penthouse features many of the spoils that are de rigueur for the superrich – such as wood-burning fireplaces, a triple-height staircase and a private elevator — as well as a private East-facing terrace, accessible from the master suite, which leads up to the rooftop.

“At the top of the stairs will be a sunken spa,” Turner said.

But what makes it pop are the sweeping Soho views, Turner added.

“Think of this building as a bookend to the beautiful 40 Mercer,” she said, referring to the Jean Nouvel-designed building on the other side of the neighborhood.

Out of the 25 units in the building, eight are in contract with a further three contracts out, Turner said. Prices of the other apartments range from $1.5 million for a one-bedroom apartment to $15 million  for a four-bedroom duplex penthouse. A third, 4,700-square-foot penthouse with five bedrooms that will take the entire 11th floor is yet to hit the market, but will be priced “somewhere between the two other penthouses,” Turner said.

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Hedge Funds Are Taking Over Brooklyn

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Private equity and investment firms in recent years have bought up cheap real estate in markets hit hardest by the housing bust.

The goal here isn't to "house flip," but to rent out homes and take in steady income. The upshot, some argue, is that real buyers are squeezed out of the market by the big dogs.

Perennially fascinated by the goings-on in Manhattan's "hip" sidekick Brooklyn, the New York Times has a story about how firms are doing this in the borough. And it means that normal people, including the Brooklyn hipsters the Times so loves to document, are getting pushed out of home ownership.

I’d say by the spring, maybe 70% of the sales we were seeing were to hedge funds, investors and others taking advantage of what was happening in Brooklyn,” one real estate broker told the Times. “Only about 30 percent were actual end users or first-time buyers.” From the Times:

While his fund has sold a few properties already, Mr. Dixon says the general idea is to hold onto the properties, deriving steady income from rents. Mr. Dixon says that in the early years, as the fund invests in homes, renovates them and rents them, he expects returns could average about 5 percent each year. But as property values and rents increase, he estimates those returns could climb to 12 to 18 percent annually. 

Not bad! While the development in Brooklyn's hotter areas like Williamsburg has been long chronicled, now hedge funds are buying up "dilapidated brownstones" farther out in the borough.

Read the full report at the New York Times »

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The 'Tryptophan Slow Jam' Is The Most Bizarre Thanksgiving Ad You Will See From A Major Brand This Season

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Some advertisers try to make their work go viral by softly selling their product, with an emphasis on amusing content. But the new Thanksgiving ad from Century 21 Real Estate does not even have a pitch. It's just an animated music video featuring a singing turkey and trippy visual effects.

Boston agency Mullen created "Tryptophan Slow Jam" in a style very similar to the weird and crude Flash animation shorts from Sick Animation. Watch a man lead a gravy boat across a sea of stuffing as a turkey decked out in 70s gear sings about a family falling asleep after Thanksgiving dinner: 

It may also seem strange that the video promotes the non-specific trending topic #Tryptophan, the natural sedative found in turkey. It's meant to get the video seen when #Tryptophan likely trends on Twitter on Thursday.

Century 21 is offering the song on iTunes for 99 cents, with all proceeds going to Easter Seals, a charity for people with disabilities.

Mullen has made other non-traditional work for the real estate company, like when they recently put up an ad for character Walter White's house during the series finale of "Breaking Bad."

SEE ALSO: 12 Cooking Hacks For A Hassle-Free Thanksgiving

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Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Just Bought This Gorgeous $27 Million Mansion In Silicon Valley

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Paul Allen mansion head

Paul Allen, the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, needed new digs a bit south of his home town of Seattle.

So he just bought a massive 22,000-square-foot custom home in the affluent Silicon Valley town of Atherton, Calif., reports Realtor.com's Neal Leitereg on the Celebrity Real Estate blog. He paid $27 million which was a bit of a deal. The home was listed in late September for $31.8 million, according to Leitereg.

Allen owns properties all over the world. But he may have wanted these digs because his venture investment firm, Vulcan Capital, opened an office in nearby Palo Alto in April, reports the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Nathan Donato-Weinstein.

Atherton is a popular town for tech billionaires of a certain era. Google’s Eric Schmidt, HP's Meg Whitman, and Oracle’s Mark Hurd have homes there.

The home was built in 2013 by Pacific Peninsula Group and sits on nearly two acres.



It has a light, modern design.



Beautiful built-ins run through the home.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 20 Biggest Real Estate Moguls In New York City

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Karan and Richard LeFrak at 2011 American Museum of Natural History GalaReal estate investment has long been the playground of the wealthy, with top developers becoming some of the richest people in the world. 

Today wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X released data on the top 20 real estate moguls in New York City, ranked according to their personal net worth. 

Richard LeFrak, chairman, CEO, and president of LeFrak Organization, leads the list with a net worth of $4.9 billion. LeFrak's family has invested in New York real estate for more than a century, but he recently expanded his portfolio to include properties in Washington, Oregon, and California. His company owns LeFrak City, a 5,000-unit apartment unit in Queens, in addition to 16 million square feet of commercial and residential property in Newport, N.J.

Leonard Stern of Hartz Group was second with a net worth of $4.1 billion, while Stephen Ross of The Related Companies came in third with $3.6 billion. 

Wealth-X Research uses a proprietary valuation model to assess all asset holdings, including privately and publicly held businesses and investible assets.

See the complete list below. 

NYC real estate moguls

SEE ALSO: Meet The Family Dynasties That Rule New York Real Estate

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HOUSE OF THE DAY: JFK's Sprawling Estate In Virginia Can Be Yours For $11 Million

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JFK Wexford aerial shot

Wexford, John and Jackie Kennedy's Virginia countryside estate, is on the market for just under $11 million. 

The four-bedroom ranch house lies on more than 160 acres of idyllic farmland in Marshall, Va. Of the many homes the Kennedys owned, this was the only one the couple built together, completed in 1963, just weeks before the president was assassinated. 

The estate is more than just a historic landmark — it also has plenty of amenities. There's a tennis court, swimming pool, and lots of space for horseback riding and fox hunting. Beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains make this an ideal countryside escape. 

JFK wasn't the only president to call Wexford home. President Ronald Reagan rented the estate in 1980 and prepared for his debates against Jimmy Carter here. There's even an underground Secret Service bunker that's a reminder of the estate's presidential past (photos via Estately).  

Wexford lies on more than 160 acres of rolling Virginia farmland, about an hour outside of Washington, DC.



You can see the house in the distance, just across the pond.



There's also a tennis court and swimming pool.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Stunning Greenwich Village Townhouse Hits The Rental Market For $80,000 A Month

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A fully-restored Greenwich Village townhouse at 80 Washington Place, which has been on the market since June 2012 asking $29 million, is now also available as a rental, asking $80,000 a month.

The home, owned by William Rainero, head of Metropolitan Realty & Development Group, was once home to composer and conductor John Philip Sousa. It has been in the same family for 40 years.

Listing broker Clayton Orrigo of Town Residential told The Real Deal that the owners had chosen to capitalize on interest they’d received in the property as a rental while waiting for the right buyer to come along.

“We get calls all the time for rentals,” Orrigo said of the home, which is located between Washington Square West and Sixth Avenue. “With the Superbowl and Fashion Week and all these other things, about half the calls we get now are for luxury rentals, both short term and long term. If we can capitalize on that, that’s great.”

The 8,700-square-foot property has been leased for non-residential purposes in recent months. It was snapped up for a six-figure sum by a consumer electronics company in September for a private product launch, it was previously reported. It has also served as a backdrop for fashion shoots, hosting models like Chrissy Teigen and Jessica Stam.

It is now available for lease for any period up to about two years, according to the broker.

Meanwhile, Orrigo said he has received several “reasonable” offers to buy the home already but none have quite met the owner’s expectations. The owner invested a large amount of money in transforming the property, formerly a multi-family building, into a single-family home prior to putting it on the market last year, he said, and is holding out for the right price. The property is currently asking $28.9 million.

“The family’s attached to the property and they have a certain number in their minds,” he said.

The house features a glass and white oak stairwell, a Zen garden and a water feature that runs down the property’s former coal chute, according to the listing. It also has a billiard room, a wine cellar and a media room.

Sousa, who owned the property in the early 1900s, was a composer of the late Romantic era, known particularly for his American military and patriotic marches such as “Semper Fidelis,” the official march of the United States Marine Corps, and “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” which is the national march of the United States of America.

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An Indian Developer Paid $530 Million For Canada's Embassy In London, And Plans to Turn It Into Apartments For The Super-Rich

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India's largest real estate developer Lodha Group said Friday it has bought Canada's embassy building in London's prime Mayfair district for around $530 million.

The seven-storey Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square, known as Macdonald House, will be converted into luxury residences for the super-rich, Indian media said.

"We will create a world-class development, which befits the status of the address," said Abhishek Lodha, managing director of Lodha Group.

The Lodha group was chosen as the buyer of the property by the Canadian government after a competitive bidding involving global developers and sovereign wealth funds, the Lodha group said.

The Indian firm is buying the property through internal funds and does not plan to raise debt to finance the deal, officials said.

In 2010, India's Sahara group had acquired the Grosvenor House hotel in London for around $750 million from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In December last year, the Lodha group bought the US Consulate's Washington House property in Mumbai for $54 million.

The Lodha group is building what it claims is the world's tallest purely residential tower in Mumbai, called "World One", set to be completed in 2014.

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Amid Luxury Condo Buzz, Walk-Up Apartments Still Appeal To New Yorkers

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new york brownstone walkup

In an age of supertall condominiums with outrageous amenities, walk-up apartments continue to hold their own, new data from Citi Habitats reveal.

Indeed, the average monthly rent for one-bedroom luxury walk-ups in New York City jumped 5.7 percent over the past year, the data show, while the average monthly rent for one-bedrooms in full-service elevator buildings increased just 0.5 percent.

Walk-ups also enjoyed healthy activity in the sales market: Miller Samuel data show that the number of walk-ups sold over the past year jumped 64 percent, compared to a 22 percent increase for units in full-service buildings.

The price of walk-ups has also jumped nearly 22 percent over the year, compared to a 2 percent increase for units in full-service buildings.

“There is a new generation of renters out there who don’t need a doorman, and want something unique and different,” Jordan Sachs, president of residential brokerage firm Bold New York, told the New York Times. “Walk-ups can offer a wonderful combination of old prewar New York mixed with new design, and that can be hard to find in a cookie-cutter doorman building.”

Some developers, such as Borough Builders, are cashing in on the walk-up craze and building them in lieu of full-service buildings which come up with higher carrying costs and a steeper tax bill. Halstead Property Development Marketing’s Stephen Kliegerman told the Times that “there is an inverse relationship between an apartment’s carrying costs and its price. The lower the monthly basis, the more the buyer can pay upfront.”

In February, Jared Kushner paid $130 million for a 17-building walk-up portfolio in the East Village, as The Real Deal reported. [NYT]

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Here's A Chart Of The UK Construction Industry Going Berserk

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This charts shows the latest Construction PMI reading for the UK.

The reading just hit 62.4, as output rose at its fastest pace in 10 years.

This is consistent with all of the anecdotal stories about London being filled with cranes and high-end condos.

Here's more on the joyous mood in the UK construction sector:

Construction companies pointed to a steep and accelerated expansion of house building activity in November, with the rate of growth the fastest for ten years. Work on commercial construction projects also increased sharply during the latest survey period, and the rate of expansion was the steepest since September 2007. Civil engineering activity increased at a robust pace that was little-changed from that recorded in October. Anecdotal evidence from survey respondents widely pointed to more favourable business conditions in November, with rising confidence in the economic outlook and improving credit conditions helping to boost spending across the construction sector. As a result, volumes of new work increased at a strong and accelerated pace, with the latest rise in new orders the joint-sharpest for just over six years.

Read the full report here >

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HOUSE OF THE DAY: A French Castle With 50 Rooms Is On The Market For $17.1 Million

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Villersexel 3Château de Villersexel, a French castle that was once the home of the noble Grammont family, is on the market at a $17.1 million asking price, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the owner, Baron Jean-Pierre Potet, the castle was destroyed twice: once in the year 1000 and again in 1871, during a battle of the Franco-Prussian War. When the Marquis de Grammont left the estate to fight in World War II, French civilians looted the castle, taking nearly all of its furnishings. 

Using old photos as an aid, Potet was able to recover most of the original decor from nearby antique stores. The 38,000-square-foot chateau has an astounding 30 bedrooms and 15  bathrooms and is being sold with all of its historic furnishings intact. The 74-acre property also includes horse stables and a working farm. 

The property is being sold by Xavier Attal of Immo Best International. 

The Château de Villersexel lies on 74 acres of property in northeast France, near the border with Switzerland.



The centuries-old castle is designed in the Louis XIII style.



Steps lead up to an imposing front door.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

HOUSE OF THE DAY: At $35 Million, The Most Expensive Home In New Jersey Is Perfect For Horse Lovers

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Colts Neck NJ house

A 20,000-square-foot mansion in Colts Neck, N.J. is listed for $34,999,000, which makes it the most expensive home currently on the market in New Jersey. 

Besides its impressive size and price, the 9-bedroom house is also unusual in that its decor seems to have a distinctly horsey theme.

A massive equestrian center, complete with nine-stall barn, sits on the property, and there's plenty of horse-inspired details throughout the house. The decorations themselves are pretty extravagant. 

The equestrian estate lies on 127 acres of land in affluent Colts Neck, N.J.



The crisp white house is a rather large 20,000 square feet.



Purple velvet couches provide a jarring pop of color in this sitting room.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Those Sprawling Office Parks You Drive By On Your Way Into The City Are Now Being Abandoned

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va office park

You know all those office parks or towers you pass in certain cities on the way in from the suburbs?

There is a pretty good chance they are now completely abandoned.

In a recent feature called "Suburban Corporate Wasteland," NPR's Connecticut affiliate discusses how the state is now dotted with massive white elephants, the shells of a multi-decade boom in mega office parks. 

Pfizer's sprawling, 160-acre research park in Groton, for instance, is now in the process of being torn down. The town of Ridgefield had to purchase the former 40-acre Schlumberger-Doll research center after it sat vacant for five years; it's now being sold off piece by piece. And officials in Simsbury are now debating what to do about a 173-acre site formerly owned by The Hartford.

Connecticut is not the only site of this phenomenon. Nationwide, the suburban office vacancy rate is 16.6%, compared with the downtown rate of 12.4%, according to CBRE. Elk Grove Village outside Chicago must now grapple with a 60-acre site formerly owned by United Airlines after the company moved its offices to Chicago. AT&T and Motorola have likewise left nearby suburbs with similar dilemmas after they moved into city limits, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.  

Aaron Renn at the Urbanophile identifies several reasons behind this phenomenon: 

  • The massive post-war migration waves from the inner city to the suburbs have stopped, and in many cases are now reversing. You can also see this in lack of new growth in vehicle miles traveled. 
  • Relatedly, it's now actually cool — and safe — to be downtown again. Much of the new crop of tech dynamos are actually in San Francisco instead of the surrounding valley, Amazon has a huge new campus in Seattle, and the aforementioned Chicagoland firms are retreating from the Interstate back into city limits.  
  • M&A and corporate restructuring and downsizing have wiped out mid-sized firms.
  • People don't work like they used to. Firms have realized that "people who don’t get out and engage with the world around them end up cut off from information flows, leaving them a step behind." Suburban office parks are also quite expensive.

"Put it all together and it’s clear office space demand is weaker than it used to be," Renn writes.  "Joel Kotkin recently surveyed the same trends and suggests that the US may have hit 'peak office'."

It wasn't even fun while it lasted.

SEE ALSO: This Chart Shows Which Cities Have The Highest Percentage Of Renters

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HOUSE OF THE DAY: Tommy Hilfiger Co-Founder Sells $100 Million Lake Tahoe Vacation Home At A 50% Discount

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tranquility tahoe joel horowitzAfter seven years on the market, former Tommy Hilfiger CEO and co-founder Joel Horowitz has sold his gargantuan Lake Tahoe estate for $48 million, significantly under the initial $100 million asking price.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a holding company called Tranquil Investments LLC purchased the property.

After lowering the price to $75 million in 2011, Horowitz proposed a deal to potential buyers: He said he would personally finance the purchase for a qualified buyer.

The 210-acre estate, called Tranquility, is the largest on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. In addition to a 27,000-square-foot mansion, it has an indoor glass mosaic pool, private lake, two par-3 golf holes and an indoor golf simulator, horse stables, a wine cellar, a cinema, and separate guest and staff residences.

As 210 acres, Tranquility is the largest private estate on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.



It's incredibly private -- the perfect getaway for a billionaire.



In addition to a 27,000-square-foot main home, there are guest and staff quarters and a 16-car garage.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

10 Hot US Housing Markets To Watch In 2014

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Seattle

As the housing recovery continues into 2014, some new real estate markets will start getting more attention.  

Real estate site Trulia has come up with a list of the top 10 housing markets to watch in 2014. 

Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist, told Business Insider that two main factors were considered when compiling the list. 

"Markets that have faster job growth tend to have stronger housing," Kolko said. "We looked at job growth over the past year, and also over a longer period of time. Housing markets don't only depend on what's happening today in the economy, but where it's going in the longer term."

Construction activity in 2013 was the other main consideration in compiling Trulia's list. 

"We looked at whether builders are betting on local markets, since builders build in markets where they think will be demand," Kolko said. 

The cities that made the list may be surprising to some, and there's a reason for that. The survey excluded regions where homes tend to be overvalued, such as the coastal areas of California. They also didn't consider areas where rates of foreclosure were high, as they are in parts of Florida. 

Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD

Job growth: 2.2%

Construction permits (relative to average for area since 1990): 92%

A Trulia report from December 2012 ranked these Washington, D.C. suburban metro areas as the third strongest market in the country.

And according to an article in Maryland's Gazette, single-family home inventory is down, while demand is way up. Downtown Bethesda, especially, is having a boom — 2,000 new apartments and condos are set to be developed there in coming years. 

Pictured:7224 Arrowood Road., Bethesda ($6,250,000)



Charlotte, NC-SC

Job growth: 3.3%

Construction permits (relative to average for area since 1990): 86%

Real-estate nonprofit Urban Land Institute ranked Charlotte 16th on their list of markets to watch for 2014.

According to the Charlotte Observer, "The continued influx of newcomers to Charlotte, coupled with its stable education system and growing medical sector, makes it attractive to national as well as regional real estate investors...and demand has increased so steadily in recent years that experts now say there aren’t enough homes for sale."

Pictured: 7430 Baltusrol Lane, Charlotte ($4,750,000)

 


Denver, CO

Job growth: 2.6%

Construction permits (relative to average for area since 1990): 94%

The Denver housing market is significantly healthier than it was at this time a year ago. 5,337 homes were under contract this September, compared to 4,457 in September 2012, and average selling prices are up 8% from a year ago. 

 "We are seeing homes sell for prices that exceed any time in our history," Steve Blank of Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty said to Colorado's Inside Real Estate News."Denver is leading the way."

Pictured: 380 Fillmore Street, Denver ($2,450,000) 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Cameron Diaz Buys A New $9 Million Condo In Chelsea

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Cameron Living Room

Cameron Diaz just picked up a chic condo in Walker Tower in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood for $9 million, Trulia reports

Diaz's new pad on West 18th Street has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a home office and Southeast views of the Statue of Liberty and Freedom Tower.

The 3,022-square foot residence also boasts in-unit laundry, a built-in humidification system and an ultra-quiet central air conditioning system.

Check out Cameron's new digs:

Cameron Living Room

The kitchen has a wine cooler, speed oven and built-in coffee maker.Cameron Kitchen

The condo has 3.5 bathrooms.Cameron Bath

Each bedroom has an en-suite bathroom.Cameron Bed 1

Here's a view of the master bedroom. Cameron Bed 2

SEE ALSO: HOUSE OF THE DAY: Ethan Hawke Lists Colorful Chelsea Townhouse For $6.25 Million

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