Blog contributions are provided exclusively from Luxury Real Estate members throughout the world.
New York City’s luxury real estate leader Jacky Teplitzky of Prudential Douglas Elliman was recently featured on Univision.com discussing the residences of the rich and famous. The Univision website receives over 460,000 visits per day, US and globally (source: Quantcast.com).
To view the full story click here.
Courtesy of John Butzko of Michael Saunders & Company
Beyond the crystalline waters, world-class beaches and swaying palm trees lies a rarely discovered world involving historical significance, cultural importance and natural exploration. It is among these unique charms that one truly discovers what our area is all about, and why those of us who live here are fortunate to call this slice of paradise home.
Walk above the trees at the Myakka Canopy. Photo courtesy of 511enews.com.
Here are the top 10 fun facts and places off the beaten path here in the Sarasota area:
1. Burns Court – Nestled away in downtown Sarasota, in the middle of historic Burns Square, is a small raspberry-colored theater that many people consider a landmark of the surrounding area. After opening its doors in 1993, Burns Court Cinemas has continually proven to be the best place around to find first-run, hand-picked foreign language, independent, and art films. Fun fact: Money Magazine has called Sarasota the best small city in the U.S., and has named Burns Court one of the best places to live in Sarasota. Click HERE to see what’s playing today.
2. Myakka Canopy – One of only about a dozen worldwide where you can walk along the treetops, the Myakka Canopy Walkway puts you 25 feet above the ground and extends 85 feet through the tree tops above the Myakka floor. Fun fact: Completed in June of 2000, it is the only one in the world in a subtropical forest. Click HERE for more information.
3. Paul Rudolph Houses - Take a rare look into one of Florida’s most influential architects and view the early residential works of Paul Rudolph, which were widely published at the time of conception and played a significant role in the culture of mid-twentieth century American design. Fun fact: Rudolph’s Sarasota time is now part of the period labeled Sarasota Modern in his career. Learn where to find them HERE.
4. Blackburn Point Park – Enjoy one of the best bay views in the county here on Little Sarasota Bay, offering some of the finest shallow water fishing in the area (a bait shop is located nearby). This is also a good spot for bird and manatee watching. The park provides canoe/kayak launch points for the South Creek Paddle Trail and Neville Marine Preserve Trail. Be sure to check out the historic one lane swing bridge. Fun fact: The original Blackburn Point Park on the north side of the road is primarily spoil from ICW dredging in the 1960s. Learn more HERE.
5. Sharks’ Teeth – Discover exactly why Venice is considered the Shark’s Tooth Capital of the World at the beautiful, quiet Caspersen Beach. Easily one of the most enjoyable shelling beaches in the area and an exceptionally good place to find prehistoric sharks’ teeth Caspersen also features a serene nature trail through a coastal hammock. The southern two thirds of beachfront were left in its natural state and offer a more secluded experience. Fun fact: The property was originally deeded to Sarasota County by the Caspersen family in 1968, with a stipulation that the land would revert back to the family in 20 years.
6. Historic Spanish Point – Travel back in time by exploring this fascinating 30-acre historical, archaeological and environmental museum on Little Sarasota Bay. Experience prehistory inside A Window to the Past, an archaeology exhibit where you step inside a 15-foot-high shell midden – created by prehistoric people as they discarded shells, animal bones and other refuse. Historic Spanish Point is a significant environmental site, and the museum has worked diligently to remove invasive exotics and restore native habitats. Fun fact: In 1976 Historic Spanish Point became the first site in Sarasota County to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more HERE.
7. Indian Mound Park – Enjoy the scenic view of Lemon Bay and meandering nature trails through Indian Mound Park, where the property show off Florida’s native flora and fauna, as well as views of a prehistoric Indian mound site dating back to 1000 B.C. For kayakers, an easy paddle to the south takes you through mangrove islands that offer wonderful bird viewing. Enjoy other activities such as boating, birding, fishing and walking. Fun fact: Indian Mound Park, also known as the Paulsen Point Site, was first recorded as an archaeological site in 1953 by Dr. John Goggin with the University of Florida’s Archaeological Laboratory.
8. Mary Thaxton Memorial Preserve – Discover a slice of “Real Florida” within a natural wilderness, complete with wildlife and solitude. Nature lovers will enjoy over five miles of marked trails offering wildlife viewing and bird watching. The preserve is considered the “Crown Jewel” of the Sarasota County Habitat Conservation Plan, with Sarasota County’s Oscar Scherer Buffer Park to the east. Fun fact: The park is honorably named after the mother of the person who dedicated his time and effort to make it a reality, County Commissioner Jon Thaxton.
9. Phillippi Estate Park and Edson Keith Mansion – Located on the shores of Phillippi Creek, the park includes Indian middens dating back 2,000 years, providing proof of human activities in prehistoric times with shells, animal bones and other refuse. The site also includes the Edson Keith Mansion, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Take a leisurely stroll along the Phillippi Creek shoreline or on nature trails, and be sure to visit the beautiful rose garden adjacent to the Edson Keith Mansion. Fun fact: The second owner of the estate, Mae Hansen Prodie, owned the Mae Marie Company and created the concept of a wardrobe for Barbie dolls.
10. Towles Court – Considered a hidden gem of Sarasota, Towles Court is an artist colony near downtown. Just south of Main Street, you’ll find galleries, artists’ studios, gift shops and Old Florida-style homes. You can grab a bite to eat, take an art class or purchase an original piece. Towles Court also hosts Third Friday Art Walks, a series of events featuring studio and gallery openings, where refreshments and music are provided. Fun fact: The venerable moss-draped oak trees of Towles Court have shaded and protected this historic enclave of bungalows and cottages for nearly a century. Find out more HERE.
Courtesy of: Wilshire International Realty
The property owners, the Town of Palm Beach and the merchant’s association (Worth Avenue Association, Inc.) have collectively partnered to breathe new life into the hardscape and landscape of the world-renowned shopping destination, Worth Avenue.
The rich history of the Avenue began in 1918 when Addison Mizner brought his unique sense of architecture to the island, building the elegant Everglades Club at the west end of the street, which set the pace for the prestige that this strip of real estate would one day command.
For full article click here
According to British journalist, Stuart White, there are numerous reasons to visit Valencia (we could have told him that long ago) but he eventually managed to restrict himself to a Top 10.
Describing Valencia as “Spain’s third largest, most exciting and wonderfully diverse city”, White starts out by singing the praises o paella, a local dish that most now realise originated in the city, the world famous Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias and the imagination of Santiago Calatrava and the Turia Gardens. This 10km stretch of former riverbed, created when the Rio Turia was diverted out of the city, sports a network of wonderful nature paths, popular with walkers, joggers, dog owners and skateboarders.
The marvellous sandy beaches also merit a mention, along with Valencia’s historic Mercado Centrico. Covering 8,000m2, this bustling market is a splendid introduction to the best of valenciano produce; from the scent of roasted nuts and spices to the heady aroma of fresh fish it clearly enchanted Stuart White. City traditions also feature strongly on his list. His examples of civic excellence are wide, from the coat of arms to the local tipples, horchata and Agua de Valencia. The fallas merit a mention of their own, the combination of fire and fireworks exciting the author a much as it does the locals.
Rounding off the list are three very disparate elements of Valencian life: White praises the historical aspects of the city, paying particular attention to its medieval highlights, from the gothic city gates to the Water Court, he also mentions La Catedral de Valencia as the final home of the Holy Grail and rounds off his list with sport. Starting with the Plaza de Toros (Spain’s largest) White name-checks Valencia’s Formula One street circuit, the Marina Real Juan Carlos I and the city’s beloved football team. There’s no publicity like free publicity and Stuart White’s article, covering so many aspects of valenciano life, is a particularly welcome boost to the city’s profile in the UK.
Blogged on 2010/04/06 by Ron & Alexandra Seigel
Courtesy of Apple
Do people need an iPad? No. Is iPad a must have? Yes! Therefore, iPad is a luxury. What makes iPad a luxury is the user experience. It’s tactically interactive. It is eye candy. It is, above all, simple and fun, with endless possibilities of entertainment via the Apps Store. Apple has raised the bar of EXPECTATION in user experience and has thus changed the game.
If you want to gain the competitive edge as a luxury real estate marketing professional, you must become the game changer. Your own website must create an extraordinary user experience and you must provide a superior promise of value as a professional that is newsworthy.
Two days after iPad launched, we had lunch in downtown Santa Barbara across the street from the Apple Store. People were swarming in and we decided to see what the buzz was all about, up close. Dozens of potential customers were gathered around several large tables testing iPads. One freed up and we swooped in to play with it. The experience was joyous; it was easy and very intuitive to use. For fun, we checked out how our website looked on the screen. It looked great. We turned the iPad sideways (landscape vs. portrait), we made the pictures bigger with gestures. We navigated through pages with a tap of the screen, enlarged images and giggled like kids. It was an awesome experience for us iPhone hold outs.
On the cover of Newsweek magazine a question was posed: What is so great about the iPad? The answer was: Everything! Whether or not you agree with its merits, the iPad is a game changer for the competition. On the back cover was an ad for Amazon’s best selling product, their ebook reader, the Kindle. Fueled by the hurricane of publicity that Apple commanded (which is a story unto itself) leading up to the iPad launch, 300,000 units sold in one weekend. This has put Amazon, the market leader in the ebook product category, on notice. They very well may have to settle for the back seat in this market space. The Nook, Barnes and Noble’s “me-too” ebook reader may never recover from a distant 3rd place. Other ebook readers are no longer on the radar screen.
If gaining market leadership is your aim, the power and speed of publicity via social media can completely disrupt the competitive playing field and give you the competitive edge “overnight”. That is, if you have identified an uncontested market niche that you can dominate like Apple, create a new category of service, and thus, create a truly newsworthy story.
By Alysia Shivers of John R. Wood Realtors
NAPLES, FL (July 7, 2010) - In real estate, existing resale home inventory is a leading indicator in determining the health of a market. Typically, a balanced real estate market is approximately twelve months of inventory. Yet, when the economy took a dive a few years ago, inventory skyrocketed as homes sat on the market for long periods of time, leaving many Naples’ and Bonita Springs’ neighborhoods with several years worth of resales.
Today, however, as sales increase, inventories in many neighborhoods are teetering on the edge of being healthy.
Take for instance Bay Colony whose single-family homes and condominiums have experienced a considerable drop in inventory. This time last year, Bay Colony was reporting 2.5 years worth of single-family homes and 2.6 years of condos. Today, the market is close to being balanced, with inventory that is down to just under one year and 1.4 years, respectively.
While significant, other communities like The Colony at Pelican Landing, with 14 current listings and 10 closed sales in the past 12 months, have seen astounding changes in inventory, from 11 years worth of single-family homes a year ago to 1.4 years today and 3.1 years of condos in 2009 compared to 1.1 years in 2010.
The Vineyards has also experienced an amazing recovery from 3.1 years of single-family homes in 2009 to 1.1 years in 2010. Similarly, Pelican Bay condos have seen a huge drop down to 1.2 years compared with 5.7 years worth in 2009.
Savvy buyers taking advantage of the low interest rates and competitive prices continue to absorb Southwest Florida’s existing inventory. For example, 267 waterfront properties have sold in the last 12 months in Park Shore, The Moorings and Seagate versus 161 sales the 12 months prior.
Not every community is as fortunate, but throughout Naples and Bonita Springs the majority of neighborhoods are showing a substantial drop in inventory in 2010, which bodes well for Southwest Florida.
John R. Wood Realtors is the oldest real estate company in Southwest Florida with 53 years of experience in the market. They have eight offices stretching from Naples thru Sanibel, and employ 350 agents and staff. The John R. Wood Research Department produces monthly statistical reports that provide market knowledge for agents and customers in the Naples, Bonita, and Estero areas.
Courtesy of Jacky Teplizky of Prudential Douglas Elliman
Jacky Teplitzky of Prudential Douglas Elliman was recently interviewed on Bloomberg Radio by Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt about the Hamptons and Manhattan real estate market.
Courtesy of Jon Wade of The Steamboat Group
Challenges clearly remain but the Wall Street Journal is seeing some strong signs of recovery in the luxury home market. Among those challenges we often find opportunity. In Steamboat we have seen a strong uptick in the sale of properties over $1m with large numbers of sales in the $1-$5m range. According to Land Title YTD sales volumes are up 215% through the end of April compared to 2009 numbers. We are seeing people take this chance to pick up some of the best properties at good to great prices. Some want a place to bring thier family and friends together, others are location neutral and think why not live in Steamboat and many are planning for retirement down the road. Nearly all see a turn coming and want to buy at the bottom of this cycle. On the sell side prices have gotten much more attractive due to pressures on spec builders & their banks, the desire to rebalance portfolios and many see an even better deal on what they would like to buy so they don't mind selling for less then they hoped.
We have been busy for about the last year or so with some very careful buyers looking to take advantage of the values out there. In the last few months I have seen several multiple offer situations on luxury properties and have been outbid on 3 properties I had offers in for clients in the last week. I'm not saying it is time to throw caution to the wind or that time is running out by any means, it may be 6 months to a year before the tide shifts but we are seeing some good signs that are making some very smart people take a closer look. Discipline and careful study are important, the raw cost per foot does not necessarily mean something is a great value.
True value is a much more considered quality. The Steamboat Pilot ran a story about a home that sold for the low $100s per square foot and touted it as a great value. Unfortunately for the buyer that couldn't have been further from the truth as there were both obvious and hidden issues that will make it very expensive to refurbish and limit its final value to just above what they paid. We have been working hard to identify real values, understand them deeply and be there when opportunities to aquire them at attractive prices are at the best for our clients. It may seem counter intuitive to some but we also use this knowledge of what is driving the market segments and buyers looking in them to advise our sellers stay with the market as it shifts and reach an optimal result instead of drifting along. Our success comes from working hard for our clients best interests.
If you would like to talk to someone who works hard to understand the Steamboat Springs Real Estate market in each different different segment about your goals or just to talk about what is going on. Give me, Jon Wade a call at 970-819-6930
Some quotes from the WSJ article: After a near-disastrous 2009, the luxury market appears to be making a comeback, driven by growing buyer confidence, improved financing conditions and more-realistic seller pricing. Despite the housing downturn, attractively priced homes in some of the nation's most coveted neighborhoods are selling, sometimes fast and sometimes with multiple offers. Nationwide, sales of homes selling for $2 million to $5 million in the first quarter totaled 2,461, up 32% from a year before, says CoreLogic.
That sales are up from last year shouldn't come as a big surprise. The shock of the financial panic in the fall of 2008 left many potential buyers too nervous to bid, and those who were willing to wade in found it hard to get financing. But a study for The Wall Street Journal by MDA DataQuick, a real-estate data provider, found that in some areas of the country, sales of homes over $2 million in the first quarter were actually on par with the levels of 2005, the peak year for existing-home sales volume nationwide.
In San Francisco, 49 homes sold for $2 million or more in this year's first quarter, according to the study, compared to 47 in 2005. In Manhattan, there were 402 sales of $2 million or more in the latest quarter, compared with 311 in the first quarter of 2005, according to the appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. Other areas with strong rebounds included New York's Hamptons, Menlo Park, Calif., and Beverly Hills.
Even a couple of troubled housing markets experienced a strong uptick. In Las Vegas, there were 21 such sales in the first quarter, up from 15 in the first quarter of 2005, according to DataQuick. In Miami, 21 such sales of $2 million or more were recorded in the first quarter, up from 15 last year and close to the 23 that sold in that time five years earlier.
Search for Steamboat Springs Luxury Real Estate if you are curious or email Jon Wade for more info or a personalized look at opportunities in Steamboat Springs.
02
It’s A Small World After All
By Frederick Peters, President of Warburg Realty
Here at Warburg Realty we’ve been watching the recent stock market gyrations with fascination. With economic recovery apparently on track in the US, the precipitous fall of the stock market last week demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are a global economy. If debt in Greece can roil the Dow, we are well past the era of being able to pretend that what happens “over there” need not be our concern. And we probably have to wish a fond adieu to those condo seekers shopping with Euros.
So I asked our agents what they see going on in the market now, and specifically whether there was any palpable reaction to the change in the value of the stock market. Here is what they told me:
1. Overall the market is slower than it was during the first four months of the year. Buyers are still buying but they prefer to move slowly. That said, mint condition properties and those in the most desirable locations are still much in demand.
2. The good properties are still selling with multiple offers, and sometimes above the asking price. Prices for some top condition, top location properties are at all time highs.
3. Many reported that when a hot new listing comes on, it takes days or even a week to get an appointment to see it. There is a backlog of buyers and little inventory.
4. Appraisal issues are still causing problems in many deals. Even when the properties appraise at the contract price, mortgages are taking forever.
5. Sellers are aware that the anticipated capital gains tax increase could make selling now a smart idea.
6. A number of agents reported strength in the market for properties under $1.5M. Proper pricing seems to be key.
7. The rental market has firmed up considerably. When the market was weaker, property owners would frequently pay the brokerage commission as an inducement to tenants. Now owners paying commissions seems to be a thing of the past.
8. There does seem to be evidence that the volatility in the stock market is affecting buyers. Several people pulled out of deals last week using that as the reason.
I find number 8 of particular interest today. EVERY buyer who bought a year ago, when people were afraid, got a terrific deal and is feeling terrific today. But the minute there is a blip in the market, some buyers panic and rush for the exits. They will regret it. Buying when people are nervous is always a good idea; therein lies opportunity. Warren Buffet notes that “you pay a very high price…for a cheery consensus.” So…here’s my variant on Caveat Emptor: let the buyer be brave! The market seems slower. Use the opportunity.
19
Glennis Beacham Interviewed by Atlanta Business Chronicle About the State of Business in Buckhead
Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition, was also quoted in the article in which business leaders discussed the state of Buckhead. Massell said Buckhead “was the last to be ffected (by the downturn), but, as expected, is also the first to start to rebound.”
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