LuxuryBlurb
Posts Tagged ‘luxury real estate’
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Home sales in the Hamptons, the beachside resort towns favored by celebrities and Wall Street financiers, more than doubled in the first half of 2010 from a year earlier, according to recent reports.
Sales in 15 New York villages and hamlets that make up the Hamptons rose to 923 homes from 433. The dollar volume of all transactions more than doubled to $1.5 billion, while the median price of homes sold climbed 34% to $935,000.
Wall Street hiring and bonuses sparked confidence in would-be buyers. New York’s financial companies added 6,800 jobs from the end of February through May, the largest three-month increase since 2008. The industry’s year-end bonuses gained an estimated 17% to $20.3 billion in 2009, according to the state comptroller.
Both the Hamptons and North Fork of Long Island rose 9.3% in the second quarter to 7,963, Included in the reports were single-family home sales as well as sales of condominiums. Another indicator that the high end of real estate is recovering.
Friday, July 16th, 2010
 Richard Meier’s Model Museum in Long Island City is a small gallery devoted to the architect’s ongoing love of the physical process of architecture. The 3,600 sq ft warehouse space is dominated by a vast model of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, still one of the architect’s most celebrated and sizeable commissions. Rather than offload the creative output of his model-making studio – overseen by Michael Gruber – the architect has created this small private museum for a whirlwind tour of his oeuvre in miniature. Richard Meier Model Museum, open Fridays by appointment only, contact Richard Meier and Partners to book on (212) 967-6060
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
 The Wall Street Journal reported that Steve Wynn (boss of Wynn Resorts)has bought the penthouse at the famed PLAZA HOTEL in Manhattan for about $ 23 million from developer EL-AD…..thats a little over $ 4,000/sf which is actually a good price for a park-facing apartment in a condominium with outdoor space and panoramic views. The 5,600sf duplex features a circular stairway. He purchased the apartment furnished with custom pieces built by Giorgetti, an Italian company, built to designer Nauer’s specifications. I guess what happens in Vegas does not necessarily stay in Vegas?
Rumors of slot machines coming to the lobby are grossly exaggerated.
Eloise, any thoughts?
Friday, July 9th, 2010
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. In an article in this morning’s TIMES, the point is made that the housing bust we are witnessing right now is not only affecting the poor or bad-credit borrowers….it is also hitting the rich. This is especially evident in markets such as California, Nevada and Florida. Even one of those super-rich-glam REAL housewive’s of New Jersey is in trouble (imagine!). Is this problem an issue in Manhattan? I doubt it. Of course some high end property owners are indistress, but the vast majority are not. We need to remind ourselves how large a percentage of homes in New York are either rental properties or co-ops where requirements to purchase prevented risky purchasers from buying. Deflation would be the number one cause for the rich to walk away from a property, so while inflation is a fear, deflation is the bigger fear.
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
With the current heat wave straining the power supply all across the North East, maybe now is the time to look closer at the accute power needs of New York, not to mention the entire USA. We have more energy on this earth than we could ever use, yet because of political agenda’s, how that energy is tapped is again working to the disadvantage of the people…..for the sake of politics. Sarah Palin says DRILL BABY DRILL, yet even the most right-wing devotee is re-thinking that solution with the Gulf debacle growing daily. The left says GO GREEN, yet the costs for going green are still well beyond the average consumer, especially as we emerge from a recession. So lets imagine we are in the midst of a heat wave, all the AC units are running at full blast….now add electrical cars into the mix: where is this power going to come from? Beyond nuclear energy, solar and wind power seem like obvious, super-safe, eco-friendly solutions as we certainly have an abundance of sun, wind and land. The costs are still high, but dropping fast. New solar cells are set to launch in 2012 that will be a fraction of the size of current panels and twice as effiecient. Chinese manufacturers are committed to bringing down the costs. Imagine every rooftop in Manhattan with solar panels. And windmills too? imagine we reduced our need for coal and oil generated power by just 10% in 5 years? The luxury market will have to lead the way. And lets face it, there are HUGE fortunes waiting to be made in this arena.
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
 New York fares well in comparison to other global capitals following the economic downturn of 2008, according to Cities of Opportunity, an annual report on what makes cities thrive, released in a report by the Partnership for New York City and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report analyzes how twenty-one global cities perform as centers of business opportunity, according to 58 variables in 10 indicator areas. New York City holds the top spot in two categories and ranks in the top 6 cities in 8 of the ten categories. New York City and other long-standing world business capitals have weathered a global recession with core economic assets intact but challenges to our pre-eminence are emerging from cities that people find more livable and affordable. Mature cities will need to keep down the costs of living and doing business and improve quality of life to retain top talent and the best jobs in an increasingly competitive world.
#1 in Technology IQ and Innovation, an indicator of a city’s ability to adapt to and take advantage of technological advances in the global economy.
#3 in Economic Clout, which indicates a city’s ability to influence world markets, attract investment, and stimulate growth. London and Paris take first and second place.
# 1 in the Lifestyle Assets category. As with Economic Clout, this category favors larger, more mature cities that have well-established entertainment, tourism, fashion and culinary industries.
# 2 in the Intellectual Capacity category, beat out by Paris, followed by Tokyo, London, Seoul, and Chicago, dependent primarily on a city’s share of top universities and medical schools, as well as its percentage of population with higher education.
# 13 out of the 21 cities surveyed in the Cost category, which the report cites as one of the most basic considerations for business location and expansion decisions, own from #9 (out of 20 cities) in last year’s report. New York City fares particularly poorly in cost of living and cost of business occupancy. Los Angeles, Toronto and Chicago rank in the top five.
# 6 in the Sustainability category (tied with London). Stockholm is first, followed by Sydney and Frankfurt. We received a poor rating in air quality and carbon footprint, reflecting the challenges of a densely developed and highly trafficked city.
# 8 in Demographics and Livability, which measures viable housing options, commute times, climate, healthcare, and education. “Second cities” consistently outperform historically dominant “power” cities here.
# 4 in Transportation and Infrastructure
# 3 in Ease of Doing Business
#6 in Health, Safety and Security.
This all bodes well for our city that seems to have weathered the recession almost as boldly as it weathered 9/11!
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
This morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that one year removed from the trough of the recession, American corporations continue to hoard more cash than ever. There are now tentative signs that they are finally comfortable using the money to do some shopping.
The 382 nonfinancial firms in the Standard & Poor’s 500 that have reported results for the fourth quarter of 2009 are now holding $932 billion in cash and short-term investments, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Capital IQ. That sum is up 8% from the third quarter and up 31% from a year ago. And why? Cash is very cheap these days. With all this cash around, it is not surprising that the high end real estate market in Manhattan is so very active right now……with lots of all cash or mostly-cash buyers. The savings rates have also climbed dramatically.
An argument could be made that these corporations have hoarded all this cash at the expense of jobs, the one issue all politicians are blaming unanimously for the tepid economic recovery. But all this cash held in both corporations and privately will be let loose into the economy….its happening already as part of the economic cycle. This will affect inventory levels accross the board. And when inventories need to be beefed up. jobs are created. Slow, painful, and mostly it affects the lowest wage earners. I guess the politicians don’t want to say all of this out loud: its the system.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Barclay’s announced its profits doubled! The world is alarmed! Nothing about this alarms me…. Think about the market share Barclay’s picked up when they took over Lehman, buying out the company at a bargain price. Think about the money made as the world population increased their savings in the past 12 months, while Barclay’s gets money at some of the lowest rates in history….. it all translates to PROFIT.
The reality is: we live in a profit-driven world. While everyone talks about their disbelief at the unemployment rates, doesn’t the system we live in drives this mechanism? Politicians on the LEFT and the RIGHT point fingers, talk lots, but none of them address the realities. When recession hits, most companies turn to firing staff as it is one of the largest operating costs. They consolidate responsibilities, they merge and fire more staff…..all designed to go to the bottom line. When the bottom line improves, so do stock prices, dividends, salaries and bonuses. The theory is that when things improve, companies hire more people. But what if these companies become accustomed to their new efficiencies AND increased profits? Do they hire again? Can we have low unemplyment AND fast recovering markets. Its either one or the other in my humble opinion, and the system we have in place actually rewards staffing cuts. We live in a world judged by quarterly results.
So how does this affect the luxury real estate market in Manhattan? Well, the top earners have very low unemployment…. And now they will receive large bonuses and salaries. Possibly larger than pre-great-recession times.These salaries and bonuses are TAXED heavily…..which fuels State and Federal coffers thereby reducing the need to cut government jobs further. The rich spend LOTS: this translates to more jobs at the retail level (hopefully). Spending generates lots of sales tax revenue. More money for the high end real estate market means more transfer taxes, stabilized pricing, lower inventory, etc. We see this increased activity every day now.
So when Barclays posts a doubled profit, who really benefits?
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Mike Albanese 
Awesome.