By Kenneth Kiesnoski, via cnbc.com
Record-low inventory is causing home prices to rise across the U.S., so higher salaries are now required to afford monthly housing payments, according to SmartAsset.
Authorities investigate a mass murder in Amityville, N.Y., in 1974. – washingtonpost.com
AMITYVILLE, NY — In 1974, it was an expensive and stately Long Island estate, nestled in a vintage-home village, with white shutters on the windows, white lattice on the side and a white sign out front that read: “High Hopes.”
But the house on Ocean Avenue in Amityville was darkened that year by a gruesome mass murder that claimed every family member there — except one.
Sotheby’s International Realty via LuxuryEstate.com
Nevada, USA — The extravagant Las Vegas villa where Michael Jackson once lived is on sale for $9.5 million (£6.6 million).
The 24,276 square-foot enclosed property at 2710 Palomino Lane, which is being sold by Sotheby’s International Realty, has seven bedrooms, a two-storey chapel, and an ornate fountain in the courtyard.
Jackson, who died at his Los Angeles mansion in 2009, lived in this Vegas home with his three children from 2007, according to the home’s listing on the property site Luxury Estate. Take a tour of the luxury villa here.
Los Angeles, USA — The Playboy Mansion is about to get a brand-new owner.
E! News can confirm the Los Angeles landmark has found a buyer just a few months after it was put on the market for a whopping $200 million.
“We can confirm that the Playboy Mansion is in escrow with Daren Metropoulos as the buyer,” Playboy said in a statement to E! News. “Due to confidentiality restrictions, we are not able to comment on any specifics, including what contingencies need to be cleared to close the sale.”
Here’s how much it will cost you.
CHICAGO, US : Michael Jordan’s Chicago mansion has been on the market since 2012 and three years later, its asking price has been chopped nearly in half—from $29 million to $14.9 million. But there’s reason to believe that the 56,000-square-foot house will be off the market soon. Luxury real estate agent Kofi Nartey, whose cinematic tours of the house have been splashed all over the internet the past couple days, tells Maxim that dropping nearly $15 million won’t just get you an unthinkably large crib, it’ll get you “a pair of every edition of signature Air Jordans in the buyer’s size.”
Now you really want it, don’t you?
The closet full of sneakers isn’t an official perk of buying this house, but if the rich bastard who writes the check wants the shoes, he’ll get them. And if he wants something else, he’ll probably get that too. “If the price is right, we can make almost anything happen,” Nartey says.
It’s kind of crazy that a property this tricked out needs pot sweeteners, but selling a seven-figure property isn’t as easy as it once was. That’s why Nartey started StartYourLegend23.com and produced these theatrical virtual tours. “It may seem over the top, but so is winning 6 NBA Championships and 6 NBA Finals MVPs,” he says.
Know what else is over the top? This house. Along with all the typical trappings of a rich man’s domain — a full gym, 15 bathrooms, kitchens both inside and out — the house on 2700 Point Lane has some even more awe-inspiring amenities. For example, Jordan’s estate has a full service beauty salon (you don’t get a head of hair like this without dedication), five fire places, an island and 15 heated garage spaces.
Still, if this place sells sometime in the near future it’ll be an easy guess which feature enticed the buyer. As Mars said, “It’s gotta be because of the shoes.”
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Free pizza? Now that’s how you sweeten up an offer.
OREGON, USA : In a bidding war for a house, the highest bidder doesn’t always win. Bids are often accompanied by letters intended to sway the seller, and some real estate agents swear there’s an art to writing a heartfelt personal letter about why you’re the right buyer for the home in question. While this tactic might seem cheesy or manipulative, it sometimes does the trick.
In the ultra-hot home market that is Portland, Ore., where homes are selling 15% quicker than they were a year ago and where it’s not unheard of for buyers to offer $100,000 over asking price, a nice letter probably isn’t going to cut it. But in one recent instance, it looks like adding a personal, very unusual touch to the bid for a home pushed the offer over the edge.
As the Oregonian reported, over Memorial Day weekend 23-year-old Johnny Barrett was intrigued with a home in southeast Portland listed for $249,000, but he assumed that there would be a bidding war and the property would sell for far over asking price. Nonetheless, he put in an offer. It was no ordinary offer: At the suggestion of his real estate agent, he sweetened his bid quite literally with a promise of free pizza for life to the seller. Barrett, you see, is part of the family that owns DeNicola’s Italian Restaurant, a local eatery where he works as a cook.
“This is the first offer I’ve written in free pizza,” the agent, Mindy Shierk of A Group Real Estate, said. “We thought, ‘We’ll try, let’s see.’”
The offer enticed the sellers to bite, in more ways than one. Once the sale is final they’ll be indefinitely entitled to one free pizza per month at DeNicola’s. Guess this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Sellers in Portland may have come to expect two or three dozen offers on homes, many of them over asking price. But it’s a safe bet that not too many offers come with free pizza for life.
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Source : http://time.com/money/3907870/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/
SINGAPORE : The Housing & Development Board (HDB), as the Government’s land sales agent, on Tuesday released an executive condominium site for sale that can accommodate about 490 units.
The 99-year leasehold parcel at Choa Chu Kang Avenue 5 comes under the Confirmed List of the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme for the first half of 2015.
The site spans 16,386 square metres and comes with a maximum gross floor area of 49,158 metres.
The closing date for the tender is June 30, 2015.
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SINGAPORE : Legislative changes to the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act will now require developers to provide detailed sales data on a weekly basis and disclose the value of any benefits to buyers in transaction documents. For the first time, the government is introducing a new set of rules to also ensure that developers accurately depict actual housing units in their showflats.
Amendments to the Act and the new set of rules on show units under the subsidiary legislation, Housing Developers Rules, will take effect from this month to “improve safeguards and provide more information to prospective purchasers of private residential properties”, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said on Monday.
Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas), noted that developers that are already ensuring accurate representation in their showflats “will not have any issues” with the new rules. Read more >>
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SINGAPORE : The Singapore hotel market attracted robust interest from investors in the first quarter of this year but remained a challenging market for buyers, according to CBRE Hotels.
As a result, there were a limited number of deals in Q1 2015.
“Investors turned more cautious during the period and become more rational and analytical when evaluating potential deals,” said CBRE Hotels (Asia Pacific) assistant vice-president Junrong Teo in a report. “As with the broader investment market, there is a bit of a price gap at present with vendors under no real pressure to sell, although CBRE does still see some opportunities in the market.”
A single deal was recorded in Q1 2015, a related-party transaction where Frasers Centrepoint acquired Capri by Frasers at Changi City from Ascendas Frasers for US$148 million. Read more >>
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As part of a joint venture partnership, GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will each own a 50 per cent stake in the mall next to Sindorim Station in Seoul.
SEOUL, KOREA: Sovereign wealth fund GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will be acquiring the D-Cube retail mall in Seoul in a joint venture for US$263 million (S$348 million).
In a joint media release on Monday (May 18), GIC and CPPIB said they will each own a 50 per cent stake in the mall following the acquisition from Daesung Industires. D-Cube, which was completed in 2011, is situated next to Sindorim Station, a major transportation hub connecting Seoul with Incheon and other major metropolitan cities near the capital.
The mall will be rebranded as Hyundai Department store and will be operated by Hyundai, one of the top retail operators in South Korea, GIC and CPPIB said. Hyundai, working alongside GIC and CPPIB, will also reposition the mall to better serve the Korean retail market’s expected steady growth over the long term. Read more >>
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CALIFORNIA, USA : According to the California Association of Realtors, California’s housing market accelerated in April 2015 as the spring home-buying season kicked off with both higher home sales and prices for the third straight month.
Home sales rose above the 400,000 mark in April for the first time since October 2013 to post the highest level since August 2013. Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 427,620 units in April, according to information collected by C.A.R.
The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2015 if sales maintained the April pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
The April figure was 9.2 percent higher than the revised 391,440 homes sold in March. Home sales were up 9.3 percent from a revised 391,330 in April a year ago, and the increase was the highest year-over-year change since May 2012. Read more >>
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TEXAS, USA – A Houston homeowner is selling his bungalow for just $150 and 200 choice words.
Michael Wachs is hosting an essay contest to sell his 1920s Houston Heights pad, valued at $400,000. Hopefuls must pay $150 to enter and submit 200 words or less on why they want the house.
Wachs, who is a realtor, said he loves the home, but he and his wife want to move closer to his daughter’s school. The couple decided on the untraditional selling method as a way to give more people a shot at the two-bedroom, one-bathroom house, he told KTRK.
“This is the only method that we can think of that we could get our money back and also give a chance to someone to start a new life or build a home right in the city,” he said.
Wachs will accept entries until June 13. The best-written essay wins the 1,056-square-foot house and its appliances, but the winner must pay the closing costs.
The Texas real estate agent said he needs to collect 3,000 entries to walk away from the deal with the house’s market value. If he doesn’t get enough, he’ll refund applicants’ fees and list the house the old-fashioned way.
But there’s already a lot of interest in the contest, he said: Hours after the contest website went live, it crashed because of too much traffic.
Earlier this month, an Alabama couple announced an essay contest to win their goat cheese farm.
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Year-on-year, resale prices dropped 4 per cent from April 2014, and compared to the peak in January 2014, prices have fallen 6.9 per cent.
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SINGAPORE : The non-landed private residential resale market continued to weaken last month as loan curbs and cooling measures weighed on sentiment, with analysts saying the status quo will remain unless the government tweaks its policies.
Non-landed private residential resale prices dipped 0.7 per cent last month from March, showed advance estimates from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX) Property yesterday, deepening from the revised 0.4 per cent drop in the previous month. Compared with a year earlier, resale prices fell by 4 per cent.
Transaction volumes remained low amid a continued stand-off between sellers and buyers.
A total of 440 non-landed private residential units were resold last month, a 2.7 per cent drop from the 452 units in March, SRX data showed. Read more >>
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PHILIPPINES : The Philippines is opening up the local construction and related industries to enable foreign companies to secure construction permits as regular contractors, and participate in local projects with full equity.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said at the 2nd EU-Philippines Business Dialogue on Tuesday that they expected the Department of Trade and Industry, which chairs the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP), to issue in a month’s time the guidelines for a new license category called Quadruple A.
“The Philippines needs more foreign contractors. We are opening the Quadruple A category for foreigners so they can be granted construction permits not only on a per-project basis but so they can be registered as regular contractors. Read more >>
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NEW YORK, USA : It’s getting crowded at the top of Manhattan’s apartment market.
As condo developers chase billion-dollar paydays through the construction of luxury dwellings, the cranes dotting the city are sparking fears of a supply glut.
Builders are plowing ahead with scores of condominiums priced above $20 million in skinny glass towers throughout Manhattan.
One building, the 66-story tower at 220 Central Park South, is listing more than 60 apartments above $20 million, according to filings made with the New York attorney general’s office. By comparison, in 2008, just 29 new condos sold for $20 million or more across all of Manhattan, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Read more >>
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SINGAPORE : After a steady decline in Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale prices, there are signs that the market is bottoming out as its transaction volume hit a two-year high last month.
As more upgraders let go of old units, new launches of Build-to-Order (BTO) flats subside, and sellers’ expectations become more realistic, prices are likely to stabilise by the second half of the year, the analysts said.
Figures released by the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX Property) today (May 7) showed 1,610 HDB flats changing hands last month, up 19.3 per cent from March’s 1,349 units, and the highest since April 2013.
This came as resale prices rose 0.2 per cent month-on-month after dipping by 0.8 per cent in March.
Last month saw the price tags of three- and four-room flats going up by 0.3 and 0.9 per cent, respectively. Prices for five-room and executive flats, however, fell by 0.8 and 2 per cent, respectively. Read more >>
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SINGAPORE : A Sengkang site that was the subject of controversy following plans by a company to build a commercial columbarium there will open for re-tender soon, after the Ministry of National Development (MND) terminated the original tender awarded in July last year.
In a press release today (May 7), the MND said the new tender would restore the original planning intent of a Chinese temple. The ministry has also signed a termination agreement with Eternal Pure Land. Under the agreement, the Government will refund the company the full land premium of about S$5.2 million, as well as the associated taxes and duties that it paid for the site.
“This is only fair as the contract of the Fernvale Link site has been terminated. There is no other separate payment,” the MND said. Read more >>
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SINGAPORE : More signs are emerging that the Housing Board (HDB) resale market is stabilising, with prices edging up last month.
This was on the back of the highest transaction volume in two years, according to flash figures from SRX Property yesterday.
Resale prices were up 0.2 per cent in April compared to March.
But while the slight rise bucks the downward trend, analysts said that it is far from certain if a turnaround is around the corner.
ERA Realty key executive officer Eugene Lim expects prices to “decline moderately” in the coming months.
But he added: “The good thing to note is that the rate of price decline seems to be slowing down and that is a sign that we may see prices stabilise by year end.”
Prices might fall by less than 5 per cent for the full year, he said.
The slight uptick last month supports the picture of a stabilising market.
– See more at: http://business.asiaone.com/news/signs-point-stabilising-hdb-resale-market#sthash.rGLBeDbL.dpuf
UK : Housing market activity in the UK was stronger across the board last month than at the same point last year, regardless of the general election, according to the latest research from valuers.
There were 13% more property valuations conducted in April than a year ago, despite last month’s total dipping by 32% compared to March 2015, the data from Connells Survey and Valuation shows.
According to John Bagshaw, the firm’s corporate services director, all indicators from first time buyers right through to remortgagers are up on compared to a year ago and he said this demonstrates the broad momentum in the property market, which he expects to continue through into the new Parliament. Read more >>
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AUSTRALIA : A sustained property market boom in major Australian cities partly fuelled by a flood of foreign money is pricing first-time buyers out of the market — and causing problems for policy makers and the country’s central bank.
Record low interest rates, a rise in property speculation and a surge in overseas buyers are causing residential prices to rocket in some of the world’s biggest cities, including London, Singapore and Hong Kong. Regulators warn of an increased risk of destabilising bubbles, and it is becoming ever harder for first-time buyers to get their foot on the property ladder.
“We’d prefer a house but they are just too expensive,” says Kate Homan, one of dozens of people squeezed inside a two-bedroom apartment in a Sydney suburb listed for sale at A$750,000 (US$600,000). “The heartbreaking thing is when you come to these auctions and see investors outbidding everyone else.”
Fears of a housing bubble in Sydney are complicating the Reserve Bank of Australia’s efforts to stimulate growth. The central bank has cut interest rates to a historic low of 2 per cent but further monetary easing may depend on a moderation in house inflation in Sydney and Melbourne.
“The RBA would find it hard to cut again if prices continue to surge,” says Ivan Colhoun, economist at National Australia Bank. Read more >>
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US : According to RealtyTrac’s Q1, 2015 U.S. Home Flipping Report, 17,309 single family homes were flipped — sold as part of an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period — in the first quarter, 4.0 percent of all single family home sales during the quarter. The share of homes flipped in the first quarter was the lowest since the second quarter of 2014, when 3.4 percent of all single family home sales were completed flips.
The average gross profit — the difference between the purchase price and the flipped price — for completed flips in the first quarter was $72,450, up from $65,290 in the previous quarter and up from $61,684 in the first quarter of 2014 to the highest level going back to the first quarter of 2011, the earliest where data is available.
The average gross return on investment (ROI) — average gross profit as a percentage of the average original purchase price — was 35.1 percent for completed flips in the first quarter, down slightly from 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter but up slightly from 35.0 percent in the first quarter of 2014. Read more >>
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SG Best Investment 