Luxury Real Estate Market: What is Normal? I often turn to Billy Taylor, financial services guru at San Diego’s Villa Sotheby’s, when I want to hear the latest scoop on the mortgage market. Just last week, for example, Billy shared that Chase had moved out of the jumbo mortgage market entirely. That leaves a mere handful of lenders who will even consider doing jumbo loans, which help fuel much…
by Roberta Murphy Luxury Home Defaults Ed McMahon may have wondered what else in new in defaulted real estate with the pending default of his Beverly Hills home. But yesterday, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service reported that even prime jumbo loans are starting to buckle. Over a period of just one month–from June to July, 2008–jumbo loans originated in 2006 saw mortgage delinquencies rise 13.2 percent, while 2007 delinquencies rose…
by Roberta Murphy Yes, there are plenty of luxury home foreclosures in California–and you can now search them whenever you wish. When in San Francisco last month for the Inman Connect conference, I was at last able to meet the foreclosure wizards at Foreclosure Radar–and make a decision to go with them. We have long been searching for a comprehensive foreclosure search tool to offer the readers of our San…
by Roberta Murphy Good Bargaining Tips for the Luxury Home Buyer If this is the worst real estate market (for sellers) in recent history, then surely it creates some of the best luxury bargains of a lifetime as well. We are seeing smart money aggressively buying in our San Diego real estate market, and hear reports of the same elsewhere. The properties are being bought as fix-and-flippers or are being…
by Roberta Murphy This is a market that sometimes brings out the creative forces in real estate. And more and more, real estate exchanges are making lots of sense in the luxury real estate market. Earlier this evening, I had an interesting conversation with a Sotheby’s real estate agent in Northern California. It seems he is interested in exchanging his exquisite 104 acre property just outside Carmel for a luxury…
by Roberta Murphy Luxury Home Foreclosures? It appears that even the luxury real estate market will not fully escape the financial ravages that are taking down less-expensive neighborhoods. Housing Wire asks: Has REO gone jumbo? To find out, they consulted with Integrated Asset Services, LLC in Colorado to see if foreclosures are moving up the real estate food chain. And though not all properties with loans in excess of the…
by Roberta Murphy Who are these young and ultra-affluent buyers of homes in Rancho Santa Fe, Palm Beach, La Jolla, Aspen and Manhattan? Robert Frank, in his best-seller Richistan, calls them instapreneurs (didn’t he coin the term?). These are the new titans in technologies, who have benefited from a rise in financial speculation and governments that support free trade and wealth. Instapreneurs are not plodders when it comes to accumulating…
by Roberta Murphy Deepest apologies to those of you who were unable to access Luxury Home Digest this past week. It seems we were the victim of a malevolent hacking attack last Sunday night, whereby all of our content was deleted–on not only Luxury Home Digest, but San Diego Previews as well. Thanks to the tireless work of blogging gurus at the Real Estate Tomato, we have been able to…
by Roberta Murphy Last year, I wrote a short article about the worlds most expensive mansion in Mumbai, India being built by uber-wealthy Mukesh Ambani. In addition to arguably being the most expensive private home in the world (how about $1 Billion to build?), it will also be the tallest measuring in at 42 stories. Residence Antilla, though, will only have 27 stories, due to Ambanis desire for taller ceilings….
Roberta Murphy Investors are moving back into the San Diego real estate market with impatient wallets. And luxury real estate investors are no exception. They are seeking well-priced foreclosures, pre-negotiated short sales and most favored of all: Real estate investments with income streams. So-called bargains in sub-marginal areas may not be the wisest real estate investment move anywhere. Perceived bargains in outlying markets may be nothing of the sort, and…
