by Roberta Murphy There’s no doubt that uber-wealthy Russians love luxurious homes–and are willing to pay billions of roubles for well-placed mansions, townhomes and luxurious estates. In Moscow, where luxury buyers are enriched by petrodollars and enthused by strong consumer confidence, a young and wealthy businessman recently paid 2.5 billion roubles ($99 million) for a Moscow town home near the Kremlin. Setting a new Moscow record, this seven-story apartment boasts…
Insuring Luxury Homes
by Roberta Murphy Insuring luxury homes can be a real challenge, especially when trying to calculate replacement value for things like architectural artifacts, beloved creaking stairs or even elephant hide wallpaper. Luxury home insurance wasn’t of that much interest to me–until I read of an appraiser who tried to figure out the replacement value of elephant skin wall coverings in a Seattle manse. That appraiser, James King with the Chubb…
Luxury Foreclosures Becoming More Common
by Roberta Murphy Once upon a time, we whispered about the “F” word creeping into luxury real estate. These days, it is common real estate talk. The Wall Street Journal quotes Realty Trac reporting that the number of $1-plus million homes in some stage of foreclosure has ballooned to 7,968 between January and August this year. This compares to 4,214 during the same months last year. Within these numbers, it…
$53 Million Plaza Suite: An Attic-Like Space?
by Roberta Murphy A pair of $53.5 million New York Plaza penthouses were sold to Russian hedge-fund manager Andrei Vavilov–which would have made it the second-highest residential sale in New York City history. Andrei Vavilov, though, is one very upset buyer. He and his wife, Russian actress Maryana Tsaregradskaya, are outraged with low 9 foot ceilings, an unexpected and massive column in the living room, and an exterior drainage grate…
The Luxury of the Zolo Torrontes
by Eve Sieminski As summer hurls to a close, I had to review one of the best white wines I have ever sipped. I stumbled upon the Zolo Torrontes one day at our local Costco. What caught my eye was the markdown. The week prior this wine was $8.99 a bottle–and now was only $4.97! Even at that price I was skeptical, because I am not a fan of South…
Trash Journalism: US Weekly
by Roberta Murphy Luxury Home Digest is neutral politically and generally focuses on luxury homes and real estate issues. But with a journalism background, there are several things I abhor–including mean-spirited personal attacks, hackers, shoddy reporting, and abuse of publishing power. Not that we expect great things from grocery store rags like US Weekly, National Enquirer and Star Magazines, but I think we expect more from the glossy mags than the cheapie newsrags. …
Real Estate Market Bottom and a Radical Resolution
This is a continuation of last week’s discussion with real estate and luxury home legend Bob Dyson, who has a radical proposal that is being quickly embraced by Realtors, lenders and local Real Estate Boards. Why resort to radical resolutions? Because, says Dyson “This is a real estate depression–a serious, serious issue.” He sees an immediate need to stabilize real estate markets and neighborhood values. He also believes the motgage…
A Most Unorthodox Market: Bob Dyson
by Roberta Murphy Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to sit across from Bob Dyson at his office in Del Mar and listen to this real estate legend discuss today’s real estate market. We were also fortunate to have Chris Dyson videotaping much of the discussion, which we have divided into four segments. At the start of our interview, Bob Dyson said these are the worst conditions he has seen…
When Will the Real Estate Market Return to Normal?
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…
Jumbo Loan Defaults in the Luxury Market
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…
