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…
California Luxury Home Foreclosures?
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…
7 Bargaining Tips for Luxury Home Buyers
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…
The Luxury of Thunder
Will Verizon Thunder on i-Phone’s Parade? by Roberta Murphy Last month, I attended Inman Connect in San Francisco, where one of the speakers onstage at the Palace Hotel tried to pull something up on his new 3G Apple i-Phone, but had no service. Frustrated, he lamented AT&T’s poor coverage and compared the i-Phone to a Lambborghini running on a VW engine–and I joined the audience applause. Why Apple tied its…
The Luxury of Gnarly Head Zinfandel
by Eve Sieminski I am convinced California wines are a no-brainer. Recently, another wine blogger recommended we try a fantastic $8 French wine. This was in response to an earlier article where I recommended TBD Zinfandel, available at Trader Joe’s. My thoughts about this recommended French red? Pee pee water! I wouldn’t cook with it, let alone serve it to guests. In fact, the experience only reaffirms my belief in…
The Luxury of Frugality
by Roberta Murphy Luxury real estate gossip the last few months has fluttered around topics like the sale of Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion at $100 million (when it had been listed for $125 million), the pending foreclosure of Ed McMahon’s Beverly Hills home, and the F-word in luxury real estate (foreclosures). These days, recession is the hot topic as brokerage accounts have been bloodied, home equities have declined, and…
A Pox on Congress this 4th of July
by Roberta Murphy I received an irate call from my father, Bob Michelson, this morning. He, a calm and decorated veteran and pilot of three wars, was fit to be tied. In addition to following the stock market closely, he tracks world events with the eyes of a falcon. “GM’s stock price is at an all-time low and Citibank is sitting at a 10-year low,” growled the Colonel. “Meanwhile the…
Luxury Real Estate Exchanges
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…
GlassDoor to Reveal Executive Salaries and More
by Roberta Murphy Zillow founder Rich Barton loves placing industries inside glass houses (most notably in real estate), and may now become the cause of painful overexposure (or welcome relief) for industry executives. It seems he just unveiled GlassDoor, which will reveal salary reports, compensation figures and reviews from employees. GlassDoor, based in Sausalito, CA, currently has around 2,000 salary reports from over 250 companies along with a current reports…
The F-Word in Luxury Real Estate
by Roberta Murphy Forecl—– It’s a word softly whispered when luxury homeowners in luxe communities like Palm Beach (33480), Beverly Hills (90210), Greenwich (06831) and Rancho Santa Fe (92067) discuss their local real estate markets. Real estate prices have been declining in many of these markets throughout the country, and some of the heavily mortgage homes are ending up as foreclosure sales. The most prominent foreclosure victim of late is…
