Luxury Real Estate News
Richest homeowners making most defaults
Jul
25
2010
25
2010
By David Streitfeld-New York Times
LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- No need for tears, but the well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.
The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.
Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of $1 million is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lenders. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.
Although it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.
"The rich are different: They are more ruthless," said Sam Khater, CoreLogic's senior economist.
BP oil spill may deliver $4.3 billion hit to coastal properties, says report
Jun
21
2010
21
2010
By The St. Petersburg Times-Staff Writer
BP's gulf oil spill may drive down the gulf coast's shore-area property values by 10 percent for at least three years, with losses totaling as much as $4.3 billion along the 600-mile stretch from Louisiana to Clearwater, according to CoStar Group Inc.
The property-information service, based in Bethesda, Md., made its forecast for property prices assuming a 10 percent loss based on such previous disasters as oil spills, hurricanes and the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania.
Luxury Sales Bounce Back
May
30
2010
30
2010
By Juliet Chung and James R. Hagerty-WSJ.com, Image by Standard & Poor's
For years, Jennifer Metz and her husband John yearned for a bigger home in San Francisco. Three months ago, the couple started looking, figuring that in this shaky economy, their $3 million budget should provide them a pick of attractive homes and accommodating sellers.
They were wrong. Hours after seeing a 5,000-square-foot fixer-upper in Presidio Heights with an asking price around $2.7 million, the Metzes put in a bid—and lost. Soon after, they made another offer on a four-bedroom in Russian Hill. Their bid was rejected.
Jumbo Market Inching Back to Health
Apr
30
2010
30
2010
By Amy Hoak-MarketWatch
The jumbo mortgage market is taking small steps toward normalcy.
In the first few months of 2010, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and U.S. Bank have become more aggressive in originating jumbo mortgages, says A.W. Pickel, president of LeaderOne Financial, a mortgage lender in Overland Park, Kan. "If you underwrite carefully and cautiously, a jumbo loan is a very good money maker for a bank," he says.
Last week, Redwood Trust Inc. announced plans to sell mortgage-backed securities based on high-quality jumbo loans, one of the first private firms to do so since 2008.
If the program is successful, it could lead to more investors taking the leap and a loosening of the jumbo market, says Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics for the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Time to Storm the Castle?
Apr
18
2010
18
2010
By Nick Timiraos and James R. Hagerty-The Wall Stree Journal
At the High End, a Bit More Money Yields More Home; 14 Acres and an Orchard
Daniel Horowitz is ready to bargain.
The 55-year-old trial lawyer is trying to sell a four-bedroom villa with marble imported from Italy, a winery and a fruit orchard on 14 acres in Lafayette, Calif. Mr. Horowitz already chopped the price to $3.2 million from $4 million, the amount he estimates having spent on the land and construction. "We thought it would sell right away," he says. But it hasn't, and he is willing to consider lower offers, he says.
Extreme Makeover Houses In Foreclosure
Apr
05
2010
05
2010
Hilton Head Revisited
Mar
16
2010
16
2010
Insight into high-end housing market: Hilton Head home once listed for 14M in 2005 now sells for significantly less.
Trump condo-hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach faces foreclosure
Mar
16
2010
16
2010
By Doreen Hemlock-Sun Sentinel
The unfinished Trump International Hotel & Tower on Fort Lauderdale beach is facing foreclosure, after developers defaulted on a $139 million loan on the long-awaited condo-hotel project.
The new mortgage holder filed for foreclosure against the developers, SB Associates LLC. The suit also names more than 80 people who put deposits on condos, but never received the units or refunds, and now seek liens on the high-rise that was to include 298 condos.
Attorneys involved with the case said it will take at least six months to resolve the foreclosure, because so many parties are named and courts are backlogged with foreclosure lawsuits.
After that, it's still unclear what the mortgage holder will do with the 24-story property: keep it as a condo-hotel, make it a traditional hotel or something else — options that worry lawyers for the condo buyers.
"I've been suspecting they will make it a hotel, because the developers never recorded the condo documents," said Fort Lauderdale lawyer Joseph E. Altschul, one of the attorneys for the condo buyers.
Realty Check Update
Mar
12
2010
12
2010
Lenders and servicers increasingly going after higher income borrowers.
More "affordable" mansions on the market
Mar
03
2010
03
2010
ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - It's beauty, and a beast of a beginning. “It very much made me nauseous. When I got the phone call, I said ‘Oh My God. Thats what I was afraid of,’” remembers homebuilder Frank Stape.
Stape custom designed an American dream with Tuscan flair at a cost of $4.7 million dollars. But in May of last year, the buyer backed off at the 11th hour.
Listing Courtesy of New Broad Street Realty LLC
