Michael Jordon Lists Multi-Wing Mega-Mansion

SELLER: Michael JordonLOCATION: Highland Park, ILPRICE: $29,000,000SIZE: 32,683 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 15 full and 4 half bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: Simmer down tater tots. We know we're a bit late to this particular rodeo. That's because, for better and/or worse, Your Mama spent this morning frying up a very different celebrity real estate fish.While Your Mama got busy shucking, jiving and making...

Read More

Your Mama Hears...

...through the Tinseltown celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that reality television denizen Kim Kardashian has packed up her industrial-sized booty and moved into a leased mansion located just down the road and around the corner from a number of other trouble-making tabloid superstars like Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen and Robbie Williams.Hardcore celebrity real estate mavens and reality television...

Read More

Hard Money Loan #23 Started

I started a new hard money loan this week, bringing my current outstanding loan count to 4.This one is on a single family home in San Pablo. It is currently occupied. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 856 square foot home built in 1950. The roof and foundation look to be in good shape and, other than the garage, the paint is in good shape. We were unable to see the inside of the home, but pictures of the...

Read More

Alexandria, Private Developers Tout Ambitious Beauregard Corridor Revitalization Plans

Alexandria city officials and their private-sector partners have spent February on a virtual barnstorming tour, touting their plan to revitalize the Beauregard Corridor in Alexandria. The thirty-year plan calls for the 440-acre, seven-neighborhood area to undergo a dramatic increase in density (from 5.5 to 12.5 million square feet, including 703 new dwellings) while preserving and enhancing its unique...

Read More

Pending Home Sales Rise To 22-Month High

The housing market appears headed for a strong spring season. After a brief setback in December, the Pending Home Sales Index resumed its climb in January, posting a 2 percent gain over the month prior. The data puts pressure on Kent home buyers. This is because a "pending home" is a home that's under contract to sell, but has not yet sold. It's tracked by the National Association of REALTORS® and,...

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

Trammell Crow gets funding for new Sentinel Square in NoMa (Commercial Property Executive) A $181 million dollar financing package will allow TCC to refinance Sentinel Square I in NoMa (90K Street) and build its companion next door.CEO of First Potomac gives outlook on DC's commercial market (Globe St.) Doug Donatelli comments on his business and on the future of the industry.Home prices decline to new low (Wall Street Journal) Home prices declined 4% in 2011, part of which occurred last quarter,...

Read More

From the Archives: Emma Roberts

BUYER: Emma RobertsLOCATION: Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $1,250,000SIZE: 2,142 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday Your Mama discussed a Los Angeles, CA post-modern perched on a ridge above Laurel Canyon and recently purchased by rock star and reality tee-vee judge Steven Tyler. Today we fish into our previously un-discussed celebrity real estate archive and come up with a...

Read More

Mid-Pike Plaza Warmly Received By MoCo Planning Board

The Montgomery County Planning Board gave initial approval last week to the preliminary site plans for Pike & Rose, the replacement for Mid-Pike Plaza, an ambitious vision that would dramatically transform a 24-acre parcel in White Flint, at the intersection of Rockville Pike and Old Georgetown Road.The preliminary plan, from Rockville-based REIT Federal Realty Investment Trust, proposes to convert...

Read More

New Home Supply Falls To 5.6 Months

The new construction market rolls on. As foreshadowed by February's Homebuilder Confidence survey, which rose to a 4-year high, the Census Bureau reports new homes are selling more quickly than builders have built them, lowering the national "home supply" to levels not seen since 2006. A "new home" is a home that is considered new construction and, at the current pace of sales, the nation's...

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

Pending homes sales rise in January (Wall Street Journal) Pending contract numbers rise above December and above this time last year. The forward-looking trend is the highest since 2010, at the end of the home-buyer tax credit.Architectural billing index is up, construction expanding (Costar) The index of architectural work, up for the third straight month, points toward a slow recovery and future construction.Changes to Cyrstal City skyline on the way (ArlNow) Vornado's plan for new development...

Read More

Double Whammy: Steven Tyler (2)

BUYER: Steven TylerLOCATION: Kihei, HIPRICE: $4,800,000SIZE: 3,000 square feet (approx.), 2 bedrooms, 3.5 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: As far as Your Mama knows we were the first to "report" the details of a property purchase in Los Angeles, CA by Aerosmith front man and American Idol judge Steven Tyler but we are far from the first property gossip to get around to going on about the $4.8 million ocean...

Read More

Double Whammy: Steven Tyler (1)

BUYER: Steven TylerLOCATION: Los Angeles, CAPRICE: $1,325,000SIZE: 3,100 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.25 bathroomsYOUR MAMAS NOTES: Late last week Your Mama dissed and discussed the just put up for sale Sherman Oaks (CA) mock-Med mini-mansion of former American Idol judge Paula Abdul. This week we're gonna start with a Celebrity Real Estate Double Whammy about a pair of recent real estate transactions...

Read More

50 Creative Reuse Ideas For Your Home And Garden

"Creative Reuse" is the transformation of everyday items that would otherwise be thrown out into something useful. It's where being "green" and the arts can converge.  In every Fairwood home, there are literally hundreds of items that be reused and repurposed, including such disparate items as chipped coffee mugs, step ladders, and bubble wrap. After transformation, for example, these three items...

Read More

Let's Pause...

...for a wee gander a some serious SoCal architectural gorgeous, shall we?The Schwimmer Residence, designed by innovative and experimental architect John Lautner and set into four desirable hillside acres high above Benedict Canyon in the 90210, was commissioned and built in 1982 by a Dr. Alden Schwimmer and his interior designer wife Nina.Doctor and Missus Schwimmer sold the castle-inspired house—Lautner...

Read More

Your Next Place

By Franklin SchneiderLocated in a Victorian red-brick townhome, this very fine vertically-arranged living space will get you one step closer to everyone's childhood dream of living in a lighthouse. Put in a fireman's pole and I promise I'll drop by unannounced at least four times a week. (Which is probably the best reason not to put one in.)You ascend through the place via a beautiful floating stairwell...

Read More

UPDATE: Kristen Bell

A couple of weeks ago Your Mama discussed the secluded Studio City, CA residence of young actress Kristen Bell (House of Lies, Gossip Girl, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Veronica Mars) falling into the ugly maw of foreclosure.Yesterday Miss Bell's former pad popped up on the open market as a bank owned property with an asking price of $1,995,000. A couple of quick clickety-clacks of the well-worn beads...

Read More

Federal Reserve Wary Of European Spillover

The Federal Reserve has released the minutes from its 2-day meeting January 24-25, 2012. The Fed Minutes is a summary of the conversations and debates that shape our nation's monetary policy. It receives less attention than the Fed's more well-known, post-meeting press release, but the Fed Minutes is every bit as important. To rate shoppers in Kent , for example, the Fed Minutes can provide clues...

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

9th Street to get new 54-unit condo project (Renew Shaw) CAS Riegler is seeking approval to turn the former Fight Club building into condos, further enhancing 9th Street's boom.Realtors slam Obama foreclosure plan (Wall Street Journal) National association says Obama administration plan to rent out foreclosed homes is ill conceived.Crane operator gets bird's eye view of DC's development (Washington Post) With views across the region, DC construction boom is easy to see.Glenment Metro housing project...

Read More