Michael Jordon Lists Multi-Wing Mega-Mansion

SELLER: Michael Jordon
LOCATION: Highland Park, IL
PRICE: $29,000,000
SIZE: 32,683 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 15 full and 4 half bathrooms

YOUR 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 petty jabs about Little Kimmy Kardashian and her recent (and alleged) real estate activities, the celebrity real estate pooper scoopers over at The Wall Street Journal revealed that long-ago-retired but still much-beloved professional basketballer and sports world entrepreneur Michal Jordon pushed his multi-wing mega-mansion in the upscale Chicago suburb of Highland Park (IL) on the market with a super-sized and publicity-ensuring $29,000,000 asking price.

Even Your Mama, who does not know a tight end from a power forward in the athletic sense, knows well that Mister Michael Jordan is one of America's most adored, accomplished, and highly paid professional athletes and product endorsers with a half billion dollar-plus fortune and fat property portfolio to prove it.

Mister Jordan was expensively divorced from his first wife Juanita in 2007; It reportedly cost him close to $170,000,000 or, seen another way, ten million clams for every 17 years they were married. At about the time of their legal severance of marital ties the family's long-time Highland Park estate was transferred in to a trust. Unfortunately, Your Mama has no specific intel about whether Mister Jordan (along with his new fiancée Yvett Prieto) or ex-Missus Jordon occupied and maintained the premises over the last five years. Whatever the case, the suburban estate with its mall-sized mansion is now up for grabs.

The electronically-controlled front gates bear the number 23, which Your Mama thought might be the property's street address until we did a little due diligence and discovered '23' was the number that appeared on Mister Jordan's jersey throughout his illustrious career on the hardwoods. The gates swing open to a tree-lined black top drive that swoops across the thoroughly landscaped 7.29 acre estate and around to a massive, tree-shaded circular drive that has far more in common with the motor court out front of some random resort hotel than it does the driveway of average American home. The snaking drive continues beyond the circular drive, past two separate (but attached), climate-controlled, three car garages, curves around to a pair of small parking lots and winds up at a rear motor court where there appears to be another three-bay, climate-controlled garage.
 
Listing information shows Mister Jordan's mega-mansion measures in at a titanic 32,683 square feet with a total of 9 bedrooms and 15 full and 4 half bathrooms. It doesn't take a bejeweled abacus to figure out that's a total of 19 terlits, an amount that ensures the owner/resident of this beast of a house employ a full-time minimum wager tasked only to locate and lave all 19 bathrooms on a twice weekly basis. The Wall Street Journal pegged the manse at "more than 56,000 square feet of space," an figure we think—but can not confirm—probably includes the colossal compound's "indoor basketball complex" and "three bedroom guesthouse."

The Wall Street Journal also reported the mansion was constructed between 1993 and 1995 and images show it retains its original, well maintained and liberally curvaceous 1980s-minded exterior articulation. The interior was extensively renovated in 2009 with a decidedly sleek and very contemporary aspect that skews vaguely corporate due in part to the large scale of some of the rooms. Interior spaces, according to listing information, marketing materials and/or previous reports, include hotel ballroom-proportioned 1,056 square living room and an almost 800 square foot family room with floor-to-ceiling glass sliders on two opposite walls and a massive triangular sky light that runs like a spine down the center of the 37-foot long room.

A circular dining area's soaring ceiling is topped by an octagonal sky light and the adjacent, sculptural kitchen has a huge center island (with cook top) that appears to float in the center of the room, full-height pantry and storage cabinets, and—one imagines—the most expensive appliances money can buy. We realize this kitchen will not appeal to those who see kitchens as the emotional heart of the home but for all those folks who prefer their cooking centers be more Maserati than mini-van, this one will surely make them pee their pants with culinary equipment desire.

Listing information indicates Mister Jordan's mansion also contains a 500-plus square foot second level library, a 600-plus square foot den on the main level, an office and a study also on the main level, and at least one laundry room the size of what would pass for a good-sized bedroom in a modest suburban ranch house.

The various and vast patios and terraces that extend off the back of the house drop down to high-maintenance manicured grounds that encompass acres of flat lawns with an amoebic putting green, tucked away tennis court, suggestively-shaped deep-water pond, and a children's playground with two elaborate jungle gyms. Both The WSJ and listing information we peeped indicate Mister Jordan's estate includes a swimming pool although we're unable to locate it listing photos and/or aerial images of the property.

The property's pièce de résistance—and also perhaps it's bête noire due to the obvious fact that so few people in the Chicago area who can afford it will actually want to own or maintain it—would most certainly be the fully custom, state-of-the-art indoor basketball complex completed in 2001 and equipped with, as per The WSJ, "a full-size regulation basketball court with specially cushioned hardwood flooring, adjustable backstops and baskets and competition-quality, high-intensity lighting. The complex has a sound system tuned to provide perfect acoustics within the court space."

As best as we know from our research, in addition to the Highland Park beast Mister Jordan heaved on to the market this week His Airness currently maintains a penthouse pad in Charlotte, NC (where he's part owner of some professional basketball team or another that we know nothing about), a major mansion in the a gated, golf community in Jupiter, FL that is either newly completed ought to soon be completed, and a substantial ski house on almost 4 acres in posh Park City, UT.

aerial photo (top): Bing
listing photos: Baird & Warner

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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 aficionados may recall Little Kimmy Kardashian followed up the $885,000 sale of her 3 bedroom Los Angeles, CA kondo krib in January 2010 with the February 2010 purchase of a nearly 4,000 square foot faux-Tuscan villa high up above Beverly Hills, CA. The 5 bedroom and 4.5 bathroom mansion, gated, heavily secured and set very close to the street on a cul-de-sac that runs up a narrow ravine just below Mulholland Drive, cost K.K., according to property records, $3,400,000.

In late January of this year, in the turbulent wake of poor K.K.'s quickie marriage and divorce from some hunky Midwestern fella whose name we can no longer recall, an unhinged fan—let's call him Mister Delusional—showed up at front gate of K.K.'s Bev Hills home with luggage in tow. Mister Delusional claimed he'd flown into town all the way from North Carolina to work on the one of K.K.'s reality programs that include the long-running and exceedingly lucrative Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Kourtney and Kim Take New York , a program we've never seen but are absolutely sure is nothing less than scintillating and truly meaningful. Clearly Mister Delusional was, well, delusional and K.K.'s team of quick-thinking security guards snatched the wannabe intruder up and rang the po-po who, natch, escorted from moe-ron from the premises and—we imagine but don't actually know—served the nimrod with a well-deserved restraining order.

It wasn't long after that ugly incident all the gossip glossies and celebrity-based blogs reported K.K. was so freaked out by the whole thing that she wanted to move from her current residence in Bev Hills to a nearby guard-gated community that would provide her with an extra layer of security in addition to her body guard(s).

Well, dontcha know butter beans, according to an often in the know source (and the peeps The Daily Mail who beat us to the punch), that's just what K.K. did. The entertainment industry global superstar and entrepreneur—who does not, as far as Your Mama can tell, sing, dance, act or have any other showbiz-y talent besides near-shameless self promotion—(allegedly) leased a 6,775, square foot mock-Med meets Asian-infused Craftsman-style mansion in the celebrity-filled and guard-gated Mulholland Estates community. Some of the other high profile residents/homeowners in the 'hood include Vanna White, Judith Light, and rock 'n roller Slash who pushed his 11,000 square foot Mediterranean manse on the market as a pocket listing in mid-2011 with a $9.5 million price tag, since cut to $9.1 million.

Although it's absolutely a luxury development where the tree-lined streets are lined with multi-million dollar (mc)mansions, some of the children will surely see Mulholland Estates as a somewhat curious choice for someone concerned about their security since the community has over the years been a bit of a hotbed of crime: Paris Hilton's high-glam house was burgled by the infamous Bling Ring in 2008 and in 2010 some guy showed up on her doorstep with a knife; Besides all the illegal activities that surely took place inside his house Charlie Sheen has had not just one but two Mercedes Benz stolen right out from his damn driveway and run off a cliff in to a nearby ravine.


Anyhoo, listing information for the house in question Your Mama managed to tease up out of the interweb shows the 4 bedroom and 6 bathroom mansion K.K. (allegedly/reportedly may have) leased in the Mulholland Estates community was built in 2003 and last on the open market as a fully-furnished rental with a hefty hefty hefty $40,000 per month price tag. We can't say for sure if K.K. rented this house but our research did turn up evidence the nearly half acre, Balinese resort-inspired spread, owned by a brainy businesswoman/philanthropist/heiress to a billion dollar-plus biomedical fortune, was also available for purchase an asking price of $10,950,000.

Interior spaces (shown above) include an intimately-scaled foyer that bursts dramatically into a double-height entrance hall with celeb-style curved staircase and stunning Lagos Azul limestone flooring that continues into the formal living room. The cocktail-party friendly living room, divided into two section by a pair of columns, has a fireplace, several sets of Craftsman-style glass doors that open to lushly landscaped gardens, and a grand piano just in case K.K. wants to tinkle the ivories.

Another pair of columns stand between the entrance hall and formal dining room where there's more blue limestone underfoot, another fireplace and over-sized windows with backyard and swimming pool view. The limestone carries on in the chef-friendly, eat-in kitchen complete with sizable center island, snack counter, a full complement of high-grade stainless steel appliances, and custom Shaker-style mahogany cabinetry topped by bull-nosed granite counter tops.

The floor material switches to wide-plank wood in an adjacent family room spacious enough to accommodate a pool table and a seating area oriented towards a paneled wall with fireplace surrounded by five—that's right 5—flat screen televisions, one big one in the middle with two smaller ones stacked on either side. Wide, Craftsman-style glass doors on two walls open the room (with its mostly beige, black and burnt orange day-core) to foliage ringed patios and terraces.

If the lavish-living K.K. really did rent this residence she no doubt fell head over Jimmy Choos for the sprawling master suite privately situated at the back of the house where it takes advantage of canyon and city views through huge windows and glass doors. A chunky and very contemporary three-sided concrete-faced fireplace separates a private sitting room (with Juliet balcony) from the bedroom area where there's a small, built-in shelving and entertainment center tucked into the corner next to the fireplace with wall-mounted flat screen tee-vee for watching Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea Handler, Saturday Night Live and/or more lusty and lurid fare.

The over-sized attached master bathroom has stone flooring (that we can only hope has radiant heat), two sinks and vanities, a concrete-lined and glass-enclosed steam shower with long concrete bench, and an oval-shaped stone soaking tub set into an elevated deck in front of a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. A pair of custom-fitted, boutique style walk in closet/dressing rooms surely appealed to a clotheshorse like K.K. who does not, it seems to Your Mama from what we see in all the tabs and gossip glossies, leave the house for any reason whatsoever without the laborious and expensive efforts of a wardrobe stylist, hair doer and make-up gal. All the image effort seems positively reedonkulous to Your Mama who can't be bothered to put on a proper pair of shoes most days, but we get it. When yer a reality tee-vee lightening rod of controversy like K.K. is you always always always gotta look on point for the public who will gleefully shred a publicity seeking beehawtch for showing up at at the CVS in Calabasas or proto-suburban Sherman Oaks looking the least bit janky.

The lower level of the house opens out to a variety of patios and entertainment areas that include a curtained and vine-draped pergola lounge area that flows out to a second lounge area under the stars. At the other end of house a dining area nestled into a crook of the house has built-in bench seating, and a Palapa-shaded outdoor kitchen/barbecue center has bar seating. A sensuously curved sunbathing terrace snacks along the rim of a black-bottomed swimming pool and wood bridge spans a narrow arm of the pool to an elevated terrace with sunken spa set into a ring of palm trees from where night time hot tubbers can see down the house-dotted canyon and across the sparkly carpet of lights of the pancake-flat San Fernando Valley.

As it turns out, way back in early February after it was reported K.K. might want to move house, the leggy lady at Trulia suggested K.K. might want to consider this very house.

For the record, Your Mama has no direct knowledge of K.K. looking at or moving in to this house and, it should be noted, she recently tweeted the following:

So funny I was reading some magazine that showed pics of my new home...home is nice, but never seen it before! LOL who makes this stuff up?

Make of that what you will.

aerial photo (at top): Pacific Coast News
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Beverly Hills South

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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 interior on MLS show it seems to be in good shape. The landscaping is in good shape too. It appears to have newer windows and the kitchen has been redone with granite and stainless steel appliances.

The property was listed as a short sale on the MLS at $175,000. There is another property down the street, similar in size and condition, that is also listed as a short sale for $175,000. It sold in seven days, but we don't know what the actual contract price was since it was a short sale. The neighborhood is just OK. My partner's helper rates it a "C". The property is near a large regional park, so there aren't many nearby houses for comps. The original owner bought the property in 2004 for $378,000. There was competition at the auction for this property, so other investors wanted it. Our borrower got it for $129,000. Our loan is for $105,000. We conservatively are valuing it at $160,000. That makes our LTV 65.6%. My investment in this property is smaller than normal, since it's being done with funds from my daughter's UTMA account, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

My other loans continue to pay on time. Ho hum.

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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 topographical and green features. The remaking of the corridor is a joint venture between the city and the Beauregard Corridor Developer Stakeholders, a group whose membership includes local developer The JBG Companies, Duke Realty, Hekemian & Co., Home Properties and Southern Towers.

Big picture, the Beauregard Small Area Plan seeks to do what nearly all present-day redevelopment does - reverse the missteps of the past. Surface parking becomes public green spaces, sprawl becomes density, and auto-centric planning gives way to pedestrians, bikes, and mass transit. Planners envision the area transforming into a “garden city,” citing Roland Park in Baltimore as a model, with curving streets, courtyards, front yards, and greenways, all of it roughly bisected by the newly landscaped North Beauregard Street.

Planners also recommend the strict definition of seven distinct neighborhoods – Greenway, Garden District, Town Center, Southern Towers, Adams, Upland Park, Seminary Overlook – each with a central park. Developers have already claimed their neighborhoods; JBG (whose parcel looks to be at least as large as the other four parcels put together) has staked out almost the entire western half of the corridor (Greenway, Garden District, and Town Center. Hey, at least they didn't go with “JBGTown.”) Directly adjacent to the east is the oblong Duke Realty parcel (Adams), and along the east side, from top to bottom, are the more moderately-sized parcels of Hekemian (Upland) , Southern Towers, (Southern Towers) and Home Properties (Seminary Overlook), respectively. The logic behind the demarcation of the neighborhoods - which at present range from low to medium density - isn't entirely clear. The developers do own property within the borders of their designated neighborhoods - JBG, for example, already owns the Shops at Mark Center, as well as various apartment buildings along North Beauregard, and Home Properties owns apartments in Seminary Hill - but it's unclear how the apportioning was done (and by whom?), how binding it is, and how many of the purchases predated the mapping process.

It's still early for details about specific businesses, and representatives at recent meetings were vague or simply had nothing to report. However, planners have included three retail nodes in their plans – one in the west, in Town Center, and two in the east, in Upland and Southern Towers. These will be coveted locations for businesses – though Landmark Mall is close by, slightly to the southeast.

In exchange for access to development opportunities in the Corridor, the conglomerate has agreed to contribute just under $150 million towards a new fire station, road improvements, green public spaces, and affordable housing. The public reaction has not, however, been unanimously positive. On the public comment page the city set up, many citizens pointed out that the "townhome" style housing options would price out many of the current tenants. Others questioned the urgency behind the rollout, and wondered if it was a veiled effort by the city to raise density in the area to make up for lost tax revenues from the massive DOD facility at the Mark Center. Some questioned whether the proposed degree of density could be supported without a Metro stop (which isn't forthcoming), while still others objected on aesthetic grounds, calling it a "stepford wives" community.

The city replied by citing the surrounding areas and their projected development figures – Landmark/Van Dorn to the south plans 12 million square feet(!), Bailey's Crossroads to the north will get 5.5 million square feet - which, they say, will drastically alter

transportation and development patterns in the area, isolating and undermining Beauregard if it doesn't follow suit. Whether this is a real worry or the municipal equivalent to “keeping up with the neighbors” remains to be seen. That being said, the plan as it stands does look to be a clear improvement on the present state of the area.

If you have an opinion you'd like to share with the city or with developers, the next community meeting is on March 6. You can also weigh in online, on the citizen comment board.

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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, among all housing statistics, it's the only one that's "forward-looking".

The Pending Home Sales Index is important to home buyers throughout WA because 80% of homes under contract to sell close within 60 days of contract. In this way, the Pending Home Sales Index forecasts the housing market 1-2 months into the future.

This is very different from how NAR's Existing Home Sales report works; or, how the Census Bureau's New Home Sales report works. These two metrics tell us what's already happened in housing.

By contrast, the Pending Home Sales Index tells us what's coming next.

January's Pending Home Sales Index reading lifts the monthly metric to its highest level since April 2010 -- the month during which the 2010 federal home buyer tax credit expired -- foreshadowing a strong housing market through March and April 2012, at least.

This should not be news, of course. The nation's home builders have said "foot traffic" is rising and home supplies are scarce nationwide. The only wild-card for housing is the high contract cancellation rate.

As compared to last January when just 9 percent of home purchase contracts "failed", this January saw 33 percent of contracts fail. High failure rates undermine the Pending Home Sales Index's viability as a forward-looking housing market indicator.

Despite contract failures, though, the combination of low mortgage rates and low home prices is enticing to today's home buyers. Expect home sales to climb in the coming weeks which will lead to a strong spring season for housing. 

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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, leading to new lows for the national market.

District office vacancies expected to grow (Washington Post) Office vacancy remains around 10.6%, but uncertainty around federal leasing is expected to depress the office rental market.

Commercial vacancy rates improving, rents firming (Realestaterama) All real estate sectors are seeing improvements, but multi-family rental housing is leading the way.

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From the Archives: Emma Roberts

BUYER: Emma Roberts
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,250,000
SIZE: 2,142 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR 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 modestly sized contemporary a few, short but twisted blocks away from Mister Tyler's new nest scooped up way back in December 2010 by up-and-coming young actress and Showbiz scion Emma Roberts.

A little nepotism never hurts in Hollywood and Miss Roberts, the 21-year old daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Tinseltown royal Julia Roberts, got her big break as a teenager in 2004 when she landed the starring role as a high school art nerd in the very popular (and long ago canceled) teen-oriented sitcom Unfabulous, a program Your Mama had never before heard of until today. The well-connected lass went on to do a bunch of coming of age movies Your Mama ain't never heard of (Wild Child, Lymelife) and most recently she's dabbled in a growing list of rom-coms and dram-coms like the syrupy Valentine's Day and other silver screen gems we've never heard of like The Art of Getting By and Celeste and Jesse Forever.

for better or worse, Your Mama, more likely to read a gossip glossy than pay good money to see a romantic comedy our too-cynical and too-fat ass will most assuredly not appreciate, is far more familiar with Miss Roberts' date mates than we are her professional achievements. While still in her teens she was romantically squired by English actor/model Alex Pettyfer who hastily tattooed Miss Roberts' name on his wrist and just weeks ago rather ludicrously stripped down on Ellen Degeneres' daytime talk show while a bunch of lusty women and a few gays hooted, hollered and shrieked like there was no tomorrow. Miss Roberts, apropos of nothing real estate related, was widely reported to have recently split up with pouty-mouthed blond Chord Overstreet from Glee who Miss Roberts had long treated, so the salacious story goes, like her boy-bitch.

Sometime in 2010 and for reasons unknown to Your Mama, young Miss Roberts, then not even old enough to drink legally in a barroom, decided it was high time to decamp her rented West Hollywood condo and buy a single family house. Presumably she looked at any number of properties but according to multiple reliable sources eventually settled on a modestly-sized (if not exactly inexpensive) residence tucked discreetly into a fairly non-descript cul-de-sac high in the hills above Laurel Canyon.

Property records reveal pretty Miss Roberts, almost as generously lipped and wide mouthed as her Auntie Julia, paid either $1,246,000 or $1,250,000 for the gut-renovated residence. Listing information shows the low-profile but highly stylized house was originally built in 1949 and completely re-designed from 2008-10 by low-key L.A. based interior designer A.J. Bernard who may be modern-minded in his approach to living situations but kicks it Old School and does not appear, as far as Your Mama can tell, to maintain a professional presence on the interweb. The designer does, we were assured by someone we know who would know, have a email address for anyone who might like to engage his decorative and design talents and services.

Anyhoodles poodles, the sharply articulated but warmly finished single-story residence measures in at 2,142 square feet and includes 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in the main house with another bathroom in the attached, two-room guest house that extends off the back of the house.

Listing photos suggest the previous owner used the smaller of the two rooms in the guest house (bottom two photos at top) as a fitness room/yoga studio and the larger room, with a pair of wood-framed French doors and canyon view, as a music studio. The variegated, medium-dark wood floors in the guest house—reclaimed from an unnamed French chateau according to listing information—are even more decoratively delectable than the undeniably magnificent (and straight-up expensive) 12-inch wide plank French oak floors that run throughout the main house.

A solid wood door with stainless steel—or maybe nickel—hardware and accents opens into a fairly narrow corridor that connects primary living/dining/entertaining areas that include a living/family room with marble-topped wet bar, puzzle table with a pair of Nakashima (or Nakashima-like) chairs, and a complete wall of custom-built, floor-to-ceiling oak cabinets that house and hide (among other things) state-of-the art audio and visual equipment. Hinged pocket doors open to reveal a flat screen tee-vee and smartly slide back and disappear into the cabinetry. Wood-framed glass doors stretch along one entire wall fold back accordion-style to a slim terrace that steps off to a flat expanse of lawn perfect for piddling pooches and child-sized Slip 'n Slide but missing, as far Your Mama is concerned, a spa and/or a plunge-sized swimming pool.


The dining area of the eat-in kitchen, anchored and defined by a massive concrete fireplace with raised hearth and inset display niche instead of a mantel, has a built-in buffet and a single, very minimal (and completely appropriate) floating shelf for the uncluttered display of knickknacks, gewgaws, bagatelles and/or other hoozymagoozies and what-have-yous.

A center island with two-seat snack counter and unusual, in-line range top separate the dining area from the sleek but hardly sterile kitchen where custom oak cabinets hold a plethora of integrated Euro-style stainless steel appliances. The counter tops, according to listing information are book matched Calacatta gold and make Your Mama's skin go goose pimply with real estate envy. The children will note how Mister A.J. Bernard thoughfully thought of that household's animal occupants and designed the island's marble counter top to water fall dramatically over the edge and connect to a swank marble pad set into the floor for the dog or cats food and water bowl.

Each of the two bedrooms in the main house has access to a private and well-equipped and -conceived if not particularly huge bathing, ablution and evacuation facility. The guest bedroom—with but a sad, sliver of windows set above eye level—makes use of a standard-sized bathroom with Old-Timey honeybee tiles on the floor that, to be totally honest, feel a bit tense against the graphic linearity of the much more contemporary feeling (and lovely) custom-built oak vanity.

Like the living room the master bedroom, large enough for a separate sitting area with built-in floating bookshelves and various other niches, spills out to the backyard through a complete wall of folding floor-to-ceiling wood framed glass doors. The attached sky lit master bathroom has a marvelous Calacatta gold marble vanity and a curtain wall of frameless glass that separates the bathroom area from the over-sized steam shower with built-in marble bench.

The backyard may be far from huge but it is notably large and flat for a house in the Hollywood Hills and probably large and flat enough for Miss Roberts to install on small in-ground swimming pool were she so inclined.

Prior moving on up to the tippy-tops of Laurel Canyon Miss Roberts shacked up for a short time in the legendary Granville Towers building in West Hollywood, a 7-story, French Normandy confection once home to scads of other medium- and high- profile entertainment industry peeps like Nicole Scherzinger, Portia di Rossi, David Bowie, Rock Hudson, Mickey Rourke and Marilyn Monroe.

Not content, perhaps, with just a west coast abode, Miss Roberts was also spotted as recently as last September poking and peeking around for a pied a terre in New York City's tourist- and shopper-packed SoHo neighborhood. It's not clear to Your Mama if Miss Roberts was looking to lease or purchase a pad in the The Big Apple and, since we don't know a donkey from hand puppet, Your Mama has absolutely no idea if the second tier starlet leased or purchased a place in New York City.

aerial photo (top left): Pacific Coast News
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Beverly Hills North

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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 the existing surface-parking-and-strip-mall into mixed-use pedestrian- and bike-friendly mega-development with interspersed public green spaces. The final buildout, which was designed by WDG Architecture and Baltimore-based Design Collective, would come in at just under 3.5 million square feet, with approximately half of that total being residential. A list of tenants for the finished development includes AT&T, Bank of America, and CVS, among many others, including - notably - an 8-screen, reserved-seating iPic theater.

Though the project represents a massive facelift for the area, planners have surprisingly received no complaints regarding the project from adjacent property owners or other members of the public, and the planning board was largely receptive to the plans at last week's meeting. Of course, final approval is contingent on developers meeting a long list of conditions, including providing recreation facilities, street improvements, bike parking, vegetated rooftops, and a per-residential-unit payment of just over 1800 dollars to Montgomery County schools.

In accordance with the latest trends in urban planning, plans for Mid-Pike Plaza place heavy emphasis on pedestrian-friendly access, traffic reduction, public spaces, and green solutions. The project, for example, includes a "road diet" that would sharply reduce traffic in the area, largely by reducing Old Georgetown Road to four lanes from six, and a "dramatic" reduction in parking. Phase One also includes generous apportioning of public green spaces; included in the site plan are two pedestrian plazas and a public green that would altogether account for 1.3 acres (of a total 6.7 Phase One acres). Planners have also required Federal Realty to include vegetated roofs on most of the buildings. Smaller pockets parks are splashed throughout the development, and most of the public spaces will be linked by a "recreation loop" of bike lanes and walking paths.

Construction is slated to commence in three phases, proceeding roughly from the southwest corner of the property and proceeding roughly northeast. Phase One, tentatively scheduled to break ground this August, will start with Building 10, located in the very southwesterly corner, a 200-foot-tall, 319-unit residential building with 13,300 square feet of commercial space, Building 11 (directly to the east of Building 10), a 100-foot-tall 251,000 square foot u-shaped office tower with ground floor commercial space, and Building 12, a 70-foot building which will front Old Georgetown Road, and consist of 174 residential units and just over 50,000 square feet of commercial space. Per an agreement with the county, the two residential buildings in Phase One would offer 12.5% moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs). Phase Two would represent the approximate center of the trapezoidal parcel, and Phase Three would complete the north end of the development as well as fill in spaces on the west and southeast margins.

North Bethesda real estate development news

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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 entire new home inventory of 151,000 homes would be sold in 5.6 months.

Anything less than 6.0-month supply is thought to connote a "sellers' market".

321,000 new homes were sold last month on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis. 7 of 10 new homes sold for less than $300,000. 

The South Region continues to account for the majority of new construction sales, posting a 59% market share in January. South Region sales were up 9 percent as compared to December. The other 3 regions turned in mixed results. 

• Northeast Region : +11.1% from December 2011 
• Midwest Region : -24.5% from December 2011 
• West Region : -10.6% from December 2011 

Unfortunately, the Census Bureau's New Home Sales data could be wrong.

Although New Home Sales were said to fall by about one percent nationally from December to January, the government's monthly report was footnoted with a ±16.6% margin of error. This means that the actual New Home Sales reading may have been as high as +15%, or as low as -18%. 

Because the range of values includes positive and negative values, the January New Home Sales data is of "zero confidence". However, that's not to say that it should be ignored. The aforementioned homebuilder confidence survey shows builders optimistic for the future, and a bevy of home sale data since October 2011 suggests a market in recovery.

If you're in the market for new construction in Renton , therefore, consider going into contract sooner rather than later. Home prices remain low and mortgage rates do, too -- a terrific combination for today's buyers.

In a few months, the landscape may look different.

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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 would create the largest office building in Arlington.

Greening DC's zoning code (Better Cities & Towns) New proposals for the zoning code mean less cars, green spaces, and adding zoning exceptions to squeeze greater use out of commercially restricted buildings.

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Double Whammy: Steven Tyler (2)

BUYER: Steven Tyler
LOCATION: Kihei, HI
PRICE: $4,800,000
SIZE: 3,000 square feet (approx.), 2 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR 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 front hideaway on the Hawaiian island of Maui the sixty-something and still rocking rocker and long time lady-pal and soon-to-be-third wife Erin Brady scooped up in December 2011.

We're not sure which snitch is responsible for letting Mister Tyler's Hawaiian real estate cat out of the bag but it it appears it may have been the well-connected gals who pen the Private Properties column for The Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ and listing information provided to Your Mama by a kind soul shows the gated, pentagonal-shaped dwelling sits all by itself on a promontory of just over a quarter acre of ocean front property. The house measures about 3,000 square feet and contains a pair of bedrooms multimillion dollar ocean views and 3.5 bathrooms. Listing information also reveals Mister Tyler's and/or his people negotiated a serious as a heart attack 25-plus percent discount on the property purchase as the pristine beach pad was last listed at $6,495,000.

Wood-framed floor-to-ceiling glass panels on both floors slide back and completely open the traditional pole-built residence to the elements. When completely open, the redwood and ipe wood structure functions as a luxuriously appointed covered terrace with flagstone floors and a floor-to-ceiling (and costly to maintain) aquarium on the lower level. Breezy, open air sleeping porches on the second floor have vaulted, exposed wood beamed ceilings, wood floors and postcard perfect ocean views.

The kitchen area has exquisite, custom ipe cabinetry that (one hopes) tolerates the damp and salty seaside air and includes shiny black granite counter tops with long expanses of prep area, a 4-person snack/booze counter, and top-of-the-line, commercial-quality appliances. Marketing materials we saw do not show any of the 3.5 bathrooms but listing information does state there is "marble in the bathrooms" and we expect they are as spiffy and ship-shape as the kitchen.

The upper level bedroom open to a narrow balcony that runs around the residence and the lower level living/dining/kitchen area spills out to a lava rock-lined, black-bottomed infinity edged saline swimming pool and grassy terraces girdle by rugged lava rock walls and connected by steps carved into the lava rocks.

Although the house and grounds appear to be quite and pleasantly private, it also appears from Your Mama's research that there's a very small but very public beach/swimming area located just outside the gates of Mister Tyler's residence.

Mister Tyler and his soon-to-be new Missus were photographed by the paps in late December (2011) taking part in some of house blessing ceremony with leaf-crowned woman believed to be "a local religious official."

listing photos: Century 21 / All Islands

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Double Whammy: Steven Tyler (1)

BUYER: Steven Tyler
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,325,000
SIZE: 3,100 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.25 bathrooms

YOUR 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 by Aerosmith's scarftastic front man and current American Idol judge Steven Tyler.

Mister Tyler has been shaking his money maker in the Bizness of Show more than 40 years and he's the recipient of multiple Grammys, AMAs and MTV Music Awards. He's lived, much to the delight and intrigue of fans, the electric and punishing life of a rock star, not the new fangled sort of rock stardom of juice fasts and Buddha statues but the Old School kind of hardcore drugs and indiscriminate recreational sex. Nowadays, although still every bit the rock star with his somewhat androgynous maquillage and high maintenance hairdo, he comes across as an easy-going, kind, thoughtful and genuine man who walks pretty damn squarely in the sincere but sometimes loopy Loobeetawns of his A.I. predecessor Paula Abdul and who—bringing us back to topic—went on a bit of a real estate buying spree last year purchasing luxury abodes in both Hawaii and Los Angeles, CA.

Fashion writer and celebrity gossip Merle Ginsberg reported in early August 2011 in the Hollywood Reporter that an unidentified woman walked into the swank, star-studded Sunset Tower Hotel on the Sunset Strip and was overheard tattling to the desk clerk she needed to book a room for a month or two because—so the story goes—sixty-sumpin' year old rock star Steven Tyler and his long term gal pal-fiancée Erin Brady had toured her nearby house, which she (allegedly) explained had been on the market for some time, and offered to buy the house on the spot with everything in it and with all cash if she agreed to leave that night. Apparently (and allegedly), the lady agreed to those rather absurd terms.

Listen puppies, we are nobody compared to the well-regarded Miz Ginsberg and we do not question that she reported what she heard accurately, but it seems simply ludicrous to Your Mama that Mister Tyler would make that sort of demand of a person selling their home. We might expect that sort of real estate nonsense from one or another of the more demanding American Idol judges but not of the oddly, surprisingly and pleasantly down to earth-seeming Mister Tyler. Then again, what do we know about anything? Certainly nada-zilch-nil about Mister Tyler's allegedly stiff-armed negotiating tactics.

We also do not, natch, have any idea if that disturbing and sad story of celebrity entitlement is true or not but we do know from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial that in the last days of July (2011) the wide-mouthed and long-haired Demon of Screamin' did indeed acquire a house high above L.A.'s legendary Laurel Canyon. However—and make of this what y'all will—the property in question was not sold, according to the property records we peeped, by a woman but rather a man who owned the house since at least the late 1990s and over the years borrowed regularly and heavily against its equity. Twice in the mid- and late-Aughts, public records show, lenders initiated foreclosure proceedings. Finally, just in the nick of time, along came Mister Tyler (and soon-to-be-third Missus Tyler) who snatched up the 3-story, ridge-line residence as a short-sale in late July 2011 for $1,325,000.

Listing information shows the post-modern minded main house was built in 1987 and measures about 3,100 square feet with three bedrooms and a total of 2 full, 2 half and 1 quarter bathrooms. The house, with a front facade partially perforated by a rigid grid of pin-prickish windows, sits privately on a flattened promontory above Laurel Canyon with what can quite legitimately be called a thrilling, sweeping and, yes, jetliner view across Los Angeles from east of downtown to, on a clear day, the Pacific Ocean.

Laurel Canyon, music lovers and celebrity real estate watchers well know, is steeped and gilded in music and showbiz history and lore. The rugged ravines, steep hillsides and snaking ridges have a long history of residents that well qualify as music industry icons such as—to name a paltry few—the incomparable Joni Mitchell, deliciously irreverent and experimental Frank Zappa, hard-driving howler Cass Elliot, Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, super-groupie Pamela Des Barres, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, and the Rolling Stones who in the 1970s shacked up en masse for a short spell in the same Appian Way house atop Laurel Canyon where Marilyn Manson lived and recorded in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Mister Tyler's new west coast abode sits, according to property records, three small but separate parcels. The usable portion of the land makes an flag-shape as its stretches back from the street with the main house perches on the hillside at the extreme ass-end of the property, well out of view of looky-loos, garbage men, and dog-walking nosy neighbors on the street.

A 4-car, electronically gated carport is about all that can be seen from the street. At the rear of the car port a short set of steps ascends to a door set into a windowless wall that forms the rear boundary of a detached structure of unknown purpose that is definitely not the main house and may (or may not be) a guest house, pool house, recording studio, home fitness center, potting shed and/or whatever.

Because the main house sits as far from the street as the geography and building restrictions allow, in order to get to the front door a person must not only walk the entire length of long carport and up the stairs to the entry gate but also traverse the property's primary outdoor entertainment area along a narrow brick walkway that parallels the entire length of the swimming pool.

This somewhat unusual set up with the black-bottom swimming pool set in tight proximity to the house, in what is effectively the front yard, probably works just fine once you're on the property. Howevuh hunties, Your Mama can assure the children that our imperious house gurl Svetlana and any number of our boozier and hence less stable friends would surely balk at having to schlep the long distance from the car port to the kitchen with hands full of cocktails and armfuls of groceries and cleaning supplies. No doubt ol' Sveta would insist we supply her with a golf cart or electric scooter to ease her burden. Imagine for a moment, if you will, attempting to make that walk at 3:30 am in a pair of cockamamie pony heels (and downright criminal multi-color hose) after three too many gin & tonics. Mister Tyler may be sober now but we still suggest he consider keeping a speedo-suited lifeguard on duty at all times just in case any of his less sober guests partake a tipple or two of something merry making and possibly illegal.

Anyhoo, details of the house are few, but listing information and marketing materials Your Mama dug up out of the interweb do show the living room has very blonde and lustrous hardwood floors, a fireplace, and a pair vast expanses of asymmetrically-paned windows that frame and cut up the otherwise unobstructed rock star view, at night a magnificent shimmering expanse of winking and twinkling lights. We know there are a lot of people who loathe Los Angeles for any number of (probably legitimate) reasons but, butter balls, even the haters have to acknowledge the night time view from Mister Tyler's living room above Laurel Canyon is—when weather and smog permit—nothing short of spectacular.

Your Mama hears through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Mister Tyler had leased a very contemporary residence near the one he just purchased (as seen in this May 2011 interview with Matt Lauer). In addition to his new house in Tinseltown and his new Hawaiian hideaway, which we'll get to in a minute or two, Mister Tyler's property portfolio also includes (but may not be limited to) a large, lake front house in Sunapee, NH and a high-walled and gated estate tucked into the tail end of a shared private drive in the upscale and scenic seaside town of Marshfield, MA, about 30 miles outside of Boston.

listing photos: Nelson Shelton & Associates

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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 can become a simple storage container, a plant stand, and greenhouse insulation, respectively.

Real Simple made a list of "50 All-Time Favorite New Uses For Old Things". It's a list of Creative Reuse projects from which you're bound to find inspiration.

For example, the magazine suggests using an old Twister Mat as a children's party tablecloth; or an old eyeglasses case to hold nail care essentials such as clippers, files and scissors.

Some of Real Simple's other top ideas included :

• Distinguish your glass from other party-goers' glasses at a party with peel-on/peel-off window decals
• Protect counter tops from hot dishes with and old mousepad-turned-trivet
• Eliminate travel bulk. Carry non-prescription medicines in an old contact lens case.
• Use Play-Doh as a candle or sparkler holder
• Pour pancake batter into an old ketchup bottle for no-mess cooking

With Creative Reuse, you're limited only by your imagination and, even then, Google can be a terrific project resource.

Check the Real Simple list for 50 great ideas.

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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 reportedly described it as a "horizontal castle"—in 1998 to former fashion designer Harriet Selling-Canepa who renovated and updated the house and, property records indicate, sold it off for an unknown amount of money in January 2009 to L.A.-based real estate executive Fred Droesch who currently has the eye-popping and iconic crib up for lease at $35,000 per month.

Situated well above the tree tops for picture perfect panoramic canyon and city views, the architecturally taut and nature-minded house hugs the hillside with its gentle curved shape, measures around 6,000 square feet, and contains, according to listing information, 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.

The main living areas include a voluminous open-plan living/dining area with fab stone floor, two massive stone fireplaces, wood-framed glass doors that connect to cantilevered terrace and runs along the back of the house, and a soaring, high-drama, rib-like wood ceiling with curved rafters. A more intimately scaled den—also with soaring, high-drama, rib-like wood ceiling with curved rafters—has herringbone patterned wood floors, a second massive stone fireplace and built-in bookshelves and desk space.

A series of hollowed out turrets made of Bouquet Canyon Stone solidly anchor the cantilevered two-story structure and serve a variety of purposes. One is a wet bar, another is a pantry, a couple house bathrooms and storage spaces and the one in the master bedroom functions as a pee-in-your-pants perfect sky lit shower enclosure.

Certainly Miter Lautner's Schwimmer Residence hasn't been maintained as a time capsule or museum piece, a fact some architectural purists will surely point out and poo-poo. Any number of alterations (improvements and upgrades) and have been made such as in the very airy, center island kitchen outfitted with sleek wood cabinets we suspect may not be original to the house and high-grade appliances that include full-sized, side-by-side fridge and freezers that are most definitely not original to the house.

Alterations aside, we are in unrequited and deep real estate lust-love with this house. Although it seems utterly preposterous to anyone frugally inclined like Your Mama to spend $35,000 a month on rent even if you can well afford to spend $35,000 a month on rent, were Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter ever to be in the position to pay $35,000 a month to rent a house—and we don't expect to ever be—we would be powerfully tempted by this house.

Some of the larger nearby estates are now owned by the somewhat mysterious Igor Greensberg whose mega-mansion rivals those in Beverly Park in both size and opulence and Dr. Phil McGraw.who dropped $29,816,500 for his 16,000-plus square foot mansion around the corner in July 2010. At the bottom of The Schwimmer Residence's hair pin-like gated driveway is the famous (and sadly bulldozed) Falcon Lair, a stunning Spanish style residence built in the 1920s by silent film stud Rudy Valentino and owed for nearly 50 years by American heiress Doris Duke. And just down the hill a bit more is the property where Charles Manson's minions murdered a handful of people including Sharon Tate in 1969. That property is now owned by sitcom writer/producer Jeff Franklin (Laverne & Shirly, Full House).

The ever-industrious kids at Curbed toured The Schwimmer Residence last summer and posted a couple dozen drool worthy photos that show other parts of the house not shown here that include a red-carpeted spiral staircase, the most decadent and dee-voon laundry room Your Mama and our imperious house gurl Svetlana have ever seen, and a sensually serpentine entry lined with curvaceous Richard Serra-like Bouquet Canyon Stone walls.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

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Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Located 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 painted sky blue, from the living room up to the kitchen (granite countertops, Kitchen Aid Professional appliances) and then up to the two bedrooms and the luxury baths (Travertine tile, etc.). Four levels in all. I'm a huuuuuge fan of this place - a friend of mine lives in a vertical-type place and there's something really novel and appealing about the setup. Not to mention the peripheral fitness benefits of the stairs; if you really want to beat the obesity epidemic, all you have to do is mandate that all new houses have to be built on the Y axis. My hammies were on fire after just a brief open houser – I bet after a month of living here you'd have the lower body of a young Jean-Claude Van Damme.


The place also boasts some beautiful interior design and furnishings - from the pendant lighting to the turquoise bathroom basins – which you could maybe convince your friends and family you picked out yourself, depending on how good a liar you are. In back is a small patio perfect for grilling out or a getting a little sun with your morning coffee, and the unit also comes with assigned parking. I once lived in a place where I had an assigned parking space, but I didn't have a car, so I rented it on Craigslist. The guy who rented it conveniently omitted the fact that he was going to be living in the car he'd be parking there. I felt bad for him so I let him stay for a month, and at night sometimes when he'd shift in his sleep his feet would accidentally hit the brakes, and his brakelights would flash and reflect onto the wall of my bedroom, where I'd be up late reading. If you can come up with a more depressing image than that, I'll give you a hundred dollars. (Not really.)

1328 Maryland Ave NE #4
Washington, D.C.
2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
$539,900

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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 on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that's a significant $1,105,000 less than the $3,100,000 Miss Bell paid for the 2.6 acre spread in November 2006.

Current listing information shows the privately situated and somewhat bedraggled two-story house, built in 1969, measures 3,867 square feet and includes 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms plus a possibly unpermitted wing with an additional 2 bedrooms, study, 2.5 bathrooms, and a laundry closet.

listing photo: Parsi Group Realtors

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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 about whether mortgage rates will generally rise or fall in the coming months.

The most recent Fed Minutes reveals a central bank divided on the future of the U.S. economy. The minutes show some Fed members in favor of new, immediate market stimulus. It shows others in favor of terminating the stimulus that's already in place.

The Fed's debate centered on the topic of inflation, and the pressures that a prolonged, near-zero Fed Funds Rate can place on the economy. Ultimately, the Fed did nothing, neither adding new stimulus nor removing that which is already in place.

It did, however, communicate a plan to keep the benchmark Fed Funds Rate rate "exceptionally low" through late-2014, at least.

The Fed Minutes included the following notes, too :

• On employment : Unemployment rates will "decline only gradually" in 2012
• On housing : The market is "held down" by the "large overhang" of distressed homes
• On inflation : Consumer prices have remained "flat"

Furthermore, the Fed expressed optimism regarding European financial markets, noting that market sentiment "appeared to brighten a bit". Nonetheless, "spillovers" remain possible and the threat continues to weigh on markets. 

Mortgage rates are slightly worse since the Fed Minutes were released. 

The Federal Reserve's next scheduled meeting is March 13, 2012 -- its second of 8 scheduled meetings this year.

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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 ok'd by county planning board (Gazette) Board votes to approve JBG's plan for 1550 units of housing.

Million $ foreclosures: Rich increasingly walking away from mortgages (CNN Money) 36,000 homes - 2% of all foreclosures - over $1,000,000 were foreclosed on in 2011, a record high.

Rising rental rates may drive up home sales (HousingWire) Mortgage Bankers Association says rising price of apartments could improve housing market as soon as this spring.

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Existing Home Sales Climb To A 20-Month Record

January's home resales moved to a 20-month high -- additional evidence that the nation's housing recovery is underway.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the January 2012 Existing Home Sales showed 4.57 million units sold last month on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis -- a 4 percent increase as compared to December's revised figures.

An "existing home" is one that's been previously occupied and cannot be categorized as new construction.

Beyond the headline numbers, though, there was plenty about which for today's Seattle home sellers to get excited. Demand for homes remains strong, foreshadowing higher home prices through 2012.

First, the national housing stock is at a 5-year low.

In January, the number of homes for sale nationwide slipped to 2.31 million, the smallest home inventory since February 2007, and a 21% decrease from just one year ago.

Falling home supply amid constant home demand leads home prices higher. At the current pace of sales, today's complete home inventory would "sell out" in 6.1 months. 

Analysts say that a 6-month supply is a market in balance. Anything less is Bull Market territory.

Second, the National Association of REALTORS® says that one-third of all homes under contract "failed" last month. This means that many more buyers tried to buy, but couldn't for a number of reasons including mortgage denials; or, insurmountable home inspections issues; or, homes appraising for less than the contract price.

As contract failures subside, Existing Home Sales are expected to rise even faster.

And, lastly, first-time buyers continue to power the home resale market. In January, 33% of all sales were made to first-time buyers, up four points from last year. This statistic suggests that renters are moving into homeownership, an important component in a sustained housing market recovery.  

Given high demand and shrinking supply, we should expect for Fairwood home prices to rise in the coming months, if they haven't already. Thankfully, mortgage rates remain near all-time lows.

Low mortgage rates make homes more affordable.

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Morning Real Estate Review

Numerous indicators point to strong year in real estate (Realestaterama) Increased leasing velocity, the reemergence of speculative construction, and strong retail, manufacturing and transportation industry performance all signal the start of what very likely will be a positive year.

Trammell Crow gets financing for another NoMa office building (Globe St.) Sentinel Square II, a 270,000 s.f. office building, will be LEED Gold and meet stringent security standards.

The real reason to buy your own home (CNN Money) Hint: ever want to date again? Move out on your roommates and get your own place, that you own.

New York's BGC Partners lays out plans to buy bankrupt Grubb & Ellis (Business Journal) The purchase could have implications in the D.C. market as the 6th-ranked office rep gets snapped up.

Existing home sales rose in January, inventory down (Marketwire) The numbers are better than December and beat January of 2011.

A 5th Avenue experience for DC's 12th Street? (Globe St) With ESPN zone gone, planners envision multiple tenants in the large space to create a different shopping experience.

A new design for Fannie and Freddie (Washington Post) The mortgage giants should be weaned off life support and abandoned as an economic stimulus component.

Peterson Companies buys into Bethesda's Rock Spring (Washington Post) The developer of National Harbor gives injection to struggling mixed-use project.

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