UPDATE: Rosie O'Donnell

Buckle your safety belts butter beans, the listing images for Rosie O'Donnell's massive Miami Beach (FL) mansion have popped up online and, hunties, Your Mama don't know what's more of a hot mess, a Xanax- and booze-infused Fiona Trambeau being rolled off the airplane in a wheelchair and nappy poncho at 10:45 this morning or that gawd-awful red, white and blue decorating disaster. Heaven knows Your Mama loves us some snow white walls and a white slip-covered sofa in a beach house but even we have our limits.

As discussed here and everywhere earlier, Miz O'Donnell heaved her 11 bedroom and 12.5 pooper compound on Miami's celeb-studded Star Island on the open market today with an asking price of $19,500,000.

listing photos: EWM International

Read More

New Zealand's Karl Urban To Sell Auckland Crib

SELLER: Karl Urban
LOCATION: Auckland, New Zealand
PRICE: Undisclosed
SIZE: 281 square meters, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Not caring a lick or an iota for action/sci-fi books and movies—no shade, babies, it's just not our cup of entertainment tea—Your Mama has to admit when we first heard last week from from a Kiwi named Kiki that actor Karl Urban was selling his rather homey house in Auckland (New Zealand) we were like, "Who the hell is that?"

Natch, we fired up our trusty laptop computer and discovered Mister Urban, a well-built brunette with somewhat delicate facial features whose big break came on the New Zealand soap story Shortland Street, has successfully crossed over from the Australian/New Zealand movie scene to the Hollywood big time. In addition to scads and scores of movies and tee-vee shows Down Under, he's appeared in a substantial number Hollywood-made sci-fi and action nuggets that include Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Bourne Supremacy, Star Trek, and Xena: Warrior Princess. His Internet Movie Data Base resume shows beaver-busy Mister Urban has hefty handful of film projects in the hopper or in production that include a sci-fi thriller with Vin Diesel (Untitled Chronicles of Riddick Sequel) and still-to-be-titled sequel for Star Trek with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.

Your Mama doesn't know how to look up public property records in New Zealand so we really can't say when Mister Urban and his Missus bought the gated residence located in the upscale Auckland enclave of Herne Bay or how much dinero they forked over to buy it. We also don't know, as it turns out, at what price the property is listed. That's because current listing information does not indicate a specific asking price but does show that unless the property sells before, it will be sold by auction on the 4th of April. A recent report in the local papers shows the house has a "capital value" of $1,410,000 (NZ), an amount that converts to $1,150,450 (US).

We are not familiar with the specifics way of the New Zealand real estate business so we haven't a clue what "capital value" is and we also can't say if this auction business is customary for the region. In the U.S., a property auction often reeks of desperation (and/or foreclosure) but iffin we were the betting type—and we're not—we'd wager both our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly that the scheduled auction for Mister (and Missus) Urban's digs in Auckland are absolutely not an indication of an over-squeezed pocketbook.

Anyhoodles poodles, listing information does reveal the ship-shape, two-story shingled cottage measures 281 square meters and includes a total of 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A quick consult with our conversion contraption allows all us Americanos not on the metric system to understand 281 square meters is the exact equivalent of 3,025.66 square feet.

A bowling alley-length entrance hall with wood beamed ceiling and wood floors stretches clear through to the back of the house where it opens through French doors to a sizable wood deck that extends the first floor living areas into the tropically-landscaped and high-hedged back yard. Groovy, geometric-minded light fixtures splash a honeycomb-like pattern on the walls that, by our meaningless opinion, complements the colorfully graphic area rugs but competes uncomfortably with the numerous wall-hanging artworks.

The wood floors continue into the not-very-formal "formal" living room with fireplace and high wood beamed ceiling. The furnishings are eclectic and include linen slip-covered and leather sofas, an iconic Isamu Noguchi coffee table, a rug that looks like it was inspired by something our Grandma T-T tatted, and a variety of artworks on the walls including one over the fireplace ringed with a tangerine-colored frame that has Your Mama drooling with envy...over the frame, not the painting.

The adjacent dining area has full-wall built-in buffet with turquoise and orange painted accents and  French doors open the dining area to the back deck. The dining area is completely open to the compact but well-equipped kitchen with free-standing center work island not particularly fancy stainless steel appliances. One entire wall of the kitchen is covered in snap shots and other family ephemera, a warm and fuzzy design idea the children can inexpensively and easily do in their own homes.

Upstairs a second sitting room (lit with the same geometrically-minded lights as in the entrance hall) opens to a deep covered porch with glistening bay views over the trees and roof tops of the surrounding homes.

Obviously we're not apprised of Mister Urban's specific real estate plans but eh told the local press he has no plans to relocated to Tinseltown and, in fact, has definite plans to stay in Herne Bay 'hood.

listing photos: Custom Residential

Read More

Rosie Redux: O'Donnell Lists Star Island Estate

With her talk show on Oprah's network canceled after just one season—today being it's last day on the air—comedienne, chat show host and lefty-liberal motor mouth Rosie O'Donnell no longer needed or wanted the townhouse she bought a few months ago for $2,250,000 and sold a few weeks ago for $2,500,000.

Apparently the Nyack (NY)-based Rosie O' also doesn't need or want her mansion in Miami Beach, FL because today word comes down the celebrity real estate street via the South Beach Condo Blog (SBCB) that she somewhat surprisingly listed her Star Island estate with an asking price of $19,500,000.

Records show Miz O' picked up the waterfront property in March 1999 for $6,750,000. The Dade County Tax Man shows the just over 1-acre pie-shaped parcel has 203 feet of water frontage with private boat dock. Listing information reveals Rosie O's estate includes an 11,104 square foot main mansion plus two separate and private guesthouses. Listing information also indicates there are 12 bedrooms and 11.5 bathrooms on the property including a "vast master suite" complete with private office, sitting room, fireplace and waterside terrace.

The handsome devil at the SBCB says the estate "has been upgraded from when she originally purchased the property" and listing information reveals there's a "professional kitc[hen]" and "impressive millwork." Outside there's a large motor court that wraps around a giant tree, lots of tropical landscaping that includes a privacy screen of foliage along the water front, various dining and lounging terraces, a built-in barbecue station, and a kidney bean-shaped swimming pool.

Other high-profile residents of Star Island include music mogul Tommy Motola, Miami Beach royal Gloria Estefan, showbiz entrepreneur Sean Combs (otherwise known as P. Faddle or Puff Diddle or whatever) who makes everyone take off their kicks before going inside, shoe tycoon Donald J. Pliner whose house has a fab key-shaped swimming pool, and German property developer Thomas Kramer who appeared in all his kinda-creepy glory on The Real Housewives of Atlanta as one of Kim Zolciak's friends.

Although her house is priced the lowest Miz O'Donnell may face some stiff competition from her neighbors. There are currently at least five other Star Island estates listed on the open market with asking prices from $19,999,999 to $35,000,000.

aerial photo: Bing

Read More

Arlington's Green Tower to Break Ground in July

After nearly three years of delays, the Tellus, Arlington's greenest apartment building, is finally set to break ground.

"Demolition is starting in May, with construction starting on July 1," said Gagik Davtian, Program Manager at Erkiletian. "We figure it'll be about 20 months until first delivery."

The 254-unit, 16-story Tellus is anticipated to be Arlington's first LEED Gold certified building. Plans call for the building to be powered, at least in part, by renewable energy sources, and the building features various water-saving and energy-efficient features - for example, reclaimed storm water and air conditioning condensation will be used to irrigate the native-plant landscaping. The building will also feature smart car and bicycle options, as well as a 26,000 square-foot garden plaza. The Tellus gained approval from the county way back in 2009, with a projected start date later that year, but the recession put things on hold - until now.

The finished building will offer just over 2800 square feet of ground-floor retail space (a restaurant, according to Erkiletian), as well as 7700 square feet of office space. "The Tellus is replacing a seven-story Sixties-era office building [the Arlington Executive Building]," said Davtian. "One of the tenants from the existing building, some government people, are going to be installed in the new building too. The way the office space is attached is actually very organic - it's sort of a bubble coming out of the building, a curvy facade on the backside."

Like the rest of the development, the design of the building has gone through a long collaborative process. According to Davtian, Lessard Group did the "schematic design," and then WDG Architecture came in and developed the working drawings. "WDG also changed a few elements," Davtian said. "They slightly redesigned the interior units, making them bigger, more open, and more contemporary. A lot of them have a sort of loft-like feel now."

Though developers plan on first delivery in 20 months, the project in its entirety is expected to take a full two years to complete.

Arlington, VA real estate development news

Read More

Mortgage Rates Fall Back Below 4%

After a brief run-up two weeks ago, mortgage rates are back below 4 percent. It's good news for home buyers and mortgage rate shoppers of Renton because with lower mortgage rates come lower mortgage payments.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the national, average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell to 3.99 percent this week from last week's 4.08 percent.

Last week had marked the first time since December 2011 that the benchmark rate crossed north of 4 percent -- a span of 16 weeks.

And, it wasn't just rates that got cheaper this week -- closing costs dropped, too.

Freddie Mac's survey showed that the average number of discount points to accompany a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell one-tenth of a percent this week to 0.7, where one discount point is equal to one percent of your loan size.

As a real-life example, a $200,000 Newcastle mortgage with an accompanying 0.7 discount points would be subject to an additional $1,400 one-time closing cost. Last week, that cost was $1,600.

Note, though, that these are average mortgage rates for the nation. On a local level, rates may be higher or lower, and so may the accompanying number of discount points.

For example, in this week's Freddie Mac survey, each U.S. region boasts its own "average rate" :

• Northeast Region : 4.00% with 0.7 discount points
• West Region : 3.94% with 0.9 discount points
• Southeast Region : 4.01% with 0.8 discount points
• North Central Region : 3.99% with 0.6 discount points
• Southwest Region : 4.02% with 0.8 discount points

These rates are each well below the average rates of a year ago when the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.86%. 

Low mortgage rates can't last forever so if you've been wondering whether now is a good time to buy a home or refinance one; or whether rising rates will harm your monthly budget, the answer may be yes. A weak economy held mortgage rates low last year. An improving economy should push rates higher this year.

Talk to your loan officer and review your home loan options. Looking ahead to spring and summer, mortgage rates appear poised to rise.

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

District picks 6 pot cultivation centers (Washington Post) The 6, in far northeast DC, were chosen based in part on security needs.

Yes! Organic interested in Bruce Monroe site? (CityPaper) While Neighborhood Development Company mulls (long-term) plans for the site, Yes! says it might be interested in the location, Andy Shalal too.

Investment home sales surged 64% last year (Mortgage News Daily) Sales go from 749,000 in 2010 to 1.23m in 2011 as investors take advantage of bargain prices.

Home prices in DC show strength and stability (Home Buying Institute) While 16 of the 20 markets declined in the recent Case Shiller numbers, February's numbers show a trend of rising home prices.

Read More

DC's Largest Private Solar Array Underway in Tenleytown

The largest privately owned solar array is now going up on top of a Tenleytown building owned by Paul Burman at 4435 Wisconsin Ave., NW. Burman hired Seven Seas Energy LLC to develop the project that will produce an estimated 50,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy each year.

Teris Pantazes, founder of Seven Seas Energy, said the project carries an up-front price tag of about $220,000. But tax credits and grants reduce it to less than $100,000, he said, with an annual energy cost savings of about $20,000. Work should be completed in April.

"What's unique about this job," Pantazes said, "is this is the largest system where an owner of a building has stepped up and said I like this so much I'm going to pay for this solar array myself."

Paul Burman, president of Burman Properties Inc., will have the largest private solar array in the city. There are, however, larger non-private solar arrays. For example, Pantazes said American University has one that was built under an agreement with a private investor who funded the project and sells energy to the school.

Pantazes said there are some unique challenges to building more than six stories at nearly the highest point in the city. In addition to getting permission from the zoning commission to build on top of the building's fifth floor along Wisconsin Avenue, high winds required a strong, steel structure.

The building, which stretches in an L shape from Albemarle Street to Wisconsin Avenue, houses a variety of tenants including Hot Yoga and Mattress Warehouse.

Burman said he wanted to switch to solar power in the interest of using alternative energy sources and as an investment in his property, his first attempt at using solar energy.

"I felt it would be a good thing to do at this time with all the problems the country has," Burman said. "I'm hoping this will be an example to other commercial building owners, and they'll come over and decide they're willing to try it, too."



Correction:
Due to a source error, this article incorrectly identifies the solar array under construction above Wisconsin Avenue as the largest privately owned solar array in the city. Carol Chatham of William C. Smith & Company confirmed that the solar array on the company’s Sheridan Station building is privately owned and three times as large as the Tenleytown project. We apologize for the error.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Read More

It's Official: Elton John Lists L.A. Condos

SELLERS: Elton John and David Furnish
LOCATION: West Hollywood, CA
PRICE: $1,600,000 and $3,500,000
SIZE: 1,151 square feet (1 bedroom, 1.5 bathrooms); 1,831 square feet (1 bedroom, 1.5 bathrooms)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Several weeks ago property gossips from the east coast to the west reported that famously bespectacled (and meticulously bewigged) music industry icon Elton John and his long-term man-mate David Furnish were preparing to vacate their pair of art- and light-filled condo-cribs at the star-studded Sierra Towers building in West Hollywood, CA. They were not, the reports stated, pulling up west coast real estate roots altogether. They planned, so the story went, to buy a big house in Tinseltown with plenty of room to bring up their bouncing baby boy Zachary.

Within hours of the first published rumors we received covert communiques from a couple of clued-in real estate insiders who we called Frick and Frack who both gleefully whispered to Your Mama that Misters John and Furnish were not looking for a house to call home but had, in fact, already snatched one up: a sleek, low-slung and re-worked mid-century modern residence in the terrifically trendy Beverly Hills 'hood of Trousdale Estates. The sale price has yet to be disclosed—or tattled to Your Mama, hello!—but the 4 bedroom and 7 bathroom spread was last listed at $7,695,000.

Of course, Your Mama don't know a soup spoon from a fly swatter but we presume the English gents have engaged the flamboyant and wonderfully theatrical, nice-gay decorator Martyn Lawrence Bullard to do over the interiors of their new Trousdale Estates digs just as they did with their two adjacent condominiums at the Sierra Towers that have finally and officially hit the (open) market this week at $1.6 and $3.5 million.

Property records show Mister Furnish as the owner of record on both condos, the first and larger of which was picked up in February 2007 for $2,497,000. The Los Angeles County Tax Man shows the mid-floor unit spans a fairly modest 1,831 square feet and was originally designed with 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Current listing information describes the unit as an "oversized" 1 bedroom with 1.5 bathrooms so clearly it's had some cosmetic reconfiguring just as many of the building's famous residents have. Oh. Ouch! Did we say that out loud? It's the early morning gin talking, poodles.

Anyhoo, taxes and common charge total $3,842 per month provide residents with 2 deeded and secured parking spaces, 24-7 security systems, attentive door men, fleet-footed valets and heavy-lifting porters, a thoughtful concierge, a fitness facility with his and her locker rooms and spas, and a 6th floor roof top swimming pool and city-view sunbathing terrace.

Walls of floor-to-ceiling glass wrap the southeast-facing corner condo and explode with a sweeping urban vista that stretches (on a clear day) from downtown over to Century City and clear to Catalina Island. Sliding glass panels open the main living space and the lone bedroom up to a covered and cantilevered terrace that runs almost the entire width of the apartment.

No interior photographs are included with current online listings but Mister Martyn Lawrence Bullard's vibrant, 1970s-inspired day-core was photographed in all its bright and colorful glory for the glossy pages of the December 2009 issue of Architetural Digest. Although we expect the globe-trotting A-gays will take their enviable and extensive art collection with them—it includes works by Damian Hirst, Dale Chihuly, Marc Quinn, Wang Guangyi, Gary Hume, Tracy Emin, and Lee Friedlander—listing information indicates both apartments can be negotiated to be sold furnished.

The A.D. photographs show the main living/dining includes a couple of sitting areas with lime green walls and a lot of very expensive-looking furniture and furnishings that include a scene-stealing matched set of onyx-and-chrome coffee tables and half a dozen or so zebra-skin pillows placed perfectly on a massive white sectional sofa.

The main living/dining areas are open to the sleek and shiny kitchen with high-gloss white lacquer cabinetry, lustrous ebony counter tops (of unknown material), a rainbow assortment of Venini vases, and a built-in flat screen tee-vee that can be viewed from the six-stool island breakfast bar over which hangs a seriously decadent glass chandelier (circa 1969) originally from the Grand Hotel in Milan.

Somewhere in the apartment, as seen in A.D., Mister John keeps a compact office space about the size of a trophy wife's walk-in shoe closet. The wee nook is outfitted like a glamorous ocean liner with delicious, high-gloss wood cabinetry, custom-commissioned green glass knobs, and a futuristic looking office chair upholstered in what appears to our boozy-woozy eyes as chartreuse-colored snake skin.

In the boo-dwar the bed frame is wrapped in snake skin—or some sort of material printed with a black and white snake skin pattern—and other furnishings include a lipstick red Pierre Paulin Ribbon chair and a mirrored Cityscape credenza by the too-fab-for-words Paul Evans that Your Mama can assure the children cost Misters John and Furnish more than most people cars. The walls look like to Your Mama like they're draped in milk chocolate suede (or covered with a suede paint treatment), the ceiling has been completely covered with high-glam platinum leaf, and the floor-to-ceiling glass sliders that open to the terraces are covered with glimmering Mylar curtains (or some material similar to Mylar). We have not seen nor heard hide nor hair about the master bathroom and dressing area(s) but we imagine they are ample, luxuriously appointed, and a clothes horse's custom-fitted wet dream.

The smaller of the the two apartments also has sweeping downtown to ocean views but measures, according to current listing information, 1,151 square feet with 1 bedroom and 1.5 bathrooms. Taxes and common charges rack up to $1,753 per month.

Property records show the smaller unit was acquired in September 2008 for $2,100,000. It doesn't take a mathematics genius to see that even with a full price sale Misters John and Furnish are looking at a loss of half a million clams on this apartment. Any potential loss on the smaller unit may (or may not) be absorbed by the just-under-a-million dollar increase in asking price over sale price of the larger unit.

Listing information for the smaller unit does not specifically mention Mister Bullard's handiwork. It instead states more generically that there are "designer finishes throughout." Maybe Mister Bullard worked over this unit with the same flair as the larger unit and maybe he did not. At this point we don't know. We also don't know—thank you very much—what purpose this smaller unit served (Guests? Domestic staff? Security?) and we also don't know—thank you very much—if the two units are actually joined or if a person much exit one to enter the other via the public hall.

Other owners/renters/residents of the modernist tower that rises above the western end of the Sunset Strip include Courtney Cox, Cher, Joan Collins, PJ Harvey, Lily Collins, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, who also had Martyn Lawrence Bullard do up their pied-a-terre.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

Read More

Bethesda Row Project Gets Start Date

At last, Bethesda's downtown extension is on the calendar. After years of planning, including the past year of being thisclose to breaking ground, Montgomery County officials say that construction work on Lot 31 - the public-private StonebridgeCarras-PN Hoffman project extending Bethesda Row - will begin the week of April 9th.

The project was scheduled to be underway last summer, but last minute wrinkles have continually held up the kickoff. With a formal groundbreaking ceremony now on the books, the next steps should happen in quick succession, beginning with closing the corner parking lot (April 10) in which Bethesdans circle endlessly on weekend evenings, then leading to closure of Woodmont Avenue (now scheduled for June 1). The county posted a sign last month stating that the lot would close April 1, a date that is inching back as construction plans are finalized.

Stephanie Coppula, Director of Marketing and Communications at Bethesda Urban Partnership, confirms that a formal groundbreaking is planned in 2 weeks. Work on the development will cause a major rerouting of traffic through Bethesda, to the extent that the county has ordered the farmer's market on Elm Street to close, and reopen at Bethesda Elementary, a move the Action Committee for Transit calls unnecessary as it puts the popular market into "a commercial dead zone."

The project has been in design since 2004, but Doug Firstenberg, Principal at StonebridgeCarras, says the timing is indicative of a project this difficult. "It's enormously complicated" says the developer of the details that had to precede the groundbreaking, noting that the project will involve a purchase of public land with public partnership for building nearly 1200 parking spaces below grade.

Bethesda-based SK&I designed the mixed-use structure occupying both sides of Woodmont Avenue. The project will consist of 40,000 s. f. of retail, and two residential buildings - The Flats, 162-unit apartment complex, and the Darcy, an 88-unit condominium building. 940 of the parking spaces will be for public use, replacing the 280 parking spaces now on the surface (which caused its own tempest), as Bethesda adds parking and braces for two and a half years of construction and reduced parking options.

The county will close Woodmont Avenue below Bethesda Avenue for an estimated twenty months as developers realign the intersection. The sounds of construction will be

evident throughout Bethesda as the downtown - conspicuously lacking construction cranes of late - begins to look more like downtown D.C. with Bainbridge's 17-story tower underway in Woodmont Triangle and another 17-story tower coming soon across the street.

Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news

Read More

Case-Shiller Shows Uneven Recovery For U.S. Housing

Recent data suggests that the U.S. housing market is in recovery. However, the data also shows this to be an uneven recovery.

According to the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller Index, for example, home values rose in three of 20 tracked markets between December 2011 and January 2012. 17 tracked markets showed home prices still in decline.

It's easy to point to the Case-Shiller Index as evidence that the housing market in WA has yet to bottom, but we have to consider the Case-Shiller Index's shortcomings -- specifically in a recovering economy.

For example, the Case-Shiller Index is based on changes in home prices of a single home, through successive sales. This means that to calculate its home price index, the Case-Shiller searches for sales of the same home over a period of time and calculates the difference in contract price. 

This methodology can distort the home price tracker downward during times of weak economy because there is no distinction made for homes sold in foreclosure or as a short sale.

35% of all homes sold in January were "distressed", says the National Association of REALTORS®.

Another distortion in the Case-Shiller Index is that the model neglects all home types that are not of type "single-family residence". This means that multi-unit homes and condominiums are excluded from the Case-Shiller Index model.

In some markets, such as Chicago and New York City, condominiums account for a large percentage of overall sales. 

Lastly, the Case-Shiller Index is published with a "lag", which renders it useless to buyers and sellers of Seattle in search of real-time, relevant data. The most recent Case-Shiller Index is published with a 60-day delay, and accounts for home purchase contracts written between October and December 2011.

Since October, the U.S. economy has added more than 1 million jobs and the economy has moved into "moderate expansion", according to the Federal Reserve. Data that's two seasons old does little to help us today.

Making sound real estate decisions is about having timely, relevant data at-hand when it's needed. The Case-Shiller Index fails in that respect. It's good for highlighting the U.S. housing market on the whole, as it existed in the past. For real-time market data, though, you'll want to talk with an active real estate agent.

Read More

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This fine Georgetown home is as cute as a button. A 1.5 million-dollar button. Seriously though, this house is adorable. Inside, the house is exactly what you think of when you think "Georgetown" - classy wainscoting (is there any other kind?) crown moldings, gleaming hardwood floors, and two fireplaces. This house is more "Georgetown" than a cupcake in a polo shirt. (Why is that image so disturbing?) There's a cozy kitchen and three generously proportioned bedrooms upstairs.

Out back is a beautiful walled garden and patio with a fantastic cherub-themed fountain that I strongly suspect was looted from a museum. It just seems too nice to have been bought retail. If I was a better person I would've said something to someone, but instead I made a mental note to buy a Powerball ticket so I could buy my own house with a possibly-looted fountain. (What's that you say? Accomplishing things through hard work instead? What do you think this is, China?)

Also, the house is on a quiet one-way street, and located mere blocks from Georgetown University, so you'll often see peppy young people walking by who, unlike you, have their whole lives ahead of them. (Don't feel bad, they'll almost certainly screw things up just as much as you have. It's "the Circle of Life"! Hakuna matata.)

3526 P Street NW
3 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,499,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

Enclosed malls fade from Washington D.C. (Greater Greater Washington) Indoor malls are dying all across the country, and the greater D.C. area.

DC Construction contracts down more than a quarter (Citybiz) February's future construction contracts down more than a quarter from same month last year.

Freddie Mac predicts slow but steady growth in housing (Freddie Mac) With release of March data, the lender sees tepid growth for the rest of the year.

Foreclosure filings fell 16% in 4th quarter (HousingWire) The Comptroller of the Currency notes that delinquencies remain high, but actual filings dropped.

Refinance applications drop for 6th consecutive week (Mortgage Bankers Assn) Refinances for the week fall by 4.6%, while original loan applications fall by 2.7% for the week.

Read More

Your Mama Also Hears...

The online and print media is all agog and atwitter over today's announcement that beleaguered and publicly pilloried Los Angeles Dodgers owner/executive Frank McCourt has finally reached an agreement to sell the bankrupt baseball team (and media rights) for 2-and-some billion bucks to a coalition that includes long-retired professional hoopster Magic Johnson.

While all that sports stuff was being hollered about Your Mama received a covert communique from a savvy and always exquisitely informed real estate industry acquaintance we'll call Heidi N. Holmbyhills who divulged to Your Mama that Mister McCourt's new ex-wife Jamie—the two were bitterly and expensively divorced earlier this year—has plans to significantly lighten her own extensive residential real estate load.

In addition to cash, prizes, a couple of delectable ocean front abodes in Malibu and a condo in Colorado, (ex)Missus McCourt was granted in her divorce sole ownership of the erstwhile couple's primary residence, a humongous Neo-Something style pile directly across the street from The Playboy Mansion in the posh Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles between Beverly Hills and Bel Air. The McCourts bought the prominent property back in 2004 from the very dapper Babyface Edmonds for a newsworthy $21,250,000.

According to Heidi, (ex-)Missus McCourt has on the hush-hush recently allowed one of the Platinum Triangles fanciest and most successful female real estate agents to discreetly show her heavily secured and gated Holmby Hills estate with a fat asking price of $65,000,000.

The Los Angeles County Tax Man shows the property spans 2.58 acres and is loosely described in divorce court documents published online (in .pdf form) as having—we paraphrase—15,000 square feet of interior space that includes, among other necessities and luxuries, 4 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a fully-equipped work out room, dance studio, guest quarters and a brand new, partially underground complex with Olympic-length indoor swimming pool and adjoining massage, dressing, showering, steam/sauna, and ablution facilities. Missus McCourt, it seems, is a dedicated lap swimmer and the estate's outdoor pool was not suitable for her watery endeavors. The extensively engineered addition is shown under construction above (at right of image), but is now completed and fully landscaped. The new pool complex is essentially invisible from the motor court and lawn that covers the roof.

Mister McCourt and (ex-)Missus McCourt, for those who haven't already heard the story, created a west coast whirlwind in 2004 when they swooped in from Boston and scooped the Los Angeles Dodgers from Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp for $430,000,000 and almost, as mentioned above, immediately shoveled out another $21,250,000 to acquire their Holmby Hills estate. They quickly spent another $6,500,000 to buy an adjoining estate with substantial Sunset Boulevard frontage and  reportedly purchased for use by staff and guests.

At about the same time the McCourts moved to California they splashed out upwards of $6,000,000 on a 3 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom ski condo in Vail, CO. In 2007 the real estate high-hoggers shelled out $27,250,000 to snatch up an iconic John Lautner designed ocean front home in Malibu—bought from then-still-coupled Courtney Cox and David Arquette—and quickly tossed down another $18,975,000 to buy the perfectly charming but much less architecturally spectacular beach shack next door where (ex-)Missus McCourt received conditional permission to build an beachfront lap pool.

In August of last year (2011)—after they split but before their divorce was finalized in early 2012—the ferociously feuding McCourts sold the less lavish of their two Holmby Hills residences, an 8,000-plus square foot rambler with 8 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms on 1.63 acres. Records show the property was sold for $6,525,000 to a corporate entity.

The McCourts own (and maybe still own, we're not sure) a number of other high-priced properties from Massachusetts to Cabo San Lucas. Your Mama spoke about these properties in greater detail back in October 2009 when we took a long spin through their famously extensive property portfolio. If any of y'all feel the need to dig deeper, grab a cocktail and take a turn through that very lengthy discussion.

aerial photo: Google

Read More

Crystal City Office Project Gets Started Thursday Morning

Lowe Enterprises will host a "groundbreaking ceremony" Thursday on a $70 million office redevelopment project at 1400 Crystal Drive in Crystal City. Fox Architects designed the new building.

The company will seek LEED Gold certification for the project to convert an existing 300,000 square-foot office building in Jefferson Plaza into "Class A" office space complete with a glass facade and roof top terrace. The lobby will be moved to Crystal Drive.

Demolition will bring the building back to its concrete frame before new construction begins, keeping a quick turnaround time and earning LEED points as a retrofit.

"When we acquired the building, we new knew it had good bones," said Harmar Thompson, Vice President of Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group. "So we knew it had a good structure, that we could work with that structure, and not have to do ... ground-up development."

Thompson said the 30-by-30 column grid is solid and lends itself to flexible configuration of the new building, compared to the 20-by-20 grid common in the area that makes renovation more difficult.

Other elements incorporated to achieve LEED Gold certification include using high-efficiency glass the facade and upgrading HVAC to a dedicated outdoor air system that brings cold water to many units throughout the building instead of having it in a centralized basement location.

The new building is scheduled to open in early 2013, with 30,000 square feet more space than the old building, creating more corner offices and pushing it out into the view corridor. "The views out of this building are spectacular," Thompson said.

Lowe acquired the building in 2008. Thompson said the company had the opportunity to initiate the rebuilding project because the National Guard Bureau vacated, leaving it empty. Rebuilding on top of the existing frame allowed the company to create an essentially new building in a short period of time and open it to tenants earlier than other projects in the area. Lincoln Property Company will handle leasing.

The groundbreaking ceremony is set for 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Arlington, VA real estate development news

Read More

Rumor Has It...

...fit-as-a-fiddle sitcom star (Cougar Town, Friends) and well-known real estate freak and design fiend Courtney Cox and her estranged actor/producer husband David Arquette have covertly off-loaded their architecturally thrilling mid-century modern residence in Beverly Hills, CA.

Patty Propertyseller—you may remember her from today's earlier rumors about Madonna's Bev Hills house—told us she heard the Trousdale Estates treasure, originally designed by by A. Quincy Jones and re-worked by talented lady architect (and A. Quincy Jones expert) Cory Buckner, was in escrow. Another source, let's call her Helen A. Hightower, whispered in Your Mama's ear that she heard the down-low deal was all but complete and the buyer is a scion of an illustrious and powerful American dynasty.

Property records don't yet reflect a transfer of ownership and neither of our plugged in sources slipped us a sale price but the children may recall back in mid-September (2011) we heard from trusted informant Ivana Blowarealestatewhistle that the erstwhile Cox-Arquettes were in stealth preparations to make their Trousdale Estates property available off-market with a sky-high but not, so was the consensus amongst Your Mama's compadres, unreasonable price tag of somewhere around $20,000,000. 

Make of this celebrity real estate smoke what you will but for now it's all just some rumor and gossip, kids, rumor and gossip.

Property record and other online resources reveal Miz Cox and Mister Arquette acquired the low slung, nearly five thousand square foot single story residence just minutes from the Sunset Strip and downtown Beverly Hills in mid-June 2004 for $5,450,000. The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial show the Cox-Arquettes also picked up the house next door in late 2008 for an undisclosed amount of money.

Last year Miz Cox spent $2,050,000 up a 1,672 square foot, high-floor condo crib at the star-studded Sierra Towers building for use as her in-town pied a terre, according to tattle tale Anna Falactic. The real estate, architecture and design aficionado recently completed a Michael Kovac (architect) and Trip Haenisch (nice-gay decorator) headed overhaul of a sprawling bluff-top compound in Malibu, CA she bought in early 2007 for $17,150,000 and had photographed in all it's glory for the July/August 2011 issue of Elle Decor.

Just prior to that acquisition she and Mister Arquette sold a rather heavenly John Lautner-designed house on Malibu's Carbon Beach to then-married now bitterly-divorced Frank and Jamie McCourt for $27,250,000. The McCourts quickly dropped another $19,000,000 to snatch up the much more modest beach shack next door. Speaking of Jamie McCourt and her over-stuffed property portfolio, stay tuned for a little real estate dish about her humongous house in Los Angeles' hoity toity Holmby Hills 'hood.

aerial photo (top): Pacific Coast News
swimming pool and view photo (bottom):  Cory Buckner Architects

Read More

Your Mama Hears...

...from a frightfully well-connected informant we'll call Patty Propertyseller that Her Madgesty Madonna has surreptitiously made her Beverly Hills, CA estate available as a pocket listing.

As soon as Patty Propertyseller dropped that juicy celebrity real estate nugget in our fat lap a day or two ago we contacted a few of our other trusted tattletales and quickly heard back from Knancy Knowsthedish—like Patty Propertyseller, an exceedingly well-connected Beverly Hills real estate insider—who snitched that Madge wants $28,000,000 for her French Country-style mansion that sits down a long gated drive off a particularly swish stretch of Sunset Boulevard.

When in residence in Beverly Hills the still-epically-famous-at-50 international superstar is surrounded by massive mansions and exuberantly landscaped estates owned by high fallutin' folks like Stewart and Lynda Resnick, star maker Simon Cowell, sitcom royal Max Mutchnick, and shopping mall magnate Guilford Glazer. Last year it was widely reported Madonna's Bev Hills estate sits next door to the depressingly disheveled Richard Neutra-designed Kronish House bought last October (2011) for $12,800,000 by—Your Mama heard last year from Anita Tellsomebody—Paris Hilton's ex-beau, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos.

Miz Ciccone Penn Ritchie bought her 1.14-acre Sunset Boulevard estate back in June 2003 when married to her most recent ex-hubby English filmmaker Guy Ritchie. The seller was actress Sela Ward (CSI: NY, House M.D., Sisters). Property records aren't entirely clear but most reports on the matter say she/they paid around (or exactly) $12,000,000.

The Los Angeles County Tax Man shows the main house measures 5,800 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms but those figures may or may not be accurate given the lavish-living Madonna is thought to have expanded and completely redecorated the residence. Knancy Knowsthedish didn't drop the 411 on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms but did mention the interiors are "comfy" and "surprisingly normal." 

The house sits at the rear of the essentially-flat parcel that includes substantial off-street parking, intimate gardens tucked behind and around the side of the main house, a lighted tennis court, and a rectangular swimming pool with an adjacent pool house.

Some of the children may recall this is the very house, so the story we (and others) heard through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine goes, David and Victoria Beckham wanted to buy back when they moved to Los Angeles in 2007 but were turned off when Madge (allegedly) jacked up the price by ten or so million clams and then told them she didn't want to sell it after all. Rumor and gossip, kittens, rumor and gossip.

This is not the first—nor will it likely be the last—great house in Los Angeles owned by Madonna. In the mid-1990s she owned Longdons Castle (more familiarly known as Castillo del Lago), a legendary wedding cake of a mansion set high on a slim ridge above Lake Hollywood and currently owned by fashion designer Leon Max.

From there The Material Girl decamped to Los Pavoreales, a sprawling Wallace Neff-designed hacienda in Los Feliz, later owned by Bodhi and Jenna Elfman who sold it to Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter who sold it to Rachel Sweet and Tom Palmer who sold it in April 2010 for $4,895,000 to a non-celebrity financier. Madge moved on from Los Pavoreales to another Wallace Neff-designed Mediterranean-mansion on North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills she bought from actress and historic home saver Diane Keaton in May 2002 for around $6,500,000. She sold that house for $8,750,000 shortly after she purchased her current westcoast bedsit, the one she bought from Sela Ward and (allegedly) available for those with the dough able to get in touch with one of the real estate agents in the know.

In addition to her up for grabs abode in Beverly Hills, Madonna's stateside holdings currently include (but may not be limited to) a slew of contiguous apartments at Harperley Hall on New York City's Central Park West, a triple-wide townhouse on the Upper East Side she bought in 2009 for $32,500,000 and extensively renovated, and Wild Ocean Farm, an equestrian facility in Bridgehampton (NY) she picked up in late 2009 from fashion designer Calvin Klein's equestrian-minded ex-wife Kelly. Across the pond, the former couple's English country estate Ashcombe went to Mister Ritchie in the dee-vorce but Madonna continues to maintain at least one Georgian-style townhouse in London's Marylebone neighborhood.

Now remember kids, this is all just rumor and gossip for now but remember you got The T here when you see this matter discussedd in the property gossip columns of more mainstream and respectable publications and websites.

aerial photo: Pacific Coast News

Read More

New Residential Planned for Shaw's Blagden Alley

The United House of Prayer for All People has teamed up (again) with Suzane Reatig Architecture, this time to develop a mixed-use residential and retail building in the Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District.

The DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved the concept for a 12-unit residential building with ground floor retail space at 926 N St. Northwest. A 1953 warehouse and loading dock on the property will be torn down to make way for the new building.

Megan Mitchell, project designer for Suzane Reatig Architecture, presented the early-stage design to the HPRB at the March 22 meeting. She said she thought the meeting went well, and now they can move on to the next stage.

Preliminary concept rendering of the front of the building showing
the three sections and proposed screen
(Rendering provided by Suzane Reatig Architecture)

"I think the next step for us is to develop the materials and work on the little details of how the bays meet the ground and meet the sky," Mitchell said. "(We're) really getting into the design of the building now."

And that is exactly what the HPRB wants to see. Comments during the meeting focused on the desire for more renderings, a detailed site plan and consideration of materials that will incorporate the varied historical neighborhood.

This first presentation to the HPRB was intended to get input and approval for the overall concept, Board member comments will be incorporated into a later presentation.

Preliminary alley designs include garage doors, alley access and balconies. The street front would be broken up into three sections emulating the row-home effect present in the area. Residential units would feature private outdoor space.

Mitchell said the design has been shared in various forums with the community, and it is clear that the neighbors care about the project. She said residents have different opinions about how modern the building should appear in the historic alley. Preliminary rendering showing the sidewalk view with ground-level retail spaces.

Another presentation with greater detail of the project will take place in the near future. Mitchell said she hopes to break ground on the project within a year, but no specific timeline has been set.

"We're very excited about building in this unique historic neighborhood," Mitchell said during her presentation. "We'd like to do a building that would contribute not only to its historic context but also to the community."

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Read More

Morning Real Estate Review

Bidding wars erupt as U.S. home inventory falls (Bloomberg) Low interest rates and low inventories are driving up interest in properties enough to start serious competition in home buying.

Housing prices fall to 2003 levels, but demand may be building (Time) A lost decade in home prices as Case Shiller reports national prices dropped 3.8% from the year before, rolling prices back to early 2003 levels.

Pending home sales ease in February, but still up overall (Construction digital) Despite taking a slight dip in February, overall numbers are still trending upward.

Eisenhower Commission to critics: Stuff it (CityPaper) The Commission overseeing design stands behind its pick of Gehry, wants the carping to stop.

Read More

Use Our Interactive Widget for Easy Browsing

Map these properties   Powered by RealBird.com

Read More

American Idol David Cook Lists Beachwood Canyon Crib

SELLER: David Cook
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,495,000
SIZE: 3,071 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We are all but down for the count with an ugly post-vacation cold so it's short and sweet-snarky this morning.

Your Mama feels no shame in confessing to all 7 people who could give a shit that we stopped watching American Idol a long time ago. We bravely stuck it out all the way through season three and the first couple of episodes of season four. At that point we could suffer not a moment more of the karaoke-like Top 40 pop music extravaganza. It all became like nails on a chalkboard and no amount of gin would or could numb the pain.We don't mean any disrespect to any of the wildly talented contestants but our musical zebra stripes just ain't painted that way. We warble potaytoe, you sing potahtoe.

Anyhoo, given that state of affairs we really didn't and still don't know a damn thing about 29-year old season 7 winner David Cook other than the few rather vanilla tidbits we dug up during 3 quick minutes of research on the interweb. By all accounts the gee-tar playing singer/songwriter is a genuinely sincere, stand up fella whose first post-Idol album—the eponymous David Cook—went platinum. A framed version of said eponymous platinum album appears in listing photos hanging irksomely off-center over the large bed in the master bedroom of the Los Angeles, CA crib Mister Cook put up for sale last week with an asking price of $1,495,000.

Property records show Texas-born and Missouri-raised Mister Cook scooped up his hillside clinging house set on a twisty street high above the historic, charming and just slightly quirky Beachwood Canyon in March 2010 for $1,318,000.

Current listing information shows the updated house, which Your Mama might describe as an oxymoronic multi-level contemporary ranch, was originally built in 1979, measures just over 3,000 square feet—3,071 to be exact—and includes a total of three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms on three floors. At least some rooms and a fair amount of the decks the run along and beside the back of the house are lucky enough to have a quintessentially Los Angeles view across the steep, dwelling dotted ravines of the canyon with sweeping and direct views of both the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Park Observatory.
A wall, gated and landscaped courtyard provides a narrow but private buffer from the street with a fountain, fruit tree or two and a separately gated, landing strip-like run of lawn perfect for penning pooches and small children. Geometrically applied wood-paneling lines the walls of the inset porch and lends the entry a rather thrilling Op art edge, a rich motif we wish had been mined and curated both architecturally and decoratively throughout the house but, alas, was not.

Lustrous and relatively new-looking hardwood floors run under foot throughout the main/street level where the barely there foyer spills into the rectangular living room with vaulted ceiling, wall-mounted flat screen tee-vee, and a stacked stone two-sided fireplace pushed up into the corner of the room next to the sliding glass doors that open the deck that runs long the top floor rear of the residence.

A long dining room lined with sliding glass doors and tree-top canyon views out the back of the house connects to the unexpectedly sizable center island kitchen outfitted with simple flat-fronted wood cabinets, toffee and cream-colored granite counter tops and back splashes, a wide greenhouse window over the main sink (ugh!), a long row of floor-to-ceiling pantry and storage cabinets, and a full coterie of top-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances.

The privately situated master suite takes up the entire mid-level and contains a decent-sized bedroom with fireplace—a mirrored identical to the one in the living room—a very beige and somewhat slender-looking attached bathroom with double sinks. One more flight down there are, as per listing information, two family/guest bedrooms, one full bathroom, and what listing information describes as a "professionally designed recording studio (or convert to an amazing home theatre) with both exterior and in-home entrances,..." Somewhere in the house there's a "Custom laundry area with built in Miele washer & dryer," which sounds pretty nice.

We have nada inside intel about Mister Cooks real estate motivations and plans but perhaps he's headed back to his family roots in The Show Me State of Missouri where Your Mama's brief and entirely unscientific online research turned up a few dribs and drabs about Mister Cook also owning a very suburban-looking abode in a perfectly ordinary, un-gated planned development in Lee's Summit on the outskirts of Kansas City. But honestly, children, we can't really say for sure if he does or does not.

listing photos: Tim Schroepfer Photography for Pinnacle Estate Properties

Read More

New Home Sales Slip In February

Sales of "new homes" fell to the lowest levels in four months last month.

According to the Census Bureau's monthly New Home Sales report, 313,000 new homes were sold in February 2012 on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis, representing a 1.6% drop from the month prior.

A "new home" is a home for which there has been no prior owner nor tenant.

At first glance, the data looks negative for the housing market; a suggestion that the well-publicized housing market recovery may be slowed. However, within February's New Home Sales report are three important counter-statistics worth mentioning.

First, although annualized home sales volume slipped 5,000 units in February, this occurred as the number of homes for sale nationwide remained constant at 150,000. This is the fewest number of new homes for sale since at least 1993 -- the first year that the Census Bureau tracked such data.

A small home supply promotes rising home values when buyer demand is rising and, in February, buyer demand held firm.

A second reason to remain optimistic on housing is that New Home Supply was 5.8 months in February. This means that, at the current pace of sales, the entire new home inventory will be "sold out" in 5.8 months.

Housing experts say that when home supplies fall below 6.0 months, it's bullish for housing.

And, as a third reason to look past the New Home Sales headline figure, last month's reporting Margin of Error was huge.

According to the government, the February New Home Sales data was published with a ±23.9% margin of error. This means that the actual New Home Sales sales volume may have dropped as much as -25.5%, or may have climbed by as much as +22.3%. 

Because the range of possible values includes both positive and negative numbers, the Census Bureau assigned its February data the "zero confidence" label.

It will be several months before February's New Home Sales data is revised. Until then, buyers in Kent would do well to take cues from the real estate market-at-large which shows steady, gradual improvement. 

If your 2012 housing plans call for buying new construction, consider using February's results as a window to "make a deal". As the year progresses, great values in housing may be gone for good.

Read More

More Beiber Real Estate Fever

BUYER: (allegedly) Justin Beiber
LOCATION: Calabasas, CA
PRICE: around six million clams
SIZE: 9,214 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only three weeks ago that gaggles of Bieberheads, Bieberites and Bieberinas around the globe went bat-shit berserk over the many rumors and reports about bubble gum pop music superstar Justin Bieber being on the hunt for a house to call home in Los Angeles, CA.

His own people confirmed their mass-marketed money making machine—the 18 year old reportedly earned more than fifty million bucks in 2010—had indeed had a peep and a poke around the very contemporary wood, glass and steel mansion perched above Los Angeles' little-known Lake Hollywood and currently leased by sitcom star and Twitter-addict Ashton Kutcher.

Property gossips and Bieberkins alike were further tantalized when those same people told gossip juggernaut TMZ the tweenager's dreamboat had also twice toured a couple of mansions in the hot and Hades western Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas. They went on to say The Biebs had not yet made an offer on a property and was, in fact, still looking for that special real estate lady.

Well, dontcha know, my pretty little ponies, just a couple days later a huge, hacienda-style mini-compound on 1.28 acres in the celebrity-friendly, double-gated enclave of The Oaks in Calabasas was quietly taken off the open market and this morning the celebrity scuttlebutters at X17 reported the very same house in The Oaks was "snatched up" by baby-faced and filthy rich Mister Bieber.

Listen, children, Your Mama is well aware some of y'all think it's beneath our dignity to discuss an international pop music phenomena like Mister Bieber. And we feel your pain. Howevuh, we got a mortgage to pay and insurance premiums to keep up just like everybody else so, for the sake of business, we're going with it. Not interested in The Biebs and his (alleged) real estate activities, then scoot yer boot until we have something more suitable for your delicate celebrity real estate palette, okaay?

We may be marinated in booze like a perfectly preserved fruitcake from Christmas past but Your Mama instantly recognized the mansion pictured on X17 as the very same one acquired in May 2006 for $7,500,000 by actor/comedian Eddie Murphy's former model ex-wife and baby momma Nicole Murphy. Miz Murphy, now engaged or maybe married to former professional football player Michael Strahan (we don't know), flipped the 9,215 square foot behawtcha back on the market in August 2007 with a terribly optimistic asking price of $9,995,000.

Unfortunately for her, the house didn't sell it until April 2011 when it was finally taken off ex-Missus Murphy's hands by a non-celebrity for $5,515,000. A few quick and unscientific calculations on our bejeweled abacus shows poor ex-Missus Murphy lost a pocketbook punishing $1,985,000, not counting carrying costs and real estate fees. No wonder the short-haired and large-chested stunner signed on to appear on Hollywood Exes, a reality program about—you got it—a variety of L.A.-based ex-wives of famous athletes and Showbizzers. Like we said a moment ago, a person sometimes has to do what a person sometimes has to do to keep milk in the fridge.

Anyhoo, the new owner of Miz Murphy's real estate albatross gave the place a quick spit and polish—it appears from images in X17 all or most of the Spanish tile from around the swimming pool was removed—and quickly flipped the property back on the market four months after buying with an asking price of around $6,000,000.

Listing information we teased up out of the interweb shows the sprawling two-story main house includes all the rooms to be expected in a lavish mansion (living, dining, kitchen, family, library, office and home theater) plus 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms—or 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms depending where on the listing on looks—6 fireplaces, two three car garages, one elevator and a double-height entry with a sensually coiled staircase embedded with fab decorative Spanish tiles.

Outdoor spaces include an interior courtyard with fireplace and built-in barbecue station. Many rooms at the rear of the residence open to the backyard lounging and entertaining areas where there are fountains and flat expanses of lawn, a pergola-shaded and vine-draped dining terrace, a swimming pool with embedded spa, and a detached casita with fireplace, facility and kitchen.

Property records do not yet reflect a transfer of ownership and Your Mama freely confesses to no inside intel about The Bieb's real estate affairs so it's very possible this is all just some real estate dish, just nugget of celebrity property scuttlebutt that may or may not prove to have any validity. Okaaay?

Miz Murphy and her fiancée (or hubby) Michael Strahan recently sold another luxury residence, a gated, 6 bedroom and 8 bathroom faux-Tuxcan villa in a gated community in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles (CA), they bought in November 2009 for $5,000,000 and sold at a substantial profit in mid-March 2012 for $6,150,000.

NOTE: The children will all please note that listing photos above depict the house as it appeared at the time Miz Murphy sold it in April 2011 and may or may not show an accurate reflection of its current state.

UPDATE (later same day): It seems gossip juggernaut TMZ once again came through with some details and subsequent to our discussion posted the "exclusive details" on the current Bieber real estate situation out in Calabasas. According to TMZ's unidentified source The Biebs  made an low ball offer on the property in question but no agreement has been reached; The Biebs (reportedly) offered somewhere in the neighborhood of $5.5 million for the house that was priced at "around 7+ million." If the seller doesn't want to wheel and deal, so the story goes, The Biebs will move on. TMZ's source(s) said the young singer even looked a another house in the Hollywood Hills that his not the house Ashton Kutcher rents.

listing photos: Hurwitz James Company

Read More

February Update

Things are looking better at the Houston apartment complex. Of course, the previous times I’ve said this it’s usually turned out to be a short-lived turn-around, but still, a good month is a good month. Rental income increased in February by almost $10,000, mainly due to decreased rent concessions. This month saw the highest rent revenue since April 2011. We had t pay out $3,800 for some repairs to the roof and access gate, but other expenses are running according to budget. Management implemented  a water conservation plan and that has resulted in significantly decreased water and sewer bills. They are now moving forward with a gas billback program. This means the residents will start paying a portion of the gas bill. They currently pay a portion of the water bill and with the reduction in that expense, management feels the gas billback will be accepted by the tenants. They should still have an overall lower billback cost than they had prior to the water conservation program. They also installed a separate water meter for landscaping so they can begin a billback program for landscape water usage.

Now, it’s been a long time since I lived in an apartment – at least 20 years. Maybe things have changed since then, but I know I never paid any sort of utility billback for general landscaping or anything. I paid my rent and that was it. If I recall, the units were individually metered and all the utilities were in my name, so that might be part of the reason. Off hand, I can’t remember how the units in the Houston complex are metered. It just seems strange to me to bill renters for water used for landscaping. Of course, this might also be a regional thing too. If that’s how things are done in Houston, then it makes sense that we do it too.

Last month, management asked the investors to inject another $250,000 into the property to help it get through the current rough financial situation. I opted not to contribute and apparently, I wasn’t the only one. They raised $140,000, well short of their goal. However, they are using this money to catch up on payments with vendors who we still owe money to. Management is also using the funds to make ready more units to help improve the occupancy number. They didn’t give an occupancy percentage with this report, but if I use the gross rent and vacancy numbers from the financial report, it looks like we are at about 91% occupancy right now.

On the hard money lending side of things, I didn’t blog about it, but my partner said last month that things seemed to be picking up and he was short of funds. Well, a lot can change in a month and things have now reversed and he has money waiting for investments. Our main borrower says deals have slowed down a bit, although he is still buying a couple properties a day. A short time ago, he was doing two to three times that amount. As my partner says, the business is often cyclical and he has learned to be patient and wait for good deals rather than invest in questionable deals just to get funds invested in something. That's how you go 20 years in this business without losing a penny of your investors' principle.

On a more personal note, I got my taxes back from my accountant this weekend and I got hammered on my federal taxes. I owe a couple thousand. I wasn’t sure how that could have happened until I remembered that in 2010 I converted a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA and elected to report the income over two years. I should have adjusted my withholding rate last year to help alleviate this, but I guess I forgot. The good news is that next year, I won’t be hit with another big tax bill (hopefully), as that conversion has now been fully reported. The Houston apartment complex gave me a roughly $7,000 passive loss I can claim. Unfortunately, it can only be used to offset passive gains, of which I have none. So that loss will just get carried forward until I have some passive gains I can use it against. I had thought that the interest from my hard money lending was passive income, but my accountant reminded me it is not. Based on my current investments and future outlook, I think this loss will probably end up being carried forward until the Houston apartment is sold. But that’s OK. It just means I’ll be getting a nice surprise in the future, as I’ll probably forget about it. That actually happened to me this year on my state return. I had a $400 credit from 2009 that  was carried forward, adding to my state tax refund this year.

Read More