Naked Real Estate

by | Nov 9, 2014 | This Is America

One thinks of Americans as more prudish than Europeans, but there are now more than a dozen naturist and clothes-optional resorts in Pasco County, just north of Tampa. The nudist lifestyle has never been more popular.

“I started out on my own 10 years ago, but now have six staff,” says Youngblood. “Our clients range from retired lifestyle nudists to buy-to-let investors, to couples looking for starter homes.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/11215810/Meet-the-naked-estate-agent.html

McTeardowns

by | Oct 19, 2014 | Market Buzz, Market Conditions, The Future, This Is America | 4 comments

teardowns

From our friend Karen at BloombergBusinessweek:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-15/chinese-home-buying-binge-transforms-california-suburb-arcadia

“Oh, hey! How ya’ doin’?” Raleigh Ornelas hollers, leaning out the window of his spotless white pickup truck. He’s recognized the man across the street, a developer standing in front of a Tuscan-style mansion under construction. “Where have you been hiding at? I call you, you don’t call me.”

Ornelas is an informal broker in Arcadia, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains. He’s been keeping an eye out for the builder, an Asian man with a slight comb-over who goes by Mark. Ornelas has found two older homeowners who’ve finally agreed to sell their properties, and he knows that Mark, like all developers here, needs land on which to build mansions for an influx of rich clients from mainland China.

Ornelas rattles off addresses on a nearby street. “Three-eleven, that guy, he’s wack,” he says, shaking his head. “He wants 2.8.” He means million dollars. “And then 354, they want $2 million.”

The lot is 17,000 square feet. “Seventeen for 2 mil?” Mark asks, incredulous.

“I know,” Ornelas says. “They’re going crazy.”

A year ago the property would have gone for $1.3 million, but Arcadia is booming. Residents have become used to postcards offering immediate, all-cash deals for their property and watching as 8,000-square-foot homes go up next door to their modest split levels. For buyers from mainland China, Arcadia offers excellent schools, large lots with lenient building codes, and a place to park their money beyond the reach of the Chinese government.

The city, population 57,600, projects that about 150 older homes—53 percent more than normal—will be torn down this year and replaced with mansions. The deals happen fast and are rarely listed publicly. Often, the first indication that a megahouse is coming next door is when the lawn turns brown. That means the neighbor has stopped watering and green construction netting is about to go up.

This flood of money, arriving from China despite strict currency controls, has helped the city build a $20 million high school performing arts center and the local Mercedes dealership expand. “Thank God for them coming over here,” says Peggy Fong Chen, a broker in Arcadia for many years. “They saved our recession.” The new residents are from China’s rising millionaire class—entrepreneurs who’ve made fortunes building railroads in Tibet, converting bioenergy in Beijing, and developing real estate in Chongqing. One co-owner of a $6.5 million house is a 19-year-old college student, the daughter of the chief executive of a company the state controls.

Read full story here:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-15/chinese-home-buying-binge-transforms-california-suburb-arcadia

Parents Following Kids

by | Sep 21, 2014 | This Is America | 2 comments

From the nytimes.com:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/garden/leaving-home-but-not-the-folks.html

An excerpt: 

“Some of them are rarely seen,” he said of the handful of parents he has noticed putting down temporary roots in the school’s town. “And it seems like a curious convenience for when they visit. Occasionally there is a family that spends a lot of time on campus, and I think that can really hamper a student’s experience.”

“Day students struggled to connect socially at these schools, because so much there happens at night,” Mr. Gaztambide-Fernández said. “And yet the day students had much healthier lives” — less anxiety, for instance, than the boarders. “So parents could potentially be giving them the best of both worlds by doing this. A place to escape and disconnect.

The larger parenting trend is that parents are trying to become increasingly involved in the schooling of their children. There is increased anxiety around school success to insure economic success later. Parents are highly invested in individualized attention on their kids, and they don’t trust the schools to do that. So one possibility that could be driving the trend is their wanting to have more of an impact.”

Read full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/garden/leaving-home-but-not-the-folks.html

Weiner’s House Used For Sex

by | Dec 23, 2013 | This Is America | 2 comments

From nbcnewyork.com:

realtorsexA pair of realtors are accused in a lawsuit of trying to keep buyers away from a New Jersey home so they could use the place for “sexual escapades” which were caught on camera, according to a news report.

Richard and Sandra Weiner of Denville, N.J., filed a suit in Passaic County Dec. 6 alleging that former Coldwell Banker realtors Robert Lindsay and Jeannemarie Phelan intentionally priced their house in Wayne above market values so they could use the home as a love nest in late 2011 and early 2012, reports The Record of Bergen County.

(more…)

Chinese and California Housing

by | Nov 25, 2013 | Market Conditions, The Future, This Is America | 4 comments

Hat tip to daytrip for sending this in, from cnbc.com:

At a brand new housing development in Irvine, Calif., some of America’s largest home builders are back at work after a crippling housing crash. Lennar, Pulte, K Hovnanian, Ryland to name a few. It’s a rebirth for U.S. construction, but the customers are largely Chinese.

“They see the market here still has room for appreciation,” said Irvine-area real estate agent Kinney Yong, of RE/MAX Premier Realty. “What’s driving them over here is that they have this cash, and they want to park it somewhere or invest somewhere.”

Yong’s phone has been ringing off the hook, with more than 5,000 new homes slated for the nearby Great Park Neighborhood. Most of the calls are from overseas, but prospective buyers are not looking solely for financial returns on the real estate.

“We are seeing a lot of Asians who are buying as an investment, but their kids are going to school here, so kids live in the home. They are looking at it more as an investment in education,” said Emile Haddad, CEO of Fivepoint Communities, developer of the Great Park Neighborhood.

That is Brian Yang’s plan. Speaking from his home in China, Yang said he purchased a home in Irvine this year, but he will wait five years, until his daughter turns 10, before moving his family to the U.S. He has several reasons for taking the leap.

“Education in America is very good and world class, so the first one is for education, and I think the second one is for the property appreciation,” explained Yang.

While American secondary schools and universities are a big draw for the majority of Chinese buyers in California, Yang, and many of his colleagues, are also concerned about China’s political instability, inflation, even pollution. They are paying all-cash for real estate in California, using it as a safe-haven for their wealth. Yang was reluctant to talk about the money, but he admitted, “I feel the same way to some extent.”

For now, Yang is renting out the four-bedroom home, and, he said, getting a 5 percent return on the investment.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101225345

John F. Kennedy in San Diego

by | Nov 22, 2013 | Military, This Is America | 3 comments

President John F. Kennedy came to San Diego on June 6, 1963 to address the Marines at the MCRD. Governor Pat Brown also convinced him to give the commencement speech at San Diego State College, and receive an honorary doctorate degree in law at the ceremony. It was the first time a California State College had awarded an honorary doctorate degree.

The tour was covered by local media outlets. Here is the KFMB version – note the sign at the filling station that was advertising gasoline for 29.9 cents per gallon, and that was back when they pumped it for you!

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