We’ve found nirvana for baseball fans—or any type of athlete. Not only does the estate of three-time All-Star outfielder Vernon Wells come with a batting cage, a sport court, and a professional gym, it also has a legacy of pro baseball players partying on the premises. Now Wells has put his mansion in Westlake, TX, on the market, and you can score all the athletic accoutrements and much more for $8.5 million. Wells is proud of the home, but his playing days ended after the 2013 season, and he’s ready to part with it. “Having teammates who are as financially successful comment on how stunning our house is, how comfortable it feels despite the size, and how well designed it is was a huge compliment,” says the 13-year big league veteran. Besides all the athletic pursuits, a new owner can indulge in such luxuries as a lavish spa with a steam room and infrared sauna, a therapy tub, massage room, and a hair salon. There’s an enormous game room with a billiard table, a walk-around bar, and an arcade game alcove, as well as plenty of space to celebrate victories. For entertaining friends, there’s a luxe wood-paneled media room with plush seats, as well as a red oak-clad wine room with a high-tech cooling system. After guests depart, there’s a two-story office/library with oodles of wood paneling. There are three kitchens, including one outside and one for catering. The main kitchen opens to the dining area and has two islands, plus a posh breakfast nook. When it’s time to truly unwind, there’s a master suite that includes a dining area, media area, and an enormous bathroom with its own fireplace. In total, the Mediterranean-style mansion measures 16,238 square feet and has five bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and two half-baths. Out back, there’s a 90,000-gallon infinity pool with a beach, water slide, and a swim-up bar. There’s also a tennis court, fire pits, and many landscaped paths. Best of all? The home is smart. Wells explains, “We recently updated the entire backbone of the system. All touch panels and remote control around the house were upgraded. During the process, the entire Wi-Fi network was upgraded as well.” Wells, 39, played for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Angels, and the New York Yankees, and slugged 270 home runs over the course of his career. He grew up in Arlington, TX, which explains his home base nearby. The property is represented by Alicia Chmielewski of Keller Williams Realty. The post Blue Jays Great Vernon Wells Selling Huge Texas Homestead With a Batting Cage appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/vernon-wells-texas-home/
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The iconic midcentury modern tract homes built by Joseph Eichler in California, with their clean lines and light-filled spaces, have become sought-after real estate prizes. But as one San Jose couple discovered, while the aesthetic still feels strikingly contemporary, the middle-of-the-last-century construction may not be—and renovating an Eichler home comes with a unique set of challenges. When Andrea and Scott Ysebert purchased their Eichler in 2016, they were overjoyed to have scored a house with the features that Andrea had eagerly been searching for: mahogany walls, an original kitchen with updated finishes, high ceilings, and walls of glass. These were signatures of the California modern style pioneered by real estate developer Joseph Eichler, a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright who built homes in the San Francisco suburbs and Southern California from 1949 to 1966. But these homes are now 60 years old. They typically have no attic space, slab concrete foundations, and are often in need of custom fixtures to fit their nonstandard spaces. The Yseberts’ 2,000-square foot, four-bedroom, two-bath home had gotten some relatively recent updates. Five years before they bought it, solar panels were added, the bathrooms were renovated, and new carpet was added. But after the couple moved in, they uncovered a few issues—it turned out their midcentury beauty, built in 1957, had plenty of flaws beneath the surface. So after five months, they embarked on a major renovation project that eventually transformed their classic home into a true showpiece. Now, about a year after the makeover was finally finished, the Canadian natives shared their experience with us. Assessing problem areasSoon after the couple settled into their new home, it became clear that they’d need to make some home repairs. The couple, who both work in the tech industry, already knew they’d want to make adjustments to fit their personal style. They wanted to move the kitchen to create a more open floor plan, merge two of the bedrooms to create a large office, and switch out the relatively new carpet for hardwood flooring. They uncovered some unpleasant surprises right off the bat, and a few of them related to the work done in 2011. “We discovered the fixes made were very surface-level—enough to look decent at first glance, but not done properly,” Andrea says. On closer inspection, the carpet was worn after all the open house walkthroughs—and when they pulled it back, they discovered swarms of ants. The tile work in the bathrooms was shoddy, and the kitchen finishes weren’t much better. They also found that the radiant heat flooring—a signature Eichler feature—wasn’t available in two rooms that had been added to the home, and the existing radiant heat coils were starting to fail in the bathrooms—“where you want it most,” says Andrea. Oh, and the sliding glass doors no longer locked, which meant they had to stick pieces of wood in the track as an improvised security measure. “It was super valuable living in the home for a short amount of time before renovating,” Andrea says. “You had a sense of what did work and what didn’t work.” Going all in on renovationsThe to-do list grew and grew. “Once we dug in, we set out to deal with the ants, the windows, the radiant heating, and termite damage in the walls. And then, we just went in for a full overhaul, with the bathrooms too,” Andrea says. They decided to keep the original mahogany wood wall paneling, but re-stain it, replacing the brown with a rich gray, the preferred palette for their renovation. As the project list expanded, the budget ballooned. However, having just sold their San Francisco home, the couple had set aside funds to manage the financial crunch. And the first-time renovators figured it would be less stressful to consolidate the improvements and get them over with. “If you have the resources to do everything at once, do it,” Andrea says. “We poured months into our renovation, but within a year, we had the home we dreamed of.” Eichler-specific issuesA major challenge with any Eichler home renovation is the concrete slab foundation. There’s no crawl space underneath these homes, which means any changes to plumbing, piping, or heating requires breaking the floor. In the Yseberts’ case, the concrete base also had to be opened up to add or replace radiant heating. “Everything is in the concrete slab [foundation], so moving plumbing is much harder,” Andrea says. As for rerouting wires and electrical, “There’s no attic, so everything needs to go on the roof.” The two made the renovation project a second job, researching the finishes, fixtures, and fixes they preferred. Once work commenced, they moved out of their home for 13 weeks. Anatomy of the Eichler makeoverHere’s how it turned out. Radiant heatThe company that installed the original radiant heating way back in the ’50s was enlisted to overhaul it, six decades later. The slab was opened up and new coils were laid in such a way that the home now features three heating zones that can be adjusted depending on need. “For the rooms we’re not in very often, we just turn down the temp. It’s more efficient,” Scott says. Once the infrastructure was in place, the couple selected white oak flooring, a counterpart to the rich gray stain on the wood-paneled walls and ceiling. The kitchenAndrea and Scott knew immediately they’d move the kitchen so that it would look out onto the backyard. They selected Alno, a San Francisco company, to design it with a minimalist, European look. The Miele appliances are black, the Cambria counters are white, and gray laminate cupboards and glass cabinets add sleek storage. BathroomsTo their surprise, Andrea and Scott found that the standard sink widths weren’t so standard in the ensuite master bath. Rather than creating a custom sink to fill the space, they moved the wall of the bathroom to fit the new sink, poured new concrete floors, and added a heated towel rack and LED lighting to the mirror. The tile in the guest bathroom was completely redone, including the floor, which is now graced with hand-screened clay tiles from New York. Office spaceTwo smaller bedrooms were combined to create a spacious office that fits the couple’s two oversized desks and showcase their cool collection of toys. Once the couple and their two cats, Dash and Poro, moved into their newly redone home, they had the home’s exterior painted dark gray to complement the stain on the walls inside. They also ran a gas line to the side yard so they could add an eye-catching fire pit out back. Now happily ensconced in their redesigned home, they both confirmed they’d do it all again. “The experience was both stressful and yet completely rewarding,” Andrea says. “Every time we sit back and look at our home, we feel so happy with how things came together.” They also have sage words of advice for those considering an Eichler purchase. “For those renovating an Eichler, have patience,” says Andrea. “But take solace in knowing that these homes are very special, and if you can work with its nuances, it will be so worth it.” The post Midcentury Makeover! Anatomy of an Eichler Renovation in San Jose appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/eichler-makeover-san-jose/
It carries a penalty of up to 30 years in jail or $1 million in fines.
via https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mortgage-fraud_us_5bfde455e4b0d23c213793fb Don’t let the sweeping green landscape surrounding Seattle fool you. With the tech boom continuing to bring in young, single workers, and the quest for big city living space at an all-time high, the Emerald City is now home to the tiniest apartments in America. Seattle’s average apartment clocked in at 711 square feet, according to a new report by RENTCafe. That’s 20 square feet smaller than the average rental in Manhattan or Chicago, which were tied for second place, and 171 square feet less than the national average. In contrast, Tallahassee, FL, boasts the most amount of rental living space, at a roomy average of 1,038 square feet. What accounts for Seattle taking the tiny-rental crown? Some of it is tradition. “In Seattle, one-bedroom units make up most of the rental stock, and developers here preferred not to upsize and kept most of the new developments around the 700-square-foot threshold,” says Nadia Balint, who authored the study for RENTCafe. According to Marlow Harris, a real estate agent and owner of SeattleDreamHomes.com, this is due in part to the city’s rapid growth in tandem with tech giants Amazon and Microsoft. Google and Facebook have opened up local outposts as well. “Many of these tech companies are opening offices in the downtown office core and South Lake Union, a very small geographic area located between two bodies of water,” Harris says. “The only way to build is up, so they’re cramming as many units as the zoning code will allow.” “One of the reasons these small apartments were working in Seattle is a large number of relocating workers are single men, fresh out of college life and dorm living,” she adds. “The leap from a college dormitory to the micro-housing units being built was an easy one for many of these workers, and they spent so much time at the office, they didn’t mind the small living quarters.” And those tiny apartments come at a relatively low price point, making this city attractive to young renters. A Seattle apartment in the 601- to 800-square-foot range costs $1,981 on average—nearly half the price of a similar-sized unit in Manhattan, which goes for $3,877, according to RENTCafe. On the flip side, Balint attributed Tallahassee’s large apartments to “a healthy rental stock of large two-bedroom units.” “Two-bedroom apartments here are more numerous than one-bedroom units, while studios are almost nonexistent,” she says. “Developers here didn’t spare space for new units. The average size of an apartment built here in 2018 is a lavish 1,200 square feet, unchanged from 10 years ago.” According to the RENTCafe report, the average size of apartments nationwide is 882 square feet, regardless of the year built. California rentals underwent the biggest downsizing of the decade, with available living space decreasing by 12%. Units in Detroit are 27% smaller, making it the city with the most shrinkage this past year. The size of studio apartments, which represent 5% of the national market, decreased by 10% in the last 10 years. Rents across the board have increased by 28% in the same period, as their overall size decreased by 5%. The post You Wouldn’t Think This City Had the Tiniest Apartments in America appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/seattle-claims-top-spot-for-tiniest-apartments-in-america/ Los Angeles Clippers center Marcin Gortat hopes to score a buyer for his winning home in Arlington, VA. The home is now listed for $1.9 million, and the big man bought the place in 2014 for $1.57 million, shortly after joining the Washington Wizards. This summer, the Polish-born pivot man was traded to the Clippers and no longer needs a home in the DC suburbs. If the 34-year-old manages to slam home a deal at the current asking price, he’ll fast break away with a modest profit. The French Provincial-style residence is part of a four-home community, and includes five beds, 5.5 baths, and almost 3,000 square feet of living space. The layout includes a cozy living room with a fireplace and large windows, a formal dining room, a family room, and kitchen. The cooking area features stainless steel appliances and a six-burner range as well as an island. In addition, there’s an office, spacious bedrooms, and a media room with a bar. Outside features a large patio perfect for a dining table and barbecue. The two-car garage hints at the owner’s former allegiance, with a Wizards logo on the floor. Gortat launched his NBA career with the Orlando Magic in 2007. He signed a five-year, $60 million contract with the Washington Wizards in 2014, but was traded from the nation’s capital to sunny Los Angeles for the final year of the contract. He’s expressed a desire to retire when his deal expires after the current season. Given the sale of his Arlington home—we do know he won’t be returning to Washington. The post L.A. Clippers Center Marcin Gortat Selling His Virginia Home for $1.9M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/marcin-gortat-selling-virginia-home/
Many states outlawed rent limits decades ago but booming cities want to overturn that.
via https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rent-control-comeback_us_5bfedb74e4b0d09702102472 WASHINGTON—Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell in October. Purchases of newly built single-family homes—a relatively narrow slice of all U.S. home sales—fell 8.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 in October, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 4.0% increase or 575,000 new home sales. The 8.9% decline was the steepest since December last year. September’s new homes sales figure was revised higher, to 597,000 after 591,000 new homes were sold in August. All U.S. regions experienced new-home sales declines last month, with sales in the Northeast dropping 18.5% on the month. From a year earlier, U.S. sales in October were down 12%. The months supply of homes on the market rose to 7.4 in October, the largest supply figure since February 2011. In the broader housing market, a shortage of available homes has fed a rapid run-up in home prices, creating an affordability crunch. While price growth has slowed some, it appears in part to reflect weakening demand, as inventory has built up in recent months. At the same time, skilled construction labor shortages and rising input costs are also making home buying more expensive. Mortgage rates have risen in the last year to just shy of 5%, a level analysts say could also deter many would-be buyers. Many current homeowners are unwilling to sell, too, because such a move would mean forgoing their low interest rates. The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in October was 4.83%, up from 4.03% in January, according to Freddie Mac. “Almost all the trends in the U.S. housing market have been negative in recent months as housing market activity continues to adjust to higher mortgage rates,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said Tuesday. Sales of previously owned homes rose 1.4% in October from the previous month although they fell on an annual basis, signaling continued weakness in the housing market. The post New-Home Sales Fell 8.9% in October appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/new-home-sales-fell-in-october/ Singer Lana Del Rey has snapped up a rustic cabin in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Variety reported. According to property records, the songstress paid $1,178,000—well over the $995,000 asking price. The harmonious home was restored by HGTV star Leanne Ford, who bought the adorable cabin in 2018 for $800,000. Ford, who can be seen in the home improvement show “Restored by the Fords,” covers her renovation projects with “many shades of white,” as the New York Times has pointed out. True to form, the designer put her trademark vanilla hue and a vintage patina on the 1911 abode. Once owned by the silent film star Clara Kimball Young, the historic home is said to have been one of the first to go up in the area. Ford announced that she had placed her house on the market because she has another project in the works—her pregnancy. She posted on her blog, “After much deliberation and thankfully no tears we decided to sell our little Echo Park love shack. Once we found out about the sweet bun in the oven we realized this is more about wine bottles than baby bottles. So it’s time to pass it on. Who’s the lucky buyer? And can we come over for dinner?” We imagine the soulful singer will be happy to host after moving in to her charming new digs. The woodsy cottage measures in at just under 1,500 square feet, with two beds and one darling bath. It offers indoor/outdoor living space with stone floors and exposed wood, plus French doors that open to a stone patio and the natural surroundings. The living room features a stone hearth and midcentury Malm fireplace, original wood borders, and large windows in the dining area. The kitchen has been outfitted with a retro-styled Smeg refrigerator, open shelving, and an old sink from Ford’s home town of Pittsburgh. The original tub is in the bathroom, with new plumbing made to look old. And yes, the entire cabin is painted a creamy off-white. Not only does the performing artist have a set of pipes, she has an eye for real estate, too. According to Variety, the 33-year-old has picked up a slew of properties in L.A., including one in Malibu, which she later sold, as well as two adjacent homes in Studio City, and an English Tudor in the Windsor Square neighborhood. Del Rey has sold over 15 million albums worldwide and has over 3.1 billion views on her YouTube channel. The post Lana Del Rey Scores Vintage and Cozy L.A. Cabin for $1.2M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/lana-del-rey-vintage-cabin/ We’re entering the home stretch of 2018, when you can actually say, “See you next year!” to someone you’ll see in just a few weeks. It’s a time to look ahead, to make new plans, to achieve new dreams. And if those dreams include buying your own home, you should keep an eye on the ever-changing tides of the housing market. Now, markets are like the weather: You can’t entirely predict how they will act, but you can get a sense of the forces that will push things in one direction or another. The realtor.com® economic research team analyzed a wealth of housing data to come up with a forecast of what 2019 might hold for home buyers and sellers—and it looks like both groups are going to be facing some challenges. Here are the top four takeaways. For more information, see the full realtor.com® 2019 forecast. 1. We’ll have more homes for sale, especially luxury onesWe’ve been chronicling the super-tight inventory of homes for sale for several years now. Yes, homes have been hitting the market, but not enough to keep up with the demand. Nationwide, inventory actually hit its lowest level in recorded history last winter, but this year it finally started to recover. We’re expecting to see that inventory growth continue into next year, but not at a blockbuster rate—less than 7%. While this is welcome news for buyers who’ve been sidelined, sellers must confront a new reality. “More inventory for sellers means it’s not going to be as easy as it has been in past years—it means they will have to think about the competition,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com’s chief economist. “It’s still going to be a very good market for sellers,” she adds, “but if they’ve had their expectations set by listening to stories of how quickly their neighbor’s home sold in 2017 or in 2018, they may have to adjust their expectations.” Although next year’s inventory growth is expected to be modest nationwide, pricier markets will tell a different story. In these markets—which typically have strong economies (read: high-paying jobs)—most of the expected inventory growth will come from listings of luxury homes. We’re expecting to see the biggest increases in high-end inventory in the metro areas of San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; Worcester, MA; Boston, MA; and Nashville, TN. All of those metro markets, which may include neighboring towns, could see double-digit gains in inventory in 2019. 2. Affording a home will remain toughIt’s no secret that home sellers have been sitting pretty for the past several years. But is the tide about to change in buyers’ favor? “In some ways, life is going to be easier for home buyers; they’ll have more options,” Hale says. “But life is also going to be more difficult for home buyers, because we expect mortgage rates to continue to increase, we expect home prices to continue to increase, so the pinch that they’re feeling from affordability is going to continue to be a pain point moving into 2019.” Hale predicts that mortgage rates, now hovering around 5%, will reach around 5.5% by the end of 2019. That means the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home listing will be about 8% higher next year, she notes. Meanwhile, incomes are only growing about 3% on average. That double whammy is toughest on first-time home buyers, who tend to borrow the most heavily and who don’t have any equity in a current home to draw on. 3. Millennials will still dominate home buyingJust a few years ago, millennials were the new kids on the block, just barely old enough to buy their own homes. Now they’re the biggest generational group of home buyers, accounting for 45% of mortgages (compared with 17% for baby boomers and 37% for Gen Xers). Some of them are even moving on up from their starter homes. As we mentioned above, things will be tough for those first-time buyers. But the slightly older move-up buyers will reap the benefits of both their home equity and the increased choices in the market. And regardless of whether they’re part of that younger set starting a career or the older set that’s starting a family, “they’re going to be more price-conscious than any other generation,” says Ali Wolf, director of economic research at Meyers Research. That’s because they typically are still carrying student debt and want to be able to spend on experiences, like travel. That takes away from the funds they can put aside for a down payment, or a monthly mortgage payment. “They want to maintain a certain lifestyle, but they still see the value in owning a home,” Wolf says. So they might compromise on distance from an urban center, or certain amenities, or space—70% of millennial homeowners own a residence that’s less than 2,000 square feet, Wolf notes. There’s plenty of time to expand those portfolios, though, as millennials’ housing reign is just beginning: This group is likely to make up the largest share of home buyers for the next decade. The year 2020 is projected to be the peak for millennial home buying—the bulk of them will be age 30. 4. The new tax law is still a wild cardAt the time of last year’s forecast, the GOP’s proposed revision of the tax code was still being batted around Congress. While there was talk that it might discourage people from buying a home, no one really knew how it might affect the real-estate market. This year … well, we still don’t really know. That’s because most taxpayers won’t be filing taxes under the new law until April 2019. And while some people might have a savvy tax adviser giving them a better idea of what’s in store, for many, the reality check will come in the form of a bigger tax bill—or a bigger refund. Renters are likely to have lower tax bills, but might not be tempted to buy while affordability remains a challenge, and with the new, increased standard deduction reducing the appeal of the homeowner’s mortgage-interest deduction. “I think the new tax plan will affect mostly homeowners and home buyers in the upper parts of the distribution,” says Andrew Hanson, associate professor of economics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. “Those who either own or are buying higher-priced homes are going to pay a lot more.” Sellers of those pricier homes will also take a hit, as buyers anticipating bigger tax bills won’t be as willing to pony up for a high list price. The biggest change resulting from the new tax law, Hanson predicts, will be in mortgages, since people will be less inclined to take out large mortgages. “If anyone is going to be upset about the tax plan, it’ll be mortgage bankers,” he says.
—Allison Underhill contributed to this report. The post The 4 Key Trends Home Buyers and Sellers Should Watch in 2019 appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/real-estate-trends-expect-2019/ On Genoa Bay in British Columbia, the green tin roof of an enormous estate commands attention. The home sits on the Genoa Bay point and offers unmatched waterfront views of the blue-green bay. The exterior stands as a statement piece—which was precisely what owner George O’Brien wanted when he added the bright-green roof. However, the interior reveals an even bolder statement—a 41-foot sailboat hull adorns the ceiling in the home’s main living and dining space. O’Brien was a sailing enthusiast as well as a member of the Cruising Club of America. “This was O’Brien’s legacy piece,” says listing agent Brian Danyliw. “He wanted people to remember him for something.” Mission accomplished. Now, a new owner can drop anchor in the one-of-a-kind home for $2.25 million CAD. The fully functional racing hull was purchased by O’Brien from Cooper Industries, a sailboat manufacturer that met its demise in a 1970s fire. Only a few sailboat hulls survived. Two years after purchasing the hull, O’Brien decided he wanted to make it part of the home’s interior. Simply getting the full-sized boat into the living room was a huge logistical hurdle. “He had to have a wooden dolly custom-built. It looked kind of like train tracks. He and a team of people attached the hull of the sailboat and rolled the thing into the living room,” says Danyliw. And in order to fit the boat into the house, O’Brien had to remove the entire west wall. Furniture was covered with sheets and shoved out of the way to make space for the hull. Once the boat was safely inside, a new wall was reconstructed in place of the demolished wall. But wait, there’s more! Four sturdy beams of fir wood were then affixed to the floor below and the ceiling above to create a frame of vertical support for the hull. Two additional beams were attached to the upright beams and a metal bar the length of the hull was attached to the boat’s top. A small crane was then used to lift the boat into place, and it was finally secured to the ceiling for evermore. Now the sailboat floats elegantly above the room without any tether to the ground below. For a buyer who craves a touch of the life aquatic, this fabulous feature would be nearly impossible to replicate.Living space The post If You’re Considering Putting a Sailboat Inside Your House, Read This First appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®. via https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/sailboat-inside-house/ |
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