AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog/media/feedlogo.gif AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/NYC's Steampunk Loft Loses The Steampunk (House of the Day)http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/12/05/chelseas-steampunk-loft-loses-the-steampunk-house-of-the-day/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/12/05/chelseas-steampunk-loft-loses-the-steampunk-house-of-the-day/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/12/05/chelseas-steampunk-loft-loses-the-steampunk-house-of-the-day/#commentsFiled under: ,

Steampunk loft, before and after

We loved the infamous "steampunk loft" in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood so much that we even filmed a video on it back in June (see below)! It was like nothing we'd ever seen: a little Jules Verne, a little nautical-chic, and wonderfully, excessively retro-futuristic and otherworldly.

Sadly, however, all good things come to an end, and we recently got word that our favorite steampunk pad was no longer, well, steampunk. It has been stripped of all its multicolored, quirky decor (including zeppelins, whirligigs and antique welding tools, among many other steampunk-genre artifacts and collectibles), and it has been re-listed after going through a make-under.

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So what happened to all those floating zeppelins, you wonder?

"A lot of it, the owner is keeping," said Warburg real estate agent Nicole Beauchamp. "He had the same contractor and architect who helped put it all together, bring it down. It is sad, but at the same time, we need to broaden the appeal -- it's hard for many to look past the decor!"

In any case, it's still a pretty cool space in a prime New York neighborhood. And, if you look closely, you can still see some subtle little remnants of the apartment's old steampunk days: The kitchen still boasts repurposed wrenches as kitchen handles.

The home is still listed for $1.65 million. Nicole Beauchamp of Warburg Realty has the listing.


AOL Real Estate's Inside Look: Steampunk Apartment



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]]>New York City steampunk apartmentsteampunksteampunk loft NYCsteampunk NYCAOL Real Estate Editors2012-12-05T06:00:00+00:00Spring Cleaning: Essential Tips for Homeownershttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/08/spring-cleaning-for-homeowners-top-tips-for-happy-homes/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/08/spring-cleaning-for-homeowners-top-tips-for-happy-homes/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/08/spring-cleaning-for-homeowners-top-tips-for-happy-homes/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Spring CleaningBy Pat Mertz Esswein, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
As you go about your annual spring-cleaning ritual, take a few additional steps to save money on energy bills this summer, improve your home's appearance and ward off big-ticket repairs later.

Here are 18 things for you (or the handyman) to tackle now to help prepare your home for the warmer months and keep it in top shape.

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More from Kiplinger:
Quiz: How Smart a Homeowner Are You?
What $300K Buys You Now
Quiz: How Long Should it Last?
10 Tiny Homes You'll Love Big Time

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]]>home cleaning tipsspring cleanspring cleaning essentialsspring cleaning tipsspring house maintenancetop spring cleaning tipsKiplinger2012-03-08T15:30:00+00:00Best Cities for Sports Fanshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/02/02/best-cities-for-sports-fans-new-england-new-york/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/02/02/best-cities-for-sports-fans-new-england-new-york/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/02/02/best-cities-for-sports-fans-new-england-new-york/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Not all cities are created equal, and some cities are certainly better than others when it comes to sports. The more major league sports teams a city has, the more a it has to offer to those who love the game. Additionally, the more successful a team, the happier its fans become. With this in mind, 24/7 Wall St. set out to identify the best cities for sports fans.

In order to decide which cities have the luckiest fans, we started with those that have at least two professional teams in or near the city. We then ranked each city based on the number of teams it has and the total number of sports the teams represented. We also factored in the popularity of the teams -- based on attendance and change in attendance -- the win-loss records of the teams in each city, and the number of championships each team won. (Click the gallery below.)

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A good city for sports fans has to have lots of teams. And not just the number of teams matters, but also the diversity of sports they represent. A city has to have at least one team in each of the four major sports: hockey, baseball, football, and basketball. A city like Chicago, which has at least one team in each sport, is ranked higher than Los Angeles, which also has 6 sports franchises, but doesn't have an NFL team.

Arguably, nothing is more important to sports fans than winning. 24/7 awarded points to a city for each team that had a win-loss in the top 50 percent of its league. The New England Patriots earn Boston a point for having won three games for every one it lost over the last 10 seasons. Neither of New York's two basketball teams -- the Nets nor Knicks -- earned a point in this category, because their 10-season records are in the bottom half compared to the rest of the NBA. We also awarded points for each championship won by a team in the past 10 years.

Finally, a good community of fans is also necessary. We awarded points for cities where home game attendance increased significantly in the past 10 years. The Detroit Tigers, whose annual home attendance increase by more than 1 million fans between 2002 and 2011, earned a point. On the other hand, the St. Louis Cardinals' attendance declined, not earning the city a point, despite the fact that attendance in 2011 was higher than in Detroit. A city also ranked better if teams regularly sold at or above capacity over the course of the year.


More from 24/7 Wall St:
10 Cities Crushed by the Global Recession
Eight Brands that Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl
The 10 Most Educated Countries in the World

 

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]]>Adrian PetersonAnaheim DucksBostonBoston Red SoxCalvin JohnsonChicagoChicago BlackhawksChicago White SoxColorado AvalancheDallasDenverDenver NuggetsGreen Bay PackersLos AngelesLos Angeles ClippersLos Angeles DodgersLos Angeles KingsMatthew StaffordMinnesota TimberwolvesMinnesota TwinsMinnesota VikingsMinnesota WildMontreal ExposNational Football League playoffsNBA FinalsNew England PatriotsNew YorkNew York CityNew York GiantsNew York KnicksNew York MetsNew York YankeesPhiladelphiaSportsSt. Louis CardinalsStanley CupSuper Bowl VIITim TebowTwin citiesWall StreetWashington CapitalsWorld Series24/7 Wall St.2012-02-02T14:00:00+00:00House of the Day: Malibu Short Sale With a Steep Price Drophttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/30/house-of-the-day-malibu-short-sale-with-a-steep-price-drop/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/30/house-of-the-day-malibu-short-sale-with-a-steep-price-drop/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/30/house-of-the-day-malibu-short-sale-with-a-steep-price-drop/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



Think the high-end of the market hasn't been felled by the economic downturn? Guess again. Here's a lovely four-bedroom contemporary home in Malibu, Calif., that is now being offered as a short sale with a recent price drop of $1 million. Ouch.

The 5,000-square-foot home is now listed at $2.85 million, subject to the lender's short sale approval. So what does this really mean? It means the lender could say no to that price or it could mean someone is going to pick up a bargain. The home has been listed at $4.2 million.

The home has whitewater ocean views, top-of-the-line finishes that include Viking and Miele appliances, granite counter tops, Brazilian walnut floors and high wood-beamed ceilings. There is a fossil stone wine cellar and an 1,800-square-foot balcony made of Chinese slate stone. The property is an easy walk to the beach and membership in a private tennis club is included.

Click on the images below to see other premium homes for sale in Malibu, Calif.:



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]]>high-end luxury markethome of the dayHouse of the Dayluxury real estateMalibuMalibu real estateshort salesAnn Brenoff2011-11-30T06:00:00+00:00Bruce Willis Lists His Idaho Ski Retreathttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/bruce-willis-lists-his-idaho-ski-retreat/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/bruce-willis-lists-his-idaho-ski-retreat/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/bruce-willis-lists-his-idaho-ski-retreat/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,




Actor Bruce Willis is a fixture on the Sun Valley Idaho real estate scene, owning multiple properties in the ski resort area. He's about to own one less though, having just put his 20-acre, lakefront ranch on the market for $15 million.

Willis' agent, Janine Bear with Sun Valley Sotheby's International Realty, told The Wall Street Journal that Willis is selling because he just isn't spending enough time there. He bought and rebuilt the 8,400-square-foot main house in 2003. The property in Hailey includes a detached guesthouse and Willis added a gym. There is also a heated pool with water slides, a waterfall and a rope swing, as well as several man-made ponds on the grounds.

Willis (pictured at left) starred in the "Die Hard" franchise and in the movie, "The Sixth Sense." A much-in-demand actor, he has multiple films slated for release in the next 12 months. Willis has also listed for sale his Sun Valley bar and restaurant complex called The Mint, with a current price tag of $4.5 million, down from about $6 million in August 2010.

Willis' ex-wife Demi Moore and her soon-to-be-next-ex-husband, Ashton Kutcher, reportedly spent some time together at Willis' other vacation home in the Turks and Caicos trying to work out their marital issues. Maybe they should have tried the ski place instead.

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Click on the images below to see other celebrity real estate recently on the market.

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]]>Bruce WillisDie HardSun Valley IdahoAnn Brenoff2011-11-23T14:51:00+00:00The New Homeless: Living Behind the Wheelhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/the-new-homeless-living-behind-the-wheel/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/the-new-homeless-living-behind-the-wheel/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/23/the-new-homeless-living-behind-the-wheel/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



During the Great Depression, people who were forced to live in their cars were known as "Ford families." Today, they go by the far more impersonal name of the "vehicular homeless," and you can count 45-year-old Carey Fuller and her two daughters, 8 and 17, among them.

The Fullers (pictured above) became homeless in April 2004 when Carey lost her job in the financial services sector in Seattle. With the job loss came a move from a three-bedroom apartment into a two-bedroom -- but that wasn't enough to cut expenses. Seeing what was waiting for her around the corner, Fuller took her final bit of income, a tax refund, and used it to buy an RV that she and her girls could live in. After a while, even gas and maintenance on the Winnebago became more than she could afford, so she traded down for a minivan. Fuller takes whatever work she can find, often landing part-time jobs. She also blogs about her life as a homeless mother living in a van.

As the economy continues to circle the drain and the number of foreclosures rises, more and more people are following in Fuller's tracks. Some cities, like Venice and Palo Alto in California, have even created parking areas for people who live in their vehicles.

"Cars are the new homeless shelters," says Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) Partners, the largest services provider for the homeless in Los Angeles County. Car and van dwellers don't show up in U.S. Census Bureau data because census workers don't knock on car windows, Roberts says.

How They Got There

How did so many families wind up sleeping in cars, vans and RVs? In most cases, they were hit with a job loss or health crisis that cost them their home. The move from roof to backseat is often swifter than expected, and in the case of those whose homes have been foreclosed, there is often a sense of disbelief that the actual day of eviction will come. Departures are often fast and furious, with things thrown into a van. Often, the newly evicted don't travel far; they camp out in the neighborhood where they lived. They quickly learn which public parks leave their restrooms unlocked and that joining the local YMCA provides access to a shower.

In some cases, it's divorce, not unemployment, that puts people in their cars at night. Rudy Salinas, director of outreach for PATH, recalls finding a man living in his car in a supermarket parking lot a few months ago. The man had a stack of neatly dry-cleaned uniforms next to him, which he wore to work each day. But at night, separated from his wife and unable to support two households, he slept in the market's parking lot.

Salinas said that PATH did its own census of the homeless population in Hollywood, Calif. They counted 748 people without homes; 151 of them were car dwellers.

"In my 19 years of doing outreach, I have never seen such a spike in numbers like the one in the past 18 months," he says.

Carey Fuller, the single mother in Seattle, advocates for the homeless while being homeless herself. She says that she parks "anywhere I can" at night, picking spots near foreclosed homes to avoid police detection. Her daughters do their homework in the school library and they do laundry in public laundromats. Meals are taken at church soup kitchens or purchased in convenience marts that have microwaves to heat things up. She lives on an inconsistent child support payment of $150 a month and $500 a month in food stamps for the three of them. Showers are taken at the community pool; on weekends, they hang out at the library where there are many free events.

She gave up trying to use the overtaxed housing assistance system, because of the long waiting lists for apartments.

Is she just a job away from being able to rent an apartment? Fuller says it isn't as simple as that. Landlords discriminate against the vehicular homeless, she says, and demand to see a current rental history. After sleeping in the car for nearly eight years, she doesn't have one.

She's been doing this for so long that it's become a way of life.

"My life feels normal to me," she said, "We live just like every other family except we sleep in the minivan."

A New Community

Car and van dwellers have formed a community of their own, often exchanging survival tips online. Fuller has taught people how to make a "coffee can cooker" on Facebook.

For a long while, the Wal-Mart Stores chain was known for its tacit willingness to let RV-ers use its parking lots overnight. In the evening, the campers served as a de facto security force, making sure that no one did anything to give the police reason to come calling. In the morning, the campers frequented the store, often buying their day's food and supplies there. Gradually, more and more Walmarts became less hospitable to the community. Word quickly spread among the van dwellers about which ones you could park safely in without getting in trouble.

Warm climates tend to draw those living in their vehicles, for the obvious reasons. Southern California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada are popular among the displaced, although many people initially try to stay close to the spot where they fell. They want to keep their kids in the same school, stay close to family and friends. And they lack the money for gas to crisscross the country without direction or purpose.

Salinas tells of the single mother who works at a minimum-wage job and has her 5-year-old son sleep in her sister's Section 8 apartment. She herself sleeps in the car out in front of the apartment each night, fearing that her presence inside would violate her sister's HUD-landlord agreement, which limits the number of adults allowed. She doesn't want to cause her sister to become homeless too, Salinas said. It's not illegal to sleep in your car, by the way, unless a municipality makes it so.

As for today's "Ford families," it's not without some irony to give them the moniker. Although Henry Ford did help a small number of distressed families by giving them loans and some land to work, he also laid off thousands more. And he deeply angered many with public comments about how the unemployed should do more to find work for themselves.

Also see:
Detroit Mom Offers to Trade Her House for a Car
Protesters 'Liberate' Foreclosed Homes
Squatting: Social Menace or Economic Necessity?

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]]>Carey Fullerfamilies living in carsfamily living in vanhomeless familieshomeless living in carsliving out of a vanRudy Salinasvehicular homelessAnn Brenoff2011-11-23T11:45:00+00:00House of the Day: French Norman, Now Remove Your Shoeshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/22/house-of-the-day-french-norman-now-please-remove-your-shoes/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/22/house-of-the-day-french-norman-now-please-remove-your-shoes/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/22/house-of-the-day-french-norman-now-please-remove-your-shoes/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



There are some architectural styles that just dictate my behavior. For instance, whenever I see a French Norman estate, I feel like I should lower my voice to a whisper and put paper slippers over my shoes before I traipse on in. This is one of those places.

Located in Bel-Air, a Los Angeles community of expensive homes that prefers understatement to exclamation points, the home came on the market at $18 million -- although this is one of those situations where if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

One of my favorite features of the 7,500-square-foot mansion is not just that it has eight bedroom suites, but that there is a separate children's wing. How many times have I dragged my weary bones home from work and wished our house had a separate wing for the little ankle-biters?!

The estate occupies almost an acre, most of it spent on creating a mini-park -- all behind gates, of course.

The rooms are of a grand scale: formal and everything looks manicured and perfectly royal -- the way a French Norman home should be.

There is a motor court and a three-car garage.

Joe Babajian of Rodeo Realty has the listing.

Click on the images below to see other homes for sale in and around Bel-Air:


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Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email ann.brenoff@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to respond to each submission.)

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]]>Bel Air real estateBel-AirBel-Air CaliforniaFrench Normandyhome of the dayhouse of the dayJoe Babajian of Rodeo RealtyRodeo RealtyAnn Brenoff2011-11-22T06:00:00+00:00Divorcing? Don't Do What Demi May Have Donehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/17/divorcing-dont-do-what-demi-may-have-done/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/17/divorcing-dont-do-what-demi-may-have-done/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/17/divorcing-dont-do-what-demi-may-have-done/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Let's preface this by saying Demi Moore didn't call us to consult on her plan to divorce Ashton Kutcher (or anything else for that matter). So we really don't know about any existing or non-existing pre-nups, legal agreements or much of anything else that transpired in their marriage and pre-divorce planning.

But what we do know is that shortly after they married, Moore took her Beverly Hills house out of one blind trust (an entity known as the "4770 Trust") and created another blind trust (called the "Tree House Trust"). Using even our limited powers of deduction, we'd have to assume this was to add his name to her house.

Love, being blind and all, causes us to do crazy things. And this may be one of her crazier ones. Why give away half your house? Since this is California, a community property state, the gesture may have been moot anyway, but still: Is there a lesson here to be learned about protecting one's assets when one marries someone much younger and less established?

According to public records, Moore bought the home in 2003 for $3.15 million. She married Kutcher in September 2005 and then several months later in 2006 moved the ownership of the house to the new trust. So does this mean that in 2006, Moore handed Kutcher a very handsome gift worth millions?

The contemporary house was built in 1957 and sits on about an acre. Moore and Kutcher expanded it to 6,716 square feet; it was featured in Architectural Digest. Photos show it has walls of windows, mahogany, teak and Brazilian rosewood cabinets, a beautiful pool, deck and koi ponds.

Kutcher meanwhile appears to be having a little real estate sell-off of his own. In 2009, public records show that he sold a pre-Demi five-bedroom 4,860-square-foot Beverly Hills house he owned for $3.675 million; he bought the home through his Vista Street Trust in May 2001 for $1.69 million.

Kutcher leased that house out when he and Moore got together, but not before claiming that this was the place where he partied with President Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara -- underage at the time.

Kutcher also sold another property that he owned last June for $2.35 million. It is believed that he bought this house for investment purposes and never lived in it.

Click on the images below to see other celebrity real estate recently on the market.



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]]>ashton kutcherAshton Kutcher homeDemi MooreDemi Moore and Ashton KutcherDemi Moore homeDemi Moore propertydivorceprenupAnn Brenoff2011-11-17T18:55:00+00:00Joe Paterno's Real Estate Transfer: Suspicious or Not?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/16/joe-paternos-real-estate-transfer-suspicious-or-not/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/16/joe-paternos-real-estate-transfer-suspicious-or-not/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/16/joe-paternos-real-estate-transfer-suspicious-or-not/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Why would former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno transfer ownership of his house, worth $594,484, to his wife for $1 in July, unless he knew that he was about to be drawn into the college's sex-abuse scandal, with potential civil lawsuits and damages heading upfield toward him?

While his lawyer told The New York Times that the ownership transfer was nothing more than a step in a long-term financial estate plan, the move raised some eyebrows. Was the sale an attempt by Paterno to shield assets, fearing that some jury down the road might take him to the cleaners? And by transferring his home to his wife, Sue Paterno, did the coach who once walked on water just sink deeper into the dark hole of public scorn?

AOL Real Estate spoke to several estate lawyers and heard pretty much the same thing: Joe Pa probably didn't do anything fishy, at least when it came to giving his wife the house for $1 plus "love and affection." The couple (pictured at left) had previously held joint ownership of the property, for which they paid $58,000 in 1969.

David Shulman, an attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., whose practice focuses on trusts and estates, says there's no obvious reason to link the home transfer with an attempt to protect assets or do an end-run around prospective creditors. In Pennsylvania, Shulman noted, as long as the property is held jointly -- as Paterno's was -- it can't be subject to the creditors of just one of the spouses. And since Sue Paterno hasn't been linked at all to the sex-abuse scandal, she has no liability or exposure.

"I haven't seen the documents," Shulman said, "but from what's been made public, it just doesn't make any sense that this was an attempt to protect assets."

Then what was Paterno up to? Shulman said the 84-year-old Paterno's decision to transfer the house more likely had something to do with age-related issues, such as Medicaid and tax planning. To qualify for Medicaid-covered nursing home care, for example, a recipient must "spend down" to a certain level. And people are constantly looking to protect their assets from taxes to ensure that their heirs inherit as much as possible.

Since Paterno has good insurance and a degree of wealth, he probably didn't do it for Medicaid purposes. Far more likely it was done as an estate planning move to avoid probate, said Shulman. "It is a fairly typical thing for people of means to want to protect their assets for their children or whoever will inherit them," he said.

Paterno, who was fired as the football coach at Penn State, has been harshly criticized by many for not taking more aggressive steps after a suspected sexual assault of a child by one of his former top assistants was reported to him. And if the reaction to the house transfer is any indication, it's a safe bet that the burgeoning scandal will cast suspicion on everything else the coach does.

[Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Paterno as Joe Pop; his nickname is Joe Pa.]

Also see:
Taking a Tax Loss When Property Value Declines
Happy End of the Road for RVers: Assisted Living on Wheels

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]]>Joe PaternoPaterno house transferPenn State scandalPenn State Universitysex scandalsex scandalsSue PaternoAnn Brenoff2011-11-16T15:21:00+00:00Former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill's Central Park Penthouse Hits Market at $88 Millionhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/11/sandy-weills-central-park-penthouse-hits-market-at-88-million/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/11/sandy-weills-central-park-penthouse-hits-market-at-88-million/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/11/11/sandy-weills-central-park-penthouse-hits-market-at-88-million/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Let's just say it: If there is such a thing as a bad time to be rich, it's definitely now.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sanford I. Weill, a one percenter who is the former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup Inc., has listed his postwar Central Park West penthouse in Manhattan for $88 million, with the intention of donating the proceeds of the sale to charity. He told the Journal that in this difficult period in the country's history, it is "a pretty good time" for wealthy Americans "to be quiet." Can't argue with logic, can you?

Weill and his wife, Joan (pictured left), won't be going far. He plans to move from the full-floor 6,744-square-foot penthouse with a terrace and garden that wraps around three sides to a smaller place on the building's sixth floor, according to the Journal. Downsizing, just like the rest of us, and saying goodbye to his 33-foot-wide living room.

The building at Fifth Avenue and Central Park West opened in 2007 and immediately drew the Masters of the Universe -- plus Sting and Denzel Washington. If Weill gets his price, it will break all kinds of records, which in itself, might be the nicest thing Weill could do for the local economy.

While he didn't say which charity would reap the rewards of the sale, our money is on Carnegie Hall, where he sits on the board.

See photos of one of 15 Central Park West's ultra-posh units below.





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]]>15 central park westcelebrity real estateSandy WeilSanford WeillAnn Brenoff2011-11-11T09:30:00+00:00House of the Day: 1932 Contemporary That's Held Its Lookshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/27/house-of-the-day-1932-contemporary-thats-held-its-looks/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/27/house-of-the-day-1932-contemporary-thats-held-its-looks/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/27/house-of-the-day-1932-contemporary-thats-held-its-looks/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Built in 1932 for the renowned American muralist Ezra Winter, this 8,000-square-foot house/studio in Northwestern Connecticut is the housing equivalent of Suzanne Sommers -- it is simply age-defying.

Now listed for $3.45 million, the 82-acre estate has had some touch-ups through the years -- the studio was renovated in 2000 and the kitchen in 2006 -- but the bones of the Contemporary have held up well. The four-bedroom house, with 6,600 square feet, has four levels and is perched atop a long winding driveway with grounds that include original terraces, stone walls, hiking trails, gardens and a natural waterfall. The original painting studio has 30-foot ceilings and 24-foot tall windows.

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Winter received commissions for murals in the Cunard Building in New York, the North and South Reading Rooms in the Library of Congress, and the large stairway mural at Radio City Music Hall.

He designed this modernist home and studio for himself and lived and worked in it until his death in 1949.

Rebecca Ward of Klemm Real Estate has the listing.

Click on the images below to see more Connecticut classics on the market:




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Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email ann.brenoff@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to respond to each submission.)

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]]>Ezra WinterEzra Winter househome of the dayKlemm Real Estatemodernistmodernist homeRadio City Music HallRebecca Ward Klemm Real EstateAnn Brenoff2011-10-27T06:00:00+00:00Viewpoint: Housing Is Ghost Issue in Presidential Racehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/18/viewpoint-housing-is-ghost-issue-in-presidential-race/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/18/viewpoint-housing-is-ghost-issue-in-presidential-race/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/18/viewpoint-housing-is-ghost-issue-in-presidential-race/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Housing Presidential Race

When it comes to the housing crisis, it's not what the GOP candidates have said but what they're not saying.

The housing and foreclosure crisis has been pretty much invisible in the presidential race, playing stepchild to the issue of what to do about all those unemployed people and the pesky fact that nobody is creating any jobs.

The Las Vegas Sun noted that when the Republican presidential candidates recently debated economic policy in New Hampshire, the word "foreclosure" was uttered just one time.

Since the next debate is in Nevada -- a state where foreclosure signs have become the official state lawn flower -- you'd think we might see that change, but as the Sun notes, we likely won't. The Nevada debate will be the GOP's eighth one and housing remains the ghost issue.

About the only guy to even take a position on the issue is Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who thinks the federal government should get out of the housing business and instead just let prices sink until the free market forces kick in. I'm sure homeowners will line up to vote for him, just as soon as they take their heads out of the oven. Maybe his running mate can be the banker who thought up bulldozing foreclosed homes as a way to reduce inventory.

The problem is that Republicans running for president see the housing crisis as just a symptom of the economic recession and see jobs creation as the bigger solution. Heaven knows, the Democrats in the White House haven't fixed either. Washington's housing policies weren't worth the paper they were printed on. Just ask someone who tried to get a loan modification or refinance their home into one of those much-ballyhooed and impossible-to-get loan rates. Of the 4 million people who were expected to be "saved," just 800,000 got loan mods to stay in their homes.

And yet the mantra, both from the White House and on the GOP political trail, has been about jobs, not housing. Yes, it's true that people can't buy houses unless they have jobs. But that's only part of the picture. People can't buy houses unless they have financing either -- and no candidates are talking about what they'd do to loosen lending standards or pressure banks into actually lending some money, instead of keeping it all in the coffers.

The GOP candidates are also not talking about what sort of spanking banks should be getting for robo-signing people out of their homes, or whether they support the idea that banks should reduce principal loan amounts for borrowers whose homes have devalued.

And here's a news flash for the GOP: Not everyone who would like to refinance their house or buy a new one is out of work. Some people gave up waiting for Washington to create jobs and instead turned to entrepreneurship. Just try getting the bank's approval if you are self-employed.

Perhaps the GOP is secretly waiting for housing to magically right itself. It has, after all, been the divining rod that led the country out of previous recessions. Too bad that isn't happening this time.

UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before the Republican debate was set to begin, Mitt Romney spoke with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the foreclosure crisis. In a filmed interview, Romney criticized the Obama administration for trying to stem the tide of foreclosures. "Don't try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom," Romney said. "Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up." Watch the full interview here.

Also see:
Republican Presidential Candidates: Which One Is Best for Your Wallet?
Viewpoint: Hey Mr. President, How About Housing?

 

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]]>foreclosure crisisforeclosuresLas Vegas SunNevada real estateNew HampshireAnn Brenoff2011-10-18T16:40:00+00:00Bid on Britney Spears' Rental -- But Not Too Lowhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/12/bid-on-britney-spears-rental-but-not-too-low/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/12/bid-on-britney-spears-rental-but-not-too-low/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/12/bid-on-britney-spears-rental-but-not-too-low/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



Obviously some people think that the best way to market a property is to maximize the fact that someone famous -- in this case Britney Spears -- once lived here. For the record, she leased this place for about two years ending earlier this year, but never owned it.

And equally obviously, some people think that the best way to get some mojo going about a house being sold is to put it up for auction. This isn't a sheriff's auction on the courthouse steps. This is a marketing tool.

Time for a little class in Auctioning 101: There are two kinds of auctions. In an absolute auction, the house will be sold to the highest bidder that day -- no ifs, ands and buts about it. This is not an absolute auction; the good ones rarely are.

This is a reserve auction, which means that the seller has a secret price in mind (the reserve) and if nobody bids that high, the house doesn't get sold. For a high-profile example of this, look no further than what happened in Malibu last month when a home once unrealistically listed at $65 million was "auctioned" with an opening bid of $22 million. The reserve was not met, the house not sold, and the property is back on the market at $35 million. Case closed.

What does get accomplished by the celebrity name-dropping and scheduling an auction is that a home listing can get some nice free publicity. Being the obliging sorts, here's the deal:

The auction, to take place at 11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11 (nobody ever said they weren't clever), is for a 10,000-square-foot house in the gated community of The Oaks in Calabasas, Calif. The home was originally listed at $10.8 million, thus allowing the marketing folks to boast that the starting bid of $4,499,000 is a whooping 58 percent reduction -- which it is, except the current listing price is $7,499,000.

Spears (pictured above) was a renter in the home, but the pop diva left behind her personal touch. According to a report in the New York Daily News, she spent about $700,000 on property upgrades including furniture, artwork and electronics, but also Venetian plaster walls and luxurious bathroom fixtures. The report was confirmed by the home's owner.

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The home was built in 2007 and is designed around an interior courtyard with French terracotta pavers, an imported antique European limestone fountain and a cast-stone fireplace. There is a glass mosaic pool, a below-ground garage with two hydraulic auto lifts and an outdoor entertainment area. It sits on more than an acre.

The auction is being handled by Tony Fitzgerald of Premiere Estates Auction Company.

Click on the images below to view other homes for sale in the vicinity of Calabasas, Calif.:




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]]>auction homesBritney SpearsBritney Spears rentalCalabasas Californiahomes for auctionThe OaksAnn Brenoff2011-10-12T17:45:00+00:00Dennis Quaid or Ozzy Osbourne: Who's Ready to Sell?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/04/dennis-quaid-or-ozzy-osbourne-whos-ready-to-sell/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/04/dennis-quaid-or-ozzy-osbourne-whos-ready-to-sell/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/04/dennis-quaid-or-ozzy-osbourne-whos-ready-to-sell/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

First we have Mr. Heavy Metalist and Mrs. Osbourne (pictured at far left) occupying perfectly good space in the MLS with their Malibu home -- previously listed in June at $9.5 million -- back on the market at a "reduced price" of $9.45 million. That's $50,000 off nearly $10 million. Big whoop.

And the very next day, along comes actor Dennis Quaid (pictured with wife Kimberly Buffington) who lowers the price of his Pacific Palisades home by $4 million. A price drop from $13.9 million to $10 million since June signals a motivated seller to me. And since this is the second major shave-and-a-haircut -- it came on the market in March at $16.9 million, make that motivated with a capital M.

In the catchy slogan of the day category -- and I don't mean "pass this bill" -- 2011 is going to be known as the "let's move on" year. Sellers who want to move on, no matter which side of the velvet ropes they stand on, are going to pull a Quaid.

(There is another school of thought that should be acknowledged here -- one put forth primarily by grumbling real estate agents whose clients won't listen to them -- and that is that some listings may have been overpriced to begin with and big dollar price drops are just indicative that they started out too high and unrealistic. Acknowledgment over.)

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So what will a check for $10 million in Dennis Quaid's hand get you? A mighty nice gated French Country eight-bedroom estate on two acres. Check out the photos here:

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Click on the images below to see other celebrity-related listings:

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/gallery/see-will-smiths-former-apartment/

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]]>Dennis QuaidMalibu CaliforniaMalibu California real estateOzzy and Sharon OsbourneOzzy OsbournePacific PalisadesPacific Palisades real estateAnn Brenoff2011-10-04T14:00:00+00:00Ozzy Osbourne Re-Lists Malibu Home, Again and Againhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/03/ozzy-osbourne-re-lists-malibu-home-again-and-again/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/03/ozzy-osbourne-re-lists-malibu-home-again-and-again/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/10/03/ozzy-osbourne-re-lists-malibu-home-again-and-again/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Who was it that said that the definition of insanity is to repeat the same action and expect a different outcome?

Back in March, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne -- the King and Queen of Heavy Metal whose music most recently helped rescue a lost autistic child -- listed their Malibu beach house for the umpteenth time, that time at $10 million, to be lowered three months later to $9.5 million. Somewhere along the line (we slept through exactly when) they either pulled it from the market or the last listing expired. The result was the same: It didn't sell at $9.5 million.

ozzy sharon osbourneSo now they've put it back in the active listings at $9,450,000.

Is my calculator broken or is that just a $50,000 price reduction on a $9.5 million listing? A measly 0.5 percent? A drop in the proverbial beach-sand bucket? Enough to cover a party at the Osbournes, back in the day?

The Osbournes have had this home on and off the market for eons. Sometimes they rent it out for the summer -- asking $40,000 a month -- or year-round. But if it's a serious sale they are chasing, they seem to be losing the race to dropping prices.

So now we have it, again: The same 4,500 square feet, same five bedrooms, same walled Italian garden entry, same gourmet kitchen and same proximity to the La Costa Beach Club.

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Same listing agent too: Jonah Wilson of Sotheby's International Realty.

They bought the home in 2003, paying $5.1 million. Their principal residence in the suburban Los Angeles gated community of Hidden Hills is also listed for sale at $12.9 million.

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See more celebrity real estate.

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]]>celebrity homesHidden Hills CA.Malibu real estateOzzy OsbourneSharon OsbourneAnn Brenoff2011-10-03T14:30:00+00:00Ultimate Conversion? From Nuclear Plant to Amusement Parkhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/23/ultimate-conversion-from-nuclear-plant-to-theme-park/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/23/ultimate-conversion-from-nuclear-plant-to-theme-park/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/23/ultimate-conversion-from-nuclear-plant-to-theme-park/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Re-purposing has certainly become the buzzword of the day. We've had former grain silos turned into homes, as well as a military base, a post office and even the Watchtower printing press in Brooklyn is now a condo complex. But taking a sidelined nuclear plant and making it into a theme park may be pushing the envelope. Think they sell glow sticks in the gift shop?

The Wunderland theme park near Kalkar, Germany, has transformed the never-used multi-million-pound reactor into a Disney-like adventure with hotel rooms, bars, restaurants and kiddie rides that include a merry-go-round, log flume and Ferris wheel. There's a wing ride inside the cooling tower and you can even climb up the 130-foot-tall wall on the outside, reports the Daily Mail.

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The SNR-300 nuclear power plant was originally built in 1972 and was billed to be the world's most technologically advanced nuke plant. Then along came Chernobyl and a lot of public protests and construction stopped dead in its tracks in 1991 -- despite the $4 billion already spent. The complex was bought in 1995 by a Dutch businessman, Hennie van der Most. Now, it's a tourist destination and sees 600,000 visitors a year, according to a spokesperson. The site is radiation-free but you can't minimize the thrill of spinning around the inside with scenes from "The China Syndrome" racing through your mind.

The movement to find new uses for the no-longer used has it's own core (sorry, can't help our inner punster) following. Try on these converted-use homes for size:

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that construction on the SNR-300 power plant stopped in 1981. It ended in 1991.

Also see:
Unreal Estate: Model Keeps 300 'Children' In 3-BR Apartment
Now Cheaper to Buy Than to Rent In Many Cities

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]]>amusement parktheme parktheme parksAnn Brenoff2011-08-23T13:36:00+00:00House of the Day: A Sparkling Waterfront Condo for Much Lesshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/15/house-of-the-day-a-sparkling-waterfront-condo-for-much-less/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/15/house-of-the-day-a-sparkling-waterfront-condo-for-much-less/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/15/house-of-the-day-a-sparkling-waterfront-condo-for-much-less/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Many investors have Miami Beach in their sights, so we thought we'd do a little bargain-hunting ourselves. We turned up this uber-sophisticated 20th-floor condo on Miami Beach's Millionaires' Row with a price tag of $1.2 million. At the market's peak, it would have been listed at least 30 percent more.

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The two-bedroom, two-bath unit was built in 2008, a year that will likely go down in Florida real estate annuals as the year they wished never happened. But as a result of the housing market crash, there's this 1,322-square-foot marbled-floor gem with ocean views, glass sliding interior doors that replace room partitions, and loaded up with designer fixtures and appliances.

The kitchen has glass counter-tops and top-of-the-line everything. And the master suite has a heated Neorest toilet, spa tub and a rain shower.

The unit is in Mei, an Asian-influenced building. It's located on 175 feet of beachfront and the building is covered in shimmering glass, surrounded by flowing water.

Amenities include a lagoon pool, 24-hour concierge, valet parking, tea lounge, Zen library, spa, yoga studio, and a state-of-the-art fitness facility with private massage rooms.

Judy Zeder at The Zeder Team has the listing.

 

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]]>Florida real estate marketHouse of the Daymiami beachmiami beach condosmiami beach real estatereal estat investorsreal estate investingAnn Brenoff2011-08-15T06:00:00+00:005 Reasons Why Real Estate Deals Collapsehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/11/5-reasons-why-real-estate-deals-collapse/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/11/5-reasons-why-real-estate-deals-collapse/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/11/5-reasons-why-real-estate-deals-collapse/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Almost a third of the escrows that open today fall apart, a disheartening fact for buyers, sellers and agents -- but mostly sellers, who often have been waiting a good long while for a viable buyer to come down the pike.

The good news is that we know why deals are imploding and have some solutions:

1. Banks aren't lending money.

Oh, they say they are alright. But we know better, don't we? Jump through hoops and promise them your firstborn and then maybe -- maybe -- you can get a loan if you put down 20 percent or more.

Tighter lending standards have made it hard for even credit-worthy buyers to get a mortgage. More than 25 percent of mortgage applicants are rejected and many more are simply afraid to even apply. And despite what you read about cash buyers, they come along as often as the tooth fairy. Less than 30 percent of sales are to cash buyers.

Solution: If you want to buy a house, find out first if you will qualify. Why waste everyone's time, including your own, if you need to get financing and won't be able to? Buyers need to get pre-approved by a lender and know once and for all where they stand. And understand that a pre-qualification letter is different from a pre-approval letter. A pre-qualification letter isn't worth the paper it's printed on; it is issued by a lender based on your answers to a few questions and maybe a credit check. It doesn't obligate the lender to give you a nickel. A pre-approval letter means the lender has looked at your pay stubs, your financial records, your tax statements and says you are someone to whom -- assuming nothing changes -- they would consider lending money.

Another solution for sellers to consider is holding the mortgage for the buyer. Not without risks, but for those in situations with a lot of equity, it's a choice to consider.

2. Buyers want perfection.

Inspection reports that turned up lots of little niggling things either used to be ignored or -- at most -- opened the door to some further minor price negotiations. All nickel-and-dime stuff. Today's buyers, bombarded by bad economic news and consumed with worry about their own situations, get spooked by the smallest loose roof tile and they bolt from the deal.

Solution: Sellers should get their homes inspected before listing them. Fix what needs to be fixed and address everything else in the listing price set. The listing agent should make this inspection available to every serious looker. By doing this, you eliminate buyer surprise. The buyer may -- and should -- still have his own inspection done, but as a seller, you will be able to point to the report and say "we already told you about that."

3. Appraisals come in too low.

This happens for a few reasons, but chief among them are appraisal pools -- something that was created in 2009 as a result of new rules aimed at lessening lenders' influence on home appraisers. What the lenders did was outsource appraisals to different firms, and in the process got appraisers who often aren't as familiar with the communities of the homes that they are valuing.

Out-of-town appraisers who don't understand local neighborhoods only have the numbers on the books to guide them. That means that short sales and foreclosures that lower your neighborhood comps are counted, but there's no awareness of the desirability of your street.

Getting a low appraisal is big-time crazy-making. Suddenly the buyer who thought he got a great deal begins to question his wisdom. It also means that a lender might not fully fund what the buyer expected, and the buyer has to cough up some more money -- if he even can.

Solution: Bring back the local guys who knew what they were doing. Our rule of thumb: If an appraiser can't find your house without his GPS, he's out of our comfort zone.

4. Short sales are a nightmare.

Well, it's true. Short sales take longer to complete, are frustrating in the process, and while you are waiting for the bank to get its act together, prices around you are dropping further.

In the eternal quest for a bargain, some buyers have focused their home search on foreclosures and short sales. Ultimately, the lower price they may pay comes with a price tag that isn't always visible: For short sales, it's lost time. For foreclosures, it's not knowing what problems the house has because bank-owned properties don't come with seller disclosures.

Solution: Enough with coddling the banks. Why hasn't the government set a time frame by which banks must give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on short sales? Short sales are basically a negotiation between the homeowner and the bank: Will the bank take less than what is owed and leave the poor upside-down seller's credit and remaining assets intact? Everyone gets that a short sale attempt is the last-gasp breath before foreclosure, so banks know the outcome if they say no. End of story.

Furthermore, why should banks get away with not having to disclose a home's defects? Banks should be required to have the property inspected and disclose to buyers what they are getting. Even day-old bread in the supermarket gets marked as such. Why not a house costing hundreds of thousands of dollars?

5. Buyers get cold feet.

Buyers are just plain scared, and who can blame them? They could lose their jobs, lose their medical coverage and get wiped out financially because of illness. Truth is, just about anything could happen -- to any of us.

Solution: There are many good reasons to buy a home and many good reasons to remain renting. Some of those reasons are financial, but many are not. Homeownership isn't for everybody, but if it is for you, take the plunge. Talk to a financial adviser, a tax guy, your family, a shrink. Remember: Life is what happens while you are waiting for things to happen.

Also see:
Why Are So Many Real Estate Deals Falling Apart?
15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Fall to Record Low
Case-Shiller Index: 3 Reasons to Blow It Off
Video: All About Short Sales

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]]>bank-owned propertiesForeclosureshome-sellinghousing marketreal estate deals collapsereal-estateshort salesAnn Brenoff2011-08-11T07:00:00+00:00College Town Real Estate Investments Score High Markshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/10/college-town-real-estate-investments-score-high-marks/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/10/college-town-real-estate-investments-score-high-marks/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/10/college-town-real-estate-investments-score-high-marks/#commentsFiled under: , ,

college real estate

The closest thing to a sure bet in real estate may be going to college.

Investments in college towns -- places where the community is shaped by a university's presence -- have done well while other niches in the housing market have, for the most part, fallen off the Dean's List. It comes down to the basic law of supply and demand. College enrollments have increased while the supply of on-campus housing hasn't. More often, students are turning to off-campus options. And that's where you should be standing with your wallet ready to fill with rent checks.

How secure an investment is college housing stock? The default rate for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's student housing portfolio has been less than one-half of 1 percent -- outstanding given what's been going on in the rest of the housing market.

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Michael Zaransky, co-CEO of Prime Property Investors and author of "Profit by Investing in Student Housing: Cash In on the Campus Housing Shortage," says the formula to finding the best deals is simple. Take the number of students in a university and divide it by the number of on-campus beds. Start with the big universities that get a lot of applicants, the schools everyone wants to get into, Zaransky said.

Yes, you have to be willing to become a landlord, and some of your tenants may be frat boys majoring in Partying 101. But if you can get beyond that, there is money to be made.

A Steady Stream of Available Tenants

Zac Bissonnette, 22, a 2011 graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, agrees. He bought his first rental condo near campus at the end of his freshman year. While he intended to move into it, he realized that he could rent it out -- even hiring a management company to handle any problems -- and still be cash-flow positive. A year after he bought the first unit, he bought a second, larger condo that he shared with a friend whose rent helped cover the carrying costs.

"It's a smart investment," said Bissonnette, the author of "Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents." He added, "When was the last time you heard of a college or university spending money to build a new dorm?"

Zaransky says the key to the success of the student housing niche is that the tenants' ability to pay rent isn't tied to their having jobs. In most rental situations, renters leave when they lose or change jobs. A vacant apartment is a siphon hose to an owner's bank account. But when it comes to students, there is a steady stream of them; those who graduate in June are replaced with new faces in September. College enrollment has been up, no one is building new on-campus alternatives and, even in communities with rent control, the turnover is so rapid that the laws don't seem to curb rental income growth.

Where the Growth Is

Zaransky likes the sun states with high population growth: Florida, Texas, California. He says to stick with the top-tier marquee schools -- "the places where everybody wants to go." At some state universities, like the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, fewer than 10 percent of students live on campus.

His company is the largest off-campus landlord for Purdue, Notre Dame, the University of Tennessee and Florida State in Tallahassee.

According to a national study by Move, Inc., investors are expected to outnumber traditional homebuyers in their local markets by 3 to 1, and 56.5 percent plan to put their investments to work as rental properties.

"Local markets with universities or colleges can be an attractive option for many local real estate investors," said Move, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Steve Berkowitz. "Housing demand in college towns is generally high and vacancy rates are usually low. Combine the supply and demand ratio with rising admissions and the 5 percent rise in rental rates expected by the end of the year, and rental property in college towns can be a smart option for the right investor."

Also see:
How to Make Renting Off-Campus Pay
Off-Campus Rentals: Staying Safe in a College Town
Why Are So Many Real Estate Deals Falling Apart?

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]]>college town real estatecollege townsinvesting in college townsinvestment propertyNotre Dameoff-campus housingreal estate investmentrental propertystudent housingtop+10+real+estate+markets+in+college+townstop10realestatemarketsincollegetownsAnn Brenoff2011-08-10T06:30:00+00:00Why Are So Many Real Estate Deals Falling Apart?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/03/why-are-so-many-real-estate-deals-falling-apart/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/03/why-are-so-many-real-estate-deals-falling-apart/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/03/why-are-so-many-real-estate-deals-falling-apart/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

It's been hard enough just to find a buyer for your house. Now the challenge is to drag them across the finish line. Only two-thirds of opened escrows close on time and 16 percent of the deals fall apart without closing.

Of agents polled in June by the National Association of Realtors, one in six reported having a deal fall apart the previous month before it closed escrow. Previously, the number was one in 25.

Why the uptick? Buyers' remorse is cited among the top reasons, often disguised as displeasure with items that turn up in the inspections. Things that buyers would have overlooked in years or months past are now deal-busters, agents say. Bad economic news at the beginning of the month may have caused some buyer jitters, said the agents polled.

There are also issues on the financial side that raise agents' blood pressure: Lenders who won't approve mortgage loans, appraisals that come in lower than the agreed upon sales price, short sales that drag on so long that buyers fear the home's value has dropped further and get cold feet. A full 32 percent of buyers either cancelled their contracts or had to delay closing or renegotiate to a lower price because the appraisal came in lower than anticipated.

What was the conclusion of NAR's Realtors Confidence Index? The rental market has increased significantly and some sellers may chose to become landlords instead of dealing with the hassle of selling.

Also see:
Mortgage Interest Deduction: Housing Boon or Boondoggle?
Case-Shiller Index: 3 Reasons to Blow It Off
Bank of America Donating Foreclosed Homes

More on AOL Real Estate:
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Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate.

 

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]]>NARAnn Brenoff2011-08-03T14:51:00+00:00