Well, That Market’s Going Away
A report from NBC Bay Area in California. “Hillsborough’s most recognizable piece of real estate is now up for rent on Airbnb. The Airbnb listing on Friday shows the so-called ‘Flintstone House,’ a 2,730-square-foot home at 45 Berryessa Way, can be rented for $750 a night. The property was listed on the market for just over a year. In September 2015, the home was up for sale for $4.2 million. This past summer, the price dropped to $3.2 million. According to Redfin, the last sold price was $800,000 in 1996. Listing agent Judy Meuschke gave NBC Bay Area an exclusive tour of the home in September 2015. ‘We felt that’s a pretty good price for a landmark,’ Meuschke said of the $4.2 million asking price at the time.”
The Idaho Statesman. “A year ago, Boise developer David Hale planned on building townhouses priced at more than $400,000 on Idaho Street. The project stalled when Hale struggled to presell the homes. So Hale said he scaled down the homes, settling on 1,500-square-foot townhouses with two bedrooms and bathrooms starting at $329,900. He broke ground this week on a nine-townhouse building and plans to build a second six-townhouse building on the site. ‘I was originally going after a modern, industrial warehouse type product that you see in larger cities,’ Hale said. ‘It’s a product we don’t have in Boise yet. Boise wasn’t ready for it.’”
“The site is in the North Boise area of the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service, where the median price for a single-family home was $353,200 in September.”
From 9 News in Colorado. “Re/Max CEO Dave Liniger spoke with a small group of journalists Friday morning at Re/Max world headquarters. Q: ‘Is there something builders could be doing to catch up?’”
“A: ‘What ended up happening was that the apartment markets became very frothy. And they can make just as much money building a 100-unit apartment complex as they can building 40 or 50 single family houses…What’s happened now though is the apartment markets are peaking, and so builders are saying, ‘well, that market’s going away.’”
The Boston Herald in Massachusetts. “A national real estate developer is putting off plans for the glittering, 52-story Copley Place luxury high-rise thanks to an influx of high-end housing in Boston and rising construction costs, a move some say could be a sign the luxury tower market has hit its peak in the Hub. ‘Costs are too high and there’s too much supply,’ said David Contis, president of Simon Malls. ‘We’re going to wait for the market to moderate, and then we’ll go back and re-evaluate.’”
“Copley Tower was to join a slate of planned and current high-end residential towers, which are rapidly changing the skyline and demographics across the city’s downtown, including several planned for the Back Bay. High-rises including the Millenium Tower, Waterside Place and Seaport Square have opened in recent years, with even more proposed in recent months.”
“The decision to put off the plans could mean Boston is close to its limit on luxury housing, according to Greg Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. ‘If there really was a market and they thought there was a market, I think they’d pursue the project,’ Vasil said.”
From Jersey Digs on New Jersey. “Lesson: featuring a property on a mildly successful reality show will not necessarily make it easier to sell. Rapper-turned-actor Ice-T and his model-turned-reality star wife Coco have had a very tough time unloading their 2,000 square-foot penthouse condo in New Bergen. The couple originally purchased the home in 2005 for $1.5 million and reportedly spent $300,000 on upgrades over the past decade.”
“Then last year, they listed the two-bedroom condo, located in the Mirabelle On The Hudson Complex overlooking Manhattan, for $1.2 million. As we reported this past April, they then had to slash the price to $1.098 million. But it wasn’t until yet another price drop that the two were finally able to find a buyer. Now listed at $888,000, the home finally has a pending offer, though it comes with digesting a massive loss.”
