Thread: Rich are running out of mansions to buy

Rich are running out of mansions to buy

Robert Frank CNBC

3 hours ago
Sotheby's International Realty - Palm Beach Brokerage
There are fewer mansions available in the richest areas of the country, but this mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. is available for a cool $34.9 million.

While housing inventory is falling throughout the country, it's falling especially fast in some of the country's richest ZIP codes. A study from Altos Research, the Mountain View, Calif., real estate research firm, found that inventory in the nation's 90 wealthiest ZIP codes fell 15 percent over the past year, slightly faster than the broader market.

In those areas, inventory is down more than 50 percent. In a swanky part of Carmel, Calif., inventory fell 76 percent in the last year. There were only four homes left on the market priced at $1 million or more as of the end of May, according to Altos.
In Palm Beach, Fla., the number of $1 million-plus homes has plunged by 70 percent, falling from 89 to 26. And in the Old Greenwich, Conn. ZIP code, there are only 10 homes left priced at $1 million or more, down 58 percent, according to Altos.
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"I don't recall seeing the market like this, and it's come so quickly," said Cristina Condon of Sotheby's International Real Estate in Palm Beach. She said buyers have poured into the market in recent months, many from overseas. American buyers are also piling in—some from higher-tax states like California, lured by low taxes and still-low prices in Florida.
Condon said one of her listings that sold in the past year is an $11.3 million property on the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida that had six bedrooms, two baths, and Tuscan-inspired gardens, along with a pool and a boat dock.
Interest in her remaining listings remains strong. She cited strong interest in a $34.9 million lakefront estate in Palm Beach as an example. The 13,278-square-foot mansion has 7 bedrooms, 8 baths, a sprawling pool overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway with outdoor loggias.
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In Connecticut, some $1 million-plus homes are selling just days after being listed. David Oglivy of David Oglivy & Associates in Greenwich said he had a listing at $1.38 million that sold in just two days. He said the home was viewed 14 times.
"The Old Greenwich market right now is just super hot," he said. About half the buyers are people moving within Greenwich and others are moving from New York City and other areas, he said.
While some Realtors worry that shrinking inventories could crimp future sales, Oglivy says he's not worried.
"The inventory is fine," he said, adding that luxury inventories in the broader Greenwich area remain higher.
Carmel and Pebble Beach, Calif., have seen a rush of buyers from Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia. But the number of new, high-end listings has been limited.
"We are seeing an influx of luxury second home buyers coming into the market including venture capitalists, tech money, oil and gas, developers and CEO's," said Tim Allen, of Tim Allen Properties in Pebble Beach.
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Pebble Beach and Carmel have seen a total of 106 sales in the past four months—well above the previous four months. A 3,000 square-foot ocean-front home in Carmel sold for $16.5 million this year, which marked a new record for Carmel.
A home in Pebble Beach sold for $22.5 million, though the new owners plan to remodel. Allen said that an added factor in the high end of the real-estate market is that sellers are under less financial pressure to sell, which leads to less inventory. He said inventories remain healthy, with some high-end neighborhoods still filled with "for sale" signs, but some enclaves are selling out fast.
"These sellers can hold on until they see prices where they want," Allen said. "In some of these areas, all it takes is five buyers and you can sell out."

http://www.today.com/money/rich-are-running-out-mansions-buy-6C10312259

Malibu is awash in expensive beach homes for sale Only deep-pocketed potential buyers get to see listings that include a $57.5-million estate designed by Frank Gehry and a $24-million mansion by Gerard Colcord.

At $57.5 million, the most expensive Malibu listing now in the Multiple Listing Service is the Frank Gehry-designed Borman estate set on more than an acre. The home, custom-built in 1989, has a gym, wine cellar and a loft. (Nick Springett / June 13, 2013)

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• Broad Beach Road, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Malibu, CA 90265, USA
  
  By Lauren Beale, Los Angeles TimesJune 13, 2013, 7:32 p.m.
  
  
  It's the battle of the big-bucks beaches.
  Malibu's celebrity-studded Broad Beach appears to be engaged in a throw down of sorts with billionaire bastion Carbon Beach to the east. Several properties have come on the market within the last month that will require diamond-encrusted pocketbooks to purchase.
  At $57.5 million, the most expensive Malibu listing now in the Multiple Listing Service is the Frank Gehry-designed Borman estate set on more than an acre. The site has 160 feet of Broad Beach frontage, an ocean-view tennis court, a lap pool and a spa. A steppingstone path through lawn leads to the sand.
  PHOTOS: Malibu estate
  The 11,413-square-foot, two-story home, custom built in 1989, features a gym, a wine cellar, a loft, five fireplaces, a sauna, six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
  Owner Burton Borman, who died last year at 85, was the former chief executive of insurance company PennCorp Financial Inc. A tennis lover, he commissioned Gehry to design the beach house. Among Gehry's credits are Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
  "There is a fan club of people who really appreciate Gehry," said co-listing agent Jeffrey Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christie's International Real Estate. He has sold two other Gehry properties. "Like many great artists, some of their earlier work is the best they've done."
  Broad Beach offers an alternative to those who have been crowded out of Carbon Beach by Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison.
  The Bay Area billionaire has bought nearly two dozen properties in the beach community over the last decade, with nearly half of them along Carbon Beach. His crowning purchase was a three-structure copper-roofed compound bought last year for $37 million from former Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel and his wife, Jane.
  The $75-million sale earlier this year of a 9.5-acre bluff property owned by billionaire money manager Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management is the highest sale on record in Malibu.
  Carbon Beach has the advantage of being closer to town than Broad Beach, but it also has a steady stream of traffic buzzing by on busy Pacific Coast Highway. Broad is out of earshot of the street traffic, so crashing waves make up the background noise. Those same waves, however, have contributed to sand erosion, and beach restoration is underway.
  Although Carbon has an impressive list of residents ranked on Forbes magazine's richest-people list, Broad Beach has a history of celebrity owners, including Jack Lemmon, Carroll O'Connor and Whoopi Goldberg.
  "Broad Beach has always been a quiet celebrity place," said Jack Pritchett of Pritchett-Rapf & Associates, who shares the Gehry listing. Gated Malibu Colony is the other celebrity hub. "The lots on Broad Beach, in general, are a little bit larger than in the Colony."
  Those failing to make the short list to view the Modern-style Gehry mansion may qualify for a peek at a nearby Gerard Colcord-designed beach house priced at $24 million that Pritchett has listed.
  The Cape Cod-inspired manse sits on more than three-quarters of an acre and has 100 feet of beach frontage. The 4,833 square feet of living space contain four fireplaces, a sunroom, an office, four bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. There's also a gazebo, a spa and a guesthouse.
  Deep-pocketed do-it-yourselfers can pick up a more than one-acre Broad Beach site with 120 feet of sandy frontage for $29.5 million. The parcel comes with a building permit for a 10,000-square-foot compound with eight bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, a pool with a spa, a paddle tennis court, a theater and an office.
  lauren.beale@latimes.com
  
  http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-malibu-beach-battle-20130614,0,7249284.story