Memorial Day 2023

Happy Memorial Day!

• Miami-Dade County $1 million+ luxury home sales continued outperforming pre-pandemic levels as total median sale prices rose again as the market leads in real estate appreciation, according to April 2023 statistics released by the MIAMI Association of Realtors/MLS system. Miami single-family home sales decreased 19.7% year-over-year, and existing condo sales decreased 44.4% year-over-year both due to lack of inventory and rising mortgage rates. Prices rose 6.2%. (Realty Biz news)

• A record price was paid for Chicago’s St. Regis hotel ……about $134 million, the city’s biggest hotel sale in years….and comes close to setting a Chicago record for the price per room it paid for the 192-key hotel, around $700,000 per room. The first 11 floors house some of Chicago’s most expensive condominiums. (CRAINS)

• Montana is the first US State to ban TikTok…..although its expected this will be contested in the courts. (CNBC)

• California is building an electric train that will connect Los Angeles with the Central Valley and then San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes. 15 years later, there is not a single mile of the 382-mile of track laid, and executives involved say there isn’t enough money to finish the project. Estimates suggest it will cost between $88 billion and $128 billion to complete the entire system from LA to San Francisco. Meanwhile, construction of the 506-mile, $13.5 billion Zhengzhou East-Wangzhou line in China was completed in less than 5 years…..(CNN/CNBC)

• What are clients seeking most from their architects as they design the structures of tomorrow?

  • Health. 63%

  • Resilience 30%

  • Equity 27%

  • Zero Carbon 19%. (Building Design + Construction)

• “The older I get, the more I realise it’s not about the building but about the city.” – Lord Norman Foster, Pritzker prize-winning architect. Also the most affluent architect in the world.

• Sales of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) have fallen off a cliff: total CMBS issuance in Q1 2023 hit the lowest level since 2010, a trend that has spilled over into the month of April. The share of commercial mortgage securities with office exposure is down 19% from an average of 32% over the past 3 years. This fall has been offset by an increase in loans with retail and industrial exposure, which have firmer fundamentals. (Goldman Sachs)

PROPERTY PROZAC

Depression is serious: this is mental health awareness month. If you or anyone you know suffers from depression, I urge you to seek professional help. This story is meant purely as semi-humorous: I have a friend who suffers from depression. Thankfully she laughs at herself sometimes when her perspective on things transcends darkness into dark humor….although sometimes it can take a few days/weeks for her to see the humor in her Woody-Allen-esque New Yorkey neurosis. The other day she said something that truly resonated: she said money can’t buy happiness….. but it can help to create a beautiful home and living environment. She has exquisite tastes. And her homes are rather divine. She said that of all the things in her life a beautiful home has been immeasurably valuable to her and her mood. Recently she moved from a beautiful pre-war apartment into a modern one with walls of windows with views and light. She decorated it wonderfully. She said it has delivered a really meaningful respite from the craziness of Manhattan, a sanctuary of calm with the kind of esthetics that are both satisfying and calming, a true oasis in the midst of an urban jungle. It makes her HAPPY. A beautiful home is especially meaningful to those who appreciate aesthetics, however even those who are not aesthetically obsessed are beneficiaries of beautiful aesthetics while they may not be as conscious about this….

While homes are materialistic possessions (if you own one), and yes, there are other very important aspects to being happy/content, we should never underestimate the intense levels of satisfaction they can deliver. Homes are the canvas of life. Homes are a sanctuary to the storm of life. Yes, they provide an essential need, but they deliver the one aspect to luxury marketing that keeps growing in importance ……COMFORT!

4 BD | 3 BA | 2,605 SF | 0.46 AC | 150mountaincanyonpl.com

4209 Nottingham Dr., Danville| Offered at $2,298,800

4 BD | 3 BA | 3,542 SF | 0.15 AC | 4104whisperingoaksln.com

141 Larkwood Cir., Danville | Offered at $1,495,800

4 BD | 2 BA | 2,035 SF | 0.54 AC | 141larkwoodcirc.om

2020 Victorine Rd., Livermore| Offered at $14,998,800

5 BD | 5 Full 2 Half BA | 8,144 SF | 107 AC | 2020victorine.com

4 BD + Study | 3 BA | 2,756 SF | 0.28 AC | 90wildoakct.com

5 BD | 5.5 BA | 6,112 SF | 0.37 AC | 6142massarast.com

6 BD | 5.5 BA | 6342 SF | 0.84 AC | 201sridgect.com

MAIN HOUSE – 5 BD | 4.5 BA | 5,423 SF

9 bd | 8.5 ba | 8903 sf | 7.81 ac

5 bd | 4.5 ba | 4059 sf | 0.60 ac | 176diabloranch.com