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London mayor Sadiq Khan is to launch the UK’s most comprehensive inquiry into the impact of foreign investment flooding London’s housing market, amid growing fears about the scale of gentrification and spiralling housing costs in the capital.
Khan said there are “real concerns” about the surge in the number of homes being bought by overseas investors, adding that the inquiry would map the scale of the problem for the first time.
— the Guardian
In related news:As a new class of super rich investors displace the traditional elite, average Londoners are pushed further and further outside the city limitsOvercrowding on London's canalsTo live in London you can't be a LondonerLondon fails to achieve any targets for affordable housing View full entry
U.S. home resales unexpectedly fell in August, crimped by a shortage of inventory that is boosting home prices faster than the pace of wage growth.
The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales declined 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.33 million units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising 1.1 percent in August to a 5.45 million-unit pace.
— Reuters
July's sales pace was also revised lower to 5.38 million units from the previously reported 5.39 million units. However, despite sales being at their second-lowest pace of the year, home resales were still up 0.8 percent from one year ago.For more on the current state of the housing market in... View full entry
Are you looking for just the right home for you, your corpulent husband, spoiled son, and abused nephew of mysterious provenance? Just can’t find the right-sized cupboard-under-the-stairs? Now you’re in luck: the 3-bedroom detached house used as the set of Harry Potter’s childhood home has... View full entry
There is something romantic about the idea of a holdout, a David to the big developer's Goliath, a protagonist for whom home matters more than money, a solitary survivor. In the Pixar movie "Up," the holdout is the hero. In the real-life Seattle version of the story that reportedly inspired the film's premise, an elderly woman who refused to sell her home became — along with her home itself — a city icon. — washingtonpost.com
In practice, though, modern cities grow out of older ones in large part through the unglamorous process of parcel assembly — of fitting together the once-smaller pieces of the city, "Tetris"-like. And while the result often produces fantastically bizarre neighbors, cities can't... View full entry
The McMansion style, built between 2001 and 2007 and averaging 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, lacks the appeal with today's buyers compared to old vintage homes or large freshly built homes.
The realization is especially hard on homeowners trying to sell because when they bought the giant homes in the early 2000s, they thought of them as great investments, Feinstein said.
Then, the idea was that bigger was better because prices presumably would keep going up.
— Chicago Tribune
Now, housing analysts say the day of the McMansion has come and gone. An analysis just completed by Trulia shows that the amount buyers are willing to pay for McMansions over other homes has fallen 26 percent in just four years. As homes in general have been regaining value, McMansions have been... View full entry
Los Angeles-based developer CIM Group has agreed to buy Tribune Tower for up to $240 million, marking the end of media ownership for the historic North Michigan Avenue building and the beginning of a new chapter, likely as part of a mixed-use redevelopment. [...]
Tribune Media unveiled conceptual plans last year to redevelop the parcel, adding several buildings to maximize the space with residential, retail and hotel components.
— chicagotribune.com
The Tribune Tower sale previously in the Archinect news: Chicago Tribune Tower inches closer to hotel & residential redevelopment View full entry
Los Angeles, where homes sell for a median price of $475,000, has an overall Walk Score of 66.3. Each additional walkability point adds an average of $3,948, or a 0.83% bump, to the sale price. [...]
Pedestrian access adds the most proportional value to homes in cities such as Atlanta, where the overall score is 48.4 and revitalization efforts are starting to open up more community gathering hubs. A single-point upgrade to an Atlanta home’s Walk Score boosts the sale price 1.69% on average.
— latimes.com
More on the relationship between pedestrianism and the market:Jan Gehl: "Never ask what the city can do for your building, always ask what your building can do for the city."Locals welcome The 606, a.k.a. Chicago's "High Line", but anxiety for its future remainsStockholm's Vision Zero offers... View full entry
You’ve always wanted to call Brooklyn home. But it’s complicated. You’re not really the pioneering type. Brooklyn can be rough around the edges. Amenities are lacking. We understand. Industrial-chic finishes are important in life. So are 25-year tax abatements. And European-style, car-sized parking turntables. — failedarchitecture.com
Failed Architecture takes a closer look at Brooklyn's wildly sprouting 'developer architecture':Photographs by Cameron Blaylock. Find many more examples of subtle contextualism over on failedarchitecture.com. Related stories in the Archinect news:5 myths about gentrification, according to a... View full entry
Whatever canvas he is given, whether it's a highly constrained urban lot or a sweeping New Mexico landscape, Tadao Ando rarely falters. Cerro Pelon Ranch, the two compounds he designed for former architectural student turned fashion maven/filmmaker Tom Ford, is no exception. Enormous... View full entry
If you’re looking for some exceptional LA office space, you’re in luck. The Neutra Institute Museum in Silver Lake, Los Angeles—formerly known as the Neutra Office Building—is leasing 160 square feet in the front of the building for $1,200 a month to a “sympathetic Neutra fan/tenant”... View full entry
It’s not a new argument to say that cities are increasingly morphing from social configurations to investment vehicles. [...]
“Self-builds”, “Baugruppen”, and “zelfbouw” are just a few ways to define variations of building-it-yourself (BIY), whether done individually or as a collective. The end users (who are the commissioners), together with architects, decide on the design of their homes, and then take care of the construction themselves or have contractors do it.
— failedarchitecture.com
Related stories on Archinect:It's the Culture, Stupid: curatorial statement for the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, from executive director George BrugmansReinhold Martin hosts contentious 'House Housing' panel, provoking discussion on inequality, real estate and architectureHalfway... View full entry
"House Housing; An Untimely History of Architecture and Real Estate", a globally touring exhibit, has finally arrived in its place of conception, New York City. After first appearing at the 2014 Venice Biennale, “House Housing” has popped up in Chicago, Berlin and Los Angeles. The exhibit... View full entry
[Google and LinkedIn] announced a large, surprising property swap encompassing over three million square feet of existing and future real estate...
From Google, LinkedIn is picking up seven buildings...In return, Google is getting LinkedIn’s Mountain View headquarters office and...four different surrounding properties that enable Google to follow through on its ambitious plan for a new, green, crazy-futurist campus.
— recode
Following an unsuccessful bid last year, this is good news for Google as they continue to push toward making their dream campus a reality. Unleash the “crabots”.Previously on Archinect:Archinect Sessions Episode #19: Don't be Evil, Don't Throw StonesGoogle loses to LinkedIn in Silicon Valley... View full entry
Brokers say the very top of the market — consisting of eight- and nine-figure homes — is faring the worst as slowing economies overseas and volatile stock markets have spooked buyers. The supply of homes for the rich exploded as builders aimed at the high end after the financial crisis. — NYT
Robert Frank highlights a worrisome pileup in the overinflated; luxury housing, megamansions and penthouse market. View full entry
Of the four houses Frank Lloyd Wright built in New Jersey, the first and largest was the 2,000-square-foot James B. Christie House, which dates to 1940. Wright built the home on seven acres of secluded woodland and employed his Usonian principles of simplicity and practically that connect to nature. After selling in 2014 to a private buyer for $1.7 million, the Christie House is now on the market for $2.2 million after receiving a new roof and heating system. — 6sqft.com
