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While American single-family home prices have continued to rise in the midst of the pandemic, and we mere mortals hit “fave” on six-digit Zillow listings we’ll never afford, the rich are getting richer—and that includes celebrities who shell out millions on megamansions, an unofficial term traditionally used for any home over 10,000 square feet, and sometimes limited to those over 20,000. — VICE
Writing for VICE, Ashley Spencer dives into the history of the garishly large homes of America's 0.1 percent. View full entry
Less than a decade after a spate of record-breaking condo towers reached new heights in New York, the first reports of defects and complaints are beginning to emerge, raising concerns that some of the construction methods and materials used have not lived up to the engineering breakthroughs that only recently enabled 1,000-foot-high trophy apartments. — The New York Times
The New York Times on complaints about substantial "leaks, creaks, breaks" in NYC's preeminent supertall ultraluxury condo tower, and briefly also tallest residential building in the world, 432 Park Avenue. Previously: Rafael Viñoly admits 432 Park ‘has a couple of screw-ups’Central Park... View full entry
Beijing and Los Angeles-based MAD Architects has released photography of the firm's Gardenhouse house project, an 18-unit luxury residential development located in Los Angeles that offers "a rebuttal to the stereotypical cubic-box living environments of high-density cities across the world,"... View full entry
The number of vacant apartment buildings in Manhattan continues to grow as the effects of a recent construction boom and the COVID-19 crisis converge within the city's real estate market. CNBC reports that the number of apartments for rent, or listing inventory "more than doubled... View full entry
Miami's new 62-story luxury residential tower One Thousand Museum is now officially completed with the issuance of its certificate of occupancy from the local building department this week. The property opened for sale of its 84 units last year July when it received a temporary CofO. Vertical... View full entry
Renzo Piano Building Workshop recently celebrated the completion of Eighty Seven Park, the firm's first residential building in Miami. Designed for developers Terra and Bizzi & Partners Development, the 200-foot-tall condo tower made headlines in 2018 when the 18th-floor, six-bedroom... View full entry
Developers SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America may be forced, under a recent New York State Supreme Court ruling, to tear down the top 20 stories of a nearly-completed 56-story luxury residential skyscraper in New York City designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects. The New... View full entry
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, has purchased a Beverly Hills mansion known as the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen for $165 million, a source familiar with the deal said on Wednesday. — Reuters
The hefty price tag of the new abode for Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sánchez is believed to be the highest amount ever paid for a home in the Los Angeles area — even beating the recent record-setting transaction of Bel Air's Chartwell mansion which sold for a meager $150 million. The... View full entry
Chinese investors sold off billions more in U.S. commercial property last year than they bought, as other foreigners start to sour on the U.S. market as well.
Foreign investors were net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate last year for the first time since 2012, posing a fresh setback for a market that is already showing signs of strain.
— The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal reports that foreign investors sold $20 billion more in real estate than they bought last year as a number of international economic trends, including Brexit and an ongoing effort by the Chinese government to bring investment back home, converge to make the American real... View full entry
One Thousand Museum, first-and-only residential tower designed by the late Zaha Hadid in the Western Hemisphere, makes its debut in Miami's Museum Park this week. The residential tower stands prominently alongside neighboring condo towers and other notable Miami structures like the... View full entry
Manhattan is glutted with even more luxury condos than most apartment-shoppers realize. [...]
The secret supply is a heavy weight on a market in which sales, especially of higher-end properties, have slowed to a crawl. It would take take 74 months -- more than 6 years -- to clear all of Manhattan’s unsold units at the pace of contracts in 2019, the report shows.
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg on how a vast "shadow inventory" of nearly 6,000 recently completed units puts added stress on Manhattan's slowing real estate market, especially in the higher-end segment. Related: Condo-boom hangover: More than a quarter of NYC's new units remain unsold View full entry
[...] sobering reality of selling a “starchitect”-designed home: They might have gotten what they paid for in their house’s dramatic lines, luxurious materials, and prestigious pedigree, but when it comes time to sell, the market is often unforgiving. — Bloomberg
Bloomberg on the challenging business of selling luxury homes, custom-designed for their initial owners by famous architects, including a few properties in the U.S. by Rafael Viñoly, Steven Holl, Annabelle Selldorf, and Pritzker Prize laureate Tadao Ando. Related: Does owning a Frank Lloyd Wright... View full entry
There were highs and lows for New York real estate this year. Sales records were broken, but the overall market hit the brakes, even as mortgage rates stayed low. Design took center stage in many new developments, and Hudson Yards opened to great fanfare. — The New York Times
The New York Times takes a look back at the 2019 real estate highlights in the nation's biggest city. The roundup features a number of property stories that were also published (and some hotly debated) on Archinect, including the recently opened, Robert A.M. Stern-designed 220 Central Park... View full entry
Some know it as “The Beverly Hillbillies” mansion, others as Chartwell. Now, it has a new name: California’s chart-topper.
The Bel-Air residence of late media mogul A. Jerrold Perenchio has sold for the highest price in California history, about $150 million. The buyer is Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and co-chairman of publishing company News Corp., The Times has confirmed.
— Los Angeles Times
The spacious estate at 875 Nimes Road in Bel Air, also known as "The Beverly Hillbillies" mansion from the 1960s TV show, finally changed owners for an undisclosed amount, which sources familiar with the deal told the LA Times, was around $150 million. While the deal would easily beat the previous... View full entry
Debuting his first residential building in the U.S., the London-based designer has released more visuals for the site-specific sculptural glass lobby pavilion within the Lantern House. Aimed at merging sculptural forms with a homely appeal, Heatherwick and his team intend for the lobby of... View full entry
