Los Angeles
Los Angeles’ median home price exceeded $500,000 for the first time in seven years, in a strong sign of economic recovery. In May, Los Angeles County’s median home price reached $510,000 — up 67 percent from January 2012’s $305,000, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. Brokers and economists attribute the spike to the Westside tech boom, the return of cash-rich investors and the foreclosure crisis’ end. Although there are still 4,000-plus houses in L.A. owned by banks, in May 2011, 86,745 L.A. homes were either bank-owned or in the process of foreclosure, according to the New York Times. Despite the price spike, economists say L.A.’s housing market is not on the verge of another bubble. “We are not seeing the multidigit increases in pricing we saw last year,” Robert Foster told the paper. “We appear to be settling into a more normalized and sustainable rate of appreciation.”
Chicago
Developers secured an $84 million loan to finance the redevelopment of an iconic office tower on Michigan Avenue into a 450-room boutique hotel. Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group and New York-based Angelo Gordon & Co. partnered in a joint venture to convert the vintage 21-story office tower at 360 North Michigan Avenue and a neighboring parcel at 77 East Wacker Drive. Oxford and Angelo Gordon purchased the 90-year-old building in 2013 for $57 million. The developers acquired the loan from Bank of America to finance the massive construction project, which includes a major addition on the west side of the building, Crain’s reported. The hotel is one of at least five hotel developments underway along Michigan Avenue, a sign of the booming downtown hotel market, in which hotel occupancies and room rates are approaching pre-recession levels. The famous Chicago strip will soon also get the 156-room Hotel Indigo at 168 North Michigan Avenue, as well as an additional 250 rooms with the construction of the Virgin Hotel at 203 North Wabash Avenue.
Virginia
Virginia has established the “First-time Homebuyer Savings Plan” to address the steady decline in the number of first-time and young homebuyers in the market. The program makes it easier for families to allocate funds to cover the costs associated with first-time home purchases, by allowing future owners to earmark up to $50,000 in cash, investments or insurance policies toward their first home. Similar to a college savings plan, the program allows future homeowners to designate these funds, which are exempt from state taxes, within existing accounts and investments, the Washington Post reported. “What this [does is to] put money aside and let it grow without taxing the growth on the money,” Chip Dicks, legislative counsel for the Virginia Association of Realtors, told the Post. Dicks said that he hoped the legislation would also encourage “the mental discipline to save and invest.” However, money or investments in the plan cannot appreciate beyond $150,000, program sponsors said.
Atlanta
Atlanta’s Midtown district has an unprecedented number of residential projects in the pipeline. More than 5,700 residential units have been proposed in the city’s arts and entertainment district so far this year, with nearly 800 of those already under construction. By comparison, in 2013, fewer than 1,000 residential units were delivered, the Atlanta Business Journal reported. The majority of the units will fill more than a dozen mid-rise buildings along Peachtree Street, West Peachtree Street and Spring Street, as well as around the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s Piedmont Park and Technology Square stations. Among these projects, Novare Group plans to build a 400-unit residential tower with 11,500 square feet of retail space at 1163 West Peachtree Street, while a New York development team that includes Olympia Heights Management proposed a three-tower project with up to 1,300 residential units.
Beverly Hills
Jimmy Buffett dropped $8.25 million on a single-story, 4,322-square-foot estate. The four-bedroom, five-bath home, built in 1963, features glass walls with Pacific Ocean views. The singer-songwriter, whose net worth hovers around $400 million, also owns homes in Palm Beach, the Hamptons and St. Barts.
Los Angeles
Actor Neil Patrick Harris and his partner, actor David Burtka, listed their Sherman Oaks home for $2.995 million. The six-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath, 4,191-square-foot home features a built-in pizza oven and swimming pool. The “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” star purchased the home for $2.1 million four years ago.
Malibu
Model Cindy Crawford and her husband, restaurateur Rande Gerber, bought a four-bedroom, four-bath home in Point Dume for $6 million. The 1958 ranch-style house, which is just a few doors down from Julia Roberts’s home, is one of only four parcels with deeded beach rights, Celebdigs reported. The couple plans to raze the house and erect a more modern, larger home in its place.
Connecticut
Anderson Cooper and his partner, Benjamin Maisani, purchased a 10,127-square-foot Tudor revival in Litchfield, Connecticut. While there is no confirmation of the sale price, reports suggest that the CNN anchor spent between $5 million and $9 million on the home. The 10-bedroom, six full and three half-bath, 10,127 square-foot home was listed by previous owners for $8.495 million in 2009.