National market report

Washington, D.C.

The unlikely team of Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels Corp. will build a 413-room, dual-branded hotel at The Wharf, a $2 billion mixed-use waterfront development in Washington. Dual-branded hotel properties are not rare, the Washington Business Journal noted, but what’s unique about The Wharf is that competitors will share the space. The partnership combines Hilton’s new “accessible-lifestyle” brand, Canopy, with an extended-stay Hyatt House. The 120,000-square-foot, 175-room Canopy and the 145,000 square-foot, 238-room Hyatt House are both slated to open in fall 2017  as part of The Wharf’s first phase. The separate buildings will be connected by a common area to include 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space, and will share some amenities, including fitness facilities, a pool, a courtyard and a rooftop bar with views of the Washington Channel, which parallels the Potomac River. Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, The Wharf’s master developer, has signed on for a third hotel, the luxury Wharf Intercontinental from Carr Hospitality and Intercontinental Hotels Group, also slated to open in 2017. The development will also include a yacht club and marina, a multipurpose entertainment and cultural venue, a waterfront park, more than 100,000 square feet of retail across multiple parcels, several office buildings and residential towers.

Los Angeles

White-collar businesses are ditching their offices for more informal creative spaces traditionally sought by tech and entertainment firms, and vice versa. “The lines are getting blurred between the two tenant types and office types,” Petra Durnin, regional research director for Cushman & Wakefield, told the Los Angeles Times. The numbers show expanding firms gobbled up office space across greater Los Angeles in the second quarter, a sign the post-recession office recovery is spreading. Overall, vacancy in the county was 15.4 percent in the three months ended June 30, down from 17.7 percent a year ago. Tech firms that used to seek office space in Westside neighborhoods like Hollywood and Santa Monica are now looking for space further inland, even downtown L.A., an area with high vacancy rates for decades. Landlords there, emboldened by new retail and apartments, have raised rents by 6.25 percent in the past year.

Home prices in Dallas are among the fastest rising in the country.

Dallas

It’s getting a lot more expensive to live in Dallas. Prices were up 8.4 percent from a year before, almost double the national average gain of 4.4 percent in May, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index found. The city trails only Denver and San Francisco, where prices rose 10 and 9.7 percent, respectively, over the last year. Home prices in north Texas are at record levels, about 20 percent above their 2007 peak, the Dallas Morning News reported. At $220,000, the median price of a home in Dallas is 10 percent higher than the statewide level, with only Austin commanding a higher median price. But compared to the rest of the country, most of Texas remains a housing bargain, in terms of price and availability. An influx of non-energy industries in the Dallas area has kept its economy booming, despite a slowdown in the energy sector.

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia real estate market had its best quarter in a decade this spring, with the average value of a single-family home climbing 7.3 percent from the 2015 first quarter. That’s the largest quarterly price rise since in the second quarter of 2005, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The median price for a home in the City of Brotherly Love was $186,600, up 18 percent from the prior quarter and 20 percent from a year ago. “I have not seen a boom like this in the entire time that I’ve been here,” said Alan Greenberger, deputy mayor for economic development, who has lived in the city for 41 years. One broker said,  “It has been absolutely insane.” Greenberger told the Philadelphia Business Journal he expects the boom to continue for five to 10 years, as millennials and other urban-minded buyers scoop up the city’s affordable homes. But prices are already creeping skyward, as buyers take advantage of still-low interest rates and new first-time-buyers programs in a market with limited inventory.

New construction is going up in many Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Hawaii

Rumor has it President Barack Obama may buy the “Magnum, P.I.” house in his home state of Hawaii. Built in 1933, the three-acre estate dubbed “Robin’s Nest” outside of Honolulu features five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms and a four-car garage, along with a boat house, a bath house, tennis courts and a 500-foot-long beach. There’s speculation Obama and his family may retreat to the $3.7 million home once his term ends.

Los Angeles

Pop legend Madonna’s former home is back on the market, two years after she sold it for $19.5 million. The 5,800-square-foot French country mansion in Beverly Hills is priced at $27.995 million. Situated on 1.14 private acres, the recently remodeled mansion features nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, guesthouses, a gym, a tennis court, a full-size theater and a resort-size pool.

The L.A. offi ce market recovery is spreading to downtown and other areas.

Los Angeles

Johnny Galecki of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Roseanne” fame bought a $9.2 million vintage villa previously owned by action movie star Jason Statham and comedian Ben Stiller. The lavish compound, built in 1929, has kept many of its Jazz Age features, including period fixtures and  Spanish-tiled stairs that wind down to a tree-shaded pool. The six-bedroom, six-bath mansion also has a wood-paneled home theater.

Detroit

The former home of Motown Record founder Berry Gordy Jr. is on the market for $1.3 million. The legendary songwriter and producer purchased the 10,500-square-foot mansion in 1967, back when he was signing such acts as The Temptations and Marvin Gaye. He owned it until 2002 and it is now among the highest-priced homes in Detroit. The Italian Renaissance Revival house has five bedrooms, nine baths, four fireplaces and an Olympic-size swimming pool.