National market report: TRD’s roundup of real estate news from across the U.S.

Seattle
Seattle

Seattle

Seattle developer R.C. Hedreen has announced plans to build the largest convention hotel north of San Francisco, Seattlepi.com reported. Set to open in early 2017, the downtown Seattle project will feature 1,500 hotel rooms and 150,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space, plus 150 units of affordable housing and some 40,000 square feet of retail space. The 43-story tower will take over a space currently occupied by a Greyhound bus station. Some 97 conventions were unable to meet in Seattle last year due to date availability or capacity constraints at available venues, according to Seattlepi.com.

Chicago

Chicago saw an uptick in luxury sales in 2012, including the record-breaking sale of a $15 million penthouse at Park Tower, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chicago saw 713 home sales over $1 million in 2012, according to a Coldwell Banker market report cited by the Journal, and the highest number of homes priced over $5 million since the boom. And current listings on the market in the Windy City are setting the price point even higher: A penthouse at Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago is currently on sale for $32 million, and an estate in Winnetka is listed for $21.9 million. But Chicago’s luxury market is still not back to boom-time highs in sales volume, in part because of low inventory in sought-after areas like Lincoln Park and Gold Coast. Unit sales were down 41 percent in 2012 compared to five years prior, and dollar volume was down 38 percent. Despite that, the fourth quarter of 2012 was very busy as highly motivated sellers tried to close deals prior to Jan. 1 when existing tax cuts were set to expire. One such deal, which closed on Dec. 31, was the sale of an 18-room lakefront mansion in Winnetka for $12.25 million, one of the single highest-priced residential sales in Chicago-area history.

Houston

The historic Humble Oil Building complex in downtown Houston has been sold for $79.5 million in an off-market transaction, Commercial Property Executive reported. RLJ Lodging Trust, a real estate investment trust backed by BET cable network founder Robert Johnson, purchased the three-building complex, which includes the 1.2 million-square-foot George R. Brown Convention Center. RLJ plans to convert a residential tower on the property to a 166-room SpringHill Suites hotel. Plans for a 1,000-room Marriott Marquis that will connect to the convention center are also in the works. The complex, which housed the original headquarters of the Humble Oil and Refining Company, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and all of its buildings were built before 1940. Construction of the new hotel is expected to be completed in mid-2015.

Las Vegas

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New home sales in Las Vegas rose 65 percent year-over-year through December 2012 and home prices were up 15 percent, Business Insider reported, leading some experts to suggest that a new housing bubble may be in the works. In the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area, where the median home sale price is now $165,000, the spike in prices may be due in part to the decline of foreclosures since the state of Nevada instituted a foreclosure fraud law in 2011. Las Vegas had 29,454 foreclosure sales in 2012, down 38 percent from 2011. Developers have also been paying more for land in the area. At the end of 2012, land in the Las Vegas area was selling for $175,000 to $185,000 per acre, Business Insider reported. By February, the price had risen to $250,000 to $275,000 per acre.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles Radio personality Casey Kasem has listed his Holmby Hills mansion for $42 million, Curbed.com reported. The 12,000-square-foot home, purchased in 1989 for $1.72 million, has 17 bathrooms, a hair salon, an “English-style” library and a heart-shaped pool.

Chicago

Despite attempts by preservationists to save the building, a boyhood home of President Ronald Reagan in Hyde Park was demolished last month, CBS reported. The young Reagan lived in the apartment building at 832 East 57th Street with his parents from 1914 to 1915, but spent much of his childhood in Dixon, Ill. The University of Chicago, which now owns the Hyde Park building, said it had no immediate plans to redevelop the property.

Malibu 

Malibu Director Judd Apatow and his wife, actress Leslie Mann, paid $10.82 million for a 2,550-square-foot beachfront house in the exclusive Malibu enclave of Carbon Beach, Realtor.com reported. The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house was once the home of late “Pretty Woman” producer Laura Ziskin.