National market report

New Orleans

An online auction for tax-adjudicated properties has generated concerns about gentrification in the Crescent City. The 1,700 properties put up for auction were turned over to the city for non-payment of taxes within the past five years, NOLA.com reported. The properties are a mix of abandoned homes and empty lots. The majority are in the city’s working class neighborhoods, some of which were flooded after Hurricane Katrina. While the auction was seen as a step in the right direction for neighborhoods with blighted houses and overgrown vacant lots, critics say at least some of the properties should be reserved for affordable housing. Housing prices in the city have skyrocketed, increasing 58 percent over the rate of inflation since 2000. If all 1,700 properties were purchased and developed, it would increase the residential property market by 1.5 percent. Another 1,300 adjudicated properties could go up for auction after the city works out property records issues.

Chicago

Blackstone Group is buying the nation’s second-tallest office building, Chicago’s Willis Tower. The private equity and real estate investment giant struck a deal valued at $1.3 billion for the 110-story tower, formerly known as the Sears tower, according to USA Today. That’s a record for an office tower outside of New York. The price works out to roughly $342 per square foot for the 3.8 million-square-foot building. The sellers include New York–based investors Joseph Chetrit and Joseph Moinian, along with American Landmark Properties of Illinois. The group paid a then-record $840 million for the tower in 2004. Blackstone plans to invest up to $150 million in the tower, according to the Wall Street Journal. The funds will go toward upgrading retail space and the tower’s observation deck, which pulled in about $25 million in admissions last year.

Dallas

More new rental units are under construction in the Dallas–Fort Worth area than anywhere else in the country. An industry report found that the apartment market contributes more than $25 billion per year to the local economy, the Dallas Morning News reported, including $2.4 billion from apartment development in 2013. The region’s job market is also getting a boost from an expanded rental industry, which supports 239,000 construction and operations-based jobs. The North Texas region, the report found, comes in fourth for having apartments with the highest economic total in the country. New York tops the list at $111.5 billion; Los Angeles at $63.1 billion; and Chicago at $29.8 billion.

Las Vegas

Price growth for existing homes in Las Vegas has slowed in the past few years, and industry pros are seeing a worrisome trend: Ignored, overpriced listings. The median sales price of single-family homes last month in Southern Nevada has climbed to $205,000, up 8 percent in the past year, the Las Vegas Sun reported. In February, 1,965 single-family homes sold, up 9.5 percent from January, but down 2 percent from the prior year. Meanwhile, the number of untouched listings was up 16 percent from February 2014, with 7,313 single-family homes for sale without offers. Investors had flocked to the region after the economy crashed when homes were cheap, but have been pulling back in recent months. Now, brokers say, sellers who were emboldened by the price run-up are asking too much.

Toluca Lake, California

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus’s childhood six-bedroom, seven-bath home is being listed for $5.995 million. The actress/singer’s Tuscan-style home, where she spent most of her childhood years, is 8,700 square feet and rests on a property of roughly 1 acre.

Seattle

The 1,522-square-foot home where Kurt Cobain spent his teenage years is on the market for $400,000. Homes in the area normally list much lower, at around $100,000, but the singer’s home is, as the listing states, “a once in a lifetime opportunity to own a piece of rock history.”

Bel-Air, Los Angeles

Mariah Carey and ex-husband Nick Cannon listed their 13,000-square-foot estate for $9 million. The three-acre, seven-bedroom and seven-fireplace property includes a home cinema, basketball court, putting green and pool with a mosaic with the letters “MCN” in the middle.

Atlanta

The modest home where John Mayer lived before he was famous was listed for $469,000. The 1,224-square-foot bungalow in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood, which dates to 1928, has a vintage fireplace, two bedrooms and one full bathroom. The guitarist occupied the digs when he was a doorman at a local club and worked at a Pier 1 store.