Top of the Tweets
From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, there was more than love and snow in the air last week.
With the opening of the Olympics, Vancouver was a trending topic even for real estate. Once again, the city topped the annual survey of the world’s most livable cities conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. One of the top tweets for luxury real estate was driven by this headline, “Foreign buyers drive luxury real estate in Vancouver,” from the National Post. Luxury sales in the second half of 2009 in Vancouver almost doubled over 2008. Asian buyers, including a number from mainland China, account for a large portion of these sales. Other buyers hail from U.S., Europe, Australia and Russia.
Monday morning’s hot topics included mogul meister Alexander Bilodeau who won Canada’s first gold in the 2010 Olympics.
Lost in the Olympic reports but surfacing in the Tweetosphere was the battle for international sports’ oldest trophy, the America’s Cup. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp, and BMW Oracle Racing team brought the trophy back to the U. S., wining the 33rd America’s Cup race on Sunday.
Positive foreclosure news generated a flurry of real estate tweets. This week, Realty Trac reported a 10 percent decline in foreclosures in January over December. Good news after last year’s record high! On the rise though are defaults in prime jumbo loans according to @ilhm’s blog citing a report by Fitch ratings which showed the number of serious delinquencies at 10 percent.
Sales increase in Miami and other cities. In Las Vegas, luxury sales in January were up by 50 percent over January 2009. Significant price reductions mean great opportunities for buyers. While there was talk about bubbles in London, @HousingWire reports on a Zillow warning there may be a “double dip” in prices in five major markets including Boston, Atlanta and San Diego. However, the decline will be nothing like the earlier downturn.
Construction starts rise. Expect to see an upswing in residential construction in Florida, predicts a construction report from McGraw Hill, which projects an increase of 14 percent in home construction in Florida this year, although local analysts believe that projection is way off, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
For many, #snowmageddon was THE topic for the week, getting 1,431 tweets. Even Charleston, S.C., had snow and brought the following from The Post and Currier, @postandcourier: “Charleston Crab House says they’ll serve free snow crab–while it’s snowing.”
—Camilla McLaughlin
