Top of the Tweets
Part of the job at Unique Homes is keeping our fingers on the pulse of luxury. I added Twitter to my tool box awhile ago and find it’s a great way to keep tabs on what people are talking about. Additionally, Twitter often brings the overlooked story, the interesting tidbit, to the surface. The challenge is filtering through the overload of information.
So a story making the rounds on Twitter this week resonated immediately with me. According to a recent study published by Oxford University Press social networking sites might open the door to new relationships, but our brains have yet to adapt and can still only handle about 150 meaningful friendships.
Last week, real estate was dominated with Tweets on the 16 percent dive in existing home sales in December, the largest monthly drop in 40 years, followed by stats released mid-week on the decline in new home sales. Obscured in the hubbub — existing home sales are still up by 15 percent in 2009 over 2008 and prices in December continued to edge up.
Lost in the shuffle, too, were reports on improving conditions in quite a few local markets. Sales in the Hamptons were up by 55.4 percent in the fourth quarter and according to the International Property Journal prices doubled over the decade. I also saw tweets on improving sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Data Quick, @DQNews, reports a continued upswing in sales in December in the Bay Area and in southern California.
Under luxury, one of the most Tweeted was a report on the surge of tax free luxury spending by Chinese tourists in France in 2009, an increase of 47 percent in 2009 over 2008, and an unexpected fall in spending from Russian tourists. The story originally ran in The China Post.
Celebrity homes always generate interest especially if they are distressed sales that close within days of going on the market, as a bank owned property, formerly owned by Nicholas Cage, did last week. Also tweeted was the sale of a former Michael Jackson residence in Las Vegas for a $3.1 million in cash. At 16,461 square feet, it is even larger than Cage’s manse.
And, just in case you’re wondering, turquoise is the color of the year according to Pantone reported by @BHGRE_Sherry, Sherry Chris of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.
—Camilla McLaughlin
photo courtesy Twitter
