Unique Homes Blog

iPad news dominated but wasn’t the whole story this week.

The annual wealth report published by London-based Knight Frank and CitiPrivate Bank elicited a number of Tweets on the attitudes of wealthy consumers regarding residential real estate. Globally, these consumers see high-end residential real estate as one of the best asset classes to own, and properties account for the largest share of their portfolios.  Looking ahead, 71 percent think 2010 will be a good year for property.

Business Week published their list of the 50 most powerful people in real estate. With a mix of individuals culled from investors and developers, major home builders, real estate brokerages, lenders, industry organizations, government, economists and land owners, it’s not the typical “most powerful” list.  Interesting individuals included Ted Turner — who owns about 2 million acres, making him North America’s largest individual landowner; The Nature Conservancy, another large landowner; and Wen Jiabao, premier of the People’s Republic of China. This is the first time I can remember seeing the name of the head of a foreign power on the list of influential people in U S. real estate. The reasoning, according to Business Week: China is an important buyer of U.S. debt, including $895 billion in U.S. Treasury debt, and plays a major role in economic recovery. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/03/0323_powerful_real_estate_people/1.htm

The dance of yin vs. yang, positives vs. negatives, continued to play out in 140-character blurbs. On one hand, there were a number of Tweets about fears of a potential double-dip recession as well as a creep in interest rates, while others continued to Tweet on the rise in prices in a number of markets. More positives on prices came from Tweets on the most recent Case Shiller index, which we blogged about last week.

My favorite observation comes from Prudential’s @ReallyEarlLee: “Where the recession is easing: DC, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, Denver, San Antonio, Boston, LA and Kansas City. Watch RE move next”

I am also finding Twitter is a great way to stay abreast of the latest surveys. Usually anything related to housing gets my attention, but this week I also found an interesting study reported in the New York Times on the efficacy of counting sheep as a remedy for insomnia. Researchers at Oxford studied different groups of insomniacs who had been given different instructions. Those counting sheep actually took longer to fall asleep than those envisioning a relaxing image.

Luxury perk of the week? The world’s most expensive walk-in safe designed by Karl Lagerfeld. Along with 1,600 pounds of steel-bodied, chrome-plated aluminum, this safe can be fully customized with watch winders, jewelry drawers or special compartments for whatever you value. Thanks @themoment.

—Camilla McLaughlin

Add this to your social network: