Top of the Tweets: Superyachts, Olympics and Steig Larsson
How green is Al Gore? That was the question of the week for Twitterers speculating on the former vice president’s new $9 million oceanfront villa in Montecito. To Gore’s credit, he greened up his Nashville property after similar speculation so it is probably safe to wager the new property will be a candidate for an efficiency upgrade.
Housing stats got a lot of play once again as the homebuyer tax credit continued to rack in positive numbers. Connecticut, Florida, Southern California are only a few of the places showing gains.
Pluses for luxury include reports on an uptick in buyers in a number of locations. Another interesting positive, according to a report in the New York Post, was a pending deal for the Olsen twins’ West Village condo for $8.45 million. The price is slightly above the $1,450-per-square-foot average for the building. According to the Post, this signals renewed interest in luxury in Manhattan.
An article from USA Today, “Second homes: High Luxury has a high price in Beverly Hills” was retweeted a lot this week. It’s a market those of us at Unique Homes know well. The article does give a good overview of prices in Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Holmby Hills.
The World Superyachts Awards were held this week in London. Arkley (pictured), a 60-meter motor yacht built by Lürssen (www.lurssen.com) and designed by Espen Oeino (www.espenoeino.com), won the Motor Yacht of the Year Award (http://bit.ly/acLYjC) and Hanuman, Jim Clarke’s 42-meter J-Class yacht built by Royal Huisman (www.royalhuisman.com) and designed by Dykstra & Partners (www.gdnp.nl), won Sailing Yacht of the Year. More yachting news from @boatint includes the sale of the superyacht Skylge by Ocean Independence. A number of the winners, including the Arkley, are available for charter this summer.
Strategic defaults —underwater homeowners opting to walk away from mortgages — add to the number of foreclosures. Still, according to Housing Wire (@HousingWire), a recent survey finds 59 percent of homeowners would not consider strategic default.
Journalists know lists always score big with readers. This week saw an unusually large number of “best” and “most of” lists including the top 10 metros for medium price growth (http://is.gd/c4WRN) and 10 healthiest and safest metros. Thanks to @imadnaffa for these links.
Planning on the London Olympics? The entire city is expected to have Wi-Fi by the games. “Every lamp post and every bus stop will be Wi-Fi enabled” promised the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, at a Google Zeitgeist event in Hertfordshire. http://retwt.me/1NdfW
Two other great articles last week included a Boston Globe story about a student who managed to lie his way into Harvard. Check out what bloggers have to say on it at http://bit.ly/9qEfMj. Steig Larsson fans who couldn’t get a European copy of his new book were counting down the hours till the American release; the New York Times had a great story on the hornet’s nest that is his estate. http://nyti.ms/bzo7wv
