Top of the Tweets: A luxury snapshot and James Patterson
By Camilla McLaughlin
Sometimes, after they are gathered together, snippets posted on Twitter provide a great snapshot of luxury. This was one of those weeks. Arizona, Denver, and the Silicon valley are all showing a jump in sales of $1 million plus homes. The Denver Business Journal reports area luxury home sales jumped 62 percent, according to data from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. The amount of time it takes to sell a luxury home in Denver is also inching down to 122 days in May 2010 vs. 131 days in May 2009, and affluent sellers are getting an average of 93 percent of their asking price. California home prices jumped 20.9 percent in May. Foreign buyers with cash are plumping up sales in many markets, including Vancouver, http://bit.ly/cmecVR
With 51 New York Times best sellers to his credit, James Patterson knows what it takes to create a winner. It seems he has a similar talent when it comes to picking real estate. This week, his Palm Beach home on Everglades Island sold for $10.3 million, double what he paid for it in 1999. Best known for his Alex Cross series, Patterson sticks with his winners. His new Palm Beach digs are next to an estate once owned by John Lennon. Check it out in this Palm Beach Post article, http://bit.ly/9P5zO1
The largest residential tower in the Western U.S., The Austonian (pictured), www.theaustonian.com, opened its doors to residents this week. Although the 56-story tower occupies just a third of a city block, it includes 178 luxury residences, multiple floors devoted to amenities, and is extremely energy efficient.
Chinese drywall problems are an ongoing theme on Twitter. Along with a noxious odor, the defective product has been linked to potential health problems and corrosion of plumbing, wiring and household products. Now the potential of redress may be in the offing for homeowners with this problem. Last week, a judge awarded a Florida couple, who had been forced out of their $1.6 milli0n dream home by the foul-smelling drywall, $2.5 million in damages. http://bit.ly/doWs22
Dads got their due last weekend with lots of heartfelt Tweets. An odd Father’s Day tweet from @BPGlobalPR, which is not BP at all, led me to posts about an independently organized TED event—TEDxOilSpill—to be held June 28 in Washington, D. C. The event will include first-hand reports from photographers and a videographer who are in the Gulf of Mexico this week to document effects on wildlife and local ecology. Check out the conversation and current images on http://tedxoilspill.com/expedition.
I got to see the spill first hand, but from a distance on a flight over the gulf on my way back from a press event in the British Virgin Islands. It’s hard to comprehend.
Tickets for the New York City Wine & Food Festival scheduled for October 7 to 10 went on sale June 21. Celebrity chefs include Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, and Masaharu Morimoto. Sponsors include The Corcoran Group. A few of the venues most in demand, including several kids cooking sessions with Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman, are already sold out, but quite a few are still available. http://bit.ly/bB8khx.
