Sales, cityscapes and roasting marshmallows
This week’s Top of the TweetsBy Camilla McLaughlin
Real estate conversations were dominated by responses to the post-tax-credit drop in home sales. While many Tweets showed surprise, those of us who watch the industry expected an adjustment, although the decrease—26 percent from a year earlier and 27 percent from June—was more than most anticipated. Luxury continued its steady upward climb with sales of homes priced at $1 million and up increasing by 6 percent. Early in the week, a report by home search site Trulia on American’s changing home preferences got a lot of play. Only 9 percent of those surveyed say their ideal home size is more than 3,200 square feet. A majority, 55 percent, say between 1,401 and 2600 is ideal. The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing added a luxury take on these results. There has long been a segment of the market looking for “small luxury,” particularly with modernist homes. We also saw a luxury downsizing trend that started to appear toward the end of the recent boom. http://bit.ly/a5AnfH
Inman News is always full of good tips, including this week’s ways to look at prospective neighborhoods. Thanks to @CorcoranHomes for the Tweet. http://bit.ly/bWqtgk
Landscape architects remake cities. Landscape architecture is no longer just about creating artful exterior room. “By tackling some of the most daunting problems of the city, landscape architects are rising to new prominence,” proclaims ArchitectureBoston in a recent issue developed to landscape architecture. “It’s astonishing to see how the profession has changed in just seven years — not only in terms of the kinds of projects that are gaining wide recognition, but also in terms of a new focus and a new energy,” said Elizabeth Padjen, editor of ArchitectureBoston in an introduction to a recent issue devoted to landscape architecture. @BSAAIA
How reliable is information on Twitter, particularly following a disaster? That’s the question researchers at Yahoo answered by analyzing tweets after the Chilean earthquake. What they found was that Twitter acts like a collaborative filter says @WSJ. http://bit.ly/bPxrkl
End of summer blues! What better way to close out summer than a campfire, especially because national Marshmallow Toasting Day is August 30. Smarter Travel came up with a list of the top campfire destinations in America. Yellowstone leads the top 10, followed by Cape Cod National Seashore and Chickasaw National Recreation Area, located roughly two hours from Dallas and from Oklahoma City. (Marshmallow photo by Nina Hale)
Surfing the net is a professional hazard for journalists, so the following quote resonated with me. “Being a good writer is 3 percent talent, 97 percent not being distracted by the internet.”-Anon via @quotes4writers.
