Luxury in Balance, Energy Retrofits, and There’s an App
This week’s Top of the TweetsBy Camilla McLaughlin
On the cusp of galactic travel? Your spaceships awaits. “My whole generation grew up anticipating the day space travel would be possible, and it is now drawing near,” says Richard Branson in a blog post about the Farnborough International Air Show, where Virgin Galactic unveiled its full-scale Space Ship Two replica. http://bit.ly/NDJA6I
Luxury in balance! Positives about improving sales, home values and owner equity continue to pile up, but real estate is still a local game, which means some places fare better sooner in the recovery. Certainly this is true with luxury sales, which began to show improvement long before the market in general. Metro Vancouver’s luxury sales dropped below 2011 record numbers but 2012 is still on pace to be the second best every for luxury home sales. @RealtyMKTNG and others tweet the link to this story in the Vancouver Sun. http://t.co/Dwwp2XiD “Luxury Homebuying Turns Up As Wealthy Spot Value” tweets Investor’s Business Daily @IBD in a story highlighting high-end havens Florida, Beverly Hills and D.C., where the supply of homes on the market is getting thin. http://t.co/YGq0MtPM via @IBDinvestors Palo Alto sellers are getting an average of 103 percent of their asking price compared to 99 percent a year ago says, @TweetwithMaha. http://t.co/gzQEBBfm Chicago luxury buyers are once again out in force in this market, and some buyers are amazed to find they are not the only ones bidding, according to @BrittariveraVEN http://t.co/dvrSd4RV Other places where sales — and in some instances, prices — are up include Detroit and Denver. DataQuick reports sales in all Orange County beach towns were up 39 percent over a year ago and prices are up by 5 percent. Some ZIP codes report as much as a 31-percent increase in prices.
This year, Unique Homes is taking an in-depth look at international real estate. Our Fall issue will focus on Europe. London’s luxury market prices are up as much as 10 percent in 2012 with the Olympic Games driving international demand and an additional boost coming from Euro zone unrest, according to a recent report from Engel & Völkers. Tip of the tweets hat to Michael Gerrity @WorldPropertyCH. http://bit.ly/Lm55Je
Expect energy retrofits in commercial buildings to nearby double in eight years, reports caelusgreenroom.com. http://t.co/AXVzIFc7 Thanks to @tgilbrea69, Anthony Gilbreath.
California is home to the top 20 luxury brands. http://t.co/zy34J7r9 Lots of wine merchants jumped on this news.
There’s an app for? Finding your way around the Smithsonian or any one of a number of museums just got easier thanks to Google’s indoor maps app on Android. Google recently added 20 new museums to the over 10,000 indoor maps, including several major airports as well as big name retailers like IKEA, in its database. @TechCrunch brings the story. http://tcrn.ch/Mrs7kg
Remember Reading Rainbow? It’s back, but as an iPAd app. Wired’s @GeekMom takes parents on a tour. http://bit.ly/MAfnoV
