Articles for October 17th, 2008
Designer’s Choice Home Tour Less Than 12 Hours Away!!!
Tomorrow —- October 18, the Designers’ Choice Home Tour. Don’t miss the chance to see some of Dallas’ great design talent’s best work: Cole Smith, Bernbaum-Magadini, Robyn Menter and Richard Drummond Davis (this is their collaboration), Gary Riggs, and Tracy Rasor. Just check in at the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church at 10 am and be prepared to be inspired. Garry gussied up the $15 $17.9 million dollar Andrew Merrick spec home at 3500 Beverly I wrote about in D Magazine…. most talked about house in town and a must see. We’ll be bringing you a video but nothing beats the real thing in the flesh!
One House George And Laura Bush Are NOT Buying
Lee Trevino’s. Sorry to squelch those rumors out there, but I just heard from Mr. Trevino’s representative who stated emphatically there are no plans to sell their home to the President and Mrs. Bush or anybody. It is not on the market. Never say never, of course, if someone offered them the equivalent of a decent hedge fund I’m sure they would call the white-gloved movers (the best in town) at Curtis Customized Moving & Storage.
Spooky, Spooky
What’s really spooky is that the decorating has begun all over town. This is the home of our art director, Todd Johnson, whose partner loves to go all out for bewitching. I am enamoured with the scary, musical inflatable of the ghoul playing the organ — my husband will file for divorce if it shows up on our lawn. (Hmm, tempting.) Let us begin our commentary on Halloween 2008: who has the scariest, most ghastly, or tr-icky house of all? (Send pics to post!)
Friday House Porn: 4307 Woodcrest
Cooler weather, here’s a home you can snuggle up with…er, in. Listed by Rogers Healy and under $500K!
Oh Dear: Layoffs at Zillow
One of my fave companies – you guys hanging in there?
Unemployment Will Peak in November, 2009
Texas A&M Real Estate Center’s Dr. Mark Dotzour spoke to a crowd of 1,000 in Houston, at the national convention for Commercial Real Estate Women yesterday, and outlined what it will take to bring investors back into the market. Quickie take-away — unemployment will peak in November, 2009, about a year from now. Commercial real estate needs to hit the bunkers for about two years. Then, it’s Miller Time.
The Ritz Just Takes You Higher and Higher
With an exclusive publication just for Ritz-Carlton Club Members, those lucky flush few who own Ritz properties — full or fractional ownership — called Elevation, published with American Express Publishing Corp. Those are the same folks who produce Departures Magazine, free to American Express Platinum and Centurion (Black) card holders, but not available to the general public. In other words, the top 1/2 of the top 1 percent wealthy in America, folks with disposable income of half a million or more. The discern is this: if you are affluent, you have $125K to $249K in discretionary annual spending — super affluent, $250K to $499K, wealthy $500K, all this according to The Harrison Group, who presented this information last year at Luxury Portfolio.
Housing Starts Lowest In 17 Years
That’s the national news helping to squeeze the stock market today, but I say, why is that bad? Fewer homes for sale equals less inventory, this is a good thing to stabilize prices. Even Steve Brown agrees. And maybe next year, when Steve compares 2009 sales to 2008, those headlines won’t be quite so dramatic. Meantime, what agents are telling me is that every buyer is going in about 10% under asking price.
Even NAR Is Shunning Hummers
Even the National Association of Realtors is willing to acknowledge that big houses are inherently un-green or un-sustainable. Next month the NAR will introduce its new green certification for REALTORS and, somewhere in the very comprehensive curriculum, NAR comes right out and says that. You know, it’s all about efficiency, and a house that has rooms specifically devoted to one use (package wrapping comes to mind) is not particularly efficient. A lifestyle choice for sure, but not one that could be called sustainable.
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