In this month’s LUXURYLETTER, (www.luxuryletter.com) it was reported that Manhattan’s real estate pricing and activity picked up notably over the same period last year. Because LUXURYLETTER addresses the luxury market over $ 1 million, the figures are somewhat different to what is being widely reported…. The other reports that came out from the major real… [Read More]
NEW HABITS OF THE WEALTHY BUYER
The majority of wealthy investors rely on their own expertise over the advice of wealth managers, according to a new survey, which will come as a fresh blow to an industry still reeling from massive outflows of client money. Real estate group Knight Frank and US-based Citi Private Bank asked high-net-worth respondents to their 2010… [Read More]
RETAIL UP 0.3%! A REFLECTION ON REAL ESTATE?
Led by a big gain in electronics, U.S. retail sales increased 0.3% to a seasonally-adjusted $355.5 billion in February, despite three major snow storms in the East, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. Sales have risen in four of the past five months, and were up 3.9% compared with a year earlier. Most categories of retailers… [Read More]
16% MORE MILLIONAIRES IN 2009
The millionaires’ club in the United States grew by 16 percent in 2009, following a 27 percent decline in 2008. Families with a net worth of at least $1 million, excluding primary residences, rose to 7.8 million in 2009, an increase from 6.7 million a year earlier, according to a survey of high-net-worth U.S. households… [Read More]
CORPORATION + PRIVATE CASH SAVINGS UNLEASHED
This morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that one year removed from the trough of the recession, American corporations continue to hoard more cash than ever. There are now tentative signs that they are finally comfortable using the money to do some shopping. The 382 nonfinancial firms in the Standard & Poor’s 500 that have… [Read More]
BUFFET TALKS REAL ESTATE
Billionaire Warren Buffett said the U.S. residential real estate slump will end by about 2011, predicting that’s how long it will take demand for homes to catch up with the supply. “Within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely be behind us,” Buffett wrote Feb. 27 in his annual letter to shareholders of… [Read More]
ENCOURAGING SIGNS? IS LUXURY MANHATTAN REAL ESTATE ‘HOUSING’?
Today, reports came out on home groundbreaking. (Am I the only one annoyed at how figures are constantly ‘revised’?) So December’s figures were slightly inaccurate….why? And why the month-by-month-drama-queen reporting? I am a firm believer in watching pricing on a month by month basis, but it ceases to amaze me how many people formulate world-shattering conclusions from… [Read More]