Month: December 2017

Los Angeles housing (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay) The median price for a home in Southern California jumped 8.6 percent in November compared to the same time last year, matching the all-time high of $505,000 only seen twice before. The median price hit that figure in September, tying the record set in July 2007, just before…

Sea level rise caused by global warming is usually cast as a doomsday scenario that will play out so far into the future, it’s easy to ignore. Just ask anyone in South Florida, where new construction proceeds apace. Yet already, more than 90 coastal communities in the United States are battling chronic flooding, meaning the…

Clockwise from top: 3620 Sweetwater Mesa, 900 Stradella Road, and 1187 Hillcrest Road La La Land would be nothing if it wasn’t for its notorious traffic jams, ubiquitous palm trees and, of course, ridiculously expensive estates. This year’s list of top residential sales lacked the $100 million double-whammy that led the way in 2016, but…

Matt and Josh Altman (Credit: Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons) UPDATED, 8:00 p.m., Dec. 27: “Million Dollar Listing” stars Josh and Matt Altman are continually serving up the drama, both on and off the screen. The brothers are being sued for $3.7 million for allegedly misguiding Hilton & Hyland’s client, Peter Kleidman, into selling his home…

Jerome Powell From TRD New York: Real estate executives are keeping an anxious eye on the Federal Reserve, but maybe they shouldn’t. Conventional wisdom holds that when the central bank raises short-term rates, long-term rates also rise, which pushes up the cost of mortgages and puts downward pressure on property prices. But recently this didn’t seem…

Don Henley and the 17-acre mountain ridge in Laurel Canyon (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps) It’s great place to take in a Tequila Sunrise. Preservation groups and hundreds of donors that included Eagles member Don Henley paid $1.6 million for a 17-acre mountain ridge in Laurel Canyon. The group, which includes the Laurel Canyon Association…

From TRD New York: Selling or buying a home can be a grueling process, and the months-long relationship between agent and client can lead to a friendship. So after closing a deal, some brokers want to leave their clients with more than just a celebratory bottle of champagne. Douglas Elliman broker Jason Walker, for instance, gifted…

First Republic’s Michael Roffler (Credit: LinkedIn, iStock) From TRD Miami: The GOP tax plan could put a squeeze on the market for jumbo mortgages, which banks have been leaning on more heavily since the financial crisis. Jumbo mortgages are loans that are too big to sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In most parts…

9460 Wilshire, with CIM Group principal and founder Shaul Kuba (Credit: Cushman & Wakefield) CIM Group is in hard contract to purchase the Union Bank of California building in Beverly Hills for roughly $130 million, The Real Deal has learned. The deal is expected to close in January 2018 at roughly $1,340 per square foot,…