Month: October 2021

Doreen Lofthouse with Fleetwood in Lancashire, England (Getty, Facebook) A cough is worth $56.3 million. At least that’s the case for the English town of Fleetwood, where Doreen Lofthouse, the late businesswoman who helped turn Fisherman’s Friend lozenges into a global brand, bequeathed a 41.1 million pound fortune to the Lancashire County community, the BBC…

The St. Paul skyline (Getty)   The free market has always determined how much renters in Minnesota’s Twin Cities have to pay each month for their homes, but this week voters there will decide if it is time for the government to step in. The Wall Street Journal reports ballot measures in both the capital…

Lumber prices are on the rise (iStock) Lumber prices are on the rise again as supply tightens, residential construction projects pick up, and the U.S. prepares to double a tariff on Canadian softwood. That means home prices will stay higher, Bloomberg reported, noting that lumber futures this week are about double pre-pandemic levels. Supply is…

The Alexandria mansion where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee lived as a child. (Realtor.com)   The childhood home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is on the market, but you wouldn’t know it if you read the real estate listing. Washingtonian Magazine first reported this week that advertising for the sale of the mansion in…

Photo Illustration of Jeff Bezos with a rendering of the space station (Getty, Orbital Reef) Jeff Bezos’ latest venture, a “mixed use business park,” won’t show up on LoopNet listings anytime soon. Bezos’ Blue Origin said this week that it plans to build what would undoubtedly be the most exclusive commercial space in the solar…

The planned Munger Residency Hall at UCSB (UCSB)   A well-respected Southern California architect has quit his post on the University of California, Santa Barbara’s design committee while tearing into plans for a new dormitory that he says packs students in like sardines and leaves them without a necessary amenity — windows. The Santa Barbara…

Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi with Caravaggio’s Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (Wikipedia) It isn’t the Sistine Chapel, but one ceiling mural in Italy is threatening to upend historical housing records. Villa Aurora in Rome has hit the market at $546 million. Artnet reports the high price tag on the home is largely owed to the…

Chinese authorities have a message for Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande: The buck stops with you. Chinese authorities issued a directive for him to use his personal wealth to help pay off some of the sprawling property developer’s debt, Bloomberg reported. The order came after Evergrande missed a coupon payment for a dollar…

Peggy and Mike Shanahan sold their Cherry Hills Village home (Getty) Former Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan just sold Denver’s priciest single-family home.. Shanahan and his wife, Peggy, sold their home in the wealthy suburb of Cherry Hills Village for $15.7 million, topping the prior record of just under $14 million set in 2008,…

The housing market has risen from the dead since its scary crash, and zombie properties that once littered the landscape will be hard to find this Halloween — other than those decorated for the occasion. Zombie properties — homes that are both vacant and in foreclosure — are on the decline across the country as…