Vanilla Ice hit with foreclosure action in PBC

January 13, 2012 03:45PM

The homeowners association in Wellington’s Versailles neighborhood has filed suit against former rapper Vanilla Ice claiming he owes $4,100 in assessments, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Ice, whose legal name is Robert Van Winkle, uses homes in the neighborhood for a home renovation television show that airs on the DIY Network. He said the assessment is related to replacing trees at a 5,000-square-foot home on Trianon Place that fell during Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

However, Van Winkle transferred the deed on the property to a Texas-based company in May, the same month he was originally hit with a $2,800 lien for the property. “I’m not linked to that house in any way shape or form,” he said.

Van Winkle owns several properties throughout Palm Beach County and claims to be “financially set.” In an interview with The Real Deal, he said he’s been involved in real estate since 1997 and has built a “good reputation” in the county. [Palm Beach Post]

http://www.imperialrealestategroup.com/

Today’s priciest new listing

969 S. Ocean Boulevard

The most expensive South Florida listing to hit the market today is a single-family home with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and three half-bathrooms at 969 South Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach that’s asking $19.5 million, according to Condo Vultures. The European-inspired, 11,469-square-foot home was built on a waterfront lot of 93,000 square feet in 2001 with 150 feet of ocean frontage. It’s listed by Candace Friis of the Corcoran Group. (Condo Vultures data includes condos and single-family listings in the main metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County that are newly listed. Listings are taken from the South Florida MLS.) — Adam Fusfeld

MANSIONS AT ACQUALINA

THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING PROJECT IN THE SUNNY ISLES BEACH NOW! 

Mansions at Acqualina will be one of the finest imperial boutique buildings in the world. The only two comparable are 15 Central Park West in NY and 1 Hyde Park in London. The brand new 47-story tower will contain some of the most opulent living spaces imaginable from Downsview custom kitchens, Ornare luxury closets, Crestron smart home to  Fendi Casa furniture  in the lobby and grounds.

These new Acqualina mansions will offer 79 villas purposely facing the ocean all over 4,000 sq.ft. Just as the Acqualina brand of condos has provided its residents with exclusive amenities, the Acqualina mansions are fierce rivals to many of the Miami condo properties. It will also have a 16,000 square foot, $40 million penthouse placed exquisitely on the top floor.

Colosseum palace up for sale in Rome

A Renaissance palace grafted onto the top of an ancient Roman theatre is up for sale in Rome for €32 million ($42 million).
Its asking price is thought to make it the most expensive property currently on sale in the Italian capital, and one of the most expensive in Europe.
The 11,000 sq ft property has frescoed staterooms, a ballroom, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a library, a dining room, a terrace, a separate penthouse and cellars.


The Palazzo Orsini is built on top of the still-standing stone and marble shell of the Theatre of Marcellus, dating from the 1st Century BC.
Source & Photos: Dailymail

by admin in Luxury Real Estate on 12th January 2012 |

Large investors enter single-family rental market

While multi-family rental apartments have been the darling of real estate investors for several months, some private equity firms are beginning to bet on single-family rentals, the Wall Street Journal reported.

California-based GI Partners, the firm that made big profits buying empty data centers after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, is investing $250 million in Waypoint Real Estate Group, a company that buys foreclosed homes and rents them out. Flush with funds, Waypoint may now expand beyond California to purchase foreclosed properties in South Florida and other hard-hit regions.

Though the idea of renting out foreclosed home has garnered much publicity, especially at the federal level, institutional investors have remained on the sidelines of the sector, because they lack the resources needed to manage thousands of scattered rental properties, the Journal said

“It’s all done by mom-and-pop owners,” said Colin Wiel, co-founder of Waypoint, which buys about six houses a day. “It’s the industry that nobody thinks about because no large companies have entered into it.” [WSJ]

Miami prices increase thanks to fall in distressed sales: Elliman

Source: Douglas Elliman Florida

Miami median home sale prices rose 10 percent as the share of distressed sales plummeted, according to a residential market report released today by Douglas Elliman Florida.

The median sales price in the fourth quarter was $165,000, unchanged from the third quarter of 2010 but up 10 percent from the sales price recorded during the same period in 2010. The average price per square-foot rose 13.2 percent from 2010, and 2.4 percent from the third quarter to $214.

The condominium market was responsible for much of the price appreciation, as median prices rose 16.8 percent to $146,000 year-over-year, far outpacing the 2.6 percent price gain for single-family houses, whose median sales price was $200,000.

Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel that prepared the report, attributed the increase in price to the fall in distressed sales, as lenders took their time with foreclosures in the wake of the robo-signing controversy.

Distressed sales comprised 51.1 percent of the market in the fourth quarter, compared to 60.4 percent in the prior-year quarter. Moreover, total distressed sales declined 20.5 percent over the last year. As a result, total number of sales fell 6.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to 4,568.

Removing distressed sales from the equation reveals far more modest price gains. The media non-distressed condo sold for $243,139, 5.1 percent greater than the price achieved in the fourth quarter of 2010, and 3.5 percent more than the third quarter. Non-distressed single-family home prices actually decreased 3.1 percent from the end of 2010 to $281,000, which was also 13.4 percent third-quarter prices.

Among Miami’s high-profile condominium market, the Miami Beach and Downtown Beach submarkets performed best. In Miami Beach the median sales price for a condominium was up 15.7 percent from the end of 2010 to $240,000, while Downtown Beach gained 12.4 percent to $100,000. — Adam Fusfeld

Miami’s office market is healthy despite onslaught of new inventory

From left: 1450 Brickell, 600 Brickell and the Wells Fargo Financial Center

Downtown Miami’s office market was healthy in the fourth quarter, according to a report released by Transwestern cited by GlobeSt.com.

About 40,000 square feet of space was absorbed in the Central Business District, yielding a vacancy rate of 22 percent. Rents were about $41.24 per square-foot for Class A space and $26.10 for Class B buildings.

The modest vacancy rate doesn’t reflect the strength of the market, according to Walter Byrd, a managing director with the firm. “Considering the additions of three new buildings in the last year and a half, [there was a] fairly moderate vacancy rate in Class A products,” he said, referring to 1450 Brickell Avenue, 600 Brickell Avenue and the Wells Fargo Financial Center. “If you were to remove the new product out of stats, the vacancy rate is very healthy for this market.”

As a whole, Miami-Dade county had an office vacancy rate of 23 percent for Class A and 22.1 percent for Class B space, with rental rates averaging $35.94 for the former and $24.07 for the latter.[GlobeSt]