Florida’s foreclosure woes are so bad that one in every 360 homes received a foreclosure filing in December; the state boasts nearly 25,000 foreclosed homes, so many, in fact, that bold-faced names such as O.J. Simpson, pro football player Santana Moss, and Burt Reynolds have all faced repossession. Fun times! Despite Florida’s frowny face—and certainly because of the state’s cheap inventory—a new study of about 100M properties conducted by real estate search engine Trulia shows that many people want to move there. Of the 10 metro areas that online house hunters showed the greatest interest in, seven are Floridian, including Palm Bay/Melbourne/Titusville and Cape Coral/Fort Myers. Additionally, out-of-towners show an active interest in Miami—of those scouting the city, one-third came from more than 500 miles away. As Stefanos Chen at AOL Real Estate puts it, “Couple steep discounts with snowbirds’ perennial quest for sunnier, happier places to live, and Florida’s dominance in the report makes perfect sense.” Below, find a chart detailing where demand among online house hunters is strongest. Click to expand! · Out-of-Towners Covet Florida Real Estate, Locals Scratch Heads [AOL Real Estate] · Trulia [official site] · All Foreclosures coverage [Curbed National]
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Market Watch: Lots and Lots of People Want to Move to Florida, Apparently
East Coast restaurant emperor Stephen Starr has his 6,000-square-foot Philly townhouse up for sale for $2.5M. Included: a roof deck, a Zen garden, and a kitchen designed by “opulently function” local architect and designer Joanne Hudson. [Curbed Philly]
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Buy Stephen Starr’s Place: East Coast restaurant emperor Stephen Starr…
Neighborhood NIMBYs are about to get a new tool in their arsenal. DNAinfo reports that the New York State Liquor Authority is getting ready to launch an interactive map this month that will let you see what your local bars have been up to (along with any bar in the State). Better than having to file a FOIL-request just to find out if anyone else has been whining about that noisy bar on the block! [ more › ]
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New SLA Map Hopes To Make Tracking "Bad" Bars Easier
What does Newt Gingrich’s 12% win over Mitt Romney in South Carolina mean? Even if Gingrich doesn’t have Romney’s war chest and organization for Florida’s primary on the 31st, his momentum is snowballing in the state’s print media, and this morning Romney admitted he made a mistake in declining to release his tax returns, and said he will make them available on Tuesday. “We made a mistake in holding off as long as we did,” the candidate told FOX News, noting that he pays a “substantial” amount of taxes. Still Gingrich can point out that in terms of percentage, he pays double what a member of the 0.01% does. [ more › ]
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After Massive Gingrich Win, Romney Promises To Release Tax Returns
NJ Governor Chris Christie discussed the ” New Jersey Comeback ” during his State of the State today and seemingly laid the cornerstone to his 2016 campaign : He announced that he wanted 10 percent tax reductions for all Garden State residents. [ more › ]
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Totally Running In 2016: Chris Christie Proposes 10% Tax Cuts
Awww: Samantha Garvey, the Long Island teen whose story of academic success amid family difficulty inspired many , may be headed to Washington D.C. for the State of the Union Address. Rep. Steve Israel invited Garvey to be his guest; he told Newsday , “The State of the Union attracts the most powerful people on Earth, but I really think Samantha can teach them all a lesson in perseverance.” [ more › ]
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Homeless Teen Scholar Invited To State Of The Union Address
Click here to view the full photogallery. Photos courtesy of Garden & Gun Inside the January issue of Garden & Gun: a lengthy feature on Texas-based and Texas-born architects Ted Flato and David Lake, whose credits include the AT&T Center (the San Antonio Spurs’ home court), buildings for the University of Texas and Arizona State, and personal commissions for clients such as Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and actor Tommy Lee Jones. It was for Jones whom the pair built three horse barns around the state, each in their signature “Air Barn” style—open, nearly wall-less deviations from the more traditional enclosed, center-hall variety. “The thing is that I really hate ugly barns, and I’m pretty fussy about my plows, my tractor, and my horses,” Jones told reporter Guy Martin. ” A barn is a place where I live, and I want it to work, and be strong and beautiful. Ted and his people understood that better than anybody.” (At one point, Jones also said this point-blank: “Ted Flato builds the best damn barns in the country.”) The Garden & Gun piece makes clear that these guys don’t have one particular architectural philosophy, but rather aim to combine elements of their Texas roots (the ubiquitous use of steel, for instance, which is ripely available in the state) with modern creature comforts. “We thought that the old buildings in Texas did all the right things,” Flato says. “They were all built before air-conditioning, and they held so many lessons. A lot of the early architecture we did was for clients who wanted houses in the country, where we could say, okay, what you need out here is more porch than house. So we started putting in dogtrots to catch the breeze and cupolas to provide a natural chimney effect to get rid of the heat, and big rolling doors that opened rooms to the out-of-doors.” Read the full story over at Garden & Gun or browse some selections from Lake/Flato work above. · Catching the Breeze [Garden & Gun] · Lake/Flato [official site]
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The Printed Page: Architect Who "Builds the Best Damn Barns in the Country”
A possible Federal foreclosures-to-rentals program is the topic du jour over on the Wall Street Journal’s Developments column today. According to the Federal Reserve, there are 60 metro areas where bank-owned properties might successfully be converted into rentals, including Atlanta (5,000 units), Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, L.A., and Riverside, Calif. [WSJ]
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Foreclosure Wire: A possible Federal foreclosures-to-rentals program is…
Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We’d love to see what you’ve got. Click here to view the full photogallery. Location: Osterville, Mass. Price: $17,000,000 The Skinny: When we last picked a waterfront estate in Osterville for House of the Day, it turned out the 26-acre compound was owned by none other than Bunny Mellon, the 101-year-old heiress, philanthropist, and somehow-reclusive socialite. That place was restrained, despite the acreage, and boasted gardens designed by the green-thumb owner herself. This one, not so much. Sure, there are just nine acres, but the house itself is a 13,800-square-foot shingled behemoth built in the 1880s, with ten bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. The $17M compound includes a guest house, caretaker’s cottage, and a pavilion that encloses a generously-sized swimming pool. A dock accesses a sheltered body of water, but the barrier island makes for a shallow draft. Too bad, hedge funder, that huge yacht will have to go in the nearby marina. · Magnificent 9 Acre Waterfront Estate [Sotheby's] · Epic 26-Acre Cape Cod Estate Goes to Market for Almost $30M [Curbed National]
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House of the Day: Superlative Cape Cod Estate That Doesn’t Belong to a Mellon
That dirtiest building trend of them all— McMansion —is alive and well, despite reports that Americans want to downsize. In certain metro areas (Tampa, Houston), low prices-per-square-foot make building big worth it despite the fact that “they aren’t likely to win any design awards.” Luckily, furniture is growing too. [Chicago Tribune via Curbed Chicago ; previously ]
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