Genius Pads: The Doogie Howser of Industry Builds Massive Florida Manse

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, September 29, 2011, by Rob Bear

Photo: David Albers/Naples News

When Blake Whitesell, founder and CEO of the Whitesell Corporation died tragically of cancer, his 21-year-old son Neil took over the reigns of the private manufacturing company. Over the next 25 years, the young upstart has grown the business from humble beginnings to a profitable conglomerate, at least profitable enough to build the largest home in Collier County, Fla. The Naples megamanse, currently close to completion, measures 32,000 square feet on 1.56 acres and will include six bedrooms and ten total bathrooms.
· The BIG house: 32,000-square-foot home about to become Naples area's biggest [Naples News via Homes of the Rich]

View the original article here

Globe Trotting: Shigeru Ban Tapped to Design Massive Cardboard Cathedral

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, August 30, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Cardboard and earthquake-relief master Shigeru Ban has taken a break from selling off $11.5M NYC penthouses and is in the process of designing and building a temporary replacement for an 1864 Anglican cathedral that was demolished in the massive earthquake that struck New Zealand in February. The modernist architect plans to use 86 heavy-duty cardboard tubes, each weighing 1,100 pounds, to construct the roof; other components include a stained-glass window and a foundation made from shipping containers. When all is said and done, the 80-foot-tall church, aptly located in the town of Christchurch, will hold 700 people and cost $3.5M to build. However, Ban's doing the project pro bono; as he told The Telegraph, "a cardboard structure will stay in the minds of people forever—it is loved by them."

· Hermes Booth in Milan Uses Starchitect-Approved Cardboard [Curbed National]
· A Look at Shigeru Ban's Minimalist Shelter for Earthquake Victims [Curbed National]
· Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter House Penthouse Finally Sells for $11.455M [Curbed NY]
· New Christchurch cathedral to be built out of cardboard [The Telegraph via Gizmodo]

View the original article here

Politico Pads: Mitt Romney's California Getaway to See Massive Expansion

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, August 22, 2011, by Rob Bear

After the let down in the 2008 presidential primary, Mitt Romney sold some of his impressive residences—a 6,400-square-foot Colonial in Belmont, Mass. and a 9,500-square-foot Deer Valley, Utah spread—and purchased a modestly-sized 3,000-square-foot beach house in La Jolla, California. The property was not so modestly priced, however, and Romney paid $12M for the house and its half-acre lot. Now he's looking to expand accommodations on his slice of the SoCal coast. Plans are in the works to bulldoze the existing structure (above) and built a house that's almost four times the size: 11,062 square feet to be exact. According to the campaign, the Romneys "want to enlarge their two bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs."
· The Personal HQs of the 2012's GOP Presidential Hopefuls [Curbed National]
· Mitt Romney Looks To Expand $12 Million La Jolla, California Home [Huffington Post]

View the original article here

On the Market: Professional Gambler Takes A Loss on Massive Seaside Escape

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, April 18, 2011, by Rob Bear

Well it turns out the house doesn't always win, at least not for professional gambler Billy Walters. For a guy who regularly wins millions of dollars betting on sports—and claims never to have had a down year—Walters's luck runs out when it comes to real estate. He told the Wall Street Journal that he and his wife, Susan, have "lost money on every home we've bought and sold here," seven so far. His massive waterfront spread in Carlsbad, Calif. is currently on the market for $29M, and looks to continue that losing streak, as Walters ponied up more than that to acquire the land and build this dream house. Still, the 10,000-square-foot limestone beach house makes a strong case for itself, with 1.5 fenced acres, extensive landscaping, a home theater with stadium seating, two master suites, and, none-too-surprisingly, a poker room. The office, where Walters conducts most of his business, features an 85-inch flat screen TV to keep track of all the games. The Walters also still have a chance to make it to .500 in the game of real estate profit: the couple currently own seven more houses.

· A Wealthy Gambler's House Bet [WSJ]

View the original article here

Adventures With Weather: Massive Ice Sculpture is Just About as Big as One Man's House

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, March 7, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

We've got to hand it to proud Minnesota resident Roger Hanson. Instead of complaining about the weather in his fair state, he's turned lemons into lemonade a 65-foot-tall ice sculpture with the help of a snazzy at-home geothermal heating system. In November, Hanson erects structural poles; later, a computer system determines when the weather is so cold that any water sprayed onto the poles will freeze, thus "growing" the castle. It looks like his creation is about the width of his house, but luckily for Hanson there seems to be nary a NIMBY in sight. Comments on Hanson's official Winter Water Wonder page range from "Thank you for sharing your talent and your artistry with everyone" to "That is such a GREAT THING YOU ARE DOING!...When will you hit the 100 ft. mark and turn it into an amusement park?" Looks like that former Blue's Clues star who built a sorry little igloo in his Brooklyn backyard should get to work.

· Incredible Ice Castles Grown by a Minnesota Man Using Geothermal Heating System [Inhabitat via Gizmodo]
· Winter Water Wonder [official site]
· Former Blue's Clues Star Builds an Igloo in His Courtyard [Curbed National]

View the original article here

Celebrity Real Estate: Behold Tiger Woods's Massive Training and Workout Facility

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, February 1, 2011, by Sarah

Photo: Jeff Realty via Luxist

Aerial photos of golfer Tiger Woods's estate in Jupiter Island, Fla., surfaced in November, revealing a massive, newly complete compound with multiple outbuildings. Now, Luxist has pulled a closeup shot of the training facility; along with a personal golf course, it holds a 100-foot pool, a 60-foot diving pool, and a full-size tennis/basketball court. Oh, and a spa—which may be just the thing to help ol' Tiger finally get his groove back.

· A Glimpse at Where Tiger Trains [Luxist]
· This is Where Tiger Woods Will Likely "Where Someone Out" [Curbed National]

View the original article here

Massive Housing Data Dump Lends No Clarity

You would think that with barely a week left in 2010 we'd have a better idea of where we're headed in 2011, but a new round of data seem to have the experts more conflicted than ever.

Tom Merton | OJO Images | Getty Images

Home sales are weak, but improving, prices are weaker and flat to lower, inventories are pretty much unchanged in the face of a huge shadow inventory, and the foreclosures crisis threatens to get worse before it gets better.

The National Association of Realtors, at least their chief economist Lawrence Yun, claim that recovery is all about credit and jobs. If both improve, buyers will come back to the market in droves. Yun even claims that rising mortgage interest rates are less important than access to credit, and I think I agree, although I think there's a bit more to it than that.

In Tuesday's blog I discussed a slightly desperate letter from mortgage industry experts and economists to government leaders, begging for new standards to get credit flowing again. They seem to think credit is also one of the main barriers to recovery.

But home prices are more the talk at holiday parties right now. The Realtors reported today that prices were essentially flat nationwide in November, up just 0.4 percent, although other reports have shown them dipping again.

A survey of economists by MacroMarkets (Robert Shiller's organization of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index) found the vast majority see no home price appreciation in 2011 with a dimmer view than previous estimates on where we'll be even by the end of 2014—up just around 7 percent for the five year period.

On top of that Hovnanian [HOV  Loading...      ()   ] reported pretty lackluster results, and CEO Ara Hovnanian said the housing market remains, "quite challenging." The only "silver lining" he could find were some good land deals. This after the CEO of DR Horton [DHI  Loading...      ()   ] pretty much called the 2011 spring housing market hopeless.

It's important to remember, at this crossroads to the new year, that this is historically the slowest season for housing. Some data are seasonally adjusted, and some are not.

I think the uncertainty in the housing, and specifically the mortgage market right now, make predictions sketchy at best and dangerous at worst.

Questions? Comments?  document.write("");document.write("RealtyCheck"+"@"+"cnbc.com");document.write('');And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

View the original article here

Massive Unemployment: Mass Layoffs November 2010

The November release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Mass Layoff Report indicated a continued decline in large-scale layoffs with 1586 mass layoff events resulting in 152,816 initial unemployment claimants on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The BLS considers a mass layoff event to be a condition where there are at least fifty initial claims for unemployment insurance originating from a single employer over a period of five consecutive weeks.

Labels: economy, mass layoffs, unemployment

Copyright © 2010
PaperEconomy Blog - www.papereconomy.com
All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer

View the original article here