Luxury Home

What  luxury buyers want and what they need may not go hand-in-hand, according to the closing panel at Westweek 2013 last week at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Looking at the question from the home-buying perspective on the closing panel at the design industry event were real estate agent Mauricio Umansky of the Agency in Beverly Hills and Malibu architect Douglas Burdge. Among the wants are view properties. Umansky said he even has one home listing where the garage has an “amazing city view.” Basements also are a draw among the wealthy.

What  luxury buyers want and what they need may not go hand-in-hand, according to the closing panel at Westweek 2013 last week at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Looking at the question from the home-buying perspective on the closing panel at the design industry event were real estate agent Mauricio Umansky of the Agency in Beverly Hills and Malibu architect Douglas Burdge. Among the wants are view properties. Umansky said he even has one home listing where the garage has an “amazing city view.” Basements also are a draw among the wealthy.

Even the rich love a deal. California homes priced at $1 million or more experienced a sales boom in 2010, the first increase in five years, even as overall home sales in the state declined, a real estate information service reported. The reason: High-end home shoppers went bargain hunting as certain parts of the economy improved but luxury home prices remained depressed. Last year, 22,529 homes sold statewide for $1 million-plus, a 21% increase from 2009, according to DataQuick Information Systems in San Diego.

From now on, when American Airlines executives visit London, they are going to have to check into a hotel, like most of us. That's because the airline, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy last year, notified the bankruptcy judge that it is selling a 5,242-square-foot house it owns in the Kensington district of London. After marketing the town house for four months, American Airlines has agreed to sell the property for $23 million to CG Property Nominees Limited, according to court records.

In a battle of the beach cities, Hermosa Beach was the big winner last year where median home prices were concerned and Malibu the biggest loser. But first appearances can be deceiving. Los Angeles County luxury communities that showed the most price gains last year were largely just regaining previously lost ground. Hermosa Beach 90254 was the big gainer with prices up 15.8% to a median of $1.1 million among ZIP Codes with medians above $1 million and where at least 50 existing single-family homes sold, according to DataQuick statistics.

Oscar-winning actress/singer SHIRLEY JONES and her husband, comedian MARTY INGELS, have purchased singer Janet Jackson's townhouse in the Brentwood development of Mountaingate. Jones, who appears Dec. 11 in concert at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, has made at least 20 films, including "Oklahoma" and "Elmer Gantry," for which she won her Oscar. Now 59, she starred during the 1970s in ABC's "The Partridge Family."

The luxury home market is getting a boost as the U.S. dollar falls relative to many foreign currencies. Leading the rush to buy in the United States were an estimated 18,000 Britons who purchased second homes in the U.S. in 2004, up 50% from 2003. "With the British pound worth nearly $2 -- $1.94 as of mid-December -- Brits view the U.S. housing market as having a two-for-one sale," said Laurie Moore-Moore, president of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

Disgraced former East German leader Erich Honecker will have to leave his luxury home by February so that it can be turned into a center for the handicapped, a government spokesman said today. Spokesman Wolfgang Meyer said the secluded country compound at Wandlitz, where Communist bosses used to live in luxury, will be turned into a 400-bed rehabilitation center.

The high-tech employment surge is beginning to have an impact on the Orange County housing market, particularly new home communities. Experts say the luxury home sales are booming, thanks to wealthy techies moving into more lavish digs and new executives moving in from other areas of the state. The numbers tell the story. Last year, only three new home communities priced above the $250,000 mark were considered hot sellers (meaning 1.7 or more homes sold there a week.

Fueled by stock market profits and growing executive ranks, construction in the luxury home market is beginning to take off again throughout Southern California. Well-heeled managers who had put off purchasing a larger home during the recent housing slump are now pouring some of that newly minted wealth into flashy digs with amenities like wine and cigar rooms, libraries and home theater rooms.

Two suspected robbers believed to be targeting an alleged home-based marijuana growing operation were killed in a shootout on the first day of legal marijuana in Washington state, authorities said. The 35-year-old homeowner told detectives he shot the masked intruders Thursday after they broke into his home near Puyallup, Pierce County Sheriff spokesman Ed Troyer said, according Komonews.com . Troyer told the news outlet that the masked men most likely sought to grab the pot and maybe cash.

Fed up with severe water damage to her home and embroiled in litigation with contractors and real estate agents, superstar singer Rihanna put her Beverly Crest mansion up for sale last year for $4.5 million. That was roughly half what she paid for it. A local buyer pounced. He repaired the structure, gave the pool a face-lift and re-landscaped the property. A few months ago the 8,500-square-foot contemporary-style home was back on the market with a new price tag: $9.95 million. Home flipping is back - and it's going upscale.

Underscoring the housing market's recent recovery, Toll Brothers said it will begin work on a master-planned community in Orange County this year. The luxury home developer will partner with builder Shea to construct more than 2,000 new homes in a new housing development called Baker Ranch in Lake Forest, according to a news release. The development will be a mix of single-family homes and rental apartments. The development spans 40 acres of open space and will include a central park, walkways and bike paths.

Get your nose out of the guidebook - or take your eyes off that travel app - and make a human connection on your next vacation. Locals might offer you the best recommendations yet. Name: Tripping.com What it does: Connects travelers and locals. Stay on their couches, discover a cultural experience you might otherwise have missed, take a run together or simply rent a room or house. Tripping caters to carefree extroverts as well as those who want to browse and connect at their own pace.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. Home sales in the Southland were mostly flat in January as prices fell. The number of newly built and previously owned homes sold was up 0.4% last month from January 2011. A total of 14,523 single-family homes, town homes and condominiums sold in the six-county region, according to data firm DataQuick. The market for new homes remained especially weak, with only 669 newly built properties selling in January, the lowest number for any month since DataQuick started keeping track in 1988.

Every week, some celebrity-connected or luxury properties of note just don't quite make it into the Hot Property   column. Among recent near-misses: The Sunday Home of the Week may have looked vaguely familiar as it was a film location for last year's “Atlas Shrugged Part 1,” which used the rebuilt Victorian home in Piru for some scenes. An estate that recently closed at $21.75 million in gated Beverly Park is leading the big-sales-so-far-this-year race in Los Angeles County among properties on the Multiple Listing Service.

Fed up with severe water damage to her home and embroiled in litigation with contractors and real estate agents, superstar singer Rihanna put her Beverly Crest mansion up for sale last year for $4.5 million. That was roughly half what she paid for it. A local buyer pounced. He repaired the structure, gave the pool a face-lift and re-landscaped the property. A few months ago the 8,500-square-foot contemporary-style home was back on the market with a new price tag: $9.95 million. Home flipping is back - and it's going upscale.

Last year brought a dose of real estate reality to San Marino, which alone among Los Angeles County's wealthy areas had managed to avoid the housing bust. The San Gabriel Valley town endured a 7.2% decline in its median home price, erasing gains of the previous two years. Overall, 2011 turned into a battle of the beach cities. Hermosa Beach was the big winner where home price gains were concerned and Malibu the biggest loser among ZIP Codes with medians above $1 million where at least 50 existing single-family homes were sold, according to statistics from San Diego-based DataQuick.