“What’s Up With All Those Colored Flags in the Front Lawn??” When the home pictured above closed six weeks ago for $447,500, everyone’s assumption (including mine) was that the Buyer was going to do extensive updating. After all, the home — located on Basswood Road just two blocks west of Cedar Lake, in St. Louis...Read More
“Post-World War II Conversions” Recycle a plastic bottle, and you get 25¢ (at least in some states). Recycle a pound of aluminum cans, and you’ll make about a $1. But re-use an existing foundation to build new construction, and how much will you save? Try, $25,000 to $35,000. “Lower” Upper Bracket In fact, that’s the...Read More
Burst of New Luxury Rentals in Uptown What’s behind the burst of high-end rentals slated for Uptown? If you haven’t been paying attention, a new 55 unit, mixed use project just broke ground at Lake & Knox (see, “Watch This Space“). Last month, Southwest Journal reported that a 216 unit luxury rental project is now going up...Read More
Where: 4617 Tower St.What: 5 BR/5 Bath new construction by Elevation (division of Streeter)How much: $1.2 million asking priceWhen: sold in one day earlier this month (with more buyers reportedly waiting in the wings).Who: listed by Marian Peterson and Noelle Varecka of Edina Realty It’s not hard to tell what the Buyer liked about this...Read More
No More New Construction? Buy land. They’re not making it anymore. –Mark Twain Twain was clearly wrong about land (and real estate generally) always being a good investment; when credit is cheap and demand strong, prices can and do reach unsustainably high prices. However, his basic insight — look for something where supply is constrained...Read More
“How’s the Housing Market?” — Vol. 27 “Where” (location) is certainly one of the key qualifiers for anyone seeking to divine the health and direction of the housing market. But so is “what?” — as in “what kind of housing?” In the housing market, the key distinction is between existing and new housing. Conflicting Signals...Read More
