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The Biden administration approved the large-scale and controversial Willow drilling project for ConocoPhillips on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope on Monday.
The approval, although with some conditions, is one of President Joe Biden’s most consequential climate choices of his first administration.
It’s a blemish, say environmental groups, to…
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Trading in shares of First Republic Bank and Western Alliance Bancorp ended sharply lower in a tough day of trading for regional banks as fears over bank solvency persisted following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital.
Stocks were periodically halted or paused for trading amid the bank stock bloodbath, which saw many suffering percentage declines well into the double digits. Typically, bank stocks are stable compared with sectors such as technology, with daily moves above 5% being relatively…
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Washington, DC
CNN
—
Jim Stewart was getting ready to sell his home in East Palestine, Ohio, and retire. Then came the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and nearby water, and he fears crashing the value of his home.
He and his wife hoped to put their three-bedroom home on the market this spring, as prices were still high and inventory was low. Alternatively, they talked about his son’s family buying a house that was on the market down the street from Stewart.
But even though state officials are saying the water is safe to drink, convincing potential homebuyers otherwise is an uphill battle.
“Since the derailment, I lost all those options,” he said. “Who is going to buy contaminated land? The older people are willing to stay and live it out. The younger bunch, they are smarter. They’re thinking of their families. I wouldn’t want my grandchildren here. We don’t know if the ground is going to be good enough to grow grass. There are too many unknowns.”
Stewart, 65, recently voiced his fury and sadness about what he lost to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on a February 22 Town Hall about the derailment on CNN.
“You burned me,” he told Shaw. “We were going to sell our house. Our value went phoom,” pointing his hands down.
Shaw was asked point blank by another resident if Norfolk Southern was ready to buy Stewart’s house, he replied only, “we’re going to do what’s right for this community.” That wasn’t satisfactory for Stewart or many of the other participants at the Town Hall.
“I lost everything now,” Stewart says he told Shaw.
Stewart works as a manager at a commercial baking company.
“I worked hard. I’m still working,” he says he told Shaw. “I’m in the 44th year at my job. I wanted to get out. Now I’m just stuck.”
Stewart fears he lost a tremendous amount of the value of his home, which he bought in 2016 for $85,000.
The property was worth about $135,000 a month ago, according to an estimate from Zillow. Lack of transactions since then make a current estimate difficult.
“I’ll never get that. I’ll be lucky to get what I paid for it, if that,” he said of the estimate. In addition, Stewart believes it would cost a lot to do the repairs and tests to ensure the home is safe.
“At whose expense? That’s the biggest issue right now,” said Stewart. “At whose expense are we going to do things to make sure it’s okay?”
Stewart isn’t the only one that was angry with Shaw and Norfolk Southern for the railroad’s refusal to offer to compensate the community for the property value that has been destroyed by the derailment.
At Thursday’s Senate hearing on the crash, Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Shaw four different times to commit to compensating homeowners, only to hear Shaw repeatedly reply, “Senator, I’m committed to do what’s right.”
Markey said that wasn’t an acceptable answer.
“Will you commit to insuring that these families, these innocent families do no lose their life savings in their homes and small businesses? The right thing to do is to say, ‘Yes we will.’” Markey told Shaw. “These families want to know long term are they just going to be left behind. Once the cameras move on, once the national attention dies down, where will these families be? I think they’re going to be in the crosshairs of the accountants of Norfolk Southern saying ‘We’re not going to pay full compensation.’”
Paying the homeowners and businesses wouldn’t necessarily be difficult for Norfolk Southern.
With a population of about 5,000 people, there are roughly 2,600 residential properties in East Palestine according to Attom, a property data provider. The average value of a property there in January of this year, prior to the derailment, was $146,000, according to Attom.
Taken together, the value of all residential real estate in the town adds up to about $380 million, including single family homes and multi-family properties.
Those values are only a fraction of the money that Norfolk Southern earns. Last year it reported a record operating income of $4.8 billion, and a net income of $3.3 billion, up about 9% from a year earlier. It had $456 million in cash on hand on its books as of December 31.
It’s been returning much of that profit to shareholders, repurchasing $3.1 billion in shares last year and spending $1.2 billion on dividends. And it announced a 9% increase in dividends just days before the accident.
A year ago its board approved a $10 billion share repurchase plan, and it had the authority to buy $7.5 billion of that remaining on the plan as of December 31.
Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, at Thursday’s hearing, “Will you pledge to no more stock buybacks until a raft of safety measures have been completed to reduce the risk of derailments and crashes in the future,” Shaw again dodged the question by answering only with, “I will commit to continuing to invest in safety.”
And the company also invests a great deal of money in lobbying, spending $1.8 billion on lobbying in 2022, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks lobbying and political contributions expenditures.
Those lobbying expenses also came under attack by senators at the hearing, especially since Shaw would not commit to supporting the bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate since the derailment to improve railroad safety. Asked if he would support or oppose the legislation, Shaw wouldn’t endorse all of the provisions of the bill, but he responded “we are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer.”
A big payout probably isn’t what many in East Palestine are looking for, said Jim Warren, manager and co-owner of Kelly Warren and Associates Real Estate Solutions, in Boardman, which is about 15 miles away from East Palestine. They just want a home that’s safe to live in and to be made whole on its value, he said.
“The people around here don’t want a lot,” he said. “We don’t chase the flashy items like other places in the world. We want to grow up, raise our kids, make a living, and have a nice place to live, that’s all we want.”
This area, like the rest of the country, saw the real estate market heat up over the past few years with multiple offers on homes and properties selling over the asking price. But, Warren said, unlike other parts of the country the market stays fairly steady in this part of Ohio.
“Our area doesn’t move up as much and it doesn’t move down as much,” he said. “We don’t have the big swings.”
Warren’s firm currently has two listings in the town.
“That’s no more nor less than usual,” he said. There are only ever about ten properties on the market there, he said.
But, he added, “if your property is contaminated, that is a concern for yourself and for any buyer.”
As with any real estate purchase, an appraisal and tests for safety would need to be done for homes in East Palestine. But like Stewart, Warren said it is not yet clear who will pay for the additional tests on water and ground contamination for that peace of mind.
“For all we know, the county might cover it, or the EPA or Ohio state government. That remains to be seen,” he said.
Overall, Warren said, he expects homes to continue to be bought and sold in East Palestine.
“We don’t foresee the market tanking, we foresee steady growth,” he said. “After all the hype is gone, we are still living here. We’re going to have to figure it out because this is our home.”
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Grady Hendrix
Albert Mitchell
After Louise’s parents unexpectedly die in a car accident, she returns home to Charleston, where her plans to get her childhood home ready for sale are soon complicated. There’s her parents’ endless stuff, including the hundreds of dolls her mother owned. There’s her estranged brother, Matt, trying to cheat her out of her inheritance. And then there’s the house itself, which doesn’t seem to want to let her go.
Grady Hendrix, the author of “How to Sell a Haunted House,” said his idea for the novel began during the pandemic, when many of us were becoming more aware of our parents’ mortality. “One of the things I realized is, when our parents die, we have to deal with all their stuff,” Hendrix said. “And what are ghosts but things left behind after someone dies?”
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Louise is hardly alone in her suspicions about the house: A shockingly large share of Americans may believe their home is haunted too, surveys find, and laws have been passed in some states clarifying what sellers do and don’t have to disclose about alleged paranormal activity, prior murders and suicides.
I talked to Hendrix about his new novel and the subject of haunted houses and trying to sell them. Our interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Annie Nova: One recent survey found that half of Americans believe their house is haunted. Why do you think there’s so much superstition?
Grady Hendrix: I just got off a book tour, and so many people I met believe they live in a haunted house or that they have lived in one. To me, it’s totally normal. A house is where you spend most of your time. You sleep there, you go through all kinds of emotional things there. Why wouldn’t you think it’s haunted?
What are ghosts but things left behind after someone dies?
Grady Hendrix
author, “How to Sell a Haunted House”
AN: What are some of the things that people told you about living in a haunted house?
GH: Their hauntings often seem to follow their personality. I would have people who’d say, ‘Oh my god, our house was haunted. It was terrible. This ghost was attacking us and we had to break our lease and move.’ It’s this really intense experience for them, and they’re very intense as they tell it. And then I’d have someone who’d say, ‘Oh, yeah. Our house is haunted, but the ghost is pretty chill.’
AN: There are so many stories about haunted houses. Why did you turn your focus to the selling of one?
GH: Cleaning out someone’s house after they’ve passed away, you’re dealing with the smell of their shampoo, the dent in the sofa cushion where they used to watch TV. And it’s not just the physical stuff, it’s the emotional stuff: the memories, the scars, the unfair things that you’ve always wanted to talk about but never did. Selling a haunted house was a nice way to address all of these things in one handy package.
AN: When did our fears of haunted houses begin?
GH: The first recorded incidents I saw were in the 1730s, and included property values crashing because a house was supposedly haunted. But in the latter part of the 19th century, you had a huge number of haunted house sightings that coincided with this building boom out in the suburbs. The suburbs started to really expand then, especially in London and some American cities, with property developers throwing up houses basically overnight.
A lot of the houses were poorly constructed, and would start to fall apart. You would hear mysterious noises as your walls slowly gave way. You’d get mysterious cold spots because the building wasn’t weatherproofed. Then some of these houses would become uninhabitable, and so you’d have a block full of nice houses with this one haunted-looking house at the end that had been abandoned for 20 years.
AN: What typically leads people to start believing that their home is haunted?
GH: The last time we had a really big boom in haunted houses was around the time of the subprime mortgage crisis. When real estate is getting fraught and the economy is doing funny things, haunted houses appear. But there’s no such thing as an objective haunting. If you feel like your house is haunted, then your house is haunted, you know? Houses are haunted because that’s where people are.
AN: One of the scariest things that Louise inherits is the haunted puppet, Pupkin, with its “leering clown face.” What are you trying to say here about the downsides to inheritance?
GH: Rather than the inheritance angle, I was really hyperaware of the fact that we all have strange relationships with inanimate objects. We have stuffed animals or blankets from childhood that we’re really attached to. We yell at our phones. We argue with our cars. We just invest a lot of emotions into objects. With Pupkin, I really wanted an object that had been invested with so much emotion you couldn’t walk away from it. It wasn’t going to let you.
AN: Is there anything in the book based on personal experience?
GH: I’ve cleaned out the houses of dead friends, and it’s one of those things that’s hard to really describe to someone until they’ve gone through it. You’re dealing with this huge amount of stuff. You’re crushed beneath the weight of it all. It’s a very strange experience.
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Green is a soothing, refreshing hue that brings to mind lush meadows, leafy groves, and idyllic forests. It fills spaces with cheer, optimism, and a welcome reminder of the long, warmer days ahead.
Michelle Carpenter | Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty
This stylish townhome is located in a beautifully landscaped enclave of serene Southside Place, one of Houston’s most desirable neighborhoods. Highlights include an elegant living and entertaining area, a game room with a wet bar, a library with built-in bookshelves, three restful bedrooms, an elevator, multiple balconies, and two rooftop decks. The well-equipped cook’s kitchen encompasses a charming breakfast area with a green wall that echoes the lush greenery just outside.
Kristi Ambrosetti | Sotheby’s International Realty – East Side Manhattan Brokerage
No expense was spared in the renovation of this uncommon townhome, which comprises a three-level owner’s residence and a two-level home or professional space. The duplex offers three bedrooms and baths, living and dining rooms, and a Japanese pagoda garden. The triplex features six bedrooms, a formal living room with an ornate fireplace, a light-filled kitchen with a La Cornue range and a terrace, a rooftop deck, and just off the charming dining room, a mirrored wet bar with lively green walls.
Casey Flannery | Equestrian Sotheby’s International Realty
With its hand-painted wood beams, wood-burning fireplace, Spanish tile, arched windows, and hardwood flooring, this handsome historic home dates to 1920 and exudes the unique style of a bygone era in Palm Beach. It features an eye-catching kitchen with Zline appliances and other modern amenities, three bedrooms, two chicly updated baths, new air conditioning, and a living area crowned by a coved ceiling with striking beams and a cool, soothing green hue.
Lindsey Hemmer | Sotheby’s International Realty – Los Feliz Brokerage
This delightful modern home is a peaceful retreat just moments from popular shops and restaurants. On the main level are formal living and dining rooms, an updated kitchen, two bedrooms with a shared full bath, and a suite with a separate entrance that would be an ideal office, den, or studio. The sunny, spacious primary bedroom is secluded on the second level along with a cheerful bath tiled in vibrant green. The upper-level deck looks out over the backyard terrace toward the downtown cityscape.
Serena Boardman | Sotheby’s International Realty – East Side Manhattan Brokerage
In one of Park Avenue’s most esteemed pre-war cooperative buildings, this light-filled residence is generously proportioned, versatile, and replete with original architectural detailing. A classical elegance pervades nearly every space, from the formal living and dining rooms to the three guest bedrooms and the wood-paneled library. The owner’s suite includes two marble baths, two walk-in closets, and a sitting room or study with a built-in desk and stately green walls.
Discover luxury homes for sale and rent around the world on sothebysrealty.com
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Melissa Couch
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The final trades of the week. With CNBC's Sara Eisen and the Fast Money traders, Tim Seymour, Courtney Garcia, Jeff Mills and Steve Grasso
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CNBC’s Diana Olick on why the housing market is in deep trouble. With CNBC’s Sara Eisen and the Fast Money traders, Tim Seymour, Courtney Garcia, Jeff Mills and Steve Grasso
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Highlights from this week’s top news stories on luxury and global real estate, art, collectibles, and home.
Washington, District of Columbia | TTR Sotheby’s International Realty
The Georgetown property where the former first lady stayed following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was combined with two other houses.
Washington, D.C., Compound Where Jackie Kennedy Lived Asks $26.5 Million – The Wall Street Journal
These Will Be the Most Popular Luxury Home Features in 2023 – House Beautiful
Three Historic Austin Houses Are for Sale in $20 Million Package Deal – Bloomberg
French Riviera Villa Where Hitchcock Filmed ‘To Catch a Thief’ Lists for €3.6 Million – Mansion Global
Inside 9 Stunning Midcentury-Modern Homes for Sale Across the U.S – Robb Report
A Rare Midcentury Home by Bertrand Goldberg Surfaces for $14M on Shelter Island – Dwell
$2.8 Million Homes in California – The New York Times
Once Home to Old Hollywood Stars—1920s Manor in Los Angeles Lists for $7.7 Million – Mansion Global
These Will Be the Most Popular Luxury Home Features in 2023 – Elle Decor
Homes for Sale in Brooklyn and Manhattan – The New York Times
Inside a $17 Million Penthouse in Downtown Austin That Could Double as Your Favorite Art Gallery – Robb Report
Bluffton, South Carolina’s Old Town Offers Charming, Down-Home Living – Mansion Global
6 breathtaking homes in the mountains – The Week
Leonardo da Vinci’s former Bologna apartment is for sale – The Spaces
$40M Mansion With Glass-Bottom Swimming Pool Is Vail’s Priciest Home – Realtor.com
Where Can You Get Some of the Best Deals on Homes Right Now? The New Construction Market –The Wall Street Journal
$1.4 Million Homes in Michigan, Rhode Island and Oregon – The New York Times
This $899K Midcentury Was Designed by a 25-Year-Old Engineer – Dwell
From Panamanian Seapods to Santa Monica Bungalows: 9 Luxe Homes for Sale Designed for Eco-Conscious Living – Robb Report
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Melissa Couch
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The Real Estate, recreational & aquatics markets from artificial beaches, urban lagoons, surf parks, and wave pools are to be disrupted by industry titans working together to manage the demand.
AUSTIN, Texas, March 10, 2023 (Newswire.com)
–
GAST Clearwater, a US-based next-generation water treatment company, artificial beach, and property developer, announced today in conjunction with Surf Park Management a team of experts from resort, marketing, hospitality, and wave park industries as a service provider to developers and investment groups that they have signed a MOU to work together on a non-exclusive basis.
As the wave pool or surf park market is poised to reach a multibillion-dollar growth over the next few years, various key players in the market are collaborating to manage the sheer demand and explosive growth globally, with numerous new projects being brought online, especially here in the USA. As mixed-use developments or residential developments anchored by an artificial beach, urban lagoon, or surf parks see a much higher growth rate than conventional developments.
“It is honestly a breath of fresh air to partner with people like Skip Taylor & Cate Thero of Surf Park Management. They are top-class specialists in the field and have decades of experience. As a customer-centric organization, we live and die for our customer needs and by combining forces with Surf Park Management, we can provide our and their customers the latest technologies, management, analytics, and development guidance at a fraction of the cost,” said Mr. Kevin Gast, Co-Founder & CEO of GAST Clearwater.
Numerous projects in the US and across the globe are currently in various stages of development, negotiations, and design phases, using a wide variety of wave-generating technologies, including GAST Clearwater’s ALTEP water treatment system and the industries only 10-year backed guarantee waterproofing system from GAST Clearwater, more so Surf Park Management is actively involved providing extensive consulting, asset management, operational management, business planning & investment strategies to these developers.
“We are excited to work with the technology forward GAST Clearwater team to help deliver alternative water treatment options to minimize water and chemical usage and to provide a more sustainable solution to the emerging surf park industry,” said Skip Taylor, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Surf Park Management.
About GAST Clearwater:
GAST Clearwater is a US-based, next-generation water treatment company with a mission to provide Water for Mankind one drop at a time. Operating in various industries and markets from Real Estate, Wastewater Treatment, Municipal Potable Water, and various others in particular focusing on the recovering and recycling of different waters in a centralized or decentralized way. The company also does artificial beaches, urban lagoons, wave pools, surf parks, aquatics to sewerage treatment, wastewater, and drinking water.
About Surf Park Management:
Surf Park Management, Inc., based in San Diego, CA, is a proven and professional management team focused on delivering successful business results in the emerging surf park arena. SPM provides consulting and management services to developers and investors to surf parks and their related recreational and hospitality operations. SPM is technology-agnostic and works with the surf technology that works best for the specific venues and its operating parameters. Our team is also a group of surf and sports enthusiasts with deep expertise in complex resort operations and event management. SPM is currently managing the surf, waterfront, food & beverage, retail, and administrative operations of The LineUp at Wai Kai in Hawaii which opens in March 2023.
Source: GAST Clearwater
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Aerial view of the Dubai Marina.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Demand for property in the United Arab Emirates’ glitzy commercial capital of Dubai hit a record high for the first two months of 2023, real estate services firm CBRE revealed in a report published Thursday.
In February alone, Dubai’s residential market saw 8,515 transactions — a whopping 43.9% increase from the previous year. January and February together clocked a total of 17,741 residential transactions.
Beyond the property market, Dubai’s economic boom is evident in everyday life.
Every week, a new high-end restaurant seems to appear in the desert emirate, which morphed from a small fishing village to a bustling, hyper-modern metropolis within just the last few decades. Downtown bars are crowded most evenings. The city’s Roads and Traffic Authority recently reported record road traffic and public transport use in the last year. Residents frequently complain that ordering a taxi on any evening of the week — even a Monday night — takes longer than ever.
But while some Dubai residents — roughly 90% of whom are expats — find the struggle to book a ride or a restaurant table frustrating, it’s the sharp and often extreme increase in rents that are hitting many of them the hardest.
“A 60% increase,” one Dubai-based consultant told CNBC when asked about how much their rent had increased year-on-year. The consultant, who was living in Dubai’s high-end financial district, the DIFC, decided to relocate instead of paying the new rent. Several other DIFC residents reported landlords asking for rent increases of 50% and higher, and many of those have downsized or moved to less expensive areas as a result.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) area of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the Burj Khalifa in the backdrop, Sept. 16, 2022.
Christopher Pike | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Dubai’s Land Department has a body called RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, which states that landlords cannot demand a rent increase beyond a certain percentage based on the property’s current market value. But the DIFC operates as its own legal entity, unbound by RERA rules.
“Essentially the DIFC is the wild wild West,” the consultant said, requesting to not be named due to professional restrictions. “No controls whatsoever.” The DIFC Authority did not reply to a CNBC request for comment.
Even outside of the DIFC, though, rents and selling prices are soaring.
“There aren’t enough properties; the Dubai Land Department has recorded an 8% availability which is the lowest since 2008,” said Nazli Acar, a sales and leasing agent at D&B Properties. “Property owners are aware of this, hence why they keep increasing their rental prices. And believe me, there are people willing to pay the price.”
And landlords are finding ways around RERA rules, pushing tenants out by claiming they are moving into the house themselves or selling it, and then renting it to a brand new tenant instead for whom they charge a far higher rent that goes above the RERA limits. This practice is illegal, but happens frequently because many tenants don’t know their rights, brokers say.
Cars drive along a street in front of high-rise buildings in Dubai, on February 18, 2023. Dubai saw record real estate transactions in 2022, largely due to an influx of wealthy investors, especially from Russia.
Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Images
Acar described how rents have doubled in various Dubai neighborhoods between 2021 and now. Property prices have, too — CBRE says that selling prices are up 11.5% on average in the year to February 2023.
But many sellers have seen much larger returns. One Dubai expat, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, bought a residential property for roughly 4 million UAE dirhams ($1.09 million) in early 2021, renovated and redecorated it, and within the year sold it for double the price.
The current environment is night and day compared to early 2020.
Eeven before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Dubai’s property sector had fallen some 25% in the previous five years due largely to market oversupply. As the market bottomed out in the spring of that year, buyers snapped up cheap properties, renovated them and began renting to tenants and visitors as Dubai opened its doors to tourists and investors while most of the world remained in lockdown.
Within about 18 months, the sector had staged a dramatic recovery.
Just as many property owners are taking advantage of today’s market to make lucrative sales, landlords know that as more and more people stream into Dubai, there continue to be those willing to pay their elevated rental rates.
“I’ll start with the word bonkers. The rental market just now is absolutely crazy,” Ricardo Scala, Dubai-based luxury property broker and founder of Ricardo Scala Estates, told CNBC. “In the past year, year-and-a-half, prices have doubled and tripled.”
The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. The emirates prime real-estate prices surged 70.3% over the 12 months through September, making it the biggest gainer on Knight Franks global index, which focuses on a city’s most desirable and expensive homes.
Christopher Pike | Bloomberg | Getty Images
According to CBRE’s research, in the year through February 2023, average Dubai rents increased by 27.7%.
Dubai’s famous Palm Jumeirah, the man-made archipelago designed to look like a palm tree, is a favorite for wealthy renters and buyers looking for their own private beachfront and takes the cake for the highest rents in Dubai. Average annual apartment and villa rents there reached 260,467 dirhams ($70,920) and 1,017,614 dirhams ($277,079) in February, respectively.
It’s well known at this point that a significant proportion of the last year’s property transactions came from Russians. Take a walk around the popular Dubai Marina or Jumeirah Beach Road area and it’s almost impossible not to hear Russian being spoken.
“Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, we have had a huge influx of Russian clients,” Acar said. “At the end of Q3 in 2022, they were the highest transacting nationality. Again, owners are aware of this and therefore capitalizing on that statistic.”
There’s also been a notable rise in buyers from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the U.K., Scala said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in St. Petersburg, Russia on October 11, 2022.
Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office handout | Kremlin Press Office | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The UAE’s policy of being open for business to all nationalities — including those from Israel, who cannot enter several Muslim countries, and from Russia which is heavily sanctioned by the West — has paid off, as well as Dubai’s openness and relative normality during most of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country’s various liberalizing social and economic reforms over the last few years, like its remote-worker visa and allowing 100% foreign ownership of certain businesses, have also attracted new residents and companies.
“I think Dubai as a government knows exactly what it’s doing,” Scala said. “I think they’re very, very smart with their game plan. If you think about it, from a very simplistic level, whenever something happens anywhere in the world, some sort of conflict or problem, I can pretty much guarantee within 14 days Dubai will announce some form of incentive that allows more people to come to Dubai.”
In the meantime, no one expects property prices to ease up anytime soon.
Scala believes prices will stabilize for the time being, staying at the rates they are now. “I’m finding it hard, along with my colleagues in the industry, to see how prices are going to drop that much just now, when there are just people out there paying the prices. What we don’t want to happen,” he added, “is for them to go to keep on going up more and more and more.”
Hussain Sajwani, founder of major Emirati property developer Damac, is bullish on Dubai and sees the market continuing to rise.
“Dubai is becoming expensive and it will be more expensive, it’s a fact of life,” Sajwani told CNBC in January. “Because you have lots of wealthy people in large corporations, the demand goes up, and they can afford to pay higher prices,” he said.
Asked whether people will be priced out of the city, however, he replied, “No, I don’t think so.”
Some of the city’s renters may disagree.
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Sotheby’s International Realty has announced that HomeServices Southern Properties has joined the network and will now operate as Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty. The addition marks the brand’s continued growth in the state of Louisiana and its sixth office in the state.
The company is owned and operated by Kyle Tallo, who brings 22 years of experience to the company. Tallo will lead the company alongside his wife and business partner, Heather Tallo. The company is headquartered in the city of Hammond and will service the surrounding region, as well as Baton Rouge, the Northshore areas, the Mississippi coast, and beyond.
“Hammond is a charming historic downtown area with close proximity to the Greater Baton Rouge and New Orleans area,” said Philip White, president and CEO, Sotheby’s International Realty. “The surrounding area is known for its research centers, college atmosphere, and recreational programs, making it a desirable area for newcomers and luxury real estate investors. We look forward to supporting Kyle and the entire Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty team as we further expand our presence in the state of Louisiana.”
“As a family-owned business, we pride ourselves on building relationships,” said Tallo. “This is evident in the dedication and loyal service that each of our agents provide to our clients every day. Our affiliation with Sotheby’s International Realty further builds on those ideals while bringing global exposure to our market and empowering our agents with best-in-class marketing tools and resources.”
The company’s seasoned real estate agents also have strong ties to the community and the surrounding area, including involvement in local organizations, hosting charitable events, and supporting local business.
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Melissa Couch
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Asana Inc. on Wednesday reported and forecast narrower-than-expected losses, saying the figures reflected a firmer path to profitability, and its stock skyrocketed in after-hours trading.
The project-management software provider — whose chief executive is a co-founder of Meta Platforms Inc.’s
META,
Facebook — forecast first-quarter sales of $150 million to $151 million, with an adjusted net loss of between 18 cents and 19 cents a share. That’s better than FactSet forecasts for a 23-cent per-share loss with revenue of $150.4 million.
For the full year, Asana
ASAN,
said it expects revenue of between $638 million and $648 million, with an adjusted net loss of 55 cents to 59 cents. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a 79 cent-per-share loss, on sales of $645.8 million.
The company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $95 million, or 44 cents a share. That compares with a loss of $90 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 34% to $150.2 million, compared with $111.9 million in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted for stock-based compensation, restructuring and other costs, Asana lost 15 cents a share, compared with 25 cents a year earlier.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Asana to reported an adjusted loss of 27 cents a share, on revenue of $145.1 million.
Shares soared 24% after hours.
The company reported earnings as other workplace-oriented cloud-services platforms, like Salesforce Inc.
CRM,
and Workday
WDAY,
scale back and lay off workers. The tech industry has tried to shrink, after hiring to meet digital demand brought by the pandemic that later fizzled as COVID restrictions lifted.
Shares of Asana have fallen 60% over the past two months. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index
SPX,
has lost 4.3% of its value over that period.
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Featuring curated videos from the most sought-after destinations the world over, discover this week’s Video of the Week.
Palm Desert, California | Desert Sotheby’s International Realty
Famed for its warm climate, dramatic landscapes, and upscale amenities, Palm Desert has become a popular refuge for those seeking sunny days and open space. This solar-powered modern home was designed to maximize both light and views and serves as a luxurious backdrop for beautiful finishes and lifestyle-enhancing amenities.
Designed with walls of glass, steel beams, and wood-lined ceilings above a massive poured-in-place concrete fireplace, the home is beautifully adorned with unique fine furnishings, art, and bespoke lighting inside and out. The expansive cook’s kitchen and breakfast area offer generous cabinet, counter, and island space along with Miele, Liebherr, Subzero, Scotsman, and Whirlpool appliances.
Private areas within the residence include a den/office/media room; a luxurious primary suite with a fireplace, a sitting area, a spa-like bath, and a walk-in closet; and two spacious junior suites, one with a kitchenette. Climate-controlled wine storage and a triple garage are additional amenities.
Outside, similarly impeccable details abound, including a covered and heated patio with a fireplace, a sparkling pool, a courtyard adorned with sculptures, and numerous areas for relaxation and entertaining. Boasting golf course, lake, mountain, and desert vista views, this home affords a truly rare opportunity to own a modern masterpiece in a dramatic and beautiful setting.
Discover tours of luxury homes for sale around the world on our award-winning YouTube Channel
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Melissa Couch
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Andy Walden, Black Knight vice president, joins ‘The Exchange’ to discuss mortgage demand and the housing sector.
04:17
Wed, Mar 8 20231:56 PM EST
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A “For Sale” sign outside of a home in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023.
Dustin Chambers | Bloomberg | Getty Images
After dropping to a 28-year low the previous week, mortgage demand recovered slightly, even though interest rates marched higher.
Total mortgage application volume rose 7.4% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s seasonally adjusted index.
This happened even as the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 6.79% from 6.71%, with points rising to 0.80 from 0.77 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the highest level since November 2022 and 270 basis points higher than a year ago.
“Even with higher rates, there was an uptick in applications last week, but this was in comparison to two weeks of declines to very low levels, including a holiday week,” noted Joel Kan, an MBA economist.
Applications to refinance a home loan jumped 9% week to week but were 76% lower than the same week one year ago. At last week’s rate, there were barely 200,000 borrowers who could get monthly savings from a refinance, compared with well over 2 million who could have benefited at the rate one year ago, according to calculations from Black Knight, a mortgage data and analytics firm.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 7% for the week and were 42% lower than the same week one year ago. There is more inventory on the market now compared with a year ago, but new listings are still weak, suggesting that what is for sale isn’t selling very quickly.
The jump in demand could just be the start of the traditionally busy spring market. The share of adjustable-rate mortgage applications, however, rose last week, suggesting more buyers are stretching to afford today’s still pricey housing market. ARMs offer lower interest rates at higher risk.
Mortgage rates have moved even higher, crossing over 7%, according to a separate survey from Mortgage News Daily. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that rate hikes could accelerate again. That spooked investors and sent bond yields higher. Mortgage rates loosely follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury.
“Even though Fed Chair Powell didn’t say anything remarkably new or different, markets read enough into his delivery to change the course of Fed Funds Rate expectations in a meaningful way,” said Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily.
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Not long after the dual towers of architect Bertrand Goldberg’s striking Marina City were opened in Chicago in the early 1960s, they were recognized for heralding a residential renaissance in U.S. cities. But Goldberg’s innovative approach was already on bold display further east, on New York’s Shelter Island, where he designed this midcentury marvel for CEO John Snyder in the early 1950s. For decades it was a local landmark, with architectural aficionados traveling to the island to admire its innovative design and its enviable, secluded 3.4-acre waterfront location, where views stretch to West Neck Harbor and Long Island Sound.
Shelter Island, New York | Nick Brown, Sotheby’s International Realty – East Hampton Brokerage
Painstakingly renovated and reconstructed in the early 21st century, the 6,006-square-foot home still occupies its original footprint. While numerous midcentury elements have been lovingly retained in homage to Goldberg’s vision, systems and amenities have been updated to offer consummate contemporary comfort and convenience. The kitchen will please any cook with its professional-caliber appliances, generous cabinetry, and sizable island with counter seating. An anchor of the outsize living room is the dramatic original stone fireplace with eight flues, around which are multiple sitting areas. Warmly hued wood, rugged stacked stone, and handsome stone tile flooring provide an organic connection between the home and its surroundings, while walls of windows blur the lines between indoors and out and provide a theatrical outlook on the seaside setting. The serene primary suite—one of six bedrooms—features a deep, cushioned window seat that allows for immersive appreciation of the vista.
The home enjoys remarkable privacy and focuses on water in two directions—on its northeast side is a dazzling 74-foot saltwater pool enveloped by an expansive terrace perfect for alfresco lounging, dining, and entertaining. A covered stone walkway leads to the main entryway and wraps around the residence, leading to an open-air picnic area, a cool covered patio, and a sun-washed water-facing deck. Further afield is an inviting sitting area with a fire pit. Extending out past the sandy beach into the waters of the harbor is an impressive 235-foot dock, practically de rigueur for this iconic location. While area conveniences and attractions are mere moments away, leaving home may rarely seem appealing given its status as an enduring monument to 20th-century American style.
Discover luxury homes for sale and rent around the world on sothebysrealty.com
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Melissa Couch
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The conversation isn’t about returning to the office, Mark Dixon, IWG CEO, told CNBC.
Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images
There’s a “shock” coming for the commercial real estate industry, but the opportunities ahead are huge, according to Mark Dixon, CEO of flexible office company IWG.
Technology enabled a “fundamental seismic shift” in commercial real estate as the Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of people to work from home for the first time, Dixon said — and workers don’t necessarily want things to go back to how they were before.
“There’s this assumption that people like commuting into a central business district. They don’t. It’s a complete waste of time and money and they don’t want to do it,” Dixon told CNBC on “Squawk Box Europe” Tuesday.
He added that employees are now working more productively “than they’ve ever done before.”
Dixon founded IWG — formerly known as Regus — in 1989. Now, it has over 3,300 offices across 120 countries.
He says “there’s a shock coming” for commercial real estate looking ahead. “Look at the United States. You’ve got some of the largest property companies in the world handing back properties to their bank.“
But it’s not all bad news; Dixon said there is a “real opportunity” for the use of real estate to change. In fact, he said that offices in the future could actually work in a similar way to gas stations.
“They’re everywhere, it’s a network of petrol stations, [you can] drive anywhere in the country. Work will be like that. You will find places to work everywhere, we network them all together and make them easy to use,” he said.
“We’ve got such a huge amount of opportunity in the business we’re in.”
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Doug Bauer, Tri Pointe Homes CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss what he's seeing in new home listings, how much flexibility the company has on getting its costs lower and more.
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From a EUR€11M sale in Milan, Italy, to a US$15M sale in Middletown, Rhode Island, here are January 2023’s five highlighted sales represented by the Sotheby’s International Realty® global network.
Tina Wiley, David Huberman, Kate Kirby Greenman | Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, US $15,000,000
Rochelle Griffiths-Townsend | Jamaica Sotheby’s International Realty, US $1,200,000
Barbara Legnani | Italy Sotheby’s International Realty, EUR€11,050,000
Richard Klug | Sotheby’s International Realty – Beverly Hills Brokerage, US$52,000,000
Gerard Bligh, Hadley van Schaik | New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, NZD$6,050,000
Discover previous editions of Significant Sales on the blog
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Melissa Couch
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BEIJING — Chinese economic officials expressed confidence Monday they can meet this year’s growth target of “around 5%” by generating 12 million new jobs and encouraging consumer spending following the end of anti-virus controls that kept millions of people at home.
The Cabinet planning officials announced no details of spending or other initiatives to revive growth that slumped to 3% last year, the second-lowest in decades. But they said they plan an array of measures to meet goals announced Sunday by Premier Li Keqiang by raising incomes and encouraging innovation.
Efforts to revive the Chinese economy have global implications after weak retail, auto and housing sales depressed demand for imports. The country is the biggest export market for its Asian neighbors and an important revenue source for Western companies.
“There are many policy tools in our toolbox,” the deputy chairman of the National Reform and Development Commission, Li Chunlin, said at a news conference held during the meeting of China’s ceremonial legislature.
The premier’s work report Sunday was unusually brief and gave few details, suggesting the ruling Communist Party will wait until a new premier and Cabinet ministers are appointed this month in a once-a-decade handover to announce tax, regulatory, subsidy and other changes.
This year’s job creation target is 12 million, up from last year’s goal of 11 million and below the 12.1 million that was achieved, according to Li.
The NDRC chairman, Zhao Chenxin, said the priority is to “release consumption potential” and promote an “innovation-driven development strategy.”
That is in line with ruling party plans to nurture self-sustaining growth based on consumer spending instead of exports and investment and to generate prosperity and global influence by making China a creator of valuable technologies.
The NDRC’s Li warned that the global environment “is becoming more complex and severe,” a reference to weak export demand due to Western interest rate increases to cool inflation and strained relations with Washington and other trading partners over technology, security and territorial disputes.
That will add to pressure on Chinese export industries that support millions of jobs, increasing the importance of self-sustaining business activity at home.
“Ability to consume comes from employment and income,” so the government must “increase the income of urban and rural residents,” Li said.
Li gave no details, but the ruling party has previously pressured e-commerce and other big companies to share more of their wealth with the public by raising wages and cutting charges for small vendors and other entrepreneurs.
The growth target is the lowest on record except for 2020, when the government dropped its goal at the start of the COVID pandemic.
“We view it as a relatively conservative but pragmatic proposal for delivering a healthy and organic economic recovery,” said Nomura economists in a report. “China’s economy is still set to face with multiple headwinds over the course of the year.”
The higher unemployment might be harder to achieve, so “job creation is likely to be a focus of work this year,” they wrote.
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