Hot Housing Markets

Big and green don't usually work together when building an eco-friendly apartment building. That's why 360 State Street in New Haven, Conn., is grabbing some headlines.

When done right, high-density urban development is actually greener than suburban sprawl. Indeed, the multi-use property at 360 is something of a pioneer in being big while also raising the bar for green construction to the state of Connecticut.

With a platinum LEED rating -- the highest green grade given to a structure -- the development, which is scheduled to open next week, plans to prove just how energy-efficient high-density structures can be.

An uptick in sales of high-end mountain real estate in Colorado has prompted a critical question: Are the rich really returning to the real estate market and buying luxury homes? Or are they still hoarding their wealth after getting burned in the crash?

Mixed signals about what the wealthy are doing with their money are everywhere. One day we hear via Scorpio Partners that the rich might have as much as $26 trillion stashed away that they're not giving to banks and wealth managers. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that a growing number of homeowners with million-dollar-plus mortgages have simply stopped making payments.

On the other hand comes word that high-net-worth buyers are apparently loosening their wallets a bit to purchase homes in swanky Colorado resorts like Vail and Aspen. It's not a bellwether market like Manhattan, or course, but some say the flicker of activity in this micro-market favored by high fliers could be a signal that the end of the Great Recession is near and a real estate rebound is on the way.

It's more like a blip, as high-end buyers cherry-pick discounted properties while the getting is good.

The housing crisis has proved problematic for many builders who are running out of financing before completing new subdivisions, but one Bakersfield, Calif., developer has taken a novel approach: renting out finished homes to finance the rest of the construction.

Now business is booming at the Silverado Ranch -- the rental business, that is. The subdivision is currently 100 percent rentals.

HousingWatch has written many stories on buying versus renting, but this time it's the sellers that have changed their game.

I've lived in three apartments in San Francisco over the past decade. For each one, my landlord has always been a "mom and pop" team, an older married couple who bought the house or building as income property or kept it after they moved elsewhere, and decided to handle the renting and tenant management duties themselves. Now brokers and agents have taken control of much of the city's apartment rental market, and the same thing is happening in many American cities since home sales have slowed down.

I've had a good relationship with all of my landlords -- one woke up at 2 a.m. after my frantic call and rushed over to fix a gushing sink pipe; another stopped by with homemade chicken soup when I had the flu. But that type of renter-landlord relationship is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Are you stuck with high mortgage interest, but think you can't refinance because you owe more than the house is worth? You may still be able to qualify for a Fannie Mae Refi Plus loan.

You can get a refi for up to 125 percent of your home's value. That means if the current market value is $200,000, you can get a mortgage up to $250,000. So even if your house is underwater, if you're stuck with a loan above 6 percent, you should still talk with your lender about a Fannie Mae Refi Plus loan. You may also want to use this program to lock in a low fixed rate, if you still have an adjustable rate mortgage.

The loan must currently be owned by Fannie Mae. You can find out if your loan is eligible by using the Fannie Mae lookup tool. If you find out your loan is owned by Fannie Mae, your next step is to call your loan servicer. You can find out if your servicer is in the Fannie Mae network and a contact number for him using Fannie Mae's search tool.

The refinance process for Fannie Mae has been streamlined and you may not even need to get an appraisal or credit check, as long as you have been paying your mortgage on time.

While you're likely to still hear about mortgage fraud cases on the rise, the actual trend for new mortgage fraud is down 25 percent.

According to the 2010 CoreLogic Fraud Index, the mortgage fraud cases making it to the courts today primarily happened between 2006 and 2009. In fact, CoreLogic estimates that $14 billion in fraud losses were experienced by lenders in 2009. But yesterday's fraud increases are causing headaches for today's borrowers.

Why should homebuyers care about fraud?

CoreLogic found a high correlation between fraud risk and subsequent default rates. I'll bet you're not surprised to hear that, especially when you think of the so-called liar loans, or no-income loans, that were so prevalent during the housing bubble. As an everyday borrower doing the right thing, the efforts to recognize mortgage fraud are likely making it harder for you to get a mortgage.

The median list price for a home in Nantucket at the beginning of July was $1.695 million, a number most year-round residents on the popular vacation island off the coast of Massachusetts can't afford. It has often been said that their are two economies in Nantucket, and the full-time residents of Nantucket are likely feeling this stronger than ever now.

A playground for prosperous visitors from Boston, New York and around the country, Nantucket possesses charm and beauty that has attracted vacationers with money for centuries. As an island, there is an obvious limit on space, but it also has a man-made limit on construction, since roughly 50 percent of the island won't ever be built upon due to environmental preservation efforts.

All this means that land is at a premium, which is particularly hard on the island's roughly 12,000 year-round residents -- who don't earn big Wall Street bonuses that allow for $5 million to $15 million summer homes. The median annual household income for year-rounders on Nantucket is around $55,500.

With vacationers pulling back on discretionary spending this year, however, an increase in foreclosures on Nantucket has created an even tougher housing market for Nantucket natives, many of whom have family connections stretching back generations.

In the market for a priceless piece of Hollywood history? Here's one that likely won't last long on the market. The home in L.A.'s Brentwood neighborhood where Marilyn Monroe died was recently listed for $3.595 million.

Last sold in 1994 for $995,000, the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on Helena Drive has Spanish tile and original beamed ceilings.

It is 2,624 square feet on a 23,200-square-foot lot -- hardly Hollywood-star proportions -- though it does have a kidney-shaped swimming pool, lawn, courtyard and citrus grove.

On tiles embedded in the front stoop reads the fatefully inscribed Latin phrase Cursum Perficio, meaning "I have completed my journey."

Those colorful, snap-together plastic building pieces we all loved as kids now have a theme park attraction all their own. Legoland Florida is set to open in Fall 2011 in Winter Haven, Fla., at the old Cypress Gardens site. (There is already a Legoland Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., as well as related theme parks in Europe.)

As with all new visitor venues, swirls of economic impact to the area are immediately mentioned, but what about the real estate market in the surrounding area?

Well, it would seem that job creation would automatically affect housing in the area, but when will the impact be evident?

A 55,000-square-foot mansion set for auction next month would easily fetch the $9.9 million previous asking price if it were in Carmel, Calif., instead of Carmel, Ind.

But there it sits in Indiana, a 36-room home called Le Chateau Renaissance, built by Conseco insurance company founder Stephen Hilbert and his wife, Tomisue Hilbert, for $35 million. It took five years to build and was completed in 1994, but the couple lost ownership when Stephen Hilbert didn't repay money he borrowed from his company, which has since been renamed CNO Financial Group.

Hilbert told his hometown newspaper that he may bid on the home, which has a mural on the entryway's domed ceiling that includes his likeness as a Greek god.

"Until they paint it over, I'll have the pleasure of looking down and watching what they do with the place," Hilbert told the paper.

Since the Plaza in New York City began its conversion from hotel to condos in 2004, there's been nothing but controversy. First, what would happen to Eloise, its most famous fictional resident? Then there were the record-breaking prices and the subsequent grumblings, accusations and lawsuits. Even so, the units were snatched up -- bought, if not lived in.

That seems to be the case with a penthouse unit on the 20th floor. Hotel and casino mogul Steve Wynn is now the proud owner of said home, one of the largest units, thanks to the previous buyer's reneging on the contract. According to The Wall Street Journal, that buyer claimed the apartment delivered was markedly different than the one promised. The matter is still bandying about the courts.

The price for such swanky digs?

A real estate auction company sold 93 properties to the tune of $6 million in Seattle and Portland last weekend.

"2010 is the year of the foreclosure," says Jeff Frieden, the CEO of the company, Real Estate Disposition LLC, referring to the 3 million to 7 million foreclosures hitting the market this year. That's double from 2009. "The market is white hot," Frieden says.

Some $2.5 million was spent in Portland, Ore. The other $3.5 million was wagered in Seattle the following day.

Seventeen years after he left San Francisco as the iconic quarterback of its 49ers football team, Joe Montana is back in town -- this time as an empty-nester renter. The reason for the switch? All four kids have moved out, so "Joe Cool" and his wife, Jennifer, are scaling back to a smaller (relatively speaking) in-town rental and selling off their California residences.

The crown jewel of those homes is Villa Montana, an expansive wine country ranch, currently on the market for $49 million.

But is it worth its pro-league price tag?

Texas real estate couple Nicky and Eleanor Mowery Sheets were living on the tip top of the real estate world. But their next accomplishment may be staying out of federal prison.

For 12 years, Eleanor was Coldwell Banker's top-selling Texas Realtor, and she seemed to have every ingredient necessary to become a local Dallas real estate star. Her entry into the business was an inspirational "dumped divorcee rags- to-riches" tale, and Eleanor was a formidable saleswoman from her very first closing.

But once she met and married Nicky Sheets, son of a wealthy Odessa, Texas, eye surgeon and ostrich rancher, the two teamed up as business partners and took over the town. They produced more than 100 million in annual sales. In November 2007, she ranked 17th in the nation with real estate sales of $171 million. From 1997 to 2003, Nicky and Eleanor cleared more than $9 million in commissions during the best real estate market that Texas has ever seen. It seemed there was nothing they could not accomplish, together.

Now the fate of both licensed real estate agents -- their Texas licenses are still active and current --- rests in the hands of two Texas judges.