bubbleinfo.com

Tom Tarrant is underway in San Diego – here’s the start of his first project:

Reader ‘aljanet’ pointed out that Phil’s house is directly behind yesterday’s Covenant REO. 

He is faced with the same predicament as others in the Ranch – squishdown!  They started back in June, 2007, when they listed on the range $13,250,000 to $15,000,876.

Now it’s down to $7,199,000:

http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-100000961-5111_El_Mirlo_Rancho_Santa_Fe_CA_92067

From NewsCore via curbed.com:

LAKE JACKSON, Texas — Never one to support intervention in something individuals can do themselves, Rep Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Thursday took to Facebook to sell his family home of 42 years.

Paul, whose training is in obstetrics and not real estate, began the marketing campaign for the Lake Jackson, Texas, home with a Facebook post that links to the website www.buyronpaulshouse.com.

“Carol and I are selling the house we lived in for over 40 years. If you or someone you know is moving to the Houston/Galveston/Lake Jackson area, they can get more information through this website,” the libertarian lawmaker wrote on the social networking site.

On the website, Paul says “generations of Liberty loving kids have grown up here” — including his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — and for $325,000 “you can continue the tradition.”

“A great house and a great piece of history. Dr. Paul’s house is for sale in Lake Jackson, TX. The house has 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and is approximately 5,500 sq. ft in size.

There is a great in-ground swimming pool, great landscaping, 2 lofts, an office with built in shelving. The same home-office Dr. Paul used for 42 years,” the website continues.

Pictures on the website show the “great in-ground swimming pool” is equipped with a slide. The listing also boasts the residence is just 50 minutes from Houston and 10 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico’s Surfside Beach.

Paul, 75, who ran as a Libertarian presidential candidate in 1988 and as a Republican in the 2008 White House campaign, may still have his eye on that prime piece of Washington real estate in 2012.  He just set up a committee for a possible 2012 presidential bid, and has been travleing to Iowa and New Hampshire.

According to the Real Clear Politics average of recent national polls, Paul places sixth in a hypothetical field of Republican candidates.

With an average 6.6 percent support, he trails former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

If you like contemporary architecture, check out this guy’s website, where he has a number of houses and projects displayed.  

Here’s a remodel of an old house situated in the Northern part of South Africa.  It doesn’t look like it would cost that much to build, and you get a stylish indoor-outdoor experience.  Note the pool in bottom-right of the first photo:

Click on these to enlarge:

From cnbc.com

The White House

From Jane Wells at cnbc.com

In the 1973 comedy classic, “Sleeper”, Woody Allen’s character, Miles Monroe, wakes up 200 years in the future to discover that mankind has regressed into an “inept totalitarian state”.

Things are kinda rough a mere 37 years after 1973, and now the home made famous in that film for its spaceship design is in foreclosure. If you’ve ever driven on I-70 west of Denver you’ve seen the home on the south side of the highway, way up on a ridge.

It can now be yours.

The home was bought in 2006 by businessman Michael Dunahay from another local entrepreneur, John Huggins, for $3.43 million. Dunahay is about $171,000 behind on his payments, and the holder of the note, Bayview Loan Servicing, is planning a foreclosure sale next month. An earlier sale planned for October 6 was postponed. This is not the first time Bayview has moved to foreclose on Dunahay. It filed paperwork to do so last year, but withdrew.

Back in January 2006, I interviewed Huggins, the previous owner, who had bought the house for under $2 million:

From the SFGate:

When the 39th governor of California takes office in Sacramento next year, there will be no place to lay a pillow for his or her head, no place to plug in a toaster and no place to hang a picture.

Like every other working stiff, he or she will have to go house hunting.

Not since 1967, when the Reagans moved out of the once official governor’s dwelling — which they considered a firetrap in an undesirable part of town — has there been a permanent home for the state’s chief executive. That Italianate mansion was turned into a museum and would need extensive repairs to make it livable for any future governors. Many agree that it’s not worth the expense — a tone set by Jerry Brown in 1975, when he was elected governor (he’s running again for the office against Meg Whitman in the November election). Brown was adamant: Providing a home for the state’s top dog is an extravagance California can’t afford.

Californians weren’t always so frugal. Long before the state went broke, long before its unemployment rate was the third-highest in the nation and rampant foreclosures topped the news, governors were housed in style.

Read the rest of this entry »

We toured the Spacestation in CV, which showed the potential of contemporary architecture, but left us hanging - and hoping for better examples.

The Division Knoll Residence in Big Sur, California was designed by Sagan Piechota Architecture.

Elemental in nature – walls of glass, floors of stone, supports of concrete, a roof of copper – “it’s not really about the architecture itself, but more about the architecture as a vessel for looking at the view,” says Daniel Piechota.

Because of the simplicity of materials, it’s almost an invisible structure. There are certain angles where you’re pretty much looking through the house, and you almost don’t see it.

Click on thumbnails below for full size:

Marilyn Monroe’s old house in Brentwood just sold for 7% over list price.

“Urged by her psychiatrist to ‘put down roots,’ she had found the house and bought it—all by herself. She had liked the house and took a trip to Mexico to look for furnishings and fabrics. She especially liked the garden, where she often played with her poodle, Maf.”   According to the Marilyn Monroe Memories web site, “This was the first property that Marilyn Monroe ever owned. She took out a mortgage which started on 1st March 1962, was for 15 years, and Marilyn made monthly payments of $320. The house was situated at the end of a small cul-de-sac, and was very private, away from the busy roads.”

12305 5TH HELENA Dr Los Angeles, CA

MLS remarks: Sprawling & very special authentic 1929 Hacienda situated behind tall gates at the end of a quiet cul de sac on over 23K sq ft (per assessor) of tree-filled grounds. The crown jewel & largest property of all the Helenas (one of Brentwood’s most romantic & coveted locations) affording lovely vistas & grt privacy & seclusion yet in close proximity to San Vicente shops & restaurants & the Sunday Farmer~s Market. Thick walls, traditional casement windows, polished concrete & terra cotta tile floors, original wood beamed ceilings & period hardware & tiles create a warm, inviting & unique environment. French doors open to private courtyard, expansive grassy yard, pool, citrus grove & beautiful setting. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths + formal living room, family room, office, pool-side game room & separate children~s play house. Sun-filled cook~s kitchen opens to spacious courtyard garden. Wonderful charm & great architecture inside & out. Magical property in the finest Brentwood neighborhood.

Some of the sales history:

1962: $90,000

1994: $995,000

1996: $925,009

2010: $3,850,000  (LP = $3,595,000)

From the WSJ:

In what might be labeled a fire sale, J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has chopped the asking price for his Chicago home by more than 25%.

We’ve previously written about Mr. Dimon’s trouble selling the regal 13,500-square-foot home with eight-bedrooms and nine-bathrooms. Several years ago, Mr. Dimon was asking $13.5 million, but it was priced at $9.5 million earlier this year. Now, it’s $6.95 million. Mr. Dimon can still come out ahead: He paid $4.68 million in 2000.

“They’re trying to make a bold move to get ahead of the market,” says Jim Kinney, vice president of luxury sales for Baird & Warner, a residential brokerage in Chicago. “This time next year, that house is not going to be on the market. They’re going to find whatever it takes to get it sold.”

The home built in 1870 boasts a chef’s kitchen, a workout room that includes a steam room, a rooftop terrace and staff quarters. But be warned: The listing pictures were taken when the house was furnished. Mr. Dimon hasn’t lived there since 2004 when he relocated to Manhattan after the J.P. Morgan Chase’s merger with Bank One, where he had been chairman and CEO.

more photos: http://www.luxist.com/gallery/25-east-banks/3186049/