View of Peninsula Papagayo from Vistas del Pacifico home

Costa Rica homes ARE selling, especially when they’re priced well. Just 3 weeks ago Tami and I were looking a properties in Costa Rica with our favorite Guanacaste real estate agent. We looked at single family homes, condos, vacant lots and land from $200,000 to over $4,000,000. We looked in Escazu near San Jose, in Manuel Antonio and Esterillos, and from Tamarindo to Peninsula Papagayo. This one was my favorite, in a hillside gated community  in Playa Panama, and offered at $1,350,000 furnished. It wasn’t the biggest or most expensive and it wasn’t the smallest or least expensive, but as Goldilocks said, it was JUST right. 4,000 sq ft of classic architecture, intricate detailing, charming gardens and balustrade-lined terraces overlooking Bahia Culebra – an infinity edge pool, hand painted walls and decor from around the world.  Alas, my dream was shattered when Mike told me earlier this week that “my home” was under contract to someone else.

Recent real estate activity in London shows that neither very high-end properties nor London properties are immune to price-drops. Even though prices were still increasing this summer, in the last 90 days London prices on homes above $15 Million have dropped by about 7.5%

Luxury Real Estate Market Update – Pinellas County Florida – October 2008
St. Petersburg, Florida
In October, only 3 single family homes sold in Pinellas County Florida for over $1,000,000. 2 of these were in the $1-2 Million range, and the other one sold between $2 and $3 Million. There are currently 527 homes on the market, and based on October sales, there is a 176 month supply of homes on the market. That’s really skewed by the low sales – if you look at 8 homes going under contract in October, that changes to a 66 month supply. We started the year with a 99 month supply and the current inventory has decreased about 9% since last year.  We had less than half as many homes go to contract as a year ago – a reflection of the uncertainly of our economy.

7 luxury condos sold for over $1 Million in October in Pinellas County Florida, a number we haven’t seen since spring.  4 of them were new condos, 1 at Redington Shores Yacht and Tennis Club, 1 at Sunburst Cove, 1 at 400 Beach and 1 at Sandpearl. Based on September sales, there is a 36 month supply of luxury condos. Some of the new developments were selling as low as 82% of list price, yet the sale at Sandpearl Residences by JMC Development was at full price. I think this is evidence that Mike Cheezem, president of JMC, utilizes focus groups and listens to his clients and prospects. It’s also evidence of the quality he builds and how he stands behind his projects.

One of the new listings coming to market in October is a gulffront home on Redington Beach. With 7,254 sq ft, this 6 year old home has 120 feet of sand-duned gulf frontage, about 1/2 acre of land, and is offered for $11 Million. You’ll enjoy the Florida waterfront even more with the soaring cypress ceilings in the living room, which overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.

PRESS RELEASE

Immediate release

Contact: Sharon Simms, RE/MAX Metro  (727) 896-1800

Russian billionaire’s purchase of French villa sets new world record for most expensive home — $750 million!

Most expensive home on the market in Pinellas County is listed at $16,999,000 in Tarpon Springs

Most expensive home on the market in Hillsborough County is listed at $25,000,000 in Tampa

August 11, 2008 — The market for the average priced U.S. residence may be soft, but the über rich (especially the Russians) continue to drive prices up at the very top of the world’s luxury market.  Case in point — Villa Léopolda, one of the most historic estates on the French Côte d’Azur, is now under contract by an anonymous Russian billionaire for $750 million (€500m).  This three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar sales price sets a new record for the most expensive home sale in the world. The previous record was set earlier this year by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, with the reported purchase of a London home for his son for an estimated $236 million. 

“While the French Villa is a fabulous property, this sale does put into perspective the value U.S. properties represent,” said Sharon Simms (www.ssimms.com ), a luxury home expert with RE/MAX Metro in St. Petersburg.  “The most expensive residences on the market locally are listed for just $16,999,000 in Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County and $25 Million in Tampa in Hillsborough County.Both of these homes have between 28,000 and 29,000 sq ft. The record residential sale in the Tampa Bay area was in May of this year, a 13,000 sq ft waterfront home in Belleair that sold for $10,250,000.

Villa Léopolda, a cream-colored, turreted mansion with two guest houses, is midway between Monaco and Nice overlooking Cap Ferrat, near Villefranche-sur-Mer.  The villa was originally built about 1902 by King Leopold II of Belgium. The grounds are regarded as among the most spectacular on the Côte d’Azur.  Fifty full-time gardeners look after 20 acres of gardens and terraces, planted with 1,200 olive, orange, lemon and cypress trees.

The property’s new owner is said to be a Russian oil oligarch but not – despite initial rumors – Roman Abramovich, the highly visible owner of Chelsea Football Club, who already owns a €100m mansion near Antibes.

According to the Nice-Matin newspaper, a contract was signed last week to transfer ownership of the villa from Lily Safra, the widow of Edmond Safra, a murdered banking billionaire.  Rumor has it that Mrs. Safra held out for months as the persistent mystery buyer kept raising his offering price.  The paper also reported that 60 villas or mansions on Cap Ferrat are now owned by wealthy Russians.  

The property has a unique history.  In 1916, King Leopold’s nephew and heir, King Albert I, turned the villa into a hospital for officers wounded during the First World War. It later passed into the hands of the Agnelli family – Fiat automotive tycoons — and became the scene in the 1960s for legendary jet-set parties attended by Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan (in his acting days) and other celebrities.

“This sale raises the bar and makes the half dozen or so $100 million U.S. properties on the market seem like bargains,” said Laurie Moore-Moore, Founder of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (www.LuxuryHomeMarketing.com), a US-based organization which trains real estate agents who work in the luxury market and awards the international Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist designation.  “Today’s affluent are citizens of the world and the successful luxury agent must know how to reach them and what lifestyles they are seeking. It’s an exciting and active market for agents at the top.”

Sharon Simms is a member of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. She and her daughter, Tami Simms, are also trainers for the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

Luxury Market Update – June 2008 – Pinellas County, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida … July 7, 2008

May was a hard month to follow, with its record high priced sale at $10,250,000. May also had the highest number of monthly single family luxury sales (over $1 Million) this year. June is less on both counts, but still the second highest number this year. The number of luxury condo sales also decreased, partly due to the season and partly due to the new building closings. What’s more relevant, though, is the number of properties going to contract.

As you can see, recent sales have favored resale condos rather than new ones.

There is less luxury inventory now in Pinellas County than in any month this year, both in single family and in condos.

In the fall of 2005 when I sold a waterfront property listed at $4,250,000 it was a record high sale – keeping in mind of course that custom homes built by their current owners never were "sold" and generally appear on the public records only at the lot price, since the construction is a contract between owner and builder. Buyers always wonder if they’ve bought too high (just as sellers wonder if they’ve bought too low).

Despite a "declining market" the past few years, 5 additional homes have sold for higher prices, two of them selling over $5 Million. One of those two, a historic property, was not a tear down, but was certainly a complete restoration – I think construction crews were working there for 2 years, but oh, what a beauty it is now.

Snell Isle currently has five waterfront homes listed over $4,000,000 with the highest price being $6,900,000 for a 7,000+ sq ft home built in 2007.

Snell Isle has curving streets, mature landscaping, and a wonderful variety of homes, some dating back to the 1920s and some currently under construction. Neighbors walk or jog along the streets before dawn and again at dusk. It’s a peaceful area with character, and yet is just 5-10 minutes from downtown St. Petersburg. Some of the homes have a view of the downtown St Pete skyline.

For information on any Snell Isle homes, Contact The Simms Team.

p.s. in this "declining market" Pinellas County recently had a record sale of a waterfront home at over $10 Million.

The latest Luxury Market Update for Pinellas County, Florida has been posted. Here are some highlights from that report:

• Record home sale in Belleair at $10,250,000.
• Inventory on luxury single family homes in Pinellas County is dropping
• Number of luxury home sales is increasing in Pinellas County

High net worth households are increasing in St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay. IXI Corporation defined high net worth households, for this comparison, as households with at least $3 million in assets. and the increase in these households in Saint Petersburg/Clearwater/Tampa is as follows, according to a summary of the IXI statistics by the Tampa Bay Business Journal:

2006:  8,285 households with over $63 Billion in assets.

2007: 10,724 households with over $78 Billion in assets.

In that one year alone, the number of high net worth households increased by nearly 30% and the assets increased by nearly 24%. It’s no wonder that more private banks and wealth management divisions are targeting the Tampa Bay area and not just in the big cities – Belleair (a town of 4,067 people, just south of Clearwater) was an early site for Northern Trust Bank and US Trust is currently building an office there.

Sales at the upper end of the Tampa Bay residential market are doing well. In the last 5 months there have been three sales in the $5 – 6 Million range and four sales in the $4 – 5 Million range:

$5,600,000     Tierra Verde (St Petersburg) waterfront home 9,404 sq ft

$5,600,000     Harbour Island (Tampa) waterfront home  8,601 sq ft

$5,000,000     Belleair Beach gulf front home  6,664 sq ft

$4,825,000     Palma Ceia golf course home  15,743 sq ft

$4,600,000     Sandpearl condominium (Clearwater  Beach)  5,283 sq ft

$4,400,000    Sandpearl condominium (Clearwater Beach)

$4,300,000     Bayway Isles waterfront home (St Petersburg)  7,028 sq ft

There are approximately 70 properties currently listed over $4,000,000 in the Tampa Bay area. The highest price is $19,900,000.

Sharon’s Luxury Market Report for luxury properties in Pinellas County has been posted.  The number of single family homes sold over $1 Million increased by 50% in February over January – but there’s still a big selection for buyers. Condo sales over $1 Million continue, and are primarily in new buildings that have recently been completed, so many of the condo went to contract two or more years ago.