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.

Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, is buying Trump’s mansion in Palm Beach through one of his investment companies, according to the Wall Street Journal’s article today.  The  anticipated sale, reputed to be about $100 Million, will set a record for a Palm Beach residence. The purchaser is rumored to be tearing down Trump’s 33,000 square foot mansion. Obviously the value is in the 6.5 acres with 475 feet of frontage on the Atlantic Ocean. Too bad Trump didn’t save the costs of his cosmetic renovations and sell it when the market was hotter 2 years ago. He might have sold it faster if he’d torn the house down instead of renovating it – it wouldn’t be the first time that happened in Palm Beach.

In St. Petersburg (Florida, not Russia), we’re finding that the value is often in the waterfront lot and the house is just a bonus. Here, too, homes are being purchased and torn down so that new homes that meet the buyers desires can be built there.

For information on prime waterfront teardowns, as well as desirable homes, contact The Simms Team at RE/MAX Metro.

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

Ovation, the newest luxury condominium in downtown St Petersburg, Florida, is rising every week. It’s currently at the 19th floor, heading toward its total of 27 stories. These large, luxurious residences are just two to a floor, so you get sunrise and sunset views. The top four floors are "penthouse" units, one per floor.

Completion is expected in 2009, and Ovation will be THE place to live. Located at the southwest corner of Beach Drive and 2nd Ave N (which continues out into Tampa Bay to The Pier), there’s city on one side and parks and waterfront on the other.

Just across the park is the St Petersburg Yacht Club and the St Petersburg City Marina, so you have options for keeping your boat only "a walk in the park" away.

Most of the residences are already contracted, but it’s not too late – for more information and buyer representation, contact The Simms Team of RE/MAX Metro at (727-896-1800 x 112)

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.

The Sun reports that a record contract is in the making for £117,000,000 (approximately $231,000,000.00) on Billionaire’s Row in London. Lakshmi Mittal, who already owns a home nearby, is said to be close to purchasing this home for his son. Mittal, for the record, denies being the buyer.

A  Belleair home sold last week  for $10,250,000 sets a new record for a single family home in Pinellas County, Florida. Many of the homes in this exclusive area south of Clearwater date back to the 1920s but this home was built in 2001. It has just under 13,000 sq ft and has nearly 2 acres on the bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor. The most expensive property listed in Pinellas County is $19,900,000 and there are two other homes listed at $10 Million or above. Contact The Simms Team at RE/MAX Metro for additional information.

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.

Isn’t it interesting that top 2007 earner, John Paulson, earned much of his $3.7 billion last year by betting that real estate loans were going to plummet. Robert Trigeaux reported in Friday’s St Petersburg Times that Alpha magazine has been publishing the top hedge fund earnings since 2002. In 2007 four other hedge fund managers earned over $1 Billion!

In the last 5 years the income needed to make the top 25 earners increased twelve-fold, from $30 Million to $360 million. Annual earnings of $200 Million didn’t even make the top 50.

Generally I write about record home sales, but since this involves a billionaire, I thought I’d share this tidbit from Reuters that I found on the internet this morning.

The record purchase was $500,000 for 27 bottles of red wine, including a dozen bottles of Romanee Conti 1978. If this Beijing billionaire is interested in a St. Petersburg home with a wine cellar, just let me know. I promise I won’t "sell and tell".

St Petersburg, Florida, like its namesake in Russia, has miles of waterfront – ours has warmer water and a warmer climate. We have homes and condominiums in many price ranges that have space for you and your wine.