Replacing Larry King

By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch


NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Who should replace Larry King, who announced Tuesday evening that he'd step down after 25 years of hosting a popular talk show on CNN?

This will (temporarily) shove aside speculating about LeBron James's future as America's favorite parlor game.

Time Warner Inc.'s /quotes/comstock/13*!twx/quotes/nls/twx (TWX 29.41, -0.22, -0.74%) CNN has two options for filling the high-profile 9:00 p.m. timeslot: Katie Couric or somebody else.

If Couric, the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" /quotes/comstock/13*!cbs/quotes/nls/cbs (CBS 13.27, +0.02, +0.15%) since 2006, wants to stake a claim to King's position, the job is hers. Couric, ironically, would bring to the job what critics have said she lacked in her current one: gravitas, the ever-elusive quality that connotes credibility. Read earlier Media Web column who should inherit Larry King's timeslot.

Katie Couric and Larry King

Couric is acknowledged as one of television news's most exceptional interviewers, witnessed by her tough-but-fair performance with Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign. While Couric has not been able to galvanize viewers for CBS at 6:30 p.m., she'd probably have no trouble maintaining the accumulated momentum from King's winning offering all these years.

Then again, it might turn out that Couric isn't quite ready to throw in the towel at CBS. She may decide to stay where she is, for a while, and then pursue another opportunity in broadcasting. Couric may conclude that CNN's recently announced 8:00 p.m.lead-in -- disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer and Pulitzer Prize winner Kathleen Parker -- is not promising enough to attract an audience.

The successor to King will be counting heavily on the new Spitzer-Parker amalgamation to deliver big numbers, where their predecessor, traditional TV news reporter-turned-anchor Campbell Brown, couldn't. Brown resigned after failing to find a meaningful audience at the 8:00 slot.

If Couric decided to reject CNN, who might be next in line?

Here are some possibilities:

Dennis Miller: Miller, the former "Weekend Update" anchor on NBC's Saturday Night Live" /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 14.57, +0.09, +0.59%) could grab an audience by its lapels. He has a stinging wit and is at ease in the interviewer's chair.

Anderson Cooper: Cooper, who holds down CNN's 10:00 p.m. slot now would probably welcome an opportunity to try something new. CNN in turn might be pleased to give him an opportunity to grow and stretch his ability.

CNN also has the option of embracing King's departure -- which was long-rumored in the media and in the television industry -- and taking the hour in an entirely new direction.

CNN could create a different kind of talk show, one that veers more toward its bread and butter of politics and de-emphasizes the kind of tabloid fodder that had played a substantial role in King's conversations with guests.

It's possible that the show could originate from Washington and encompass primarily the vortex between politics, Wall Street and popular culture.

CNN could have a rotating roster of hosts, too, and not tie itself down to one person.

Perhaps CNN will try to make the shows more newsy and concentrate on the big breaking news headlines of the day.

CNN's biggest problem is that it will have no time break in a replacement and hope for the best. This time slow is too precious to the network to take a chance on a newcomer or an unfamiliar concept.

The influential bloggers will be making judgments on day one -- and they will probably stick with the public. CNN has to make the right bet, right away.

Jon Friedman is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in New York.

Hill and McGraw Sell Home for $9.55 Million

By CANDACE JACKSON


Singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have sold their Beverly Hills, Calif., home for $9.55 million. The home, in Beverly Park, was originally listed in 2008 for $14.8 million, and later cut to $10.8 million.

The 11,000-square-foot house, on three acres, has six bedrooms and eight baths, and expansive views of downtown Los Angeles. The Mediterranean-style home has a large master suite with his and hers bathrooms and comes with a fitness center, gardens and a pool.

Singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have sold their Mediterranean-style home in Beverly Hills, Calif., for $9.55 million.

.Ms. Hill's hit pop and country songs include "This Kiss." Her husband has sold more than 40 million albums, and his hits include "I Like It, I Love It." Both have also appeared in films. In the sale, Marisa Zanuck of Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills represented both seller and buyer, whose identity couldn't be learned.

Dennis Miller Lists

Comedian and television-radio personality Dennis Miller has listed his Montecito, Calif., estate for $17.5 million.

The home was designed in 1895 by Stanford White, who designed the Washington Square Arch in New York. The Millers' 3.76-acre property includes a 10,000-square-foot main house with nine bedrooms and a second, smaller house on the property, built in 1917, with two more bedrooms.

The estate, a five-minute drive from the ocean, includes a pool, a tree house, a sunken trampoline and a tennis court. Mr. Miller and his wife bought the main house in 1993, according to public records. It was restored in 1994 and renovated again in 2002. Mr. Miller hosts a three-hour daily radio show and appears as a commentator on Fox News. Susan Burns of Coldwell Banker Previews International in Montecito has the listing.

James Patterson Sells

Thriller writer James Patterson has sold his Palm Beach, Fla., home for $10.3 million to Robert Greenhill, Greenwich, Conn.-based founder and chairman of Greenhill & Co., an investment banking advisory firm. Mr. Patterson originally listed the property for $14.95 million in November and bought it for $5.2 million in 1999.

The nearly 11,000-square-foot colonial plantation-style house has five bedrooms and 7½ baths. The house has a heated pool and a boat dock, along with 136 feet of waterfront on the Intercoastal Waterway. The 1955 home was expanded in 1993.

Mr. Patterson's more than 60 novels have sold 200 million copies world-wide; "Private," which he wrote with Maxine Paetro, is to be released later this month. Mr. Patterson says he decided to sell because he found a new place "with massive windows on the ocean," which he bought last summer for $17.45 million. Betsey Hall of Fite Shavell & Associates represented buyer and seller in both transactions.

Write to Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com

Music Veteran Mottola Asks $27.5 Million for Ranch

By JULIET CHUNG


Music-industry veteran Tommy Mottola is asking $27.5 million for his 324-acre ranch near Aspen, Colo.

Mr. Mottola's ranch.

The former chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment—who has worked with artists including Bruce Springsteen, his former wife Mariah Carey and Billy Joel—bought the property for $14.7 million in 2003. With a child starting school and other homes in Palm Beach, Greenwich, Conn., and New York, Mr. Mottola says he's selling because he's spending less time on the ranch these days.

The compound has a five-bedroom log cabin-style main home decorated in a Western theme. There are also two guest houses with four bedrooms in all. Mr. Mottola, 59, speaking of the moment he and his wife, the Mexican singer Thalia, decided to buy the ranch, said: "We sat in the backyard and we looked at the mountains and said, 'That's it.'" It's in Wildcat Ranch, the luxury development the actor Michael Douglas helped develop in the 1990s.

Joshua Saslove of Joshua &. Co., a Christie's Great Estates affiliate, has the listing. Mr. Mottola now runs Mottola Co., which includes a music division. He still owns land in the Aspen area.

David Siegel’s Unfinished Mansion Raises the Bar on Excess

The housing boom in Florida certainly fueled it share of excess. Our new favorite: David Siegel’s Versailles, an unfinished 90,000-square-foot home in the Orlando area that boasts 13 bedrooms, 23 full bathrooms, a 6,000-square-foot master suite (with plans in place for a bed on a rotating platform), a banquet kitchen plus 10 satellite kitchens, a 20-car garage, three pools, a two-story wine cellar and a grand hall with a 30-foot stained glass dome.

Mr. Siegel, the chief executive officer of Orlando-based Westgate Resorts, began building the sprawling, resort-like mega mansion for himself and his family in the town of Windermere a few years ago. “Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Mr. Siegel’s once-booming industry,” according to the AP. The unfinished home is now listed for $75 million. If you want the building completed, tack on another $25 million.

Mr. Siegel could not be reached for comment.

Of course, a home doesn’t get named after a French palace without a few more gilded extras. There’s also a boat house, formal gardens, a baseball field, two tennis courts and a rock grotto with a waterfall, a fitness center, a two-lane bowling alley, a roller rink, a video arcade and a theater.

“Instead of putting [his extra money] into this home, he’s putting it back into the company to save the employees,” says listing agent of Lorraine Barrett of Coldwell Banker, noting that Mr. Siegel has had to cut some of his 12,000 employees at Orlando-based Westgate Resorts. Ms. Barrett says Mr. Siegel currently lives in a 26,000-square-foot home in the nearby Isleworth community, which Tiger Woods also calls home. (It’s no Versailles, but we suppose it’ll do.)

Westgate Resorts

A rendering of the finished home.Though construction has largely halted on Versailles for now, Ms. Barrett says the home, which she describes as being “built like a hotel,” could be completed within 12 to 18 months, if a buyer sticks with Mr. Siegel’s original plans. Changing them would extend the building process.

Ms. Barrett speculates a potential buyer would likely have several children, as well as an estate manger, nannies, a cook and extended family living with them. Inquiries, she says, are coming in from areas like Russia and the Middle East.

Mr. Siegel’s Versailles is not the only mega mansion on the market with a mega price tag. Richard Kurtz, who runs Kamson Corporation, a New Jersey Firm that owns and manages apartments across the Northeast, earlier this month listed a 30,000-square-foot home in Alpine, N.J., for $68 million. That five-story home has 12 bathrooms, 19 bedrooms, a library, a ballroom, a main kitchen, a catering kitchen, a basketball court, a movie theater and an 11-car garage. Set to be completed this summer, it will also have a saline pool and a tennis court.

The current record holder for the most expensive sale this year is a 3,500-acre Colorado ranch that Texas energy executive Kelcy Warren bought for $46.5 million in April. Pending is the sale of a 48,000-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood for around $50 million.

Buying a Home in a Down Market

Coldwell Banker CEO and fellow Blue Matter blogger, Jim Gillespie, sat down with ABCNews today to talk about the advantages of buying a home in today’s real estate market.

Watch the full interview in the video below:

Disney Targets the Affluent

June 23, 2010

The company is planning a luxury vacation-home development in Disney World in Florida. Vacant lots go on sale this week.

As Hurricane Season Begins, Insurance Gets Harder to Find .

By M.P. MCQUEEN


From the Gulf oil spill and the floods in Arkansas and Oklahoma to the procession of hurricanes forecast for this year, the stage is set for major property damage in 2010.

A house rests atop a car in Lake Charles, La., after Hurricane Rita—then a Category 3 storm—landed in September 2005.

Yet people looking to bolster their homeowners-insurance protection are likely to find that premiums are pricier, and extra coverage is harder to get, than ever before.

Government and private forecasters are predicting an active hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. But insurers are selling fewer policies, raising premiums and reducing or dropping wind coverage as far north as Massachusetts, insurance industry spokesmen and agents say.

"The average price of a homeowner policy on Long Island is above $2,000 a year now, and five years ago it was probably half that," says Thomas J. Crowley, an independent insurance agent in Southampton, N.Y. "My own policy has doubled in five years to over $3,000 a year."

Of particular concern this hurricane season: flood damage. Storm surges could bring polluted floodwaters from the oil spill in the Gulf, potentially affecting property owners from Louisiana to Cape Hatteras, N.C.

But standard homeowners' policies generally don't cover pollution damage resulting from a flood; only supplemental flood insurance does. "In general, whatever is mixed in with the water is part of the flood, hence excluded from a [traditional] homeowner policy," says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry nonprofit group.

Finding Flood Coverage

Only one in five homes in a high-risk flood zone carries flood insurance—and new coverage is getting increasingly difficult to find. Congress hasn't yet extended the National Flood Insurance Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and provides the vast majority of flood policies in the U.S., after it expired on June 1.

As a result, no new NFIP policies and renewals are being issued. The handful of private companies that issue flood insurance for high-end properties continue to do so.

Congress's failure to extend the flood insurance program is delaying an estimated 1,200 real-estate closings a day across the U.S., according to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. Federal law requires homes with federally backed mortgages in flood-hazard areas to have flood insurance.

The House has passed an extension bill, and federal officials say they believe Congress will reauthorize the program eventually. New policies would likely be retroactive—but there is a 30-day waiting period after a policy is approved before it takes effect. So insurance experts urge homeowners who need flood insurance to apply now despite the hiatus.

The average flood-insurance premium is about $570 a year for a $217,000 policy, according to FEMA, but it rises to $2,000 for $187,500 of coverage in areas of high storm-surge risk. (For more information, go to www.floodsmart.gov.)

People with high-end homes—generally those valued at more than $500,000—often have an easier time finding insurance, but usually must pay handsomely for it. Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, or PURE, sells so-called high-value coverage in 14 states. ACE Ltd., Chubb Corp., Allianz SE's Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. unit and the Private Client Group at Chartis, the property-casualty unit of American International Group Inc., offer it too, though some sharply limit policies in high-risk areas, or insure only recently built or second homes.

Such firms offer special coverage not generally available elsewhere. Many carriers sell excess flood insurance above the NFIP's $250,000 limit. Some also sell personal flood policies with high loss limits like $15 million, though generally outside of high-risk zones.

Specialist Referrals

Some firms, including Chubb and Fireman's Fund, also provide referrals to a network of experts with discounted services, including arborists who can help identify weak trees and shore them up before storms hit. They also may offer assistance in taking inventory of valuables and evacuating fine art and antiques. Chartis recently introduced the services of its Hurricane Protection Unit to Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and Nantucket, Mass.

But these insurance policies cost an average of 20% to 25% more than those in the general market, brokers say—and prices are rising. Hub International, the big broker, expects premium spikes of 8% nationally, with double-digit increases in some coastal areas and 5% inland. One high-value home insurer recently told agents it will raise premiums in Florida by 14%, although its rates will drop for condo owners and renters. (Florida, Texas and Louisiana residents pay the highest premiums, according to the Insurance Information Institute.)

Dos and Don'ts

When examining or comparing insurance policies for hurricane-related coverage, it is important to make sure that you have enough insurance to rebuild fully after a disaster. Check your policy limits to make sure they have kept pace with additions and upgrades; insured values reflect rebuilding costs, not the market value.

Be sure to distinguish between "extended replacement cost," coverage that pays a percentage above the policy limit, and "guaranteed replacement cost," which pays whatever it costs to replace insured property with like materials—an important distinction for historical and custom homes.

Also, scrutinize policy deductibles and exclusions. In 18 states and the District of Columbia, home insurance policies now have wind, beach or hurricane deductibles that are separate from the standard dollar deductibles that apply for fire and other perils.

Depending on the insurer and state, hurricane and wind deductibles generally run from 1% to 5% of the home's insured value. The owner of a $1 million home could pay a minimum of $10,000 for repairs before the insurer pays the first dollar for hurricane damage. Also, in some coastal counties, homeowners may have to buy wind coverage separately from special pools. (See www.iii.org for more information.)

Emergency Expenses

Next, look for how your home insurance policy treats emergency living expenses, in case you are displaced. And choose coverage from a company that has received top financial-strength ratings from one of the financial-ratings firms, which include Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

Spending for quality coverage can pay off when disaster strikes, says Chari Hust, 55 years old, of Houston. Ms. Hust, a registered nurse, and her husband, Bob, 57, a cardiologist, suffered major damage on their primary and vacation homes in Sept. 2008, when Hurricane Ike pounded eastern Texas. The Husts' second home, on Lake Livingston, outside Houston, had much of its roof blown off, exposing all the contents to wind-driven rain.

"We had to rip it down to the studs and get rid of the sheet rock and everything else," Ms. Hust says. "It was like entirely rebuilding the house."

Her insurer, Chubb, paid about $400,000 in claims on that house, which was insured for more than $600,000. Her primary home in Houston flooded, triggering a $64,000 claim under the National Flood Insurance Program as well as a $140,000 claim for other damage under her Chubb home policy.

Ms. Hust says that unlike some of her neighbors, she and her husband had no problems settling claims. "You may pay more," she says, "but if you have a catastrophe, it is worth having the right insurance."

Nadal redo at Wimbledon?

Spaniard Rafael Nadal is hoping to follow French Open win with another Grand Slam title in Britain.

“Toy Story 3″ Numbers Are Better Than They Look

The “Toy Story 3″ numbers are better than they look. Initial estimates are that the Pixar movie, distributed by Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), brought in $109 million in box office receipts. That does not include money that came in from its international release which some guesses put as high as $50 million.


“Toy Story” reportedly only cost $75 million to make. There are additional marketing expenses, but the entire cost to launch the film is likely to be under $100 million.

The “Toy Story” franchise is one of a modest number of “dual franchise” films. Sales of the action figures and other brand items could come close to matching the income from box office receipts. Let’s not forget that the movie will eventually come out on DVD and VOD.

All of those figures need to be compared with what the “big bang” movies cost to make. The expenses for the last “Transformer” film were $150 million before marketing costs. Fortunately, the movie did well. But very few movies are in the same league as “Toy Story” when it comes to margins. More animated films are being released than ever, or its seems that way with all the “Shrek” and “Up” movies. That’s not surprising given that people are looking to escape the dreary economy and Hollywood will gladly give the people what they want.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Tesla Motors: IPO Fueled By Glamour

By BRETT ARENDS




Tesla Motors Inc. is a company high on glamour. The automaker, which Tuesday scheduled its initial public offering for June 29, makes "green" sports cars that run on electric power. They certainly draw the eye: Walking down Fifth Avenue last summer I met a crowd in suits cooing over one like schoolboys. The cars are not cheap: They start at more than $100,000 each.

Meanwhile company founder and chief executive Elon Musk, age 38, has been in and out of the news. He founded PayPal before selling it to eBay in 2002. He also runs rocket company Space Exploration Technologies and is chairman of solar power business SolarCity. He's engaged to British actress Talulah Riley. Director Jon Favreau recently told Time magazine Elon Musk was among the inspirations for the high-tech entrepreneur played by Robert Downey Jr. in those mindless Iron Man movies.

But as investors have learned the hard way over the years, glamour and excitement are not the same as a sound investment. Indeed the reverse is more often the case.

So should you strap yourself into this zippy little investment vehicle, or stay on the sidewalk?

Let's pop the hood.

Workers assembly a Tesla Roadster at their showroom in Menlo Park, Calif. in 2008.

The company Tuesday put its likely offer price at $14 to $16 a share. At the $15 mid-point,Tesla would be valued at $1.4 billion. That's quite a price for a company that has only existed for a few years and has never turned a penny of profit.

When the company awarded millions of stock options to Mr. Musk and other insiders as recently as December, it thought the fair price for those was just $6.63. As recently as March, when it awarded yet more options, the fair price was $9.96. Now it's $15. Who said we're in a bear market?

Sales last quarter, at $21 million, showed no gain over the first quarter of 2009–the depths of the financial crisis. Meanwhile operating expenses doubled to $30 million.

So far the company has accumulated $290 million in total losses, on $148 million in sales. It expects net losses at least until 2012.

To date, the company says, customers have driven Roadsters for an aggregate of about 4 million miles. But it also admits there are 1,063 of them on the road. That works out at about 3,800 miles per car. Admittedly most were sold just last year. But this still does not suggest active use.

Anyone betting on Tesla stock is gambling on the success of the forthcoming Model S. But Tesla itself warns that car "is at an early stage of development" and will not be in production until 2012. It adds that it has yet to finalize the design, or complete the engineering, manufacturing or component supply processes for the new car.

And they will not be cheap. The current Roadsters cost over $100,000. Tesla says the Model S, aimed at the "broader market," will cost about $50,000 –even after a $7,500 tax credit.

Even if electric cars take off, Tesla admits it is going to face tough competition. Daimler, Lexus, Audi, Renault, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Nissan and Ford are all developing electric cars of their own. The company is trying to compete by selling cars online and through its own stores: So far there are only 12.

At $15 a share, the company will raise up to $160 million in the IPO. Toyota will invest another $50 million while Tesla is spending $42 million buying a factory from a Toyota joint venture. Meanwhile insiders are cashing out about $33 million, including $21 million for Mr. Musk. That will still leave him with a stake of about $400 million.

As with most speculative stocks, with Tesla Motors you're taking a gamble. So long as you accept that's what you're doing, have fun.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

Countries with the Most Millionaires 2010

By Venessa Wong

Global Wealth Surges

As the financial markets rebounded in 2009 and developing markets continued to grow, lost wealth around the world returned. Despite the volatile global economy, many households gained or regained millionaire status last year, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group. The study finds global wealth increased 11.5 percent in 2009, to $111.5 trillion, just short of 2007 levels. When measuring assets under management—cash deposits, money market funds, listed securities, and onshore and offshore assets, but not wealth attributed to investors' own businesses, residences, or luxury goods—the U.S. continued to lead with more than 4.7 million "millionaire households," followed by Japan and China. Singapore, a country with a population of about 5.1 million, had the greatest concentration of millionaire households: 11.4 percent of the country’s total. Wealth may have returned to precrisis levels last year, but confidence has not yet. BCG expects global wealth to grow an average 6 percent annually through 2014, led by robust economies in the Asia-Pacific, but Peter Damisch, a BCG partner and a co-author of the report, says people are still hesitant about investing. Many moved assets from private banks to state-guaranteed retail banks and are still waiting for either new opportunities or new confidence to reinvest, says Damisch.

Click here to see the 20 countries with the most millionaire households.

The Coolest Beach Homes

June 17, 2010 Posted by David Marine

Beach house in Stuart, Florida

Man, I love the beach. Every summer growing up as a kid my family would head down to the Jersey shore for a week (we call the beach the shore here in NJ). Today, my family is still heading to the shore and my two boys are loving it even more than I did. So when I came across an article about the coolest beach homes in the U.S. I had to take a look.

I recently read a new CNBC article on Yahoo! that ranked America’s Coolest Beach Homes 2010. As the author so eloquently put it, “what could be a “cooler” experience than actually owning a mansion on the sand?” My thoughts exactly.

Compiled by TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, two of the five Coolest Beach Homes were Coldwell Banker listings, a post-modern home on the banks of the St. Lucie River in Stuart, Florida, and a masterpiece on the Irvine Cove section of Laguna Beach, California.

We reached out to our agents to see what it is about these homes that make them so desirable.

Esti Kadosh of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate listed the beach house featured in Stuart, Florida. Esti remarked that the listing is so magnificent because it is a contemporary home on the St. Lucie River in the Sailfish Capital of the World. Designed by famous architect & structural engineers Robert Herrick & Paul Wingler, the stunning waterfront post modern mansion is a sportsman paradise estate.

Beach house in Laguna Beach, CA

Rod Daley from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Orange County is the listing agent for the beach house featured in Laguna Beach, CA and said it was very difficult to describe such a magnificent property in a few words. To sum it up, most of the agents and prospective purchasers who have seen this home and oceanfront site literally state “This is the best oceanfront home ever offered in this part of California.” A $31 million listing tends to leave me speechless as well.

All these homes are truly remarkable. If you have an amazing beach home or one that you’re wishing for, share a link or photo in the comments below.

Is a housing shortage coming?

By Les Christie, staff writerJune 15, 2010: 2:08 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As the nation struggles to shrug off the worst housing crash since the Great Depression, it may be hard to believe a housing shortage could be on its way.

The nation is simply not building enough homes to keep up with potential demand. Just 672,000 new homes were started in April, an annualized rate and less than half the long-term run rate needed to meet the nation's natural population growth.

"It is ironic, but there is a growing consensus that there may be a new housing shortage coming," said James Gaines, a real estate economist with Texas A&M.

So far, the shortfall has been masked by a weak economy that has put a damper on home buying. Once the job market rebounds, however, people will look to have their own homes again. This pent-up demand could get unleashed on unprepared markets, causing shortages and rising local prices.

Should you rent or buy?

Household formation -- the technical term for people moving in together -- has been on hold during the past few years as young people, especially, have been unable to find jobs. In the past, an average of more than 1.3 million households were formed each year, causing demand for 1.5 million new homes. (More homes than households are needed to replace those destroyed by fires, floods, teardowns and neglect.)

In 2009, only 398,000 new households were formed, according to the Census Bureau. That is much lower than average and a quarter of the number formed just two years earlier.

"The decline in household formation is artificial," said Gaines. "The young are moving in with their parents. There's even doubling up among working class people. There's a pent-up demand coming if and when the economy recovers."

Those doubting a new bubble is near point to a large inventory overhang. As many as 7 million homes are vacant but not for sale, according to the Census Bureau, which should provide cushion to offset increased demand.

"The housing market hasn't been this way before," said Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "The gravity of the problem is deeper and the challenges different. You have to get through that inventory."

The inventory number, however, can be deceiving for two reasons: People may not want to live in hard-hit areas where the houses are (think: California exurbs and Detroit neighborhoods) or the homes may be beyond repair.

"Many of these vacant homes may not be habitable or are in locations where nobody wants to live," Gaines said.

Building out of the lows

Ordinarily, the nation's homebuilders can react quickly to meet surges in demand. But several factors are preventing them from being nimble. The biggest is the difficulty getting loans, according to Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

"When we came out of past recessions, there wasn't the difficulty of obtaining financing that there is now," he said.

Many small builders have been unable to obtain construction loans or lost their financing in mid-project. That has prodded NAHB to support federal legislation that would make $15 billion in lending guarantees available for private builders.

Hard times also persuaded builders to postpone purchases of land they could prep for future development. It will take them that much longer to gear up production once the housing market improves.

Too, many builders went out of business in the bust, so there will be fewer companies out there to do the building. The survivors will confront a transformed regulatory environment, according to Howard, that will make new homes harder to build and more expensive.

"There is an increased focus on smart growth that will create regulatory barriers to the kind of sprawling development that has characterized a lot of recent building," said Retsinas.

The regulations come under two categories, according to Susan Asmus, NAHB's senior vice president for advocacy, covering where new homes are built and how they're built.

One category is storm water runoff. The Environmental Protection Agency tightened requirement governing how builders handle that. Builders will have to install controls such as catchments or retaining ponds that slow the flow of storm runoff into the local watersheds.

"It could add as much as $15,000 to $30,000 an acre in extra costs, depending on the soil," said Asmus.

Another proposed regulation mandates sprinkler systems in each new home. This is already state law, starting January 2011, in California, Maryland and New Jersey. That adds as much as $10,000 to the cost of construction.

Where the shortages will be

Previous overbuilding one-time boom towns, such as Las Vegas and Miami, should provide enough inventory of like-new homes to counter any strong pent-up demand that breaks free.

It's the more constrained markets, where it's particularly hard to build -- such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle -- that will field the bulk of the new bubble problems, according to Retsinas. He, however, is less worried about the purchase market than about rentals, the usual entree for the young buyers expected to lead the new housing market charge.

"Nobody is building any rental inventory," said Retsinas.

Alpine Mega Mansion: Most Expensive Home, Most Expensive ZIP Code

June 3, 2010, 11:11 AM ET.Alpine Mega Mansion: Most Expensive Home, Most Expensive ZIP Code


Susan McWhinney for The Wall Street Journal

This 30,000-square-foot mansion in the Estates at Alpine in Alpine, N.J., is listed for $68 million. Forbes magazine last August named Alpine, N.J., where homes sell for a median price of $4.14 million, the most expensive ZIP code in America.

But Richard Kurtz has built a new home to top even the most lavish in this town, just a few miles outside New York City.

At 30,000 square feet, the five-story home has 12 bathrooms, 19 bedrooms, a library, a ballroom, a main kitchen, a catering kitchen, a basketball court, a movie theater and an 11-car garage. Set to be completed this summer, it will also have a saline pool and a tennis court. It also features Venetian plaster on the walls, as well as walnut and marble floors. The wine cellar holds roughly 3,500 bottles and is accessible only via thumbprint recognition software.

But instead of moving into the home, Mr. Kurtz and his wife have decided to sell it. The asking price: $68 million.

“For two people with no children at home, it’s kind of silly for us to maintain a home of this size,” says the 70-year-old Mr. Kurtz, who runs Kamson Corporation, a New Jersey firm that owns and manages apartments across the Northeast.

It’s currently the highest list price for a home in New Jersey, according to both Realtor.com and Zillow.com. And if it sells for that amount, it could set a record for the biggest sale of the year.

The current record holder for the most expensive sale this year is a 3,500-acre Colorado ranch that Texas energy executive Kelcy Warren bought for $46.5 million in April. Pending is the sale of a 48,000-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood for around $50 million.

The land the Alpine home sits on is worth about $15 million alone, says listing agent Dennis McCormack of Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty. The landscaping and stone walls are valued at about $5 million. More than 10 curved windows cost about $20,000 a piece.

Mr. Kurtz is no stranger to setting records: In 2006, he paid $58 million for the roughly 60-acre estate–the mansion is just one piece of the parcel–from the grandson of steel-industry magnate Henry Clay Frick, setting the record for the highest purchase of a property in the U.S. that year, according to Forbes. Mr. Kurtz divided the Frick estate into eight multi-acre properties in a private gated community called the Estates at Alpine.

So far, one U.S. buyer and three overseas buyers have viewed the new stone mansion, Mr. McCormack says, declining to elaborate. Also available in the Estates at Alpine are three lots (two others have sold and one is under contract for roughly $15 million). Dr. Henry Clay Frick II’s 13,000-square-foot mansion is also available for $57 million. That five-bedroom home was built in the 1930s and sits on 27 acres.

Mr. Kurtz and his wife plan to keep their roughly 10,000-square-foot home in Alpine, where they have lived for 21 years. They also recently purchased a second home, also roughly 10,000-square-feet, in Palm Beach, Fla.

Million Dollar star lists Malibu Beach home

Million Dollar Listing Star Lists Malibu Beach Home 0Published By : Marjani Clarke on Sunday, Jun 13th, 2010, 2:00 pm


Chad Rogers of the reality TV real estate show “Million Dollar Listing” has listed a home that was surrendered by victims of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scandal, according to the Huffington Post.

This Malibu, CA home was seized by Wells Fargo for $12 million, and made headlines in 2009 when a bank senior VP, Cheronda Guyton. was caught partying and residing with family at the beachfront mansion. Guyton was fired, and the home now owned by Collin Equities Inc., is listed on Realtor.com for $18 million.

4 bedroom, 4 bath Malibu, CA home listed for $18,000,000

Glass walls make for a unique experience at this mansion at the heart of the Malibu Colony. The home, built in 1990, also features gas fireplaces, a covered porch, open patio space, a spa and a steam shower. This 8,708-square foot, two-story home also comes complete with a breakfast bar, exercise room and ocean front views.

Rogers, as one of the most sought after real estate agents in Los Angeles and as a media personality for the hit Bravo TV series, also gives back and participates in many city charities including the Christopher Reeve Organization, the L.A .Food Bank and the L.A. Mission. And in 2009, he took part in the International Green Shield rooftop benefit in support of green technology to prevent natural disasters.

Under Another Tuscan Sun Best-selling author Frances Mayes renews her love affair with Italy— with another restoration

By KATE BOLICK


Cortona, Italy

Frances Mayes takes a heart-first approach to real estate—and has done well by it. In 1990, she fell in love with a tumbledown villa just outside this sleepy hill town about 70 miles southeast of Florence, and the questionable purchase and backbreaking restoration resulted in "Under the Tuscan Sun," a best seller in 1996 and later a successful film with Diane Lane.

In 2003, picking wild blackberries on a hill, Ms. Mayes and her husband spied through the brambles a dilapidated stone cottage and fell headlong all over again. Another renovation, another book. "What a lonesome beauty," she writes of the home in the final installment of her Tuscan trilogy, "Every Day in Tuscany," which has sold 83,000 copies since its publication in April.

It's not that the author needed another summer home, a mere 15-minute drive from the first (she lives the rest of the year in Hillsborough, N.C.). That one, called Bramasole ("yearning for the sun"), had proved a reliable muse, inspiring not only the trilogy but two lavishly illustrated coffee-table books and a furniture line for Drexel Heritage. During high tourist season, upwards of 200 onlookers a week flock to the villa. Ms. Mayes says she enjoys meeting the pilgrims but finds it a bit disconcerting on a Tuesday morning, drinking coffee in her nightgown, to look out the window and see a busload.

What she calls "the mountain house," however, could hardly be more remote. Built in the early 13th century by hermits who followed St. Francis of Assisi, Fonte delle Foglie—The Font of Leaves—is a humble structure set high on a peak overlooking the vast and rolling countryside. When the Mayeses found the house, it had been vacant for half a century; it was dark as a tomb, and nearly as airless. The stone roof was surprisingly intact, save for a few bald patches and a couple of holes. But one side was collapsed and the doors choked with vines and weeds. The ground floor was divided into four cramped mangers, for animals, and the top floor into four high-ceilinged rooms with two fireplaces but littered with plaster and debris.

This time around, armed with more than a decade's worth of knowledge—of the grim realities of DIY, as well as the complexities of Italian history—Ms. Mayes opted to not take on the renovation herself, but instead hire an expert. This was the man she refers to as her "Italian brother," the preservationist architect Fulvio Di Rosa.

The two met after one of Mr. Di Rosa's restoration projects had delighted Ms. Mayes. Since the 1980s, he's been buying abandoned borghi—tiny medieval villages scattered throughout the Tuscan mountains, built with stone walls so thick they give silence new meaning—and meticulously bringing them back to life. That zeal for authenticity appealed to Ms. Mayes's passion for history. "When we are together we just talk and talk—and talk," she says.

Properties in the area generally sell for about $7,000 to $12,000 per square meter (a little less than 11 square feet). The Mayeses paid $140,000 total for theirs, plus three years and hundreds of untallied receipts for the restoration (high-level projects usually run about $3,000 to $3,600 per square meter). That's not counting the old carved stone fireplaces, blacksmith-made stair rails, hand-painted cabinets, 17th-century doors, and the bocce court and bungalow they've added since. Such touches, right down to the Busatti bed linens, make the cottage feel gorgeously rustic—as luxurious as a boutique hotel, yet devoid of artifice, much like the hermit's retreat that it was.

"Of course, owning two houses in the same town is utterly bizarre," says Ms. Mayes. The couple divide their time equally between the two, even though she's constantly leaving her red cardigan at the wrong one.

To reach the mountain house, one bumps along a long, rocky dirt road, swerving to avoid potholes, parks at roof level, and descends a winding path leading to a wide, sloping lawn carved from the surrounding forest.

The restored main house and an outbuilding contain four bedrooms between them. The new bungalow is built into a slope (something only recently permitted by law) and includes a fifth bedroom suite that doubles as a workplace for this pair of writers. (Husband Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes is a poet who has published widely.)

The grounds skillfully layer wild woods and manicured landscaping, harmonizing with the mix of old and new buildings. The hills fan out below, all the way to a glimpse of Lake Trasimeno shimmering in the far distance. It feels like there's nobody on earth but the Mayeses and whichever friends they invite over for long Sundays of swimming and playing bocce—or, this summer, sampling the recipes for "The Tuscan Sun Cookbook," which Ms. Mayes will publish next year.

Borgo di Vagli property in Cortona Italy

On a recent tour, Mr. Di Rosa stopped to crouch and point to a 500-year-old crack in a floorboard, or to mirror his hand along a plaster wall's contours, its surface intentionally left slightly wavy instead of straightened into the harsh lines of modernity. His design philosophy can be summed up as "simplicity is luxury." He goes to great lengths to locate the same materials used by the original carpenters and masons—chestnut beams, terra cotta tiles—and hews as closely as possible to the original construction methods. "The more you learn of the history," he says, "the more you come to understand why the builders made the decisions they made."

This sentiment rings true for Ms. Mayes. Life at the mountain house lets her slip more completely into the country's rhythms. "In America I usually feel up against time—looking at my watch, booking appointments weeks in advance," she says. "Here time is more of a river to float on, than a current to swim against."

'We Are Totally Unprepared' Nine years after 9/11, a chilling complacency about WMD attack

'We Are Totally Unprepared' Nine years after 9/11, a chilling complacency about WMD attack

By PEGGY NOONAN

The most important overlooked story of the past few weeks was overlooked because it was not surprising. Also because no one really wants to notice it. The weight of 9/11 and all its implications is so much on our minds that it's never on our mind.

I speak of the report from the Inspector General of the Justice Department, issued in late May, saying the department is not prepared to ensure public safety in the days or weeks after a terrorist attack in which nuclear, biological or chemical weapons are used. The Department of Homeland Security is designated as first federal responder, in a way, in the event of a WMD attack, but every agency in government has a formal, assigned role, and the crucial job of Justice is to manage and coordinate law enforcement and step in if state and local authorities are overwhelmed.

So how would Justice do, almost nine years after the attacks of 9/11? Poorly. "The Department is not prepared to fulfill its role . . . to ensure public safety and security in the event of a WMD incident," says the 61-page report. Justice has yet to assign an entity or individual with clear responsibility for oversight or management of WMD response; it has not catalogued its resources in terms of either personnel or equipment; it does not have written plans or checklists in case of a WMD attack. A deputy assistant attorney general for policy and planning is quoted as saying "it is not clear" who in the department is responsible for handling WMD response. Workers interviewed said the department's operational response program "lacks leadership and oversight." An unidentified Justice Department official was quoted: "We are totally unprepared." He added. "Right now, being totally effective would never happen. Everybody would be winging it."

The Inspector General's staff interviewed 36 senior officials involved in the department's emergency response planning and summarized the finding: "It was clear that no person or entity is managing the overall Department's response activities." You could almost see them scratching their heads and saying, "No one's in charge here."

The report reminded me of the CBS News reporter who, working the overnight and monitoring the wires, saw the first report in 1957 that the Soviet Union had launched the first satellite, Sputnik. He called the rocket launch site at Cape Canaveral for a reaction. "We're all asleep here!" a rocket scientist replied, according to lore. They certainly were. A year later NASA was born.

There is one bright spot in the Inspector General's report: the FBI, which was highlighted for its organizational seriousness about WMD readiness, including holding regular exercises and training sessions, and having an actual response plan with clear lines of responsibility. All credit to the bureau.

The report was not the first of its kind. Six months ago, the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism gave both the Obama administration and Congress failing grades on preparedness for biological attack. It said, "the US is failing to address several urgent threats, especially bioterrorism." The administration soon announced it would speed up delivery of drugs that would be needed in the event of an attack.

After the Inspector General's report, Paul McHale, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania who also served as an assistant secretary of defense under George W. Bush, told the Los Angeles Times: "There is a sense of complacency that has settled in nearly a decade after Sept. 11." The paper also quoted Randall Larsen, the former executive director of the commission that gave the government low marks in January: "They just don't see the WMD scenario as most likely," he said.

They don't? They must be idiots. They must not be reading all the government reports of the past eight years, declaring terrorist attacks on U.S. soil not only likely but virtually certain. There are many reasons for this, and just one has to do with something Ronald Reagan mused about in his office 25 years ago. "Man has never had a weapon he didn't use," he said, to a handful of aides. If you develop the atom bomb, it will be used, as it was. If man, in his darkness, can develop and deploy nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, they will be used, too.

No one wants to think about it. I don't want to think about it. But you have to make plans. You have to imagine, you have to think about the worst case, and then you have to plan for it—literally. We've had enough time, nine years since our unforgettable reminder that history is, among other things, and some of them quite wonderful, a charnel house.

Our eye is off the ball. The public, in spite of what it knows in the day to day, assumes the government is on the case. And certainly the government is on the case with regard to prevention: Not being hit again since 2001 means something, and our antiterrorism professionals, intelligence and law-enforcement agents, do impressive work. In New York the past week they picked up two apparent would-be terrorists who won't be playing jihad anytime soon. But public awareness of prevention success gives the impression the government is similarly capable in terms of readiness and response.

You can see a certain air of complacency even in government websites. On the front page of the House Committee on Homeland Security site there's a picture of Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, then, below, an area devoted to something called "Business Opportunities Model" and an area for "DHS Business Opportunities." On the Homeland Security Department's website, the priorities seem equally clear: "Find Career Opportunities," "Use the Job Finder." There's little sense of urgency; it's government as employment agency, not crisis leader.

A few days before the report on the Justice Department, Henry Kissinger spoke before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favor of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. His testimony was moving—the old vet shares his anxieties for the future—and pertinent. Asked to think aloud on the foreign-policy landscape, the former national security adviser and secretary of state's thoughts turned toward the facts of the age we live in. Suicide bombers, or those who might independently use WMDs, are unlike nations: "They do not calculate in any classic way." The moment we are living in is both dramatic and uncertain. "What happens if we woke up one morning and found that 500,000 people had been killed somewhere?"

On 9/11 we were rocked but held together. In a second and more devasting attack, public safety and public unity would be infinitely more stressed. The event, having had a precursor, would be infinitely more painful. You'd think this would focus the government's mind.

We may be witnessing again a failure of imagination, the famous phrase used after 9/11 to capture why the U.S. government was caught so flatfooted and was so stunned that such a terrible thing could occur. They neglected to think of the worst thing that could happen, and so of course they did not plan for it. If agencies within the government now are having a second failure of imagination, it is not forgivable. We're not being asked to imagine a place we've never been, after all, we're only being asked to imagine where we've been, and how it could be worse, and plan for it.

For U.S. team, World Cup success is hard to define - MarketWatch

By Nathaniel E. Baker, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- In 1998, U.S. Soccer drafted a $50 million development plan with one goal: to make the men's national team a legitimate threat to capture a World Cup. Its target date for the project? 2010.



The World Cup in South Africa is less than two months away, and few sane people would put the U.S. on their shortlist of contenders. But that's perfectly fine with Dan Gaspar, head men's soccer coach at the University of Hartford and one of the people who helped draft what became known as Project 2010.



"When Carlos Queiroz and I were hired as consultants [on Project 2010], the first thing we did was change the objective," says Gaspar, a longtime assistant to Queiroz, including in the latter's current role as head coach of the Portuguese national team. "The objective now -- what it should be -- is to be in a position to compete in the World Cup."



To Gaspar this subtle difference reveals a lot about U.S. attitudes toward sports. "Countries such as Argentina, Italy and Brazil don't have the audacity to say, 'We're going to win the World Cup in 2010.' There's too many variables, some of which we're not in control of, to determine that kind of destiny."



Indeed, only seven countries have won the World Cup in the tournament's 80-year history: The trio Gaspar mentioned, plus France, Germany, England and Uruguay.



Often the best team doesn't win; some of the most storied teams in the game's history have come up empty, including the Dutch teams of the late 1970s and the French sides of the early 1980s. The Netherlands has never won, in fact; nor has fellow traditional power Spain. England (which invented the game, or at least codified it) and France were only able to win as hosts. Only one country, Brazil, has won a tournament played outside its home continent.



Fortunately, nobody today is expecting the U.S. to win the World Cup in 2010. Soccer has come a long way stateside, but it hasn't come that far. Yet Gaspar and other observers say the U.S. team is right on schedule, positioned for success at this year's World Cup.



Defining success

The question, then, becomes how to define success. Advancing out of the group stage? A quarterfinal berth? Semifinals? As inflated as it might sound, not even the last possibility is outside the realm of possibility. The U.S. made the quarterfinals in 2002, the same year Turkey and South Korea saw semifinal action. Other teams of the Americans' caliber have made the semifinals: Croatia in 1998, Sweden and Bulgaria in 1994.





'Years ago there was absolutely no respect for our U.S. national team. Now, if they don't respect us, they get humiliated.'







Dan Gaspar



The pieces are all in place. The U.S. team was drawn into a group, with England, Slovenia and Algeria, considered one of the weakest in the field. The team's key players -- goalkeeper Tim Howard, midfielder Landon Donovan and forward Clint Dempsey -- are in their prime. Virtually all the starters now earn paychecks in European leagues, where the high standard of play toughens them. And a year ago this June the team proved it can compete with the very best national teams in the world, defeating Spain and playing Brazil to the letter (at least for about 70 minutes) in the Confederations Cup.



But the margin for error is thin. The U.S. lacks the depth of the top-tier teams. Its fortunes are very much tied to Donovan, its 28-year-old de facto playmaker. Donovan is in fine form, having just completed a three-month loan spell with top-flight English Premiership team Everton, where he performed well, but the variables could change in short order.



"Teams that rely heavily on one player, and the U.S. does ... should he get injured, should he get red carded, should whatever, they're not so deep to be able to compensate," says Paul Gardner, an English soccer writer who has covered eight World Cups.

Tough opposition


England, the U.S.'s first opponent, on June 12, could probably replace any of its starters -- with one exception: striker Wayne Rooney.



"England's problem is strikers -- strikers who can win the games," said Hans Backe, who was the assistant to Sven-Goran Ericksson when he was the head coach of the English national team and is currently the head coach of the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer. "They have to hope that Rooney stays fit because they don't have that many other options."



Backe sees the schedule in the Americans' favor. "It's rather good for the U.S. to start versus England because no team, even the big teams, want to lose the first one. They're happy to pick up a point [with a draw] the first and then they go for the second or third game."



Familiarity with the English game, "its pace, its physical traits," is another advantage, said Backe. "The U.S. seems to be well-organized. I'm not surprised if it gets a tie [against England]. I'm not sure they can win."



Six days after the opener, the U.S. faces Slovenia, a country smaller than all but 48 of 50 U.S. states and one that has only appeared in one World Cup, in 2002, since its 1991 secession from what was then Yugoslavia. But the Slovenes are viewed as a dangerous side that matches up well with the U.S. "A lot of people look at Slovenia and say, 'There's three points,' but I wouldn't be so sure," says Jack Bell, a soccer writer at the New York Times.



Even the most passionate U.S. soccer nut is unlikely to be able to name any of Slovenia's players. Virtually all of them play outside their home country, though few compete for clubs Americans would be familiar with. The one exception, 19-year-old Rene Krhin, is buried deep on the bench at Italian powerhouse Inter Milan and will probably not see much time in South Africa, if he makes the national team at all.





Reuters



U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard celebrates after an October 2009 qualifier against Costa Rica.



Despite the dearth of big names, Slovenia is well-respected in the international soccer community. "Slovenia did well in Europe in the qualification -- they surprised everyone," Backe said. The team was drawn into a qualifying group with Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Poland and San Marino and finished second with a 6-2-2 record. It then upset Russia in a two-game playoff.



The team's strikers could give American defenders fits. Milvoje Novakovic is a prolific goal scorer for his club team, Germany's FC Cologne, with 51 goals in 108 appearances. Zlatko Dedic, who plays for another German club, Bochum, was instrumental in Slovenia's upset of Russia, scoring the winning goal in the return leg. Twenty-three-year-old Valter Birsa starts for Auxerre, currently second in France's Ligue Un.



Algeria, the Americans' fourth and final opponent, is a bit of a mystery to most. Known as "Les Fennecs" (the desert foxes), the team won a contentious and sometimes violent playoff against archrivals Egypt to qualify for South Africa. The two teams met again in the semifinals of this year's African Cup of Nations. Egypt won the rematch 4-0 but not before three Algerian players were red carded and sent off. No less an authority than England coach Fabio Capello has called Algeria "the most dangerous side in our group," according to the Daily Mirror.



The opinion is not shared on the U.S.'s side of the Atlantic. "They always do well in Africa, but when they go to the World Cup it seems they don't really get the success," Backe said of the Fennecs. "I don't really know why. Technically they are excellent, but I just have a feeling they are in a way not good enough."



"Algeria should be a slam dunk [for the U.S.]," said Bell. "On paper, everybody is looking at this as three points."



Advancing guesses

After that, it's anybody's guess, though a look at the elimination-round draw -- should the U.S. qualify -- indicates a deep run will likely require winning the group. The second-placed team in the Americans' Group C faces the winner of Group D, which is composed of Germany, Serbia, Australia and Ghana.



"It seems to me that if they finish second in their group they probably play Germany," said Gardner. "That will be difficult. I wouldn't see them getting past that."



Germany was the Americans' quarterfinal opponent in 2002. The game was very close, with a first-half goal from Michael Ballack the only thing separating the two teams.



By defeating Portugal in group play and Mexico in the round of 16, the U.S. showed it had arrived as a soccer nation to be taken seriously -- eight years ahead of Gaspar and Quieroz's schedule. The team's disappointing performance in 2006, when it failed to advance out of a very tough group, was a setback that should prove to have been temporary. Nobody, not even Brazil, looks past the U.S. anymore. Win, lose or draw, the U.S. national soccer team is in a position to compete at the game's highest level. The amended vision of Project 2010 has been realized.



"We've grown tremendously," says Gaspar. "We've taken some tremendous leaps. Years ago there was absolutely no respect for our U.S. national team. Now, if they don't respect us, they get humiliated. ... You have to respect the U.S. national team."



Nathaniel E. Baker is the editor of AmericanSoccerNews.net



For U.S. team, World Cup success is hard to define - MarketWatch

Apple Fans Respond to News of iPhone 4

Apple Fans Respond to News of iPhone 4
June 10, 2010Details of the iPhone 4 sped across the Internet within moments of its announcement, WSJ's Nick Burns talks with San Franciscans about their expectations for the next generation of Apple's smartphone.

British PM Pledges Help in Spill; BP's Shares Rebound

British PM Pledges Help in Spill; BP's Shares Rebound

Published: Thursday, 10 Jun 2010

British Prime Minister David Cameron offered Thursday to help deal with BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying he would take it up with U.S. President Barack Obama, as the beleaguered company's shares rebounded from 14-year lows.
Cameron's comments in Kabul marked the first time he had spoken publicly about the crisis.
Cameron, who took office in May and is under pressure domestically to stand up for the British energy company, is due to talk to Obama by telephone this weekend.
Obama has been sharply critical of BP [BP 32.78 3.58 (+12.26%)].
The two leaders' conversation will have to seek a delicate balance between domestic pressures and long-standing U.S.-British ties.
The U.S. president said after meeting Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at the White House that he wanted to update U.S. pollution laws to ensure that victims of the oil spill were fully compensated.
As BP captured more oil from its ruptured deep-sea well, it pleaded for patience from Americans frustrated about the spill, the worst in U.S. history and now in its 52nd day.
The Obama administration kept up the heat, saying it would make sure BP paid all damages and cleanup costs from the spill, which has has soiled 120 miles of the U.S. Gulf coast and threatened lucrative fishing and tourist industries.
In another sign the spill is spreading, heavier concentrations of oil began washing up on Florida seashores starting late Wednesday.
Until then, debris from the spill had been limited in the state to relatively small tar balls.
BP Stock Volatile
BP was the second-most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange as shares rebounded by more than 12 percent. The U.S.-traded shares of BP jumped 12.26 percent and closed at 32.78.
It had taken a 16 percent dive to a 14-year-low Wednesday amid concerns over BP's ability to meet mounting costs.
"The stock is obviously volatile as investors try to wager on the outcome of the Gulf oil spill," said Jud Pyle, chief investment strategist at Options News Network, a division of option market maker PEAK6 Investments in Chicago.
Analysts said the company's improved performance was partly due to speculation that PetroChina [PTR 111.76 4.75 (+4.44%)], Asia's top oil and gas firm, was considering making a bid for BP.
Shares in Anadarko Petroleum [APC 39.15 4.32 (+12.4%)] and Transocean [RIG 44.27 1.69 (+3.97%)], two companies involved in the ruptured offshore well, also jumped.
In London trading, BP stocks sank to their lowest level since 1997 before bouncing off their lows and closing 6.7 percent down.
Illustrating the extent of investor concerns about BP, the cost of insuring its AA-rated debt traded for a time at levels normally associated with "junk" status.
BP said in a statement it did not know why its share price had plunged in U.S. trading Wednesday.
One of the world's largest corporate giants, BP said it had the financial flexibility to deal with liabilities related to the spill, which to date had cost it around $1.43 billion.

Real Estate Road Trip

Real Estate Road Trip
June 9, 2010Posted by mike_fischer in Marketing 2 Comments

My daughter is a sophomore in HS and I need to start thinking about the College Road Trip. A right of passage for many parents where you put thousands of miles on the car to drive around and see where your kids will spend the greatest four years of their lives and get a great education (Note: emphasis on “four” and not “five” or “six”.), while bankrupting your retirement plans.

I know parents that are going to see 40+ schools. That’s a lot of miles. Stretching from Boston down to the Southeast. All this time and energy is required for a huge investment of $50K/year and four years of my kids’ life that will greatly determine her future success in the rest of her life. Lots at stake.

So I’m at Newark airport this week waiting to board a plane for a Charlotte-Savannah trip to see Coldwell Banker Real Estate agents in the Carolinas and Georgia. As I normally do when I am sitting through another Newark delay, I pull out my iPhone and start using my Coldwell Banker ® app to “dream” about real estate…where my wife and I will end up after our youngest daughter goes to college.

I’ve never been to Savannah so I start searching for homes by the water and “BOOM”, I think I fell in love with Savannah. Problem is, I also fell in love with Harkers Island, Wilmington and, Wrightsville Beach, NC. And Charleston, Beaufort and other locations along the SC coast (or can I call it the shore even if it’s not in NJ, but I am?).

So what about this idea?? People usually retire to places they know. But what if we did a “Second Home/Retirement Road Trip.” Find the places we don’t know, like our kids do when they decide on a college after reading stuff online and one quick but carefully orchestrated visit. Let’s say, fly into Wilmington, NC and fly out of Savannah, GA, and spend a week driving around, meeting with a few Coldwell Banker agents and see new areas of the country that fit my general needs of: 1) proximity to beaches/water; 2) warm weather/short winter; 3) enough fun and interesting things to do to keep us motivated (actually very similar to my kid’s desire for college!). Our sales professionals at Coldwell Banker Real Estate are like college admissions officers…you make an appointment with them and they introduce us to the campus/area based on our needs and wish list and then help us sort out the financial side to make it a reality.

I’m excited to come down with my wife and do the tour. See some new areas of the country and make a emotional/gut decision that will affect the rest of my life…just like 18 year old kids around the country do every year around this time. Because we all know it’s their decision, not the parents, even though you the parents are most likely paying most/all of the bills! So parents…stand up and at least take charge of your life! ROAD TRIP!!!!

Have you ever heard of Topsail Beach??? I may love this one too…

The Market Status Defined?

The Market Status Defined?

By Guest Contributor, Mark A. Kaminsky, Branch Manager in the Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Hollywood Office

Why is it so necessary to have a definitive status on the market? Is it a buyer’s market? Is it a seller’s market? Is it an investor’s market? Is it a flat market? Is it a declining market? Is it a thriving market? Forgive me, but does it really matter? Perhaps it does, but for who? From a seller’s perspective, if they have to sell… it’s always a buyer’s market and from a buyer’s perspective, if they’re relocating, already sold or simply must buy… it’s always a seller’s market. For distress sellers, it’s always a depressing market, hence the word distressed. Investors, well the smart ones anyway, won’t define the market because as soon as people start talking about it, it’s too late for the steal deal. For the news media, the status of the market is simply a “good read”. For the REO (bank owned) properties, it’s always a “get rid of it quick” market… I could go on!

Well, if it’s so necessary to define the status before buyers and sellers make a move, perhaps they should recognize that there is only one viable source. That source is your Realtor, who dedicates their career to a high standard of professionalism, knowledge, training and experience. Because the fact of the matter is that once you hire your Realtor, the market becomes “your market”. It’s all about what your specific need is, your story, your final destination and how bad you want to get there. Your Realtor, the right one, can educate you on your options relative to your objective. This process begins with an initial consultation to clearly lock in and identify the working relationship. In this meeting data will be shared, trends will be explained, pricing and costs will be itemized and most importantly the process will be outlined… This is the time to hand over the reins to your Realtor, much like you would to your physician after a visit for any ailment that you have. If you are not completely secure in your decision, than your meeting ended too soon. From there, it becomes “your market” and you will clearly be able to define it!

Typically, in a traditional real estate transaction, it’s mostly about sell high/buy low, right? Well, that toggles a bit when there is a story… and there always is a story. I propose that folks no longer concern themselves with what others are saying. Identify why you are in the market in the first place and allow it to become “your market”.

To learn more about how you can consult with the very best Realtors in the industry, look no further than Coldwell Banker. There’s a reason we lead the market!

Real Estate Agents Land the Deals

Real Estate Agents Land the Deals
Monday, 07 Jun 2010 11:29 AM Article Font Size
By: Ben Stein

A few months ago, a notice arrived in the mail that a real estate broker in the desert near Palm Springs named Alice Beckman Cannon had passed on. She was an older woman and had been ill for some time. Plus, I had not seen her in at least five years, but still I felt deeply saddened when I got the note and here’s why.

Maybe in the winter of 2003, my wife and I were vacationing in La Quinta, which is near Palm Springs. We loved the climate and long before had owned a small condo in the desert, so we decided to look for a home in that area, generally called The Coachella Valley.

We were given the name of a real estate agent, Alice Beckman Cannon, by a friend. We called her and soon I was out looking at homes. My wife refuses to look at real estate, so I did it. I told Alice that I wanted to live at Thunderbird, a club where Gerald Ford then lived. She looked doubtful but showed me a modest home there. She told me in a discreet way that I would not be happy at Thunderbird, which was a polite way of saying there were no Jews, or almost no Jews there.

I asked her for a club that had about an even mixture of Jews and Christians. She immediately showed me homes in a place called Morningside Country Club (or “The Club at Morningside”). I liked them and loved the club but it took about 18 months of looking to find the perfect home.

Then one day, while house hunting with my pal Peggy Morse, we found it. House Beautiful. It was literally my dream house: bright, with spectacular views (I had asked for the best view in the desert and she came close), furnished and decorated precisely the way my wife and I liked it, with a huge real Lichtenstein and Mexican paver tile floors. By then, it was the peak of the market, but we bought it, even paying extra for a few pieces of art that the owners had planned to sell separately.

The day escrow closed, I just lay on a couch in the living room, looked out at the swimming pool, the golf course, the palms trees, the mountains and the blue sky, and felt great. At age 60, I had found a little bit of paradise in the desert, where the breezes are perfection. I don’t care that it’s gone down in value since the crash. I am not a speculator.

I could not possibly have done it without my Alice. I could not have possibly done it without the seller’s agent, Pat Bush Kruse, who was totally helpful and creative and good natured.

I have owned many homes and all of them have brought me joy (except for one in Aspen, where a contractor ruined the whole experience). I have a home in Malibu, a tiny little home on a hill, and the broker who got me that home, Scott Nay, worked for literally a year to help me find it. It is a piece of heaven, with the sound of waves all night long. Heaven.

I have homes in North Idaho on a lake, and I love them beyond words. A broker up there made it happen (Chris Chambers). I have a home in Beverly Hills. It is one immense garden and my wife adores it. I could not have gotten it without a great, never-say-die real estate agent.

I have a co-op at The Watergate with a smashing view over the Potomac that I worship, and a broker got that for me. None of these is a lavish home. By the standards of wealthy people, these are modest homes. But to me and my wife, they are perfect. We could never have gotten them without brokers.

Every time I use an agent — I still have my eyes on a place on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, in Talbot County, where my broker, Cliff Meredith, never gives up hope of making me landed gentry — I am amazed at how hard they work. To get a modest commission, they work like demons, always available around the clock.

They handle even the most minute details like inspections and the big ones like financing. They show endless patience. They are relentlessly upbeat. If I change my mind, they go along with my moods.

They do all of this for sums which, on an hourly basis, are extremely reasonable, especially noting how many deals fall through.

When the market peaks, they work to exhaustion. When the market is slow, they live in privation and fear.

They need to be diplomat, design expert, financier, psychologist, surrogate parent, often surrogate spouse.

And they get precious little recognition. Here is some now. We will miss you, Alice Beckman Cannon, and I salute you, the people who put roofs over our heads and make us feel as if we have found a home — or homes — in paradise.




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Marketing Your Rental Property

Marketing Your Rental Property
Know the Current Market Conditions in Your Area
Written by: Jay Redding
- Jun 5, 2010 2:21:00 PM
Categorized in: Marketing, Real Estate Investment, Sales Skills, Tenant Landlord, Negotiating

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Marketing your investment rental property requires only a few decisions. How much rent to ask, where to advertise, the length of your lease, improvements to be made and do you need to stage the property? The answers to these questions also depend on the current market environment.

Determining the asking rent is the most important piece. Most tenants base their search for a new space on the rent they can afford. The easiest way to see what similar properties are renting for is to peruse your local paper. Much of your research can also be done online. Many towns have their own real estate sections on their websites with links to local agencies listing rental prices and properties. These same places are where you would advertise your own property.

Second, for how long are you willing to lease your property? You might think the longer the term the better. That way you always have a stream of income on your investment property. But, remember, rents are usually going up and you wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to increase them because you are stuck in a long term lease.

While twelve months is typical for residential properties, sometimes shorter or longer terms can be desirable for the landlord or the tenant. A prospective tenant may need a temporary space, while building their house perhaps. Short-term rentals can be advantageous to a landlord because they fill the space quickly, often with little or no improvement to the property and at a higher rent. Additionally, the investor will now have more time to market the space to a long-term tenant while still receiving rent. Not a bad deal for the investor.

What improvements do you need to have done prior to marketing your rental property? Showing an apartment in the middle of August in a hot climate without a properly working air conditioning unit may indicate to the prospective tenant that the landlord will not handle necessary repairs during their lease term. However, purchasing all new SubZero kitchen appliances may be overkill for your market.

Additionally, in a slow market, staging your property may help prospective tenants see how terrific the space looks once they have moved in. You may want to consider a fresh coat of paint, some basic furniture and perhaps a wall hanging or two. Some potted plants on the front stoop and a nice bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter can go a long way to making the rental look welcoming. Knowing your market is key.

If this seems overwhelming, then remember, it is always a good idea to hire a real estate agent. For a small fee, you can have an expert on your side, looking to rent your property for the highest rent with as little cost to you as possible. Often, an agent can rent your investment rental property faster than you would on your own and for more money, easily outweighing their fee.


Jay began his real estate investing career at the beginning of 2005. He has been a full time investor since 2007. His business focus and specialized knowledge is in rehabs, lease options, rentals, fix and flips, discounted turnkey cash-flowing properties for passive investors, wholesale properties, self-directed IRA investing and basic asset protection. In addition, he is a managing member in two commercial projects. His expertise has been sought out as a consultant by independent clients throughout the Midwest as well as California and New York. Find out more by visiting www.InvestmentPropertyMadeEasy.com

Surge in Pending Home Sales Continues

Surge in Pending Home Sales Continues
Pending home sales have risen for three consecutive months, reflecting the broad impact of the home buyer tax credit and favorable housing affordability conditions, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, rose 6.0 percent to 110.9 based on contracts signed in April, from an upwardly revised 104.6 in March, and is 22.4 percent higher than April 2009 when it was 90.6. That follows gains of 7.1 percent in March and 8.3 percent in February.

Pending home sales are at the highest level since last October when the index reached 112.4 and first-time buyers were rushing to beat the initial deadline for the tax credit. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which usually occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said this second round of surging sales from the tax credit extension looks as strong as the original tax credit. “There were concerns that only a small pool of buyers were left to take advantage of the tax credit extension. But evidently the tax stimulus, combined with improved consumer confidence and low mortgage interest rates, are contributing to surging sales,” he said. “The housing market has to get back on its own feet and now appears to be in a good position to return to sustainable levels even without government stimulus, provided the economy continues to add jobs.”

NAR expects a net of 1 million additional jobs in the second half of this year and about 2 million in 2011.

“The home buyer tax credit brought close to 1 million additional buyers into the market, which is now helping the trade-up market and has significantly improved the inventory situation. This stabilized home prices more quickly and has preserved about $900 billion in home equity; in turn, that is keeping additional households from going underwater and risking foreclosure,” Yun said.

Pending Home Sales Index by region:

Northeast: jumped 29.5 percent to 97.9 in April and is 24.5 percent above a year ago.
Midwest: rose 4.1 percent to 104.2 and is 17.9 percent above April 2009.
South: slipped 0.6 percent to an index of 123.9, but is 31.3 percent higher than a year ago.
West: increased 7.5 percent to 107.9 and is 12.0 percent higher than April 2009.

“A big concern surfacing recently is insufficient time to close the deal at the settlement table. Under normal circumstances, two months would be enough time from contract signing to settlement date,” Yun said. “However, the recent housing cycle has brought long delays related to the short sales approval process by banks, and from ongoing appraisal issues."

He added that there could be a sizable number of home buyers who responded to tax credit incentives, but may encounter problems meeting the settlement deadline by June 30. Because of these market challenges, NAR has asked Congress to provide flexibility on the deadline for closing.

Source: NAR

Foreign buyers are flocking to Florida condos again

Foreign buyers are flocking to Florida condos again
TORONTO – June 1, 2010 – Nearly 800 Canadians jammed a hotel ballroom near the Toronto airport Sunday to hear the gospel of Florida real estate.

High-end Brazilian buyers prefer to be wooed more intimately – perhaps at a cocktail party or a small private dinner – but they are just as pumped.

Lured by rock-bottom prices, international buyers are now flocking to buy Florida properties. It’s especially true in countries where the currency is strong against the dollar.

“We’re telling Canadians this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – the perfect storm,” said Brian Ellis, who heads Toronto-based Florida Home Finders of Canada. “The prices are just incredible and the Canadian dollar has been so strong.”

At least three of five buyers in the Greater Downtown Miami condo market are coming from abroad, estimates Jenny Huertas, international sales director for Condo Vultures, a real estate advisory and research firm.

The stampede from overseas is “kind of like a foreign subsidy helping us resolve our real estate problems,” said Peter Zalewski, a Condo Vultures principal. “This time the assistance isn’t coming from Washington. It’s coming from Caracas, London, Milan, Bogota.”

The buying frenzy was set off by developers lowering prices on new units to below what it costs to build in today’s market, Huertas said.

“There were many people on the sidelines watching for the floor. In the last three or four months there’s the perception that we’re there,” said developer Edgardo Defortuna, president and chief executive of Fortune International.

Cash customers

Most of the foreigners are cash buyers like Leroy Jean Francois, who has snapped up 47 properties since January for the two real estate firms he works for in France and Switzerland. The plan, he said, is to buy, fix up if necessary, rent out for the next five years, then sell – for a profit.

The Frenchman has already made a paper profit on a unit he closed on in January at Marquis Residences, a 67-story luxury tower in downtown Miami where prices for a one-bedroom apartment start at $375,000. His unit cost $317 per square foot – “a great price, incredible,” he said.

A recent plunge in the euro – it’s now worth $1.23, down from its high of more than $1.60 in 2008 – could cool things off a little. To buy a $1 million condo, it now takes around 814,000 euros compared to 625,000 euros under the old exchange rate.

Meantime, prices at Marquis Residences also have strengthened to around $400 per square foot.

But even the declining euro has barely given Francois pause.

“I think the euro will weaken more. But even if the exchange rate is $1 to 1 euro, South Florida real estate is still a great bargain for us,” said Francois, who is president of The Bridge, a real estate fund consultancy.

Average Joes

Luxury condos are once again popular among Latin America buyers who purchase them as investments but also as a home base. While their children attend school here, they attend to business interests or escape strife at home.

But for his Canadian buyers, Ellis scours South Florida for condo units at around the $150,000 price point. “We’re basically the Wal-Mart. We’re for the average Joe.”

And these days average Joe Canadian can afford much more. For decades the U.S. dollar was worth more than the Canadian dollar and buying in the U.S. was always more expensive for Canadians. But in September 2007, the Canadian dollar reached parity with the greenback for the first time in 31 years. It fell back again, but now the Canadian loonie, which takes its name from the loon pictured on the one-dollar coin, is near parity at around 95 cents.

So Ellis has been offering his Florida real estate seminars to packed houses in Ontario and is thinking about taking the show on the road to Montreal. There was so much interest in the latest seminar that he had to schedule two sessions for 400 people each this Sunday.

Most of his Canadian buyers are what Ellis calls “end-vestors,” meaning they plan on renting a unit out for now with an eye toward using it themselves down the road.

Since Home Finders is licensed as a brokerage only in Canada, it works with Florida brokers who complete the sales and pay the Canadian firm referral fees. By year’s end, Ellis said he expects to have facilitated 500 Florida closings.

Prices halved

Though Home Finders is now working with one Sunny Isles Beach property where condos are listed for up to $350,000, the Sun Vista Gardens in Tamarac is a more typical offering.

There, buyers can find a one-bedroom for under $75,000 and a two-bedroom for under $100,000. That same one-bedroom used to cost $190,000, according to Florida Home Finders’ website.

Ellis said he’s actually having a hard time coming up with enough Florida properties in the $150,000 range. Of course, he’s picky. He’s looking for good value, a good location and properties without legal complications. Most of the Canadians want condos, but Ellis said he has some requests for single-family homes.

Though buyers from Europe, Latin America – most from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela – and Canada predominate in the South Florida market, a smattering of Chinese investors and African buyers also are starting to make purchases.

“We recently sold a $7.5 million penthouse at Jade Ocean to a Nigerian buyer,” said Defortuna. “They were here and they loved it.”

China, too

At Fortune’s 237-unit Artech building, Defortuna said 11 condos were sold to Chinese investors. Units in the building are selling for almost half the original asking price.

“I think China is still a marginal market,” said Defortuna. “The Chinese are more focused on the West Coast and New York, but small pockets [of Chinese buyers] can make a big difference in a building.”

With international offices in Mexico and Argentina, Fortune can tap directly into those markets, and it frequently holds seminars on the legal and financial aspects of owning property in the United States. At one recent event in Buenos Aires there was space for just 200 people, so Fortune decided to charge a $60 fee. “We still had to close reservations,” said Defortuna.

One big concern of foreign buyers is what happens to their properties when they lock up after a vacation, said Defortuna. But Fortune International’s property management division will take care of things like paying utilities and condo fees – and even turn over a client’s car engine once a week so the battery doesn’t die.

A number of local brokerages have country specialists on staff who work with their counterparts abroad to bring in buyers.

Elite Global Reality, for example, has sales associates who specialize in the French, Italian and Chilean markets, said Thiago Costa, executive director and sales associates.

Costa, who is Brazilian, travels frequently to his homeland where local partners have set up meetings with potential buyers in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Belo Horizonte who are “willing and able to buy.”

He prefers to present one South Florida project at a time to 10 to 20 people at a cocktail party or even a dinner at the home of a potential buyer.

With Miami prices so low, the Brazilian currency (the real) strong, the Brazilian economy robust and real estate prices on the rise in cities like Sao Paulo, where a luxury property might cost $800 to $1,000 per square foot, Brazilians like what they see in South Florida.

‘Impossible to lose’

“They feel it’s almost impossible to lose money,” said Costa.

Africa Israel USA, the New York-based developer of the 292-unit Marquis Residences, also works with the brokerage community in target markets like Venezuela, the South of France, Mexico and Brazil. Working with brokers, it has put on events ranging from fashion shows to invitation-only cocktail parties and dinners, said Lori Odover, the managing director.

“It needs to be someone they know, that they have a one-on-one relationship with,” she said. So that means even an event at a synagogue or someone’s uncle’s pool party can be a selling opportunity.

Though most international buyers pay cash, there’s an international financing program at Marquis that has proven popular. Some 57 percent of Marquis’ foreign buyers have chosen it.

While the program’s 45 percent down payment for a five-year ARM seems steep, Bob Wuan, managing director of Americore Mortgage/Vacation Finance, said, “We find international buyers are more than willing to put 50 percent or more down. They want to put money in U.S. real estate as a currency hedge or an inflation hedge.”

Meanwhile, Ellis keeps telling Canadians what a great deal Florida is: “We believe Florida is in for quite a rebound. We just don’t know when.”

Copyright © 2010 The Miami Herald, Mimi Whitefield. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.