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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Perspective who wrote (216473)	8/20/2009 10:45:20 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Bill Gross buys mansion just to tear it down realestate.msn.com Everybody has a dream home, but for some people, it's all about finding the perfect piece of property first. Don't you hate it when you buy this spectacular house, but you just want more? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Pacific Investment Management Co. "Bond Guru" Bill Gross plans to join the three other billionaires who live in the small, gated community on Harbor Island in Newport Beach, Calif., after buying a bayfront home there for $23 million. The 11,000-square-foot Georgian Colonial home with nine bedrooms and 12 bathrooms was built in 1979 on a double lot with 112 feet of water frontage. But alas, he's tearing it all down -- to build his own mansion, according to WSJ.com. Reporter Sara Lin offers some insight into the deal in this video: It's gives me hope that in a state where there were 124,874 foreclosed homes on the market in July, and where Playboy founder Hugh Hefner loses $10 million in a home sale, there is still property that's considered a rare find, and a buyer willing pay for it -- not once, but twice. Apparently, Gross, co-founder and chief investment officer at Pimco, did try to be sneaky about the deal, purchasing it through the Monte Carlo Trust -- which may not have been so sneaky after all, since Lin says Monte Carlo is actually the name of the street he now lives on with his wife in the Irvine Cove neighborhood of Laguna Beach, Calif. Do you want to tear down your home but can't afford it? Check out these drab to fab makeovers In other high-end real estate news, Lin also discusses the recent sale of a $25.9 million Southampton, N.Y., home that the government seized from hedge-fund manager James Nicholson in March. Nicholson, president of Westgate Capital Management LLC, is accused of bilking at least $150 million from investors through a Ponzi scheme. He bought the 10,000-square-foot home with nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms and 222 feet of oceanfront for $27 million in 2008, which kinda makes the feds look pretty savvy about the real-estate market. Although they put it on the market for $33 million after seizing it, considering the state of the luxury real-estate market, they nearly came out ahead at that price. I am impressed. Lesson for the day is: If you're involved in finances, you'd really rather be considered a bond guru than a bilker