By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
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A 25,500-square-foot home in Silicon Valley sold for $100 million, the highest price paid for a single-family home in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reports.
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is the new owner of the five-bedroom French chateau-style mansion, which features views of the San Francisco Bay, indoor and outdoor pools, a ballroom, and a wine cellar. Milner has no immediate plans to move in and has a primary residence in Moscow.
The previous most expensive residential home purchase belonged to Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who paid $95 million in 2008 for a Palm Beach, Fla., estate owned by Donald Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Milner’s supersized purchase is just another sign of the recovery occurring in the luxury real estate market: The sales volume of homes more than $1 million increased nearly 4 percent in February year-over-year, while sales of homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 dropped nearly 8 percent, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
The sluggish housing market has reshaped what Americans will look for in their next home as home owners get more practical with their wish-list and wiser about their use of space.
By 2015, homes are expected to average 2,152 square feet–10 percent smaller than the average size of single-family homes in the first three quarters of 2010, according to a recent study by the National Association of Home Builders.
Say goodbye to living rooms–they are likely to be the first casualty in new homes due to the dwindling square footage. More than half of builders say they expect that by 2015 the living room will merge with other spaces in the home, and 30 percent say living rooms will vanish completely.
Here are some other predictions about the changes in design of new homes by 2015, according to the survey:
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Kitchens are going dark, LED lighting is gaining steam, and trash is getting more attention–all are trends in kitchen designs this year, according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association, which surveyed 100 designers at the end of 2010 to reveal the hottest kitchen trends. (Last week, we highlighted NKBA’s 4 Bathroom Trends to Watch.)
The following is a list of what’s cooking in kitchen trends for 2011, based on NKBA survey results of which kitchen designs are increasing in demand and which are losing favor.
Maple kitchen; Photo credit: Courtesy of KraftMaid Cabinetry
1. Cabinetry
Gaining steam: Maple cabinetry
Losing steam: Cherry cabinetry (Cherry dominated kitchens in early 2010 but was overtaken by maple cabinetry this year)
Kitchen cabinets in Sonoma Maple, Midnight with Bristol Maple, Pebble; Photo credit: Wellborn Cabinet Inc.
2. Kitchen finishes
Gaining steam: Dark natural finishes; light natural and colored painted finishes also remained fairly common, inching up slightly in use.
Losing steam: Medium natural, glazed, and white painted finishes are on the decline and the use of distressed finishes has dropped significantly in the last year.
Photo credit: Miro Dvorscak
3. Color
Gaining steam: Grays, beiges, and bones
Losing steam: Brown tones, whites, and off-whites
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Granite is slowly beginning to lose some of its popularity in favor of other bathroom vanities, and green–the color, that is–is catching on, as these trends–along with others–gain steam in bathrooms this year, according to a National Kitchen & Bath Association survey of 100 designers. The survey offers insights into the hottest trends in bathrooms for 2011.
Here are four trends to watch in bathroom home design.
Dupont Zodiaq quart surface in Bianco Carrara; Photo credit: Shadowlight Group
1. Quartz countertops more in demand. While granite still reigns in bathroom vanity tops, it’s popularity is slowly sinking as quartz continues to steal some of the market share, according to NKBA. While 83 percent of designers still opt for granite, that number has gradually been narrowing in recent years as quartz increases in demand (54 percent of NKBA designers opted for quartz). A year ago, 85 percent of NKBA designers used granite, compared to 48 percent for quartz. Meanwhile, solid marble vanities have also been on the decline (from 46 percent to 37 percent), while cultured marble has increased slightly in use among NKBA designers from 12 percent to 19 percent.
Photo credit: Delta Faucet Co.
2. Bathrooms go “green”–literally. Green color palettes for the bathroom are on the rise. Twenty-four percent of NKBA designers say they are using green colors to spice up bathrooms–up a year ago from 14 percent. However, the three most most common color choices in the bathroom remain: Whites and off-whites, beiges, and browns. Continue reading »
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