Opening Comments
Picture of the Day-Mick Jagger Drinking Alone
Put Me in Coach
Quick Bites
Markets, Crypto, Evergrande Update
Bed Bath Results, New Car Sales
Infrastructure Bill, Facebook Whistle-blower
PWC WFH Permanently, USPS
Sarbanes-Oxley For Politicians
UCLA Grading, Prison Disaster/AOC/57 Arrests in ‘21
Other Headlines
Virus/Vaccine
Data
Merck Drug
Waning Antibodies
US Travel Proposal
CA Vaccination Rules for Schools
Real Estate
General Comments/West Boca Communities/Example
Private Schools
High End Prefab Homes
Quick Palm Beach Flip
National Rents
Screened in Porch
$55mm Hudson Yards PH
Opening Comments
I received a lovely note from someone I have a great deal of respect for as a person and a titan in business. Jamie Dimon sent me an email after my last piece. I am just appreciative that he is reading the Rosen Report once in a while. To me, he is the most important person in markets or finance and believe as CEOs go, he is hard to beat in any industry. I learned a great deal watching him while I had the pleasure of working at JPM. As I advise companies, sit on boards and try to help influence outcomes, I use much of what I learned under his leadership.
I cook dinner virtually every night and feel I am solid in the kitchen. I had the strangest thing happen to me while cooking a 4lb whole chicken. I seasoned it with Moroccan Spices over veggies and cooked it at 400 degrees. The thing was like Benjamin Button who aged in reverse. The longer it was in the oven the less it cooked. I tried 3 different thermometers convinced they were broken. I thought I was on Candid Camera and my wife was in on it. I was looking for Bob Saget to come out of the pantry. After 2.5 hours it was finally ready, but I was so irritated by that time, I did not feel much like eating. I cooked the same size bird in half the time last month. Yes, the oven works, but not for Benjamin Button chickens.
I am getting a great deal of story ideas from my readers. Please keep them coming. I am struggling on editing the piece down to something more manageable. I started a new section today after Quick Bites entitled Other Headlines. I just have a link to other interesting stories which I could not fit into the report. Let me know what you think.
Picture of the Day
I am a Stones fan. Mick Jagger is 78 years old and the band performs at a high level despite the ages. The band formed in 1962, or 7 years before I was born. I thought this picture was amazing and taken in Charlotte, NC where Jagger was visiting to perform. NO ONE KNEW he was having a beer alone at a tiny saloon, the Thirsty Beaver, with people all around him. Just like the fact that “No one puts baby in the corner,” Jagger should never drink alone. I would love to grab a drink with Mick Jagger. Hey, Mick, if you get the Rosen Report, give me a shout and I will be your wing man. Also, I can play Angie, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, and Wild Horses on guitar. I ain’t no Kieth Richards, but would love to play guitar and we can put it on the Rosen Report to generate some exclusive content. I would probably get more subscribers too. The video in the link is only 2 minutes and quite interesting about the saloon.
Put Me in Coach
I am a fan of the NBA despite the decay in the fundamentals of the game. There are so many incredibly talented and athletically gifted players in the league. Former commissioner David Stern and current commissioner Adam Silver have done a remarkable growing the sport and expanding internationally. NBA players are paid extremely well with the AVERAGE player making $8.3mm/year or double the MLB.
Average NBA salary: $8.32 million
Average MLB salary: $4.03 million
Average NFL salary: $3.26 million
Average NHL salary: $2.69 million
There is not much keeping me out of the NBA. If I were more athletic, bigger, could jump higher, dribble, shoot, pass, rebound, and play defense, I too could be in the NBA. Those are the only minor things keeping me out of uniform today. Being 5’9” and 165lbs does not help either. Unfortunately, it does not look like I will get called for my shot at greatness. Although if I were, I think a lot of fans would support me, buy my jersey and watch me get absolutely eviscerated on the court.
Why am I writing about the NBA? Because I do not understand how Ben Simmons, Philly 76ers “star,” is sitting out after negotiating a MAX contract of 5 years and $177mm. He has failed his team. Last year, he was paid $30.5mm and this year he is scheduled to make $33mm. He has 4 years left on his 5 year contract. He wants to be traded out of Philly and the team believes he has breached the contract after missing media day and skipped training camp. The team has made pleas to Simmons they want him back, but I am not sure why. Simmons cut off all communications with the 76ers in August. Call me crazy, he is set to be paid hundreds of thousands PER game and he is sitting out after HIS disappointing performance in the playoffs.
You want to get traded? I am fine with that, but show up for work and give 110% until you get traded. Be a good teammate until you move to the next team dumb enough to hire you. Unfortunately, Ben Simmons is not the only pro athlete to behave in this manner.
Simmons had an AWFUL playoff run last year. He failed to log a field goal attempt in the fourth quarter of games 4-7 in the Easter Conference semi-finals. His star teammate, Joel Embid called Simmons decision to pass the ball rather than score with a wide open dunk a “turning point” in the 4th quarter of a tight game. It was the Eastern Conference finals of game 7 with 3:29 left in the game. Simmons also shot 34.2% from the free throw line during the playoffs despite shooting 70.7% in his 1st post-season run. Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain are considered the worst free throw shooters ever and they shot 37.4% and 38% respectively in the playoffs. Simmons also only averaged 11.9 points/game in the 2021 playoffs while Joel Embiid (other star of team) averaged 28.1 points in the 2021 playoffs.
Don’t get me wrong, Simmons has talent and at 6’10” and 240lbs he has shown remarkable skills with 15.9 points/game, 56% field goal percentage, 8.1 rebounds and 7.7 assists for his career. However, in my opinion, he has failed the team, not lived up to his contract and is acting like a baby despite his massive compensation. For perspective, he makes 523x the average income in the US. If I am a general manager in the NBA, I am running away from Simmons or anyone else who behaves in this manner. I don’t always agree with Stephen A. Smith, but appreciated his take on the situation.
Doc Rivers is the head coach of the 76ers. Coach, if you read the Rosen Report, I am ready to play. As noted, I lack a lot of what it takes to make it in the league and I am almost 52 years old with a bad back. But, I will give it 110%, show up to practice early and stay late and be an inspiration to many. Put me in coach and I will take the league minimum of $925k, but please don’t ask me to take a charge against someone like LeBron or I might never stand up again.
If you need proof that I look the part, see the pics below. Yes, that is my hair. Yes, I got a haircut last week. Yes, my hair is gray. Yes, I am wearing a Jordan jersey with a Nike headband. I am palming an NBA basketball. What more proof do you need that I am ready for the league? I had pictures of me dunking, but I was moving so fast that the pictures were blurry. I guarantee I shoot more than 34% from the free-throw line as well. Get rid of Simmons and bring Rosen to Philly.
Quick Bites
U.S. stocks pushed higher on Friday as investors shook off a rough September and news of a new oral treatment for Covid-19 boosted shares of companies tied to the economic recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 483 points, or 1.43%, to close at 34,326. The S&P 500 rose nearly 1.2% to 4,357, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8% to 14,567 and snapped a five-day losing streak. The S&P ended Thursday 5.2% below its all-time high reached in early September, the first 5% pullback of 2021. Even with Friday’s rally, the index fell 2.2% for the week. The Dow and Nasdaq lost close to 1.4% and 3.2%, respectively. The S&P 500 is still up roughly 16% on the year, however.
Shares of Dow member Merck jumped close to 8.4% after the drug maker and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said their oral antiviral treatment for Covid-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases. The companies plan to seek emergency authorization for the treatment. The new drug from Merck appeared to boost travel stocks. Shares of Royal Caribbean and Las Vegas Sands added 3.8% and 4.3%, respectively. Bank stocks rose as well, helping the Dow outperform. “We have seen this rotation back to the so-called reopening plays and the more cyclical areas, which I think makes a lot of sense over the next couple of weeks as we think about the Covid trends improving, with the cases falling from last month’s peak, and the news about the Merck pill appears promising,” said Angelo Kourkafas, an investment strategist at Edward Jones. I think the new oral anti-viral by Merck sounds very promising and clearly the market agrees. More on the drug in the Virus/Vaccine section. However, vaccine stocks have been hit hard as seen in the chart below dropping $84bn on the week.
Bitcoin jumped, rising in a matter of minutes to its biggest daily gain since July, and other digital currencies surged in a shock rally that followed the largest monthly decline since May. The largest cryptocurrency by market value rose as much as 10% to $47,884 early in New York trading before paring gains. Ethereum, Litecoin and EOS also jumped, with the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index rising as much as 8.9%. Bitcoin had slumped 7.6% in September amid concern about increasing regulatory pressure in China and the U.S. These cryptos are insanely volatile and you need to size them appropriately. I am hearing more crazy stories about people who invested $25-50k in small crypto currencies and they are up 1000 times or more. Be careful and take chips off the table if you were fortunate enough to crush it.
China Evergrande Group has already fallen behind on payments to banks, suppliers and holders of onshore investment products, and hasn’t given any indication that it paid two recent dollar bond coupons. Now the world’s most indebted developer may be facing its next big debt test from Sunday (today), underscoring the broader risks of opaque obligations in credit markets already on edge. People familiar have said that a dollar note maturing Oct. 3 issued at an initial amount of $260 million by an entity called Jumbo Fortune Enterprises is guaranteed by Evergrande. As the maturity is a Sunday, the effective due date is Monday. Nonpayment of the bond principal would constitute a default as the note has no grace period, although five business days would be allowed if failure to pay is down to administrative and technical error. Last I heard, the bonds were trading at approximately 23-25% of par.
The Federal Reserve is doing its best to avoid the taper tantrum of 2013 as it moves toward curbing its bond buying. Ironically for Treasuries investors, 2021 could turn out to be even worse than eight years ago. The latest bond selloff -- triggered by a hawkish shift in the Fed’s signal on its policy path -- has left the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index down 2.2% this year, on track for the first annual loss since 2013, when it declined 2.8%. With key measures of inflation surging and coronavirus cases starting to ebb, investors and strategists from firms such as Societe Generale SA and UBS Group AG are bracing for more losses this quarter. I launched a hedge fund in May of 2013 just prior to the original Taper Tantrum and recall it was a crazy time to trade. Today, the 10- year Treasury is at 1.47%. It was as low as 1.27% a few weeks ago and recently as high as 1.58%. A year ago, it was at .70%.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares tanked 22% Thursday as the company said it saw a steep drop-off in shopper traffic in August, dealing a blow to its fiscal second-quarter results. The big-box retailer is also dealing with industry wide supply chain complications, which Chief Executive Mark Tritton said have been “pervasive.” He said the company’s costs escalated over the summer months, especially toward the end of its second quarter in August, eating into sales and profits. Bed Bath & Beyond slashed its revenue and earnings outlook for the year.
New car sales plunged over the last three months in the United States despite strong demand, as the shortage of computer chips and other supply chain issues caused shutdowns at auto factories and choked off the supply of vehicles. GM reported sales fell a third from a year-ago last quarter, and they were off 40% from the same quarter of 2019 before the pandemic roiled the car market. Sales at Stellantis, the company formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Group, fell 19% from a year ago, and 27% from the pre-pandemic period. At Toyota, which includes Toyota and Lexus, third quarter sales edged up 1.4% compared to a year ago. But that three-month total includes a 22% plunge in September sales. However, TSLA delivered 241.3k units in the 3rd Q, beating estimates of 220.9k. I am tired of writing about supply chain issues. Cembalest believes it is better in months. I hope he is right, but fear it will take longer. This article suggests the supply chain issues could last a while and sites the fall in factory output in China. Mohamed El-Erian is quoted “the world economy could slump while prices were still rising quickly, a doomsday double whammy that almost sank the UK in the 1970s.”
The House delayed a vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill Friday as President Joe Biden pushed congressional Democrats to forge a consensus on a broader spending deal. As his legislative priorities hung in the balance, Biden went to the Capitol on Friday afternoon to meet with House Democrats and rally support for his economic agenda. “I’m telling you, we’re going to get this done,” he told reporters as he left the Capitol. Democratic leaders pushed the vote as progressives threatened to sink the bill until they get assurances the Senate will approve a broader plan to invest in party priorities including climate policy, household tax credits and health-care expansion. It will be interesting to see how the Progressives in the House and Centrists in the Senate (Manchin and Sinema) respond given the pressure to get this passed. I hope cooler heads prevail and the bill is at least more reasonable with limited pork. I just don’t believe we need to spend trillions today based on where we are in the cycle or markets.
A former Facebook employee says tens of thousands of pages of internal company research she has provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission prove Facebook is lying to the public and investors about the effectiveness of its campaigns to eradicate hate, violence and misinformation from its platforms. The former employee says the documents prove the company knows its algorithms amplify polarizing and hateful content, adding that societies around the world are being torn apart, partly because of the social media company. Ahead of the 2020 election, Facebook put safety systems in place in part to reduce the spread of misinformation. I have written about FB at least a dozen times and the fact that I believe Congress needs to get involved in regulating the actions of social media companies. They block content which goes against the messages they want delivered. It is the inconsistency which I want fixed. Ban Trump, but ban those who incite hate too. The woman will reveal herself on 60 Minutes on Sunday. Here is the FB side of the story where an executive, Nick Clegg gives their side and prepares employees for the 60 Minute interview. Sorry, FB, I believe you manipulate and have far too much power to influence outcomes.
I felt this was big news and believe others will follow suit. What does this trend due to office space in cities as well as home prices outside urban areas? Accounting and consulting firm PwC told Reuters on Thursday it will allow all its 40,000 U.S. client services employees to work virtually and live anywhere they want in perpetuity, making it one of the biggest employers to embrace permanent remote work.
Mail delivery for many Americans will slow starting on Friday, part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's blueprint for overhauling the U.S. Postal Service in order to slash costs. But critics say the slower delivery standards could cause problems such as late bill delivery while more broadly undermining the public's faith in the USPS. Almost 4 of 10 pieces of first-class mail will see slower delivery, according to Paul Steidler, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and an expert on the postal service. That "means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s," he said, calling DeJoy's plan "disastrous." I read that the USPS lost $69bn over 11 years ending in 2018 and then lost $8.9bn in 2019. So over 12 years, the USPS lost effectively $78bn. I have complained about government ineptitude and one of my favorite lines from any president was when Ronald Reagan said, “The 9 most terrifying words in the English language were-I’m from the government and I am here to help.” I think it is time to take the USPS private and have it run like a business. I am happy to pay a bit more for stamps. By the way, stamp prices have gone up from 15 cents in 1978 to 58 cents in 2021. This is an average annual increase of 3.2%. I went to the post office and they told me there was an announcement about raising prices for the holidays starting in October 3rd which is outlined in this link. I wonder what happens at the next election. Will they now take mail in ballots for 3 months after the election because of these changes? Just think of the chaos which will ensue if the voting rules will change due to the ineptitude of the US Postal Service.
I am critical of politicians on both sides of the isle for all the obvious reasons. A reader gave me the idea of Sarbanes-Oxley for politicians. Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, corporate officers who knowingly certify false financial statements can go to prison. Let’s hold politicians to the same standards they hold for corporate America. Require politicians to sign off under oath that they have read the bills they are trying to pass. Eventually, the public will find out the crap in the bills and the politicians won’t be able to suggest they did not know about it. The infrastructure bill is 2,500 pages or $1.4bn/page (funny short video link attached). The politicians hold corporations accountable though Sarbanes-Oxley and feel the public should hold politicians accountable as well. How many politicians have read the 2,500 page document? I will bet the number is zero. Not one read it. How long would it take to read? I would say the same thing if it were a Republican bill. I would love to see a truly itemized bill and where the trillions will be spent. Who is being enriched? What moronic causes are getting my tax dollars? Ed, I love this idea. Thanks for thinking of it.
Gordon Klein, a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles has sued the dean of his school for damages after he was suspended for refusing to mark the work of black and white students by different criteria. Gordon Klein, a lecturer in accounting at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, who has been at UCLA for 40 years, filed his case on Monday. Klein's problems began when a student wrote to him on June 2 - eight days after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis - asking for him to mark black students' work more leniently, because the black students were traumatized by Floyd's murder. Klein, writing on Weiss' Substack on Thursday, said he found the request 'deeply patronizing and offensive to the same black students he claimed to care so much about.' He replied to the student: 'Are there any students that may be of mixed parentage, such as half black half-Asian? What do you suggest I do with respect to them? A full concession or just half? I believe all students should have the same grading system regardless of race, religion, sexual preference…. How did we get here? How can a dean think grading based on race is a good thing? If this thinking continues, I am going to home school my kids for college. Rosen Report University, here we come. I will have students edit my newsletter as part of the curriculum.
Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 118 people and injured 79 in what authorities say was the worst prison bloodbath ever in the country. Officials said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded. I don’t know the answer on prisons, but do know the solution is not letting these violent criminals back out on the streets. AOC wants all Riker’s Island prisoners released due to “inhumane conditions.” If the idiot politicians actually do it, I want the bus to drop them off on the block where she lives to see how safe she feels. What about all the people these criminals killed, maimed, raped, beat and robbed? Here is someone who belongs in Rikers. Isaac Rodriguez has 46 arrests for theft THIS YEAR ALONE and total arrests this year of 57 and is 22 years old. He has a total of 74 offenses including violence (stabbing). NYC will not be safe until these criminals are behind bars. I hope Eric Adams backs his talk with action and repeat offenders and violent people are kept behind bars. Why is this criminal back on the streets? AOC, here is your new neighbor. Maybe grab some coffee with him. Don’t worry, he’s paying…I mean stealing it for you.
Other Headlines
China sends 77 warplanes into Taiwan defense zone over two days
Semiconductor chip shortage could extend through 2022 (Marvell CEO)
Senator Sanders believes the $3.5 trillion is too small. $6 trillion is too little
Holocaust imagery by mask mandate opponents during heated second night of Anchorage Assembly hearing
Pandora Papers: Newly revealed docs expose tax havens for rich and famous
Virus/Vaccine
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining now and the charts show all have peaked with the Delta wave. Cases peaked in this wave at 176k for the two-week average and are now 108k. Hospitalizations peaked at 103k one month ago and are now under 80k for the two-week average. In this wave, deaths peaked over 2k/day for the two-week average and are now under 1.9k.
Drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use. If cleared, the drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection. Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called Molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease. Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3% were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared with 14.1% of those getting the dummy pill. There were no deaths in the drug group after that time period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck. I am excited about this drug and hope it works and has limited side effects. How long has it been tested? When will it be approved?
Six months after receiving the second dose of the two-shot vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech SE, many recipients no longer have vaccine-induced antibodies that can immediately neutralize worrisome variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 46 healthy, mostly young or middle-aged adults after receipt of the two doses and again six months after the second dose. "Our study shows vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by seven months" after the initial dose, Bali Pulendran of Stanford University and Mehul Suthar of Emory University said by email. In roughly half of all subjects, neutralizing antibodies that can block infection against coronavirus variants such as Delta, Beta, and Mu were undetectable at six months after the second dose, their team reported on Thursday ahead of peer review. Neutralizing antibodies are not the immune system's only defense against the virus. Still, they "are critically important in protecting against SARS-CoV-2 infection," said Pulendran and Suthar. "These findings suggest that administering a booster dose at around 6 to 7 months following the initial immunization will likely enhance protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants." This would suggest boosters are needed. I just feel many people are skeptical and requiring boosters every six months for years won’t be too popular. I received my 2nd shot in April and will have blood work done later this month to see where I stand.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday introduced the U.S. Air Travel Public Safety Act, which would require all passengers on domestic airline flights to either be fully vaccinated, have recently tested negative for COVID-19 or have fully recovered from the disease. The bill would require the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop national vaccination standards and procedures related to COVID-19 and domestic air travel.
California will require students attending school in person to get vaccinated for Covid-19 after the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval for their age group, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday. Newsom’s latest order, the first of its kind nationwide, will roll out in two phases for students learning in person. The mandate will first take effect for students ages 12 and over after the FDA grants full approval to that entire age group. Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is currently authorized only on an emergency use basis for children ages 12 to 15. Newsom said California will apply the mandate for students ages 12 and up as early as Jan. 1 but possibly as late as July 1 depending on when FDA authorization takes place. My kids each received one dose. Of the 687k deaths from the pandemic, 78% are 65 years and older and .0007% are 17 years or under. The total deaths of under 17 are 478 in the two years since the pandemic began. I could not find what percent of the 478 deaths had comorbidity, but I read some months ago that it was an overwhelming majority. Interestingly in the 2018/9 flu season (one year), 477 deaths occurred in the 17 and under group or 1.4% of all flu deaths. The pandemic numbers are two years. I am all for the vaccine. Makes sense. I am double vaccinated. Not sure I feel a mandate is necessary for kids. Look at what is happening in Singapore and Israel and what just happened at Harvard. VERY high vaccination rates and cases are very high with Singapore hospitalizations hitting records. Harvard students are 95% vaccinated and faculty is 96%. Harvard just went on-line at the business school due to outbreaks. This article shows how New England is under pressure despite having some of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Hospitals in the region are seeing full intensive care units and staffing shortages.
Real Estate
My daughter, Julia, has a close friend who lives in Seven Bridges in West Boca. I went there to pick her up the other day and was amazed at the building going on out there. I saw four huge communities (Seven Bridges, The Bridges, Lotus and Boca Bridges) and they are all right next to each other. The growth is remarkable and the prices are up substantially since the pandemic. Although it feels a bit west to me, I feel for those who are looking to live in South Florida with families, they would be a good and more reasonable entry point than many other places closer to the beach. They have pools, restaurants, tennis, community centers, security… Worth a look. If you have kids, it is built in friends and safe communities with lots of activities I think the range is low $1s to $5mm+, but with the move in prices, some may go for more than $5mm. I believe there are between 500-800 homes in each of the communities for perspective.
A reader told me he bought 1 year ago for $2.1mm in Boca Bridges. His house is being built and he is moving in shortly. It is 6,000 feet on 1/4 acre. He believes he can get $3.5mm for it today based on the homes selling in the community. I am sorry, basically 70% appreciation in a year is not sustainable.
I spent 4 more hours scouring the market and called 10 brokers looking for pocket listings in Jupiter and found nothing interesting. How is this even possible? I give up.
As more people from NYC move here, I am better able to compare schools hearing from parents and kids who went to private schools in NYC and now in South Florida. The consistent theme for the best academic schools down here are Ransom Everglades in Miami or Pinecrest in Fort Lauderdale. Serious academics with tons of homework and are in line with good NYC schools. I don’t think they are as strong as the best NYC schools, but close enough. The links on the schools show the matriculation for each and they are impressive. Remember, in NYC, parents went to many Ivy League schools and legacy students have a leg up, so it is not apples to apples. Four years ago, getting into school down here was not challenging, but today it is a different story. You need to get the kids into school before buying a place. This is not NYC where there are dozens of options.
I feel I have good taste and appreciate architecture, art, furniture and aesthetically pleasing things. This WSJ article on prefab homes is interesting and I would be willing to live in one despite my high-end tastes. A friend owns a company which makes similar ones to the article above and I seen them first hand and was blown away. Cool concept and as building costs sky rocket, I can see these picking up steam. Cool videos in the link.
A venture capitalist paid nearly $26 million for the former Palm Beach property of convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a New York jail two years ago. An entity led by spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser sold the waterfront lot at 360 El Brillo Way for $25.8 million to a trust named after the address, property records show. The Wall Street Journal reported that David Skok, a partner at Waltham, Massachusetts-based Matrix Partners, purchased the property. Glaser’s LLC paid $18.5 million for the estate in March and later demolished the house, where Epstein was accused of sexually abusing dozens of young girls. Epstein paid $2.5 million for the six-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot mansion in 1990. So let’s do the math here. Glaser bought it for $18.5mm 6 months ago and sold it for 40% higher only knocking down a structure. Not a bad return. The high-end R/E from Miami to Jupiter remains red hot with limited inventory.
The national median rent rose to $1,302 in September, up 15% from a year ago, according to a report from Apartment List, a rental listing site. After falling for much of 2020, rents are now rising much faster than before the pandemic. Since January, the national median rent has increased by 16.4%. From 2017 to 2019, a more typical rent increase during those months was 3.4%, according to the report. In September, rents remained below pre-pandemic levels in just five large cities: San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, California, as well as Minneapolis and Washington, DC. But the meteoric rise in rents may be starting to show signs of cresting. The link goes into detail on rent jumps in a bunch of cities.
I think I have a tricked out house. I have everything controlled from my phone (A/C, pool, lights, shades, garage, music…). I upgraded everything and really enjoy the house. The only thing I have not done is retractable screens for the patio with a company called Phantom Screens. I have contemplated it, but never pulled the trigger. It is not cheap ($25-30k), but allows you to keep the sliding glass doors open and the covered porch cool with no bugs. I read this WSJ article suggesting a screened in patio is the way to go. I might just do it after this article.
More than 500 New York City penthouses are likely to sell this year, which would be the largest number since 2007. Penthouse 90 at 35 Hudson Yards is one of the most over-the-top coming to market. The views are the main attraction for this more than 10,000-square-foot penthouse, which carries a price tag of $54.5 million. I would not want to live at Hudson Yards unless I worked there. However, nothing could get me to live on the 90th floor. But I must admit the place looks amazing and Robert Frank gives a tour in the link above.