BusinessWeek: Most Expensive Summer Homes 2010

I never get tired of Bloomberg BusinessWeek slideshows like this one titled Most Expensive Summer Homes 2010. Which one is your favorite?

SORO is the new SoHo

There is an area of LA between Beverly Hills and the 10 freeway which is pretty bland. Its west and east borders are roughly Culver City and La Cienega Blvd. Several main streets - Pico, Robertson, La Cienega, Cadillac - run through the area, along which some shops and restaurants sit. The chief purpose of these streets, however, is to convey you through this bland area to another, more desirable area. The majority of the region is a series of suburban neighborhoods which meander from street to street. I have to imagine the no-man's-land location of these neighborhoods represses real estate values of homes compared to neighborhoods with name-recognition value such as Palms, Mar Vista, WeHo, etc. on the westside.

Recently, however, a group has attempted to give this bland area an identity. They have rebranded it as SORO - South Robertson - and have developed a website, community events (like "Walks at 7"), and a local rewards card to give you discounts at local shops. The most obvious thing, of course, is the appearance of street banners you can see below.

Curbed LA wrote a blurb about SORO over the summer. The user comments are entertaining for local reactions. I have heard this area called both "Beverly Hills Adjacent" and "Mid-Wilshire" (although I know Mid-Wilshire extends up towards Koreatown). What do you think of the efforts to brand this random neighborhood? Any chance of giving SORO an identity as strong as when we think of SoHo or Beverly Hills?

Best Places to Raise Your Kids

I love everything about the "Best Places to Raise Your Kids" list on BW right now. I love reading about these suburbs and towns, I love the real estate angle, I love that they picked a place in each of the 50 states, I love the unintentional comedy of placing superimposed pictures of people doing unrelated activities over scenic shots of the towns, I even love the failed attempts at choosing some of those scenic shots. Just look at the first example in Tallahassee - they couldn't have found a better pic of Dothan that doesn't include a knocked-over Yield streetsign and an overgrown stucco wall? Really? Why are the mother and child in Montana wearing snow gear and shades to visit the town hall in summer? It remains unclear.

No, it does not bother me that I am apparently a shill for Business Week. And yes, I am curious why none of BW's best cities to live in appear on this list - a message that cities are not good places to raise children?

Buzz Beast: Sweet Hollywood Crib

In the spirit of Hot Properties, cool places and the cool things posted daily on Buzz Beast, here is an absolutely sick (in a good way) house near Lake Hollywood taken directly from Buzz. I love everything about this house and recommend visiting the link for a large selection of photos.

The Hot Property Blog

I was recently turned on to the Hot Property Blog over at Business Week which I have enjoyed reading. It takes the general BW tone of "bland informational posts" but is a nice primer for general real estate trends. I do wish it would rely more on expertise, because rather than ask Could Home Prices See a Double-Dip? they could easily do the research and present a well-formulated opinion (consensus of people I've talked to anecdotally: yes we could see a double-dip). Also their feature on practically free houses in the US was an interesting read. They are on my regular reading list now.

Business Week: The World's Best Cities to Live In

Since I never get tired of geography rankings like this, here are the Top 30 Best Cities to Live In according to a survey passed along by Business Week.

The official BW title is "The World's Best Places to Live," but since they only ranked big cities I think that's a misnomer. As far as rankings go this list actually kind of sucks - I have no idea what their criteria are, so it's impossible to say if they've chosen well or not. You might as well call this the "top 30 cities in Germany and Scandinavia, with a few other places thrown in" because that's basically all that's on here. And I mean, weather obviously can't be a big factor, cause how did so many relatively cold-weather places get on here? Isn't "not freezing to death" high on these rankers' priorities? Anyway what would you rank as your top places to try living for, say, a year?

Home Ownership vs Renting

In light of the current values of homes on the market, several articles have appeared recently discussing the merits of owning rather than renting, especially in certain competitive housing markets around the country. There is even a website where you can find maps of buy-rent ratios based on market research in all metro areas.

Homes for $250k or $450k

From the NY Times, you can read about three homes on the market for $250,000 and three homes on the market for $450,000 in different areas of the country. You can also view the corresponding slideshow for $250k homes and the slideshow for $450k. Gives a nice snapshot of real estate values for different homes in different places.