Whatever the architecture blogs think, Miami did not discover great architecture just in the last ten to twenty years. We may not have always had Rem Koolhaas (although Rem’s been connected to this town longer than you’d think), but we’ve always had beautiful environments, and outstanding buildings. Just look at thesepostcards of Miami and Miami Beach though the decades, from theWolfsonian Museum’s archives. They’re all about architecture and edenic landscapes, be it Art Deco, the neoclassical Beaux Arts, or Mediterranean Revival. They also show a healthy zest for the good life, which Miami has always had in spades.
Spring training has just started but thousands of homeowners are already striking out for the second time.
Black Knight reports that in January foreclosure starts reached at 12-month high. Repeat foreclosures were up 11 percent month-over-month and made up over half of January foreclosure starts; first-time starts were up just 0.33 percent.
The month’s data showed that both first-time and repeat foreclosure starts reached 12-month highs, although there was clear separation in the levels of increase between the two. According to Trey Barnes, Black Knight’s senior vice president of Loan Data Products, separation also continues to be seen between judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states across multiple performance indicators.
“Overall foreclosure starts hit a 12-month high in January, and that held true when looking at both first-time and repeat foreclosure starts individually,” said Barnes. “Repeat foreclosure starts made up 51 percent of all foreclosure starts and increased 11 percent from December. In contrast, first-time foreclosure starts were up just a fraction of a percent from the month prior. Similarly, Black Knight found that January foreclosure starts jumped about 10 percent from December in judicial states as compared to just a 1.7 percent increase in non-judicial states. Judicial states are also seeing higher levels of both new problem loans and serious delinquencies (loans 90 or more days delinquent, but not yet in foreclosure) than non-judicial states, although volumes are down overall in both categories.
One again the action is mostly in the judicial states. Foreclosure starts were up almost 10 percent month-over-month in judicial states vs. just 1.7 percent in non-judicial. “At the same time, foreclosure sale counts – essentially, completed foreclosures – have been decreasing more rapidly than the inventory of seriously delinquent loans in both judicial and non-judicial states. As a result, foreclosure pipeline ratios, the backlog in months of foreclosure and 90-day delinquent inventory based on current foreclosure sale rates, have been increasing across the board. In judicial states, the pipeline ratio now stands at 58 months; up quite a bit from the 47 months seen in 2013, but a far cry from its high of 118 months a couple of years before that. In recent months, non-judicial pipeline ratios have reached similar levels to judicial pipeline ratios. As of January, the non-judicial pipeline ratio was at 53 months, close to an all-time high. Throughout the housing crisis, non-judicial pipeline ratios were significantly lower than those in judicial states.”
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Inflation in January may have seen the first negative reading since 2009, but there’s little sign that rents are cooling off.
Rent of primary residences, on a year-over-year basis, stayed at 3.4% in January, the 10th month in a row it’s been above 3%, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.
Put another way — the gap between rents and the broader consumer-price index is as large as it’s been since August 2009.
Separate data from Axiometrics confirms the story on rents — apartment rent growth in January was 4.9% year-over-year, which according to their data was the best since the recession.
The rental story has been a hot one for some time.
Part of it reflects the same fundamentals that have helped lift house prices, like the steady jobs growth in the economy.
In addition, tight credit standards, and the overhang of student debt, have helped steer younger Americans to rent from buy, when they’re not living in their parents’ basements.
Other factors include changing tastes as well as lifestyle changes, like marriage, happening later in life, according to KC Sanjay, senior real estate economist at Axiometrics
The legendary architect and his companion, the curator David Whitney, spent their weekends in the world’s most famous transparent box. Or did they?
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Philip Johnson, left, with his partner, the art curator and collector David Whitney, photographed by Mariana Cook on the Glass House property in 1995.Credit
WHEN PHILIP JOHNSON’S Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., was featured in Life magazine soon after its completion in 1949, architects and designers downed martinis at the Oyster Bar, pondering the future of the International Style. But that probably wasn’t what most people were thinking about as they looked at the pictures. They likely leaned back in their Barcaloungers and wondered: How could he actually live in a clear box, without walls, without privacy, without any stuff?
The answer was that despite our indelible impression of Johnson, the owlish man in the dapper suit and those spectacles, spending his incredibly long life (he died at age 98 in 2005) in the 1,800-square-foot transparent rectangle, silhouetted against a backdrop of greenery that he called “expensive wallpaper,” he never really did live in the Glass House. At least not in the self-contained sense in which the rest of us occupy our homes.
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T’s design editor Tom Delavan tours the 49-acre estate with Henry Urbach, the house’s director.
Instead, the Glass House was merely the focal point of what eventually grew to be a veritable architectural theme park on 49 meticulously tended acres, comprising 14 structures, in which Johnson and David Whitney, the collector and curator who met him in 1960 and became his life partner, and who died just months after Johnson, enjoyed their impossibly glamorous weekend existence.
From the bunkerlike Brick House where Johnson often slept and the tiny, turreted, postmodern Library where he worked surrounded by architecture books, to Calluna Farms, the 1905 shingled farmhouse and the subterranean art gallery,also you can see here the art gallery collection. the collection of buildings formed Johnson’s idea of the perfect deconstructed home. When the Glass House compound, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site, reopens for tours in May after its usual winter break, the public will for the first time be able to visit two additional structures of the 14 — Calluna Farms and Grainger, the cozy 18th-century timber-frame house the couple used as a TV room — at last offering a more nuanced picture of what life really was like behind glass.
Philip Johnson’s “Glass House” refers ambiguously both to his iconic residence in New Canaan, Conn., and to the 49-acre property which comprised eight other buildings, including this house, called Grainger, which was used as a sitting room.Dean Kaufman
The world-famous Glass House, completed in 1949, was not the couple’s sole residence on the property. Dean Kaufman
The Sculpture Gallery, built in 1970, holds works from the likes of Frank Stella and Robert Morris. Dean Kaufman
The postmodern one-room Library, built in 1980, where Johnson often worked. Dean Kaufman
The Gehryesque Da Monsta gatehouse, completed in 1995. Dean Kaufman
The interior of Grainger, the 18th-century farmhouse used mostly for watching TV. Dean Kaufman
The entrance to the subterranean Painting Gallery. Dean Kaufman
Calluna Farms, the shingle-style farmhouse purchased by Johnson in 1981 to serve as Whitney’s residence. Dean Kaufman
The interior of Calluna Farms with its lace curtains and chairs designed by Prouvé, Le Corbusier and Thonet. Dean Kaufman
The bedroom in the Brick House, designed by Johnson in 1953, features vaulted ceilings, Fortuny-covered walls and a hand-woven carpet. Dean Kaufman
The Lincoln Kirstein Tower, a 30-foot folly on the property that Johnson used to climb. Dean Kaufman
A window by the artist Michael Heizer at the back of Grainger, facing the peony and iris garden. Dean Kaufman
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IN THE BEGINNING, there were two: the Glass House and the Brick House, both about 50 feet long and finished within months of each other in 1949 on a five-acre plot, with a 90-foot-wide grassy court separating them. History has downplayed the Brick House — from the outside it’s plain and it doesn’t fit well with the people-in-glass-houses narrative — but Johnson always knew it would be impossible to live entirely in the open, so he built a place to get some privacy.
The rest of the buildings came naturally, if gradually. The idea of having a slew of small houses for different activities, moods and seasons, complemented by decorative “follies,” was Johnson’s conception for the site from early on. He called it a “diary of an eccentric architect,” but it was also a sketchbook, an homage to architects past and present, and to friends like the dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein, after whom Johnson named one of the follies he built on the property, a 30-foot-high tower made of painted concrete blocks.
In contrast to their whirlwind weekday world in Manhattan, Johnson and Whitney saw life in New Canaan as perpetual camping, albeit of a luxurious, minimalist sort. Neither Grainger nor the 380-square-foot Library has a bathroom, though both are air-conditioned, unlike the Glass House, which relies on cross ventilation. It originally had heating pipes in the ceiling and the floor, but the ceiling pipes reportedly froze early on and were never adequately repaired. To compensate, on particularly cold winter days the temperature of the water flowing through the radiant heated floors was turned up to nearly 200 degrees. “You couldn’t go in there with bare feet,” Port Draper, the contractor who maintained the house for many years, recalled in The Times in 2007. Johnson was unbothered by the house’s leaks, a problem endemic to a flat roof. Frank Lloyd Wright once referred to one of his houses as a “two-bucket house,” according to Robert A. M. Stern, to which Johnson gaily replied, “Oh, that’s nothing, Frank. Mine’s a four-bucket house. One in each corner.”
While the Glass House was designed with areas for dining, living and sleeping, loosely divided by low cabinetry and a brick cylinder holding the chimney and bathroom, it functioned more as a living space, an occasional office for Johnson and a place to throw parties (lots of them, attended in the early years by a coterie of young Yale architecture students, and later by the likes of Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Fran Lebowitz and Agnes Gund). The house was astonishingly tchotchke-free. “I don’t think clutter was allowed,” the painter Jasper Johns, a friend of both men, once said. “One was always aware of their ruthless elegance.”
The palatial Upper East Side penthouse that Joan Rivers called home for the last 25 years is now on the market. The queen of comedy died in September, leaving a void not only in the entertainment industry, but also her condo board, where she served as the president. Rivers loved her gilded apartment—she described the decor as “Louis XIV meets Fred and Ginger“—and told theTimes in 2012 that she had only listed it to “placate [her] business manager.” The apartment first hit the market in 2009 for $25 million, and was last listed in 2013 for $29.5 million. After her death, the condo was transferred to her daughter Melissa, who has now put it back on the market for $28 million. The triplex home measures 5,100 square feet and features four bedrooms, five fireplaces, and opulent things like “gilded antique boisserie paneling and columns.”
In 2008 these Santa Monica, California, homeowners worked with their architects to build a minimalist, modern home. Several years later they still loved their custom home, but they thought it could be cozier and more touchable. They hired an interior design team to take their rooms to a new, warmer level.
Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: A landscape architect, her husband and their son Location: Santa Monica, California Size: 3,500 square feet (325 square meters);4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
Interior designers Krista Schrock and David Dick of Disc Interiors picked up the design reins last year. To fully understand why they added earthy, touchable elements and nature-based colors to the pure white spaces, you have to know that the woman in the house is a landscape designer and her husband is an avid surfer who works at a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Santa Monica Bay. “They wanted us to bring in more natural elements, to make the spaces warmer and more approachable,” says Dick.
The living room illustrates the strategy — a metal sunburst hangs over furniture done in watery shades of blue and a nubby Moroccan rug. Rustic elements such as the stone-topped coffee table and pottery accessories on the shelves turn up the visual temperature several degrees.
“We sometimes like to work with opposites,” says Dick. “We were working with something that was new, white and minimal. We added elements that are the opposite: vintage, brass, glass, ceramics and touches of black — we’ve always thought a bit of black sharpens up almost any room.”
Metal sculpture: vintage Curtis Jeré; sofa: custom; coffee table: Lawson-Fenning
The designers created a custom light fixture that is like a large mobile. The black and brass light breaks up the boxiness of the room.
Given the home’s modernist nature, it’s no surprise that it has been the backdrop for several Design Within Reach catalog photo shoots. The armchair is, in fact, a DWR piece the couple owns. “We wanted to avoid the cliché of midcentury furniture in a modern house, so we re-covered the chair in a pinstripe fabric,” says Dick.
Most of the seating is now directed toward the garden, seen through the large glass doors. The sofa was moved to face the garden, and the other armchair is a swivel chair, which allows its occupant to swing around and take in the view. “Because she is a landscape designer, the rooms are all about the gardens,” says Dick. “The colors we chose were a counterbalance to the beautiful greens outside.”
The couple likes to cook, and the kitchen was done to their liking. The designers added a new dimension by installing two large mica globe lights over the island. “They are a big, strong statement,” says Dick. “They are different sizes, which makes them playful and fun, and the mica shades make a beautiful, warm glow in the room.”
The watery look picks up again in the dining room, where the designers used patterned curtains to create a kind of floor-to-ceiling artwork. “They make for a bold moment,” says Dick. “Every room should have one.”
Freddie Mac today released its newly updated Multi-Indicator Market Index® (MiMi®) showing the U.S. housing market continuing to stabilize at the national level for the third consecutive month. Thirty-four of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, and 37 of the 50 metros, are now showing an improving three month trend.
News Facts:
The national MiMi value stands at 74.7, indicating a weak housing market overall but showing a slight improvement (+0.35%) from October to November and a positive 3-month trend of (+1.07%). On a year-over-year basis, the U.S. housing market has improved (+3.94%). The nation’s all-time MiMi high of 122.5 was June 2006; its low was 60.3 in September 2011, when the housing market was at its weakest. Since that time, the housing market has made a 23.9 percent rebound.
Fifteen of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia have MiMi values in a stable range, with North Dakota (95.8) the District of Columbia (94.3), Montana (91.4), Wyoming (91.2), and Hawaii (89.1) ranking in the top five.
Eight of the 50 metro areas have MiMi values in a stable range, with San Antonio (89.5), Austin (87.0), Houston (85.3), Los Angeles (84.1) and Salt Lake City (83.6), ranking in the top five.
The most improving states month-over-month were Georgia (+1.32%), North Carolina (+1.28%), Michigan (+1.27%), Maryland (+1.14%) and Delaware (+1.12%) On a year-over-year basis, the most improving states were Nevada (+17.45%), Illinois (+10.15%), Rhode Island (9.65%) Colorado (+8.63%) and Ohio (+8.45%)
The most improving metro areas month-over-month were Atlanta (+1.64), Detroit (+1.40%), Charlotte (+1.35%), Birmingham (+1.32%) and Cleveland (1.20%). On a year-over-year basis the most improving metro areas were Las Vegas (+20.14%), Chicago (+12.37%), Denver (+10.68%), Miami, (+10.57%), and Providence (+9.45%).
In November, 34 of the 50 states and 37 of the 50 metros were showing an improving three month trend. The same time last year, 34 states plus the District of Columbia, and 41 of the top 50 metro areas were showing an improving three month trend.
Quote attributable to Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer:
“Housing markets are stabilizing. Low mortgage rates help to keep affordability in-check across many markets. Labor markets are strengthening, but generally have room for improvement. We’re keeping an eye on markets with deep ties to energy. We’ve noticed some deterioration on a month-over-month basis in some of these energy markets, especially smaller markets with less diversified economies. Overall MiMi has improved for the third consecutive month showing housing markets are getting back on track.”
The 2015 MiMi release calendar is available online.
MiMi monitors and measures the stability of the nation’s housing market, as well as the housing markets of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the top 50 metro markets. MiMi combines proprietary Freddie Mac data with current local market data to assess where each single-family housing market is relative to its own long-term stable range by looking at home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios (changes in home purchasing power based on house prices, mortgage rates and household income), proportion of on-time mortgage payments in each market, and the local employment picture. The four indicators are combined to create a composite MiMi value for each market. Monthly, MiMi uses this data to show, at a glance, where each market stands relative to its own stable range of housing activity. MiMi also indicates how each market is trending, whether it is moving closer to, or further away from, its stable range. A market can fall outside its stable range by being too weak to generate enough demand for a well-balanced housing market or by overheating to an unsustainable level of activity.
Location: Princeton, New Jersey Price: $2,000,000 In 1949, Philip Johnson commissioned a series of exhibition houses for MoMA’s sculpture garden, to offer up an “economical solution for an individually built, architect-designed country home,” as an alternative to the prefabs and Cape Cod-style dwellingsfilling America’s new suburbs. The “House in the Museum Garden” series may not have had the transformative effect he hoped for, but for Marcel Breuer, who designed the first home in the series,the exposure yielded a handful of commissions built in the same style. These included the Lauck House, on four acres in Princeton, New Jersey, which was recently put on the market for$2M.
A 2011 Dwell article on Breuer’s original MoMA home—which the Rockefellers purchased and had rebuilt on their estate, in Pocantico Hills, New York, where it now hosts the resident artists of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund—shows a very close resemblance. Both were built with butterfly roofs, and a “bi-nuclear” layout so that they could adapt as families grew, essentially creating ‘apartments’ at each end; the master bedroom and master bath in one, and bedrooms, a bathroom, and a playroom at the other, with a kitchen in between.
This idea has since been expanded upon with the Lauck House, by way of a double-height extension built in the ’80s, adding a glassed-in communal area to what would have been the childrens’ side. The 3,800-square-foot home has vertical wood siding both outside and in, flagstone floors, and like the home upon which it was based, a kind of funky rope railing in the living room. It’s currently owned by an architect couple, who purchased it in 2008 an undertook “complete restoration and preservation work.”
Oil is pushing its way down to below $47.50 per barrel as of Monday, and there’s no sign it’s going to change anytime.
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal says in an interview today that the days of $100 per barrel oil are over.
Some worry the recent plunge in oil prices could cause home prices to slip in the oil-producing markets of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and elsewhere, writes Jed Kolko, the chief economist for Trulia (TRLA).
“But it typically takes two years for oil prices to fully affect home prices in those markets,” Kolko writes. “At the same time, lower oil prices could boost home values in the Northeast and Midwest.”
Paul Diggle, property economist at Capital Economics, says in a client note that any drag on housing in oil-driven markets from drop in demand and from decline in employment in the United States would be offset by increased consumer spending power.
“If production and employment are scaled back, housing markets in some oil-producing States, which have recently been among the most buoyant, could potentially suffer,” Diggle writes. “But any drag that this may generate will be more than offset by the wider boost to household incomes. Combined with looser credit conditions, lower oil prices should therefore give housing a boost.”
He says that the slump in oil prices could have both positive and negative effects on the housing market. The negatives are centered on the shale-oil producing states, where extraction costs over the long-run may be higher than the current $50 per barrel oil price. A dip in oil production and investment would hit jobs and ultimately housing market activity.
[Images via Wolfsonian-FIU]
