According to a RealtyTrac report released today, May saw an increase in foreclosure activity across the country by 2 percent. This is attributable to banks getting busy with repossessions–up 11 percent last month. It could be a lot worse, though: It’s still 28 percent below where it was in May 2012.
Photo: www.marchi-mobile.com
The most expensive recreational vehicle in the world is on sale for $2 million in–where else?–Dubai. From the Daily Mail (rogue capitalization of brand name obviously sic):
The space-age eleMMent Palazzo comes complete with a colossal master bedroom, 40-inch TV, on-board bar, fireplace and even its own rooftop terrace.
But the most impressive piece of luxury is the ‘Sky Lounge’ – at the press of a button the 40ft home transforms into a personal retreat with pop up cocktail bar, underfloor heating and extravagant marble lighting.
Generally speaking, the Daly Group deals in home sales, but recently the real estate group acquired what it’s calling a “stunning, luxury rental listing” in Graduate Hospital. What makes the four-bedroom at 16th and Bainbridge luxurious? Five bathrooms (three full, two half) start things off; two-car garage parking; an outdoor patio; a kitchen with Bosch appliances, a wet bar and wine cooler; a walk-in closet in the master bedroom; bamboo and marble floors; and Juliet balconies.
Granted, like so much of Graduate Hospital housing these days, this is new construction, so it won’t make any aesthetically impassioned hearts go pitter-pat. But a cathedral ceiling is a sweet attempt, and above all (quite literally), there’s a roof deck, from which the dreamer can see the familiar angles of the Drake and bemoan the Pepto Bismol bottle that is Symphony House (apologies to Inga Saffron).
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We expect this single-family brick Victorian in West Germantown to get snapped up quickly. It’s got off-street parking, an enormous back yard, and a ton of original detail. The living room fireplace is made of slate, and the house is a reasonable four bedrooms and two baths. There’s a wrap-around porch in front, and a shady patio in the back. We’d like to commend the listing agent on her smart use of photographs. If we had a spare $350,000, we’d buy this house just based on the close-up shot of the hardware on these original pocket doors.
The location, too, is kind of dreamy. It’s half a block from Cloverly Park in a neighborhood full of creative professionals, avid gardeners and young families. There are two community gardens within a few blocks of this house, and it’s close to Manayunk, East Falls, and Mt. Airy. There are two regional rail stops close by–Queen Lane and Chelten, and plenty of bus routes.
Screen shot taken from Joe McNally's YouTube video
The highest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai; it’s 2,722 feet tall. National Geographic photographer Joe McNally stood atop it recently to take a photo because he’s always wanted to seek unusual vantage points. “It’s got an unusual allure,” McNally says, in this video, of his motivation to climb the building. (This is exactly the kind of person National Geographic hires–vaguely suicidal folks who take on peril because of its “allure.”)
He recently posted a video of how he made the climb and why he decided to include people in the photos. Check it out.
“This is one of the great sporting towns in the country.”
When Robert Burch’s family moved to Gladwyne in 1999, having paid $9.3 million for an estate at 1543 Monk Road, they’d been living on a huge farm. As a result, the property–once owned by the Campbell Soup Dorrance dynasty–gradually took on more rustic aspects–chickens, for instance, and son Roby’s horseback commute to school each day (chronicled in 2010 in the Inquirer). According to the first issue of Grays Lane magazine, Roby even drives a John Deere tractor in the Gladwyne Memorial Day Parade.
But make no mistake: Since it was designed and built by Edmund Gilchrist in 1929, the 50-plus-acre estate has remained very much the same: a village of buildings meant to look like Normandy and anchored by a 14,000-square-foot, 20-room manor home.
We’ve all heard the different calculations: You’ll need to spend a third of your salary on rent. Or don’t spend more than half. No, it’s actually half of your gross, but a third of your net.
Write out a monthly budget, and you’ll still be stymied by the question of utilities (included or no?) and the inevitable unexpected, which may be an oxymoron but is nonetheless accurate.
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