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Zillow

Alicia Keys’ Manhattan penthouse is all style and glass.

Alicia Keys is moving on from her gorgeous Manhattan apartment, Frank Sinatra’s former home is for sale, and the former rental home of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as well as Russell Crowe is available for lease.

Alicia Keys lists ‘Empire-State-of-Mind’ penthouse

Forget about moving on up. Singer and New York native Alicia Keys did that a long time ago, trading her childhood residence at the artist-friendly Manhattan Plaza apartment complex in Hell’s Kitchen for a slick SoHo real estate market triplex.

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Now Keys and her producer husband Swizz Beatz have listed their Crosby Street penthouse for $17.95 million only two years after the couple bought the place from funk/soul/rocker Lenny Kravitz for $12.5 million.

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The dining room features immense skylights and chandeliers.

According to Sotheby’s International, which holds the listing, the apartment boasts five bedrooms, four bathrooms, four powder rooms and an enormous state-of-the-art, windowed, gourmet eat-in kitchen with walk-in butler’s pantry. And separate formal dining room that faces east encased in a glass solarium.

That’s only the start of the grand tour of a pad once rented by Nicole Kidman and Denzel Washington. The place also has an expansive living room with fireplace and library/media room that are all surrounded by undoubtedly one of the most beautiful private terraces in all of SoHo. Upstairs, there’s a separate private master suite complete with spa, pass-through dressing area and private terrace.

Read more about Alicia Keys’ penthouse.

Owner of former Sinatra home didn’t stay long

Zillow

Frank Sinatra owned this home during a low point during his career.

When Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey bought Frank Sinatra’s former Los Angeles home in November 2010 for $18.5 million, the famous Hollywood producer had big plans to restore and renovate the brick ranch that sits on a parklike 2.3 acres.

Turns out that, in the end, the Sinatra house that inspired Grey’s dreams was merely a nice set for Grey’s wedding in April 2011 to his new wife, Cassandra. The wedding was called lavish, and attended by the likes of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez. The couple has since moved to Bel Air, making Grey’s ownership stint a lot like Sinatra’s.

“My client still owns (the Sinatra house) but I sold him another property. He didn’t want to go through the process of renovating the house,” said Stephen Shapiro, who holds the listing at Westside Estate Agency.

The property has been back on the market since September, when Grey listed the Holmby Hills residence for $23.5 million. After a price drop on March 15, the former Sinatra home at 320 N. Carolwood Drive was re-listed for its current list price of $19,995,000.

According to the Sinatra biography “The Voice,” by James Kaplan, Sinatra bought the house in 1948 for $250,000 at a time when his career was at a low ebb. Sinatra had built a dream home in Palm Springs, and was strapped for cash and on the verge of divorce.

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Sinatra’s former home spans 8,600 square feet.

Rent like Tom Cruise or Russell Crowe for $100K a month

Zillow

The rental has nearly three acres of manicured grounds.

What do Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Russell Crowe have in common?

Besides star status and high-paying movie roles, all three have at some point, for at least a little while, called 918 N. Alpine Drive home in Los Angeles.

The Tudor-style home was rented by Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise for $55,000 a month and then leased by Russell Crowe while he filmed “State of Play.”

In 2001, the nearly three-acre estate was also the filming location for several scenes in the movie “Blow” starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.

And for someone with a celebrity-sized housing budget, the home is available again — this time for a whopping monthly rental price of $100,000.

Available as a short or long-term lease, the Beverly Hills rental is set back from the street — perfect for privacy-seeking celebrity tenants. With almost three acres of landscaped property, 6,685 square feet of living space and three separate guest apartments, the estate also has enough room for the star with the biggest entourage of stylists, security personnel and various and sundry assistants.

Zillow

Donna Dotan

In New York City, 214 Lafayette St. is a five-story mansion that can be rented by the rich.

When 214 Lafayette Street in New York City’s SoHo district recently went on the rental market, it raised many eyebrows. Not just because it’s an unparalleled five-story mansion in a city notoriously short on living space or because it has a private indoor swimming pool. It’s the rent: $100,000 per month.

Botox-free foreheads everywhere should prepare to give those eyebrows another workout, because 214 Lafayette Street is already rented for at least two months this summer. 

Property features

Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3 full, 1 partial
Square footage: 13,000

In addition to the pool, the property has a nearly 1,000-square-foot terrace with a Zen garden. The guest room on the ground floor features a porthole window to the middle of the pool, lending it the feel of an underwater room, according to Steve Halpern, a broker for the apartment with Citi Habitats. A dumbwaiter goes up to the terrace and the home’s main living room. Outside the master suite, a master sitting area overlooks the main space.

Background

The building was one of New York’s original Con Edison power stations, Halpern said.  Back then, it was “turbines floor to ceiling — and they still have the original barrel vaulted ceilings.”

In the 1950s and ‘60s, it was a factory and later a gallery space. The current owners are Marcus Nispel, director of such remakes as “Friday the 13^th” and “Conan the Barbarian,” and his family, who purchased the building in 1996. It took 10 to 12 years to renovate, including taking out one of the floors, so the main living room is now double height, Halpern said.

The space has also made cameos in pop culture. The video for Beyoncé’s 2008 song “Halo” was shot there, including a segment where she’s swimming in the pool in a white gown. John Mayer also shot a video there.

Potential tenants

The mansion is already rented for June and July, and possibly for August. Who is the demographic for a $100K rental home? Halpern notes he has shown the space to a 24-year-old billionaire and to some celebrities.

Why would renters consider paying this much? Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats, gives the oft triple-cited reason: Location, location, location. Other aspects that might tempt the wealthy to spend $100K each month, he says, are its rare combination of amenities, like the indoor pool and private roof deck. He adds that it requires no board approval and offers the utmost in privacy, since it is a single-family dwelling.

“Two Fourteen Lafayette appeals to celebrities, wealthy international businesspeople and others with disposable income that plan to be in New York for a relatively short amount of time,” said Malin. “Most likely, they are already homeowners somewhere else.” 

What is the appeal of such a high-end rental?  “In some circumstances, it makes a lot of sense,” Malin said. “Those who chose to rent do not have to sacrifice anything in order to live the lifestyle of their dreams.” 

“For those who only plan to stay in a property for a few years, renting is definitely the way to go. It’s a more affordable option. If you plan to be in N.Y.C. for two or three years, why buy a $20 million property and worry about the maintenance — plus the prospect of having to sell the home in a down real estate market? Renting is, for the most part, short term and worry free.  It’s like dating your home, instead of marrying it.”

 
It’s as much as a small, two-bedroom apartment might cost on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But in Ireland, Paul Diver has purchased a spectacular 55 bedroom hotel overlooking the Donegal coastline for a mere $860,000, down from the $6 million price the original owners sought for the Sandhouse Hotel three years ago.

Diver, who managed the Sandhouse Hotel in Rosnowlagh for 20 years, was delighted to secure the 50 staff members their jobs. He told msnbc.com on Friday that he had been willing to go “a bit higher” when the hotel was auctioned this week in Dublin, but was delighted when his reserve-price bid was accepted by the auctioneers.

The 50-year-old hotel went into liquidation in 2009 after the previous owners failed to sell it during the dramatic skid in the country’s economy.

 Overall, Irish real estate prices have crashed since 2007-08, when the so-called “Celtic Tiger” economy collapsed. Home values have fallen more than 60 percent below their peak five years ago, and commercial properties have suffered similar declines.
For Diver, it was an opportunity he couldn’t turn down.

“It’s just a total adrenalin rush; I can’t believe it. It’s been a long, long road but we have made it,” he told the Irish Independent newspaper.
Diver hopes the fantastic location off the Rosnowlagh beach will remain a lure for visitors from home and abroad. He noted the beach has hosted the European Surfing Championship a few times over the past 15 years and boasts “fantastic waves.”

Zillow

The dome home rotates to take advantage of the sun’s energy.

By Erika Riggs, Zillow

116 Canaan Rd, New Paltz NY
For sale: $1,200,000

Normally, when someone asks for the remote, it’s because they want to undertake some serious TV channel surfing. But in one unique home located just 90 minutes north of New York City, playing with the remote control will set the entire wooden house spinning on its axis.

This dome home was, in fact, built on an electronically-controlled axle. So with a push of a button, the 3,000-square-foot New Paltz home for sale can rotate 360 degrees. In five orbital minutes, the house completes one full rotation.

The owners of this circular domicile aren’t constantly on the spin cycle. The feature is used to take advantage of the sun for the home’s solar energy needs. Each season, the home is rotated for maximum efficiency, explained listing agent Anne Rajs.

While the home looks similar to geodesic dome homes, it was built using a kit from France called Domespace and is the only structure like it that has been constructed in the U.S.

“It does look like a space ship,” said Rajs, “But it’s an amazing home. It’s the coolest home I’ve ever seen.”

The two-story home features 40-foot ceilings centered by the axle. Tall, wedge-shaped windows keep the interiors light-filled and open. The home features bamboo flooring and custom wood and stone cabinetry. The first floor contains two bedrooms and the majority of the living space. A central spiral staircase leads to the second floor which holds the master suite, office and additional balcony space.

Although one of the home’s main appeals is its unique design, Rajs believes that the home’s location is a big sell as well.

“It’s this beauty of a house in the middle of 28 acres,” Rajs said. “And you can walk to the Mohonk Preserve which has 1,000 acres more of hiking and rock climbing.”

The home has also been featured on the Discovery Channel and a video of the interiors, as well as the home rotating, is on YouTube.

According to Zillow’s mortgage calculator, a monthly mortgage payment on the home will be $4,475, assuming a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage.

Zillow

The axel stretches to the home’s ceiling.

Zillow

The home has several tall arching windows to take advantage of the natural light.

Matt York / AP

Builders frame a new home in Queen Creek, Ariz.

By msnbc.com news services

Housing starts surged to a 1-1/2 year high in November and permits for future construction were the highest since March 2010 as demand for rental apartments rose, offering hope for the weak housing market.

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts jumped 9.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 units, the highest since April last year.

October’s starts were revised down to a 627,000-unit pace from a previously reported 628,000 unit rate.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts rising to a 635,000-unit rate. Compared to November last year, residential construction was up 24.3 percent.

Though new homes represent just 20 percent of the overall home market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Over the past year, apartment permits have surged roughly 63 percent. Single-family permits have increased just 6.6 percent in that time.

Earlier, Oliver Chang, Morgan Stanley’s head of U.S. housing strategy, appeared on CNBC to discuss the outlook for the housing market:

Home construction and sales are in the midst of one of its worst years ever. Demand for new homes is weak. Record-low mortgage rates and plunging home prices have done little to help.

Builders are struggling to compete with deeply discounted foreclosures and short sales. Short sales occur when lenders allow homes to be sold for less than what’s owed on the mortgage. Few homes are selling.

After previous recessions, housing accounted for at least 15 percent of U.S. economic growth. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, it has contributed just 4 percent.

In October, sales of new homes rose slightly, largely because builders cut their prices in the face of weak demand.

Renting has become a preferred option for many Americans who lost their jobs during the recession and were forced to leave their houses.

Another reason sales have fallen is that previously occupied homes have become a better deal than new homes. The median price of a new home is about 30 percent higher than the median price for a resale. That’s nearly twice the markup typical in a healthy housing market.

The homebuilders’ trade group said this week that its survey of industry sentiment rose in December to 21, the highest level since May 2010. Still, any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market. The index hasn’t reached 50 since April 2006, the peak of the housing boom.