Luxury Real Estate

Last week Christie’s Great Estates hosted this year’s premiere luxury real estate conference for owners and senior management. International executives gathered in Boston to converse about housing market data, social media trends, industry best practices, and much more.

Comprising 137 affiliates, Christie’s represents 900 luxury real estate offices in 42 different countries. Conference attendees shared statistics from their local markets, contributing to a truly global perspective on luxury real estate. After three days of presentations and discussions, brokers from across the globe came to a consensus that the luxury market is experiencing promising activity.

Luxury buyers are by no means dormant. Earlier this year, the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge sale in Paris featured the largest collection of art and artifacts in our lifetime, brining in over $400,000,000 in revenue. Christie’s affiliate Sibarth Real Estate made the world’s largest home sale, a St. Barth’s property that sold for $80,000,000 to a Russian oligarch. And another Christie’s affiliate – Joshua & Co. – made the largest U.S. sale: a $43,000,000 estate in Aspen, Colorado. Apparently not everyone is suffering from the economic squeeze.

And despite economic setbacks, Christie’s Great Estates is taking significant steps forward. Two additional headquarters of global referral offices are soon to open in New York and London, and Neil Palmer – the network’s newly appointed CEO – has concrete plans to launch a fresh website, update the magazine’s distribution, and expand Christie’s global presence in Asia and throughout the world.

For more information on international luxury markets, visit Christie’s Great Estates.

Last week luxury realtors gathered to hear an economic overview from Anthony Chan, a chief economist at JPMorgan who previously worked for the Federal Reserve. A brilliant thinker with extensive wisdom and insight, Chan shared his perspective on a number of issues including real estate, the federal fiscal programs, the strength of the dollar, and global GDP rates.

Describing himself as “cautiously optimistic,” Chan stated confidently that in terms of residential real estate, “the darkest days are behind us.” As for commercial real estate? Chan echoed Richard Fisher of the Dallas Federal Reserve, “We’re likely only in the 3^rd or 4^th inning…”

Some of the current numbers Chan offered up were the knock-the-wind-out-of-your-stomach sort: $50 trillion lost overall in this financial crisis; a 9.8% unemployment rate; a 40% debt-to-GDP ratio for the U.S. But when he compared that 40% to Japan’s 200%, the audience collectively sighed as if to say, “well, at least we’re not that bad.”

His future projections were more propitious. Chan expects to see continued sequential growth in the housing sector (probably at a rate of 3-3.25% over the next 12-18 months), and he predicts that the Fed won’t raise interest rates until at least the third quarter of 2010. Not concerned about inflation, Chan believes that today’s weak dollar is benefiting America by attracting foreign headquarters and factories to U.S. soil.

Lightly sprinkled with jokes, Chan’s sobering talk left the crowd consciously informed about the gravity of our present circumstances, and also encouraged about the future.

Listed below are a few pages from his party favor – a booklet of the latest economic data.