Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

Economist – Surging numbers of Chinese people going abroad should be welcomed 5/17

Real Estate

FT – New York surpasses London on luxury housing market index – Lindsay Fortado 5/16

• “New York has surpassed London as the second-most luxurious major housing market in the world after Hong Kong as the effects of the UK’s vote to leave the EU chipped away at the price of top British real estate.” 
• “’In New York, luxury price increases and robust sales volumes, particularly at the low-end of the luxury market, bolstered the city’s index position’ last year, Christie’s International Real Estate said in a report.” 
• “Hong Kong, which saw two residential sales above $100m — including one at $360m — and the highest price per square foot of any city, held the top spot for the second year in a row.” 
• “The city rankings are based on seven factors collected by Christie’s, including record sales price, average price per square foot for homes that sold for more than $1m, the number of sales above $1m, the number of sales over $1m relative to total sales, the percentage of local and non-local buyers, and the percentage of secondary and additional homeowners.” 

• “Top 10 cities for luxury real estate, 2017 
  1. Hong Kong 
  2. New York 
  3. London 
  4. Singapore 
  5. San Francisco 
  6. Los Angeles 
  7. Sydney 
  8. Paris 
  9. Toronto 
  10. Vancouver” 

• “Christie’s said the ‘hottest’ market for new homes, based on the greatest rise in year-on-year increases in both luxury sales volumes and prices, was Victoria, British Columbia; followed by San Diego and Orange County, California; Washington DC; and Paris. The hottest markets for second homes were Santa Fe, New Mexico; Muskoka, Ontario; Sarasota, Florida; Sun Valley, Idaho; and the Bahamas.” 

Tech

NYT – Google’s File on Me Was Huge. Here’s Why It Wasn’t as Creepy as My Facebook Data. – Brian X. Chen 5/16