SIGNALS: Real Estate Edition
November's Priciest Home Sales
Last month's most expensive home sale was a $56 million Italian-style Silicon Valley estate built in 2021, according to Redfin data.
Meanwhile: Aspen dominated the month's luxury market, claiming four of the top 10 sales, including the second-priciest home, a $53 million steel-and-concrete contemporary built in 2017 with its own semi-private island.
Google Entering the Real Estate Market
Zillow shares tanked on Monday on the news that Google has been placing home listings directly into search results.
Context: So far, the feature is being tested in select markets and only on mobile (a real estate tech analyst shared screenshots to break the story). Analysts were divided: some say Google could surpass Zillow as a lead-gen tool for agents, while others note that, because Zillow isn't really dependent on pageviews, any real impact would take years to materialize.
Million-Dollar Homes are Baseline
In markets like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and Dallas, a $1 million home is no longer considered luxury. Even at that price point, properties can be small, dated, and in need of repairs, says Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith.
Context: Smith says strong demand, limited land, and high-cost structures in these markets have pushed typical home prices far above the national norm. Other markets showing the same trend include Phoenix, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Why it matters: Builders and designers have to continually adjust designs, finishes, and features to meet what local buyers now expect at these price points.
Mapped: The Age of Every Building in LA
Using government data, built: LA created an interactive visualization that color codes the nearly three million buildings across LA County constructed between 1890 and 2008 (note the explosion of activity in the postwar years). The coolest feature is the animated timelapse of the entire data set, which transitions decade by decade when you click the colorful stopwatch up top.
