Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions, notably in the USA) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is stationary, or fixed in location. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty). However, in some situations the term “real estate” refers to the land and fixtures together, as distinguished from “real property,” referring to ownership rights of the land itself.

The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.

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A shopping centre on a Worcestershire estate is set to benefit from a multi-million pound revamp.

Council leaders said Church Hill in Redditch needed the new shops and other services to help prevent anti-social behaviour there.

The area, which has 10,000 residents, was chosen above three others in the town to have the revamp.

The plans will include having a high street on both sides of the street to encourage more businesses to the area.

New car parks will also be built.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

In the East Memphis neighborhood of High Point Terrace, a dented plastic water bottle and faded Dr. Pepper can rest between a set of rotting rail ties and contorted, overgrown brushwood. At first glance, the rail tracks stretching behind High Point residential backyards appears to be part of property that has been long forgotten. But this is not just another abandoned lot. It’s a piece of an out-of-service railway owned by CSX Transportation, a company that has placed a $17 million price tag on the 13-mile discontinued rail corridor stretching from Midtown Memphis to Cordova. And it’s all part of a brewing dispute involving a number of local entities, including a private equity firm representing a consortium of civic organizations; city, county, and state government; and one of the largest railroad companies in the Eastern United States.

Park and trail advocates envision a greenway in place of the blighted and ignored corridor: a much-needed green space for Memphis, complete with a jogging trail that would connect Midtown to the massive Shelby Farms park. But their price is much different than the one that CSX -is asking. Is $17 million an accurate value for the land? CSX maintains that it is. The price is “based on the value to us,” says Meg Sacks, spokesman for the Jacksonville, Florida-based publicly traded corporation.

Read more: mbqmemphis.com

They often are the most expensive block in their respective city.

Usually the block orients around the city’s defining feature. In New York, it’s on Central Park; in San Francisco it has views of the bay; in Seattle it sits on Lake Washington; and in Miami it’s on the water.

In Pictures: The Most Expensive Blocks In The U.S.

For the first time ever Forbes.com has generated a list of the most expensive blocks in 10 cities across the country. To do so, we created an index with California-based data provider Reply! of the 100 most expensive properties in each city, mapped them geographically and then measured home values and the concentration of high-priced home values in each particular cluster.

Reply!’s data is an amalgam of property records, tax records and an algorithm that calculates a market value for a home based on neighborhood trends, to effectively measure homes that haven’t been appraised or sold recently. We then confirmed the data findings with luxury brokers in each city to see if the data findings reflected their experience in the upper echelon of the real estate market.

One way for a block to vault to the top was on the back of recent buying activity. Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Dolly Lenz credits “a flurry of recent sales,” on New York’s top block–Fifth Avenue between 69th and 70th–for its top billing, adding that “it’s hard to be expensive if there are no trades.” In that part of town, a 50-foot-wide townhouse next to the Frick Museum is available for $28 million.

Other cities’ top blocks came from established gated communities, like in Miami where the most expensive block can be found on Leucadendra Drive, north of the Arvida Parkway. Nelson Gonzalez, a broker with Esslinger Wooten Maxwell points out that this block is “in Gable Estates, which is a high end area in Miami.”

Waterfront homes in Gables Estates don’t come on the market too often, but there are a couple of elegant, Mediterranean-style homes available for an affordable $6.3 million and $8.9 million.

Recent construction and expansion projects can also tip the balance. In Chicago, there are several blocks in close competition for the title of most expensive, but the block between Willow, Armitage, Burling and Orchard notched the top spot due to top Chicago families combining lots.

“People have been able to combine as many as seven city lots to build massive new homes,” says Deborah Fischer, a broker at Koenig & Strey. This once low-key area in Chicago, known more for its small Victorians, now features Richard Parrillo’s seven-lot home, Penny Pritzker’s five-lot home and Sara Crown Star’s three-lot home.

In San Francisco it’s the block where Broadway runs into the Presidio, between Vallejo, Lyon and Broderick. The roll call of residents that includes Gordon Getty, Larry Ellison and Peter Sperlings. Care to buy in? 2845 Broadway is listed for $65 million and 2901 Broadway asks $55 million.

Oftentimes the picturesque cityscapes most familiar to tourists for architecture and prestige are not the most expensive blocks in town. Take Washington, D.C., where the Georgetown blocks filled with colonial townhouses, cobbled streets and gas light lanterns are home to senators, congressmen and foreign dignitaries.

Expensive though they may be, they pale in price comparison to the large mansions on Rock Creek Park, near the Naval Observatory. The block on Woodland Drive, between McGill Terrace and the park–right in the backyard of the vice president’s mansion–is the district’s most expensive stretch. Until Vice President Dick Cheney’s Naval Observatory digs become available in November 2008, the most impressive home on this stretch runs $8.75 million.

Most of the cities on our list are very geographically confined, so places where homeowners can nab a large plot of land and build big house are rare. A good example is the most expensive block in Seattle, which falls on Lake Washington Boulevard between East Denny Laine Place and Howell Place. That stretch of Lake Washington is bounded by large city parks and as a result there are fewer than 50 waterfront homes in the prime neighborhood of Madison Park.

“Combined with the close proximity to downtown, it is very desirable and expensive,” says Jane Powers, a broker at Ewing and Clark. Not surprisingly, like most of the top blocks around the country, she says, “many of the region’s big names reside there, in addition to many of the Old Guard.”

Subprime woes spread to pricey real estate.

NEW YORK – The subprime mortgage crisis is spreading to a somewhat unexpected place: homes costing more than $500,000.

As lending has rapidly gotten more restrictive for borrowers taking out large loans, sales of expensive homes have fallen sharply around the country during what should be one of the busiest seasons for buyers and sellers, mortgage bankers and real estate agents say.

To some degree the change is due to difficulty getting financing, as borrowers are finding fewer lenders willing or able to fund “jumbo” mortgages, loans for amounts greater than $417,000. Such loans are too big to be guaranteed by government-sponsored housing finance agencies Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae.

Given the troubles in the subprime sector, investor appetite for all types of mortgage loans not guaranteed by housing finance agencies has nose-dived.

Banks until recently were able to offload the risk of many jumbo mortgages by selling the loans to investors. But now, as investors burned by the subprime debacle have become extremely picky about what they will buy, banks are having to keep more of these loans on their own books and as a result are charging higher rates.

Some lenders _ such as Countrywide Financial Corp. _ have made a point of saying they’re now most focused on making loans that can be guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie.

Other lenders have simply tightened up their lending standards, for example by no longer making jumbo loans to lenders who can’t fully document their income, even if they make large down payments and have stellar credit histories.

The banks that are still making jumbo loans are charging substantially higher rates to compensate for the lack of investor demand. Borrowers who could have gotten rates as low as 6.5 percent in June are now having to pay as much as 9 percent.

But aside from the financial impact of higher rates, in certain high-priced real estate markets, the effect of the suddenly tighter lending environment is more psychological, mortgage bankers and real estate agents say, as buyers and sellers alike don’t want to plunge into an uncertain future.

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Manhattan is Manhattan. It is an upscale town in New York and home to the hundreds of thousands of wealthy Yankees.

No wonder the cost of living in the said state is increasing by the minute. Even condominiums and co-ops’ prices are continuously sky-rocketing with a recorded increase of about 6.4% in 12 months, around $799,000 – $850,000, close to a million that might get you a little house (and an additional barn too if you wish!) if you settle for a much lower-cost state such as Arkansas. Based on the pattern, prices of condos and co-ops are expected to rise even more until the end of the fourth quarter.

Photo taken from http://www.poster.net

Global Property Guide, a real estate research firm, recently issued a report ranking the most expensive flats in Europe. Currently, property value is on the rise throughout much of Europe, and real estate in locations such as the Baltic region are seeing an increase in value. Rental yields (profit yields) in several European cities are above 10%. The extremely small and distinguished principality of Monaco currently wears the crown for most expensive real estate in the Europe.

Monaco has an average price of 24,900 per sq meter, making the principality the most expensive real estate in Europe, but profit yields are low at 2.4%. A 35 sq. meter apartment of this expensive real estate yields an average return of 2.12%, while a 195 sq. meter apartment yields an average return of 2.64%.

Real estate in Central London’s exclusive neighborhoods is also quite expensive, averaging 14,522 per sq. meter and claiming the location of the second most expensive real estate in Europe. Paris and Amsterdam were both noted as having some of Europe’s most expensive real estate.

Monaco still has them topped, by a wide margin actually. It makes sense that such a small wealthy geographical location would have the most expensive real estate in Europe. This makes Monaco extremely exclusive and its property in high demand for those able enough to afford it. Property prices in Monaco have steadily risen over 10% a year in the last decade.

Some of the most sought after property in Monaco is located in the area known as Carre D’Or (Square of Gold), located close to the world famous Place Du Casino. Most of the available properties in Monaco are expensive apartments. Other expensive real estate include penthouses overlooking the harbor and Formula 1 circuit. There are a number of villas and townhouses located on the hills that also boast extremely high property values.

Monaco has recently unveiled its plans to expand its borders by adding 25 acres of expensive real estate into the ocean through the construction a platform, using the same technology that off-shore oil rigs utilize. The new district will boast upmarket shops and reportedly about 3.7 billion ($4.9 billion) worth of luxury residences.

Patrice Cellario, Monaco’s director of planning was quoted in a recent article saying:

“We hope this extension will be a self-contained area with a complex mix of people. We’re not looking to create a residential area for the rich, though of course we want to welcome well-off foreigners to Monaco.”

Source: most-expensive.net

The bar for luxury residential real estate in Hong Kong, already one of the most expensive areas in the world, has been raised.

The Peak, at 1,811 feet above sea level, is the highest point on Hong Kong Island and has symbolized prominence and wealth since the 19th century. Formally known as Victoria Peak, it towers above the heart of the city and has spectacular, 360-degree views of all of the surrounding islands. To live there signifies a status level for which captains of industry from around the world are willing to pay top dollar.

Last month, The Peak exceeded its own lavish reputation, with local headlines claiming it is the site of the most expensive residential piece of land in the world. The government land auction of 12 Mount Kellett Road fetched $231 million from Sun Hung Kai Properties — 134 percent of the opening bid and a projected $5,417 per square foot.

And that’s for just the land.

Why the historic high price? It’s a simple supply-and-demand equation. Property here, the most sought-after low-density neighborhood in Hong Kong, comes available so infrequently that some of the world’s richest line up to buy.

Read more: abcnews.go.com

Hunter-gatherers also followed a tribal system, but scarcity and the uncertainty of the life meant that a tribe could only support two or three extended families. The amorous farmers, however, soon found that they could not name everyone in their tribe anymore. In return for the sacrifice of familiarity, people living in these small societies gained the safety of numbers. A well-fed army easily repelled any desperate raiders. In return for this security, the people all paid homage to the lord or king who claimed ownership of the land – which, in essence was the first system of rent. As these farming villages grew into cities, the leading families maintained ownership by right of lineage – their ancestors had clubbed all other challengers senseless – thus becoming the kings, pharaohs, daimyos and the heads of other feudal dynasties.

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You may think, why not sell or look for a house on your own and disregard the idea of hiring a realtor service? I say, think again. It is true that you save 6% from your budget if you are not hiring a realtor but is it worth all the effort? Looking for a possible buyer or for a new house is as difficult as looking for money. You have to constantly show potential buyers around and you can’t say no once they call you up and request for a tour. Once they ask you to “show them around” the house, you just can’t say no. Now, that could take a lot of effort and money from you compared to hiring a realtor.