Roundup: DC Home Prices Could Drop; Shaq's Mansion Gutted

• May 6th 2010

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Here are some of the interesting real estate stories making headlines this week:

• Shaqtastic!! Even in one of the country’s worst hit housing markets, there is apparently still room for lavish extravagance. According to Miamism, supermodel Naomi Cambell’s Russian real estate mogul boyfriend Vladislav Doronin (you might have caught the duo on Oprah recently [yes, UT watches Oprah]) purchased Shaquille O’Neill’s massive Star Island mansion for $16 million and then completely gutted it! Originally listed for $32 million, it looks like Doronin got a deal on the 7-footer’s home, which justifies a complete gut renovation, right??
• HushGalleria mansion is back on the market White House party crasher and former event promoter Carlos Allen is once again listing his Mount Pleasant party pad, according to DCist. Allen, who made headlines a few months ago by supposedly showing up uninvited to a White House state dinner, announced that he was exiting the world of underground, “secret” party planning earlier this year. The house, which we wrote about in January, is on the market for $879,000.

• 77 Percent Chance DC Area Home Prices Drop By End of 2011 A report from mortgage insurance company PMI states that the DC area is at “high risk for drops in housing prices by the end of next year,” the Washington Examiner reports. Even though the area has seen an increase in sales volume and prices of late, the report said that there is a 77 percent chance that area home prices will be lower at the end of 2011 than in the 4th quarter of 2009.

• The Social Safeway is back. The Social Safeway at the top of Georgetown re-opened Wednesday night with an invitation-only gala (yes, grocery stores are now having formal events when they re-open their doors). The new and improved store has a sushi bar, 2,500-bottle wine cellar and will be open 24 hours a day. Needless to say, your local market this is not. Here is a cool time lapse video of the construction.

Finally, here are UrbanTurf’s three most popular posts of the last week in case you missed them:

1. Sellers, Prepare To Be Googled
2. Dupont Circle: The Best of DC (For a Price)
3. Waking Up Underwater

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/roundup_dc_home_prices_could_drop_shaqs_mansion_gutted/2046.