Musician Jimmy Buffett’s easy-going music that exalted the Key West lifestyle led to him amassing a $1 billion net worth, according to Forbes.
And while his ascendency to wealth was atypical, his real estate holdings were a bit more conventional.
Buffett — who died Sept. 1 at 76 due to complications from a rare form of skin cancer — owned homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and another in Sag Harbor, New York. He also had an estate in St. Barts, according to Barrons.
Palm Beach, Florida
Buffett recorded some of the most iconic songs extolling the virtues of Key West, including “Margaritaville,” but Palm Beach was a part-time home for a long while.
The singer and business mogul, along with his wife, Janem sold their home at 309 Garden Road for $6.9 million to Warren B. and Allison Kanders, property records show.
The “Cheeseburger in Paradise” singer-songwriter put his house on the market in October for $7.6 million with Denise Hanley of Denise A. Hanley, Inc.
Buffett paid nearly $5 million for the three-bedroom, 4,783-square-foot home in 2011. The non-waterfront Palm Beach home, with a pool, was built in 2003.
It’s not the only home Buffett owned in Palm Beach. Buffett also lived at 540 South Ocean Boulevard, which, along with two other properties, was sold in 2014 by billionaire philanthropist Jon Stryker to companies tied to an English luxury home-building firm for $43 million.
Stryker purchased 540 South Ocean from Buffett and his wife Jane in 2010.
Sag Harbor, New York
Buffett owned a five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 5,300-square-foot home in Suffolk County, according to Trulia. It’s where he spent his final days, according to multiple sources.
Latitude Margaritaville Retirement Villages
These 55+ communities are inspired by Buffett’s music and lifestyle — namely food and escapism — in Florida. The cottages and homes start in the $300,000+ range, according to the website.
Margaritaville Hospitality
Buffett built much of his wealth on his business holdings, one of which was his Margaritaville hospitality company called Margaritaville Holdings LLC, which has locations in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean, including in South Florida. The hotel chain has dozens of locations nationwide.
The project’s master developer, Atlanta-based APD Solutions, is partnering with singer-turned-hotelier Jimmy Buffett to add a five-story building with 150 rooms and an 875-space parking garage to anchor the proposed mixed-use site, which also entails 225,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Vaughn Irons, APD’s CEO, unveiled his development team’s plan last month during a meeting of the Riviera Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the sprawling 90-acre redevelopment site known as Marina Village. The partnership also includes Sonnenblick Development, based in Pacific Palisades, California.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
