American pro tennis player Andy Roddick, known for his blistering serves (he has the fastest serve on record at 155 mph) and his inability to solve his rival, Roger Federer, is selling his Austin, TX home for $4 million. It’s the same home where he married his fiancee, Brooklyn Decker, last year.
Roddick’s home at 4104 Shimmering Cove, Austin, TX, is located in a gated community on Lake Austin, with popular Mount Bonnell — all of 775 feet — “towering” just behind. Roddick’s home is perfect for water lovers and includes a boat house, plus it has an oversized parking area with a two-car garage. A large kitchen opens to living areas and an outdoor covered patio. Scored concrete and hardwood floors flow throughout all rooms except the master bedroom on the main level and oversized bedrooms and media room upstairs. Additional rooms include an office/study/game room, formal dining, and breakfast area.
As we reported in 2008, Roddick purchased this 5,558 sq ft home in November of 2003 for $1,463,000. See more photos of Roddick’s Austin home.
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This must be the week for tennis stars to post their homes for sale. See Pete Sampras’ home and the home of Jennifer Capriati.
Former tennis champion Pete Sampras and his wife, actress/model Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, have listed their enormous Thousand Oaks, CA home for $25 million. Sampras’ home has over 16,000 square feet of living space, which includes 13,000 sq ft in the main house, plus a 1,200 sq ft guest house and a 2,000-sq ft gym. And, it’s on 20 acres. That’s a lot of space. And, at $25 million, that’s a lot of bank (as my friend Britta would say).
Why Sampras is putting his year-old home on the market is anyone’s guess, but if you look at photos Sampras’ home, you will see expansive, open rooms with modern, clean lines and touches of teak and white oak, plus imported stone finishes. It has a tennis court, infinity pool, theater/game room, and poker room.
His home is part of the guarded and gated Lake Sherwood community, which is where retired baseball star Lenny Dykstra lost his home to foreclosure.
Sampras’ illustrious career over 15 years included 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, which was a record until Roger Federer surpassed it with a victory in the 2009 Wimbledon men’s singles tournament.
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We’re still feeling some Oscar® fever, so allow us to indulge with yet another home owned by an Academy Award nominee — Glenn Close. Yes, we still have vivid memories of her role as deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction and were curious to read about the sale of her Manhattan “aerie” from none other than Real Estalker.
Close’s Upper East Side condo is on the market for $11,800,000 and her apartment, 19-D, is described as being one of Central Park West’s most glamorous since it’s part of the “… coveted “D” line east over Central Park, south over the Planetarium and all the way down the Park to the Manhattan skyline.” A spacious 19×25 corner living room has a wood-burning fire place, there are two generous entertaining terraces accessed by multiple sets of French doors, two studies, a guest room and a “happy,” large, new kitchen/dining room with park views. See more photos of Close’s Manhattan home.
Close apparently purchased the 2,300-sq ft condo in 2005 for $6 million.
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Attention Seattle-area real estate professionals: We’re hosting two Zillow education events this week, one on Thursday in Bellevue and one on Friday in Seattle.
Thursday, March 11, 8:30 am - 10 am, Hyatt Regency Bellevue.
Friday, March 12, 8:30 am - 10 am, Seattle Public Library.
Come and learn how to get the most out of Zillow. I’ll be talking about the Zestimate home value, Zillow widgets, Zillow Advice, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, and Zillow advertising opportunities.
The events free. Hope to see you there.
Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages declined this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.76%, down from 4.80% at this time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fluctuated between 4.76 and 4.82 during the past week.
Additionally, 15-year fixed borrowers were quoted on average, 4.24% and for 5/1 ARMs, 3.47%.
What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.
Consistent with trends that materialized in December, home value change continued to weaken in many markets around the country during January. Nationally, while the annualized appreciation rate continued to improve -– increasing from -5.5% in December to -4.8% in January –- home values declined 0.33% from the prior month (a slightly larger monthly depreciation than the 0.27% recorded in December). See Figure 1 for the national performance in historical context.
Of the markets I focus on in the table below, four stayed in positive or flat territory in terms of month-over-month appreciation: Los Angeles (0.2%), Philadelphia (0.2%), San Diego (0.0%) and San Francisco (0.3%). Five markets stayed in positive territory in terms of year-over-year appreciation: Boston (1.7%), Denver (0.4%), Los Angeles (0.9%), San Diego (0.2%) and San Francisco (0.9%). It was just four months ago that sixteen of the twenty-four markets shown in the accompanying table had recorded four or more months of positive monthly appreciation in home values.
The number of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure across the country remained unchanged from December, but was still pegged at the highest level seen in Zillow’s data, which began in 1996. In January, more than one in every thousand homes in the U.S. reached the final stage of foreclosure.
Foreclosure re-sales as a percentage of all transactions notched up in January to 22.28%, largely as a function of the decreasing volume of non-foreclosure sales in the winter months relative to the steady stream of foreclosure re-sales.
It seems that the home buyer tax credits are keeping some additional incremental demand in the marketplace during the winter, but they are not having the same powerful impact on home sales seen in the late summer and fall of 2009. This suggests that most of the incremental buyers who could be coaxed off the fence and into the marketplace were already persuaded to purchase before the extension of the tax credit last November. Undoubtedly, there will be another mini-frenzy of home buying around the expiration of these tax credits in June but we expect this spike to be a very muted version of the November spike. In line with our smaller expectations for a spike in sales before expiration, we also think that the payback in diminished sales post-expiration will be more muted.
The Florida home of former professional tennis sensation Jennifer Capriati is on the market for $2.1 million; it was first listed in 2008 for $2.35 million.
Located in Wesley Chapel, about 40 minutes outside of Tampa, Capriati’s home is part of the Saddlebrook Resort community, which is known as a haven for developing tennis and golf talent.
Capriati’s two-story, custom-built contemporary is on one acre and has a pool, plus hot tub. Views include a lake, plus one of Saddlebrook’s two championship golf courses. It has four bedrooms and five bathrooms, a personal theater, where first-run movies can be shown and a unique drive-through garage. See more photos of Capriati’s house.
Saddlebrook residents have access to 500 acres of recreation, including two championship golf courses, 48 tennis courts, a European spa, fitness center, three restaurants and three swimming pools.
Capriati turned pro just weeks before her 14th birthday in 1990 and became the youngest player to ever reach a tour final that same year. After taking two years off due to personal issues, she executed one of sports greatest comebacks by winning three Grand Slam titles — the Australian Open (twice) and French Open.
> See more Wesley Chapel real estate
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Lots of real estate news lately, surrounding some “Real Housewives,” including Tamra Barney who appears to have sold her home in a short sale and now, Jeana Keough, who avoided foreclosure and got a loan mod.
We reported last June that Keough admittedly had a notice of default on her Coto de Caza home and was trying to do a loan modification. Her lender initially denied her request, but it looks like she succeeded after an all-out assault that included speeches, e-mail campaigns, letters to her Congress people, communiques with a friend at HUD, and contact with the governor’s office. After Keough made enough noise, her lender stopped foreclosure and she has a loan mod.
Although Keough’s home is still listed on Zillow for $3.9 million, she tells Lansner on Real Estate that the house is off the market, but she might sell later when she’s not under so much pressure. See more photos of Keough’s home.
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Since President Obama took office last year, housing has been one of his administration’s top priorities. Programs have aimed to stem foreclosures by encouraging loan modifications and stimulate demand for housing with tax credits.
Now, the administration is taking a slightly different tack. The New York Times yesterday reported on a new program that will pay both homeowners and banks in an attempt to stimulate short sales.
Underwater homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgages appear to be the program’s target. They would receive $1,500 in “relocation assistance,” presumably when their home is sold. The bank that services their mortgage would receive $1,000 for the first mortgage, and another $1,000 if there is a second mortgage.
The Times reports the program will begin April 5.
This program seems to be the “Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)” that was announced late last year, according to HousingWire. Whether the name and details will remain is yet to be seen — the Treasury Department, which will run the program, doesn’t seem to have any information up on their Web site yet.
So far, the program is generating some controversy. Sources quoted in the Times were skeptical about whether it would be effective, and Daniel Indiviglio from The Atlantic wrote about his concerns today.
We’ll keep looking for more details, but in the meantime, any thoughts?
By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | March 12, 2010 
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