Real Estate News

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.

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Love tile? You’ll love this property. Formerly the home of a renowned tile expert at the turn of the 20th century, the Bay Shore home of  Raphael Guastavino Jr. is on the market for $1,895,000.

If the Guastavino name doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps some of the work he and his father did will. Some of New York City’s most notable buildings, such as Grand Central Station, Carnegie Hall, Grant’s Tomb, Ellis Island, and the Museum of Natural History, to name a few, contain the elaborate tile work of the Guastavino Tile Company.

Founded by Raphael Guastavino Sr., who, with his son Raphael Jr., emigrated to America from Spain, they brought with them the “Catalan vaulting,” system, which is a thin, interlocking tile system with layers of mortar that allow construction of robust, self-supporting arches. Guastavino was called the “architect of New York” in a 1908 obituary.

Built in 1912, it has five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms,  and is 4,000 sq ft. According to historicforsale.com:

All the original fireproof exterior tiles and interior tiles were made by Guastavino and remain intact in the principal rooms. The house was inherited by Guastavino’s daughter when she married Frank Gulden of Gulden’s Mustard. There have been only three owners in nearly a century.

>>Click through these photos to see more Guastavino tile.

[Hat tip to Ardell via @PhillyDesign

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Historic Guastavino Bay Shore Home on Market for Nearly $1.9 Million

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed rates remained steady this week, with the weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 5.04%, which is unchanged from the week prior. For 15-year fixed mortgages, borrowers were quoted on average, 4.45% and for 5/1 ARMs, 4.00%.

This morning, the national rate for 30-year fixed purchase mortgages was 5.01%.

What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates.

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Mortgage Rates Stay Steady This Week

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Celebrity foreclosures are becoming more frequent these days, but few have ties to large criminal cases.

Harvey Diamond, author of the best-selling 1980s diet book Fit for Life and father of recently arrested Beau Diamond, is currently in foreclosure on his $1.1 million Sarasota home, located at 8424 Midnight Pass Rd, Sarasota, FL. The St. Petersburg Times reports that the elder Diamond claims that that he, too, was a victim of his son’s fraudulent investment operation, which is likened to a mini-Bernie Madoff empire.

Beau Diamond has been charged with wire fraud and money-laundering and is alleged to have taken in $37.6 million and lost $15.4 million while running his investment club. Of the remaining money, $15.6 million was returned to investors and Beau used $6.6 million for other activities including gambling and the purchase of a $204,000 Lamborghini,  according to the FBI.

Beau’s investment club, Diamond Ventures, is based on trading foreign currencies. He promised his investors 50 percent returns, but like most Ponzi schemes, these promises were too good to be true.

More here:
Best-selling Diet Author Harvey Diamond in Foreclosure, Son Arrested for Fraud

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