July 15, 2008, (PORT ST. JOE, Fla., and BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) – MyHomeIdeas.com, a new home and garden portal from SPC Digital, the digital arm of Time Inc.’s lifestyle subsidiary Southern Progress Corporation, will give away a luxurious Idea House in a sweepstakes that will run from August 1 to September 30, 2008. Individuals can enter once per day for a chance to win the prize package worth $1 million. The winning entry will be announced mid-October, and the lucky sweepstakes winner will receive a coastal home located in WindMark Beach, developed by The St. Joe Company in the Northwest Florida town of Port St. Joe. For a chance to win and for complete contest rules, go to: myhomeideas.com/myhome/homegiveaway.

The Idea House Giveaway is a cross-platform program with online, print and on-location components. MyHomeIdeas.com introduced a new channel on the Web site called “Home Giveaway,” which showcases ongoing original content and updates on the project. Online features on the WindMark Beach Idea Home will include floor plans, before and after images, interviews, footage with the architect and designer, a virtual 360-degree tour, extensive photo galleries detailing unique design elements, color and more. Interactive elements will include a blog where visitors can post feedback.

Promotional advertising for the sweepstakes is appearing in the July, August and September issues of select Southern Progress and Time Inc. magazines and will run in Web sites across Time Warner properties.

The aptly named Idea House will serve as a public showcase for innovative lifestyle and design ideas. Visitors to MyHomeIdeas.com will find hundreds of practical take-away decorating techniques from the home that can be easily applied to anyone’s living space, no matter what your style or square-footage.

“Southern Progress Corporation is proud of our nearly two decade legacy of working with the nation’s leading developers, architects, designers and builders to produce Idea Houses that inspire, motivate and encourage people to create homes that reflect their individual style,” said Jim Sexton, senior vice president and editorial director of SPC Digital. “We’re thrilled that this first home giveaway occurs at WindMark Beach, a community created by St. Joe, with whom we have a strong relationship, to take this concept to the Web in a bold new way.”

The home is located in WindMark Beach, in Port St. Joe, FL., approximately 40 miles east of Panama City and 20 miles west of Apalachicola. It is a 2,020-acre waterfront community that embraces the essence of coastal living and reflects the local Southern style of Northwest Florida. Resting on four miles of beach, WindMark Beach represents a return to a lifestyle that is tied to the water and surrounding community.

“The WindMark Beach community is beautifully situated on one of the last, great undiscovered beaches in Florida,” said Jerry M. Ray, JOE’s SVP for Strategic Alliances. “It is a remarkably special place that captures the spirit of ‘Old Florida’ – relaxed, and resting lightly on the land. The lucky winner of this house will become part of something truly special. We have collaborated with Southern Progress on the creation of a dozen Idea Homes and Show Homes, and we are very pleased that SPC Digital has chosen WindMark Beach for this exciting promotion.”

More information about WindMark Beach can be found at windmarkbeach.com.

The architects on the project are Cooper, Robertson, & Partners of New York and the interior designer of the home is E. Dale Trice of Design Services of Florida in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.

Chicago’s North Shore began as a place to escape from the city’s heat during the 19th century and has since developed into one of the best places to live in the U.S. due to the thriving sense of community, excellent school systems, availability of luxury housing stock, and proximity to Lake Michigan and Chicago.

Stretching along the lakefront from Evanston to Lake Bluff, the area is relatively small with a population of approximately 181,000 and total housing of only 75,000 units. Winnetka’s population is only 12,400 with 4,300 single-family homes. In any given year, turnover of housing is usually less than 5 percent.

Average values in most of the lakefront communities exceed $1 million with luxury property starting around $1.5 million. These values are not unexpected in communities where more than 85 percent are college-educated and the median income exceeds $200,000.

Our market has not experienced the run-up of prices that other states have seen and thus the market, while challenging, has continued to be a solid investment. Over the short term, our markets are experiencing declines in average values from where they stood two years ago, however, long-term housing values have shown steady growth and provide positive returns.

—Steve Hudson, The Hudson Company

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Just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco is Marin County, famous for its natural beauty and progressive sensibilities. One of the most affluent counties in America, Marin is much more than a collection of high-end bedroom communities. Its residents are influential, from Wall Street to Hollywood to Capitol Hill.

Most of Marin County consists of protected open space and its coastal communities (e.g. Sausalito, Tiburon, Stinson Beach) are favored by bohemian multi-millionaires who prefer flip-flop sandals and shorts over Armani suits. Throughout the county, instead of Rolls Royces, kayak-topped Priuses are parked inside gated estates while muddy mountain bikes and greasy Rollerblades sit by the front doors. Mega-mansions are rare in Marin County, but a 6,000-square-foot water-view home easily could command more than $10 million.

The  “Marinites,” as we call ourselves, include Fortune 500 CEOs, young high-tech entrepreneurs, a vibrant creative community (e.g. Carlos Santana, Robin Williams, George Lucas), and plenty of trust funders. It’s an eclectic population united by an interest in healthy living, an environmental consciousness and appreciation of natural beauty.

Although Marin County is literally minutes from the center of San Francisco, it feels a world away. Billboards are banned, traffic is light, and strip malls are discouraged in favor of the charming downtown business districts of communities such as Larkspur, San Anselmo, Fairfax, Tiburon, and Mill Valley.

—Melissa Bradley, Bradley Real Estate

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In my 30-plus years in the Las Vegas real estate market, I’ve seen my share of housing trends as the city continued to transform itself. Now that it’s a metropolitan area of more than
2 million people, the dynamics have changed again. Some people are surprised to hear that the past year set a record for the number of sales over $10 million in Las Vegas. Five years ago, such properties were almost nonexistent, but today there is tremendous demand for them.

High rollers can still find multi-million dollar penthouses, but not every luxury buyer wants to live in a high-rise on the Strip. Clients moving from Southern California are more interested in replicating their low-density, high-end lifestyle. As a result, guard-gated communities with large lots on world-class golf courses are the hottest current trend. These developments, offering an array of high-end amenities, are not your typical subdivisions. At Southern Highlands, where raw 1-acre lots command $1.5 million, it costs approximately $225,000 to join the exclusive golf club and residents include billionaire casino owners.

Home prices at the Promontory phase at The Ridges of Summerlin shattered a Las Vegas record at more than $1,000 per square foot, while houses in communities such as Queensridge and MacDonald Highlands regularly exceed $10 million.

—Jerry Masini, Award Realty

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Escaping to Austin, Texas, for relaxing and recharging is hardly a new phenomenon. Celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Renee Zellweger have made Austin home for this very reason.

But celebrities aren’t the only ones with residences in Austin and the surrounding hill country. Because of the city’s continuing economic growth, luxury properties continue to be in demand.

This June, there were 190 homes and condos priced from $2 million to $13.5 million on the market in Austin and the surrounding area.  About half of those are waterfront or panoramic water-view homes located along Lake Travis, Lake Austin and Lake LBJ.  The other half are located in the other luxury destination of choice—areas close to Austin’s vibrant and ever-expanding downtown market. Clearly, proximity to water and the city are the premier locations.

Off the water, luxury homes can be found in areas such as Westlake and Barton Creek, about 20 minutes west of downtown Austin. Want to be closer to the city? In addition to the downtown high-rise condo offerings by names such as The W Hotel and The Four Seasons, stunning estate homes can be found in areas such as Tarrytown, Pemberton and Enfield.

Looking for something really special? Many of the “trophy” properties in and around Austin are not listed on the MLS, so if you’re looking for that “uber”-estate, it will take the assistance of a real estate professional who is in touch with that specialty market. If you’ve heard that no one is actually buying these luxury properties, you might be talking to the wrong people.

—Karen Matuszewski, ERA?Colonial Real Estate

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Most people hold a view of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as Georgetown and the quiet Maryland and Virginia suburbs, the home of lawyers, political staffers and retired government workers.

But the days when Montgomery County in Maryland and Arlington or Fairfax Counties in Virginia existed only as a giant bedroom for the Capital are over. A large percentage of people work in Virginia and Maryland, two very high-tech and business-friendly states.

The District is also undergoing a renaissance, where entire city blocks are being revitalized and reinvented by a new generation of homebuyers. Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, U Street Corridor and Capitol Hill are the “hot” new places.

Currently, the highest-priced condo is in a new development on Prospect Street in Georgetown, where a four-bedroom, four-bath unit is listed at $4.4 million.

Going north toward Embassy Row, on Massachusetts Avenue, the mood (and pricing) is changing with a 10-bedroom elegant mansion offered at $18 million.

In short, luxury home prices have proven to be resilient, with a constant movement of local and foreign buyers.

Despite a growing interest in Asia, U.S. real estate has risen to the top of the global property market among foreign investors, with New York City and Washington, D.C., as the top two global cities for foreign investors’ real estate dollars, according to an Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate survey.

—Angela Eliopoulos, The Global Owner Team, DC-MD-VA-International, Georgetown Long & Foster Realtors

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All it took for Ron Wellman to go from delivering luxury automobiles to discovering luxury properties was drive. The 40-year-old Chicago-based investment concierge became interested in real estate opportunities while running a trucking company specializing in transporting high-end cars to dealerships and customers.

“I became aware of a lot of emerging markets,” Wellman says. “I started to do some real estate investing and other people started coming to me for advice and help with their own investments. It’s grown fairly quickly.” Wellman, who is a licensed real estate broker, started We Invest Online, Inc. as a way to help match investors with opportunities, both in the U.S. and abroad. His goal is to bring real estate investing into the mainstream.

“We’re partners with a large group of investors, accountants, and lawyers who have decades of experiencein real estate,” Wellman says. “We kind of just go with the flow with what people need. We do the due diligence on each opportunity and let people decide what’s right for them.”

Casino projects, whether new construction or existing facilities, and luxury hotels are among the hottest properties. An example is the Ritz-Carlton on Maui, which recently underwent a $95 million renovation.

“The main thing is to assess your level of risk; the bigger the risk, typically, the bigger the gains,” Wellman says. “If you’re looking for a 5- to 10-percent return, that’s usually a relatively low-risk investment. I try to really pinpoint what people want and what they feel comfortable with. They can do their own due diligence at that point and feel comfortable with the investment.”

In the maple-shaded towns and quiet countryside farm estates that personify the good life in Litchfield County, Conn., and the Berkshires, homebuyers have discovered the virtues and pleasures of a more simple and serene lifestyle—all in a location that is within a two-and-a-half-hour drive from New York City or Boston.

It’s the proximity to those cities that has transformed Litchfield County into a mecca for both celebrities and businessmen alike who crave the privacy and serenity of stunning countryside retreats.

The major attraction is the breathtaking landscape, which abounds with hills and lakes creating a panorama of beauty as far as the eye can see.

Salisbury (including Lakeville), a quintessential New England town, is treasured for its spectacular lakes, lakeside homes and the culture-rich lifestyle of its residents.

The real estate market in Salisbury is stable, and insulated from the current soft market due to the values of its properties and its desirability for weekend homes. An indication of strength is the fact that our waterfront home market has sold out on both Wononskopomuc and Twin Lakes.

Luxury home prices in general have adjusted downward 5 to 15 percent in the area, and now range from $2.95 million for a spectacular country estate in Lakeville to $1.3 million for a well-preserved 18th-century home in Salisbury.

—John Harney, John Harney Associates

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Just off the coast of Massachusetts is historic, charming Nantucket Island, a favorite summer residence of CEOs, broadcasters, politicians, and people who love their privacy. With all the amenities of the mainland and an airport that accommodates private jets, Nantucket is rapidly becoming as convenient a getaway for an entrepreneur from Dublin as it is for a Wall Street fund manager. The population of the resort island quintuples to 50,000 during the summer months when its seasonal visitors arrive.

Luxury home prices are significantly higher than in most coastal communities, requiring a minimum of $3 million to break into the market, which nets a generous amount of livable space (up to 5,000 square feet) but no view. Properties of $6 million to $8 million usually feature water views and have more amenities, including pools, tennis courts and guesthouses. There are very few waterfront lots for sale, and custom-built waterfront homes are generally priced in excess of $10 million. With strict architectural and environmental regulations, Nantucket succeeds in retaining a rural, small-town lifestyle with a cosmopolitan flair.

Anybody who vacations in Nantucket establishes a strong emotional attachment, and young families have begun purchasing vacation homes on the island, anxious to provide their kids the experience they fondly remember. Many of them buy here even when they are still renting back in New York City, or abroad, recognizing it as a superb investment for the future. As we like to say, it’s never too early to begin trading in “Nantucket dollars.”

—Jane Miller & Meg Ruley, ACK Broker, At the Offices of Lee Real Estate

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Cohasset is the quintessential small New England coastal village, its carefully preserved 18th- and 19th-century homes sharing space with innovative 20th-century architecture.

For all its oceanfront, sandy beaches, spectacular beauty and laid-back charm, Cohasset is only 21 miles southeast of Boston, and all the amenities and culture a city of that size can provide. In short, Cohasset offers the best of both worlds to those residents who commute to work everyday by bus, car or commuter boat from adjoining Hingham. And last year the Boston Commuter MBTA T-Train started service, which cuts travel time to Boston down to 40 minutes, making an easier commute for the bankers, brokers and corporate CEOs who live in Cohasset.

It’s now even better for Cohasset homeowners to enjoy Boston, and then come back home to a village built around a picturesque harbor, sandy beaches and a storybook common with a small duck pond, a variety of fine restaurants and specialty shops.

The Village’s real estate market has not suffered to the extent that the national and state markets have. Home prices are down from their 2003-2004 values, but that makes buying opportunities all the more attractive.

Exquisite luxury properties are available from $1.4 million to more than $13 million and there are two new subdivisions being built by high-end builders, with exceptional homes selling well in the current market. If Boston’s South Shore is the last great growth area in the suburbs, then villages such as Cohasset that have been discovered are understandably drawing excellent buyer interest. This bodes well for future homebuyers.

—Tom Hamilton, Dean & Hamilton Realtors

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