Biltmore Hotel And A Tale Of Two Bubbles

There was a period in the 1980's when it was reported that the land under the Japanese emperors palace was worth more than all of California. The spectacular rise and fall of that islands real estate market was revisited in a Mercury News report.

The Millennium Biltmore is up for sale and its financial history can be useful in todays realty boom."It was sold for $219 million to a Japanese buyer during the 1980s real estate boom and for a reported $60 million during the 1990s real estate recession."

"Buyers today are paying record prices, so it is a great time to be selling," said Alan Reay. He predicted the Biltmore could bring as much as $171 million." Thats a little more than the Japanese buyer lost on the property.

There is the vacancy issue to deal with. "It comes with..235,000 square feet of nearly empty office space that could be converted to condominiums."