Appraisal technology and management firm Atlas VMS has named Anneta Pope as its chief brand officer, the company announced.

Pope — who joined Atlas in 2023 — previously served as chief growth officer.

In her new role, she will advise CEO Erik Morin on market intelligence and customer insights and oversee the development of a unified brand strategy as the company expands.

“Anneta’s new role as chief brand officer is hugely important as we continue to engage and connect with appraisers, clients and our growing staff,” Morin said. “With the recent acquisition and integration of AIM-Port, it became clear that Atlas needed someone acutely attuned to the company’s overarching mission to ensure that our brand and our stakeholders align as we consider further acquisitions and continue to scale. No one is better suited to the task than Anneta.”

Pope has more than 20 years of experience in mortgage lending and related sectors.

Her promotion follows a year of growth for Atlas, which now operates in 40 states.

The company reported surpassing 400% year-over-year growth in May — its second year in business. In July, Atlas expanded into valuation technology with Atlas VMS’s acquisition of the AIM-Port platform.

I recently gave a talk to a few hundred real estate professionals in Chicago. I started with the map below of the U.S. showing the days on market for pending home sales in different states. It’s a stark illustration that the country is divided into two distinct real estate markets. 

The states with the shortest time to sell a home are crowded in the Midwest and Northeast. Across the Sunbelt, homes are taking roughly twice as long to sell — 50 days in the Midwest compared to 100 days commonly for markets in the South. 

What’s going on?

The short answer is that we used to move from the north to the south, and for the time being we’ve stopped moving. 

I’ve called this phenomenon, “The Great Stay.” In the post-pandemic economy, we’re staying in town, in state, in our jobs, in our homes. Companies are not firing and they’re not hiring. Workers are not quitting. Growing families are not upsizing. Workers are not migrating across the country in search of better opportunities.

Migration disrupted

For many years, Americans have been moving from the North to the South, from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. That migration pattern exploded during the pandemic. Remote work, cheap, new housing and other economic opportunities drew millions of people to states like Texas, Florida, Arizona and Colorado. For anyone who had been thinking about making the move, suddenly during the pandemic it was an optimal time to do so. 

Then suddenly the move got expensive. The price of homes in the south shot up. In cities like Tampa, it was quite common to see 45% home price appreciation in just a few years. Mortgages got expensive too. When mortgage rates jumped from 2.8% to 7%, payments rose even further.

But it’s not just the cost of the house. Insurance rates in much of the country spiked with increased natural disasters and rising replacement costs. Taxes jumped. Home goods like washing machines got more expensive. The holding costs of a home in many southern states increased sharply. 

The midwest and northeast aren’t nearly as susceptible to natural disasters and insurance costs have held more steady. As the relative affordability benefit of moving to the South evaporated, we stopped moving. 

A young family in Cleveland used to buy a house from the retirees who moved to Sarasota. Those retirees aren’t selling, but the young family still needs to buy. Inventory is tight in Cleveland and very high in Sarasota as a result. 

Jobs too

The Great Stay is not just a housing story. The weak housing market is intertwined with a very unusual labor market. While the unemployment rate is reasonably low, the hiring rate by companies is as sluggish as it would normally be in a deep recession. The country added only 22,000 jobs in August. 

Because no one is hiring, those who have good jobs don’t want to quit. The rate at which employed workers quit their jobs is remarkably low and looks more like recession than an economy growing at 3%+. Notably the quits rate is lowest in the Northeast, which is also where the days on market, illustrated in our map above, is the lowest. 

Before The Great Stay, I’d be confident to quit my job in Chicago to move to Phoenix and get a new job. Now, they’re not hiring, I’m not quitting and therefore I’m not moving. I’ll stay, thank you very much. 

This weirdly slow jobs market is perhaps the result of big pandemic levels of hiring. Many companies are fully staffed and while layoffs aren’t dominant, hiring is also unnecessary. We’re also in the early stages of AI impact in the economy. While it’s hard to tease out AI-specific impact on hiring in concrete data, anecdotally it sure seems common.

What The Great Stay means for buyers and sellers

The Great Stay means we’re not selling homes in the North and not buying in the South. Inventory and days on market are climbing much more quickly in the South. This north/south divide also shows up in the new construction data. We’ve been building homes in the south much faster than the north. It’s no surprise that inventory piles up where we have all the new construction. 

The Days on Market maps is perhaps the most clear illustration of the phenomenon. The Tampa metro market, for example, is up to 94 days on average for single-family homes, up from just 20 days in September 2021. Condos in Tampa are up to 122 days. 

Home sales in Connecticut, on the other hand, are taking only 48 days on average in September, up from 35 during the pandemic.

The Great Stay is a recent phenomenon. As the housing market emerged from the pandemic boom times, different markets slowed at different paces. I built this animation to illustrate how regional differences got us to this moment now.

When does The Great Stay end?

Real estate moves in cycles, so this period will eventually end. I’ve documented this situation for over a year now, and I expected it to subside a bit in 2025. Instead the dual U.S. market is growing more extreme. When does it change?

The U.S. economy has escaped recession so far. But if we see an acceleration of layoffs and a downturn in the economy, then you’ll see further slowdown in home-buying demand and it’ll impact the country broadly. The map will even out. 

If we’re lucky, interest rates drop a bit in 2026 and that spurs homebuyer demand, which would help housing-related employment and potentially lift the country out of recession on the other side. That renewed growth would signal the migration can resume again. Fingers crossed that it happens sooner rather than later.

Boulder real estate professional Julie Meko has joined The Bernardi Group, a Coldwell Banker Realty team that ranks as the company’s top small team in the Boulder, Colo., region.

Meko — a licensed Realtor in Colorado since 1998 — has represented some of Boulder’s major residential projects. She is known for her work in both new construction and resale properties.

“It’s an incredible honor to welcome Julie Meko to The Bernardi Group,” said Karen Bernardi, founder of the team. “Julie’s reputation and extensive experience in both new construction and resale properties make her an ideal fit for our team. Together, we will elevate the real estate experience for our clients in Boulder and beyond.”

The Bernardi Group closed $146 million in sales last year, according to RealTrends.

It has placed in the top 10 statewide for closed residential sales volume, according to the RealTrends “America’s Best Real Estate Agents” list — and in the top 100 nationally on the RealTrends “The Thousand” list.

Meko’s addition marks an expansion for the group, which serves Boulder and nearby communities including Erie, Louisville, Superior, Lafayette, Longmont and Broomfield.

A harbourside ‘masterpiece’ in one of Sydney’s most tightly held strips has buyers circling ahead of its highly anticipated market launch.  

With an elevated position overlooking the harbour and parkland, the landmark Darling Point home commands some of Sydney’s most breathtaking views.

Selling agent Ben Collier from The Agency says the waterside home is one of Sydney’s finest, with a sense of scale rarely seen.

“The elevated position gives you these extraordinary views of Double Bay back towards Point Piper and even Manly, beyond,” Mr Collier said.

“When you overlay that with the quality of both the architectural merit and interior design at a very high level, it’s something that is not often seen, because most people who go to the effort of creating such a home are enjoying it.”

Now empty nesters, the home has become surplus to the needs of vendors Lucinda and Hamish McLennan, who have made the decision to downsize.

“I approached them last year with a buyer who was particularly keen, but at that time their kids were occupying the home, and they were really enjoying it,” Mr Collier said.

“But then as can happen, adult kids move out,” he said, “it is a large house just for the two of them and the dog. So they’ve made the decision to scale down.”

Mr McLennan is the chairman of ARN Media and also REA Group, publisher of realestate.com.au.

Spanning three levels, the four bedroom home is drenched in natural light due to its pavilion-style interior, which has been designed to merge seamlessly with the outdoors.

At the core of the home, a dramatic void creates a sense of grandeur – with light spilling through a double-height ceiling skylight down to an expansive open-plan living, dining and kitchen.

Inside, high-end features include hand-finished timber, limestone fireplaces, antique fixtures and bespoke cabinetry.

The marble kitchen is appointed with a full suite of Miele appliances and butler’s pantry, with cinematic ocean views from every angle.

The harbour panorama can be soaked in from the private terrace of the master retreat, complete with his-and-her ensuites.

The home is designed for entertaining with a sunlit pool and cabana, several terraces and a lush courtyard. Downstairs, an informal living room leads to an impressive wine cellar encased by stone feature walls.

Each bedroom has its own ensuite, and the versatile layout provides flexibility to create a dedicated office, guest suite or family retreat.

It’s a rare opportunity for buyers seeking the trifecta of location, lifestyle and luxury, with homes along this prized street rarely changing hands.

There’s double off-street parking along Eastbourne Road, and the home sits just footsteps to the ferry wharf, foreshore parklands and world-class dining.

“That row of houses is [tightly held] because those views are extraordinary,” Mr Collier said.

“Hamish and Lucinda literally walk to Double Bay for breakfast or a coffee, or they take the dog for a walk down to the park.”

The home is priced from $40 million, a price point Mr Collier said was becoming especially active with buyers as stock levels remain low.

“We’ve seen quite a few 40-plus million dollar sales since the beginning of this year,” he said.

“This is traditionally the time of the year where everything comes onto the market at once, and we haven’t seen the level of volume that we were anticipating or expecting.”

It comes just days after a nearby deceased estate in Rose Bay sold for $45.1m at a private auction, dramatically more than the initial guide of $30m-$35m.

“The recent rate cuts are certainly having an effect,” Mr Collier said. “I know most people tend to say, ‘oh, rates don’t affect people at this price point’, but it affects sentiment, it affects the equity market, it affects a whole host of things. So I am of the opinion that it does affect things at this level.”

The post ‘Sydney’s finest’: First glimpse inside rare harbourside trophy home with cinematic views appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Sexyland boss Angelo Abela has quietly sold one of Brighton East’s most over-the-top estates.

The man behind the chain of adult megastores flogging everything from lingerie to sex toys pocketed $8.11m in a private boardroom auction, putting the deal among the suburb’s biggest of the year.

The bayside bolthole is part wellness retreat, part private fun park.
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On more than 1200sq m, the home has been designed as a lifestyle compound where floor-to-ceiling glass links living zones to gardens, a heated pool and a pizza-oven terrace.

A central stairwell rises above a koi pond and indoor greenery, while a grand piano marks the entry, setting the tone for a home pitched as much at entertaining as everyday family life.

The kitchen, with an oversized island bench and garden-framed splashback, connects to open-plan lounge and dining zones where sliding glass walls dissolve the line between inside and out.

Upstairs, the bedrooms double as boutique-style suites, each with a private bathroom and dressing room, while the main adds a day-spa ensuite and walk-in robe.

Wellness and recreation are built in, there’s a cedar-lined sauna, gym and spa wing, plus a floodlit multi-sports court stretching the width of the block for tennis, basketball or five-a-side under lights.

Then there’s the basement, a cavernous level the size of a tennis court, with garaging for 10 cars alongside a cinema, bar, poker machines, pinball and pool tables, and even a boat built into the fit-out.

Fredman Property’s Sarah Korbel said three bidders — two local families and a Sydney buyer relocating to be closer to St Leonard’s College — fought hard for the keys.

“It’s like living in your own private resort,” Ms Korbel said.

“Every part of the home is geared to lifestyle, by the pool, on the court, or in the sauna.”

“Homes like this are once-in-a-generation.”

For Abela, the deal adds another chapter to a colourful career.

A former muffler salesman, he turned Sexyland into one of Australia’s biggest adult retail brands, building 16 warehouse-style outlets across three states and pitching them to mainstream shoppers with the “Bunnings-meets-David Jones” approach.

His business moves have included a failed hostile takeover bid for rival Adultshop.com in 2009, and more recently a $1.445m sale-and-leaseback of Sexyland’s Campbellfield flagship.

Now his Brighton East escape joins the list, a trophy home part sanctuary, part showroom, part playground.

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david.bonaddio@news.com.au

The post Sexyland founder Angelo Abela sells $8m Brighton East mansion appeared first on realestate.com.au.