Stuart Hughes: World’s Most Expensive Game Console

If the writers of HBO’s hit TV series Entourage ever sent main character Vince and his sidekick Turtle out shopping for a Nintendo Wii game console, the unit probably would come from Stuart Hughes. 22-karat solid gold, this unit is being touted as the world’s most expensive game console read more

2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Revealed

The new small Range Rover Evoque will launch in mid 2011. It is smaller than the Land Rover LR2, but is being positioned as a more sporting and more expensive vehicle that will slot under the Range Rover Sport. read more

Sotherby’s To Auction Of Rare Copy Of John James “Birds Of America”

A rare copy of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America,” billed as the world’s most expensive book, is up for sale alongside a first edition of Shakespeare’s plays at an auction to set book lovers’ pulses racing, Sotheby’s said Thursday.

One of only 100 or so remaining copies of “Birds of America” is valued at between 4 million pounds and 6 million pounds ($6.2 million and $9.2 million), while a Shakespeare First Folio from 1623 is expected to fetch at least 1 million pounds ($1.54 million). Read More

Home prices gain 3.6% in past year

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite a recent spate of bad news coming out of the housing industry, home prices show signs of stabilizing.

National home prices jumped a substantial 3.6% in the past year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released on Tuesday. Prices also climbed 4.4% in the second quarter compared with a 2.8% plunge in the first quarter.

"While the numbers are upbeat, other more recent data on home sales and mortgages point to fewer gains ahead," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. "Even with concerns about near term developments, we recognize that the housing market is in better shape than this time last year."

Of course, the positive report was buoyed by the government's tax credit program, which refunded as much as $8,000 for homebuyers. With that program now over, markets could cool.

"We all know what happened to housing after the homebuyers tax credit ended," said Mike Larson, real estate analyst for Weiss Research. "It's been an Acapulco-sized cliff-dive."

And because this report is a lagging indicator, Larson adds that "it would be foolhardy to think that this report tells us that prices will continue to rise." Instead, he expects prices to slowly deteriorate over the next several months.

Source: money.cnn.com

McMansions

I read recently that people are downsizing the size of the homes they are purchasing. Is a smaller home better? It is less expensive in most cases. I often go back and forth on if I would like a smaller house than I have currently. Sometimes I think it would be great to have a nice little house that was easy to keep up and manage. But then I remember I have three kids and realize how crowded it would be if my house were smaller. Now one way that I would be happier to have a smaller house is based on location. Living on a lake or ocean for example. I could downsize to have those views out my front door or window. As always, I would like to get your thoughts on the matter and see what you think.

4 Door Sports Cars-viable?

Many manufactures are introducing the 4-door sports car. The question is, are people going to buy them? Are they willing to spend $200k (give or take) on a car that can take the family 0-60 in under 5 seconds? There were many that thought the Porsche Cayenne was a bad idea and it has gone on to be their largest volume seller.

"Lost" Finale

Doesn't really have anything to do with luxury I know but still. I loved the series finale myself. I will just put that out there right away. It did an excellent job of bringing the sideways world and the island world together. Come to find out it brought them ALL together, except Mr. Eko but that is a whole other story. I am sure there are many out there who were disappointed with the ending. I am not sure which side of the fence I am on yet. On one hand it left me wondering when and how did they all die. Was the "sideways" world the future? Was it just a few weeks time? Was it Jack's sideways or everyone's? So many unanswered questions still remain unanswered. It was nice to see the reunion of all the characters that had been absent for several seasons. The thing I liked the most about the finale was Desmond's return to the island and his "care free" attitude finally made sense. He was the only one who seemed to know what the outcome of everything was going to be. Funny how I have not read anything about that subject but as I sat with my wife last night I kept pausing the tv to let her know what I thought about it.

So what is arguably the best show to ever hit prime time television has come to an end. We will miss it but I will bet it will be discussed for months and years to come by it's millions of fans. Could it have ended differently? Sure it could have. But it didn't and so we are left with what the show's creators wanted us to see. Personally I didn't love the last 5 minutes.