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Mount Olive Parkade gets new owner

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of the 96,608-square-foot Mount Olive Parkade shopping center in Mt. Olive, N.J.

The value of the transaction was $19 million.

Mount Olive Parkade is located at 7 Naughright Road/Route 46. A&P Grocery anchors the center. Dollar Tree, Rockaway Bedding and Burger King occupy space in the center. The Parkade was constructed in 1999 on approximately 32 acres.

A Manchester, Conn.-based investment group sold the property to Oster Realty Corp.  more...

Rosewood at Flower Hill sells in Maryland

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Transwestern Commercial Services on Tuesday announced that its Institutional Multifamily Group brokered the sale of Rosewood at Flower Hill, a 240-unit multifamily community in Gaithersburg, Md.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Rosewood at Flower Hill, which is located at 18318 Streamside Drive, is a garden-style rental community with 84 one-bedroom units, 130 two-bedroom units and 26 three-bedroom units. The property was remodeled last year.

Fairfield Residential sold the property to an affiliate of Rockville, Md.-based Stellar Advisors.  more...

Demand for commercial real estate trends up

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

The growing U.S. economy will eventually need to add workers, which will foster positive fundamentals for commercial real estate, according to the National Association of Realtors Commercial Real Estate Quarterly.

David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said the demand for commercial real estate space is trending up. "With a continuation of low interest rates and high productivity, the economy is experiencing a recovery. Since employers have gotten about as much as they can from higher productivity, they'll have to start hiring more workers which will boost the demand for space."  more...

Judge approves $93 million Homestore settlement

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

A federal court judge has given final approval to a $93 million settlement in a class-action shareholder lawsuit against Homestore, the public company that operates the Realtor.com Web site for the National Association of Realtors, among other businesses.  more...

Mortgage cos. increase tech spend

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Mortgage companies spent an average $140 million each on total tech spending last year, according to a study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

About 67 percent of tech spending went to origination functions and 33 percent went to servicing functions. As mortgage volume eases, company technology budgets over the next few years are expected to focus on loan origination system conversions, consolidations and systems development, the study found.  more...

Warren Buffet on real estate, manufactured housing, Wal-Mart

By Bradley Inman, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Every year, Warren Buffet issues his annual investment letter. Unlike slick corporate annual reports, the second richest man in the world's scrawl on Berkshire Hathaway's investment portfolio is a folksy down-to-earth business tome.

Like the sensation I receive from anticipating the weekly New Yorker, every year I eagerly await the Buffet letter, which appeared on the Berkshire Hathaway Web site on Saturday. In the old days, it was distributed by snail mail.  more...

Mobile gear boosts get-it-done-now philosophy Premium Content

By Susan Ashworth, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

The real estate industry continues to be intrigued by mobile technologies, especially those that offer simple access to data in real time.  more...

Real estate Web search revolution

By Jessica Swesey, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Type "94703 real estate" into search engine powerhouse Google's search box and a link to a local directory of real estate companies in Berkeley, Calif., now appears.  more...

Refi activity surges

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Overall mortgage purchases jumped 25.6 percent last week to 8-month highs on a seasonally adjusted basis, as borrowers scrambled to refinance with lower interest rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey.

The MBA seasonally adjusted refinance index increased by 39.7 percent to 4,983.7 from 3,567.6 one week earlier. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by 5.6 percent to 452.4 from 428.6 the previous week.  more...

Realtors to increase stake in technology

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Realtors plan to spend 50 percent more on technology this year than they've spent in each of the past three years, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors.  more...

Outsourcing debate stirs patriotism

By Jessica Swesey, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Americans don't hold back their passions when the hot topic of outsourcing comes up. This is true even in real estate, which hasn't experienced as much outsourcing as other industries.

As more mortgage lenders look to call centers in India as a way to cut costs and improve loan process efficiencies, the idea of losing U.S. jobs and putting people's personal data at risk strikes an angry nerve with some Inman News readers.  more...

Mortgage rates trend upward

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were slightly higher Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 3.68 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.11 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate rose slightly to 4.42 percent. The 1-year adjustable remained at 2.95 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.64 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...

Rental owner 'mistakens' deposit for spending money

By Robert Bruss, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Gloria Nelson and her mother, Linda Mitchell, rented a single-family house from Bertha McGee. The tenants paid a $2,500 cash security deposit to McGee.

Local city ordinance requires landlords to place tenant security deposits into a segregated interest-bearing account, which McGee failed to do.

Purchase Bob Bruss reports online.  more...

Asphalt sealer stops cracks in their tracks

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, March 17, 2004.

Q: Several years ago, maybe three, I had my driveway and parking area covered with new blacktop (asphalt). Because I live on a hillside and the driveway is steep, the contractor compacted it with hand machines, not a "steamroller" as I would have preferred. The parking area is slightly inclined toward the driveway. Now, cracks have appeared – some long, some short – in both areas, the driveway and parking. How do I treat this problem to contain it? Is regular maintenance required on blacktop?  more...