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Promises, pitfalls in downtown L.A.

By Dave Myers, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

In a stark contrast between downtown Los Angeles' vast potential and its present-day woes, one of the world's best-known architects today unveiled his long-awaited plans aimed at turning the Civic Center into a 24-hour-a-day "urban oasis," while others mulled an appeal to a court ruling that essentially permits the homeless to continue living in cardboard boxes on its streets.

The cornerstones of the first phase of architect Frank O.  more...

Bigger is better for home builders Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Consolidation in the home-building industry has allowed large builders to speed up construction time, limit cost increases, and boost financial performance and customer satisfaction ratings, according to a report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, though it's uncertain how the industry will respond to a changing market.

"If the housing market weakens in the years ahead and competition increases, larger builders still have the potential to improve their operations and maintain their strong financial  more...

La Costa Towne Center sells in California

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Colliers International recently negotiated the sale of a 120,934-square-foot shopping center in Carlsbad, Calif., for a price of $38.4 million.

The company represented both the buyer and the seller in the sale of the six-building La Costa Towne Center, located at 7710-7770 El Camino Real.

The buyer was La Costa Tower Fund LLC, an entity controlled by BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc. The seller was Azure Investors LLC, based in St. Louis, Mo.  more...

BPG sells East Coast office space

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

BPG Properties Ltd. on Friday announced the sale of two office properties located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The total value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The properties, which included Century Corporate Center in Mount Laurel, N.J., and 1300 Virginia Drive in Fort Washington, Pa., were sold to Avir Corp., a Baltimore-based real estate investment and development company.  more...

Broadreach acquires CNN building

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Broadreach Capital Partners announced Thursday it has acquired the 198,713-square-foot CNN Building in Hollywood, Calif., for approximately $50 million.

Built in 1968, the CNN Building, characterized by its black glass facade, is one of the few class A office buildings in the Hollywood submarket, according to a press statement.  more...

Minnesota man sentenced in real estate loan fraud

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

A former Wells Fargo banker in Minnesota was sentenced in a U.S. District Court Thursday to 48 months in prison for loan fraud, media accounts said.

David Slominski was also ordered to pay $837,000 in penalties to the federal government and $800,000 in restitution to Wells Fargo, the Minneapolis/St.  more...

WaMu buys Commercial Capital Bancorp

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Washington Mutual has agreed to buy Commercial Capital Bancorp for about $983 million to increase returns from real estate banking in California, the companies said yesterday.

Washington Mutual, the nation's biggest U.S. savings and loan, said it will pay $16 a share in cash for Commercial Capital, California's third-biggest lender to multifamily dwellings, including apartment buildings.  more...

Cendant pursues sale of travel distribution services

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Cendant Corp., which owns major real estate brands including Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and ERA, has announced that it may choose to sell off its travel distribution services division rather than spin-off the division as a separate company.

Cendant officials said in a statement today that the company has retained Citigroup, JPMorgan and Evercore Partners as financial advisors "in connection with the potential sale," and Citigroup and JPMorgan "have developed a financing proposal for qualified buyers."

The company had announ  more...

Multifamily real estate demand sinks in Massachusetts

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Sales of multifamily homes fell across Massachusetts for the first time in five years in 2005, declining 15.1 percent from a record 9,401 sales in 2004 to 7,980 last year, according to data compiled by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

The slowdown is due to escalating property values, rising energy prices and higher vacancy rates brought on by a steady increase in condo conversions and multifamily housing construction in recent years that has softened demand among investors and made the market less attractive to first-time home buyers, MAR reported.

"The multifamily  more...

Real estate foreclosure rate soars in first quarter

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Foreclosures jumped 72 percent in first-quarter 2006 compared to first-quarter 2005, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks U.S. properties that have entered the foreclosure process.

The first-quarter 2006 foreclosure report revealed that 323,102 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure, up 38 percent from fourth-quarter 2005. The nation's quarterly foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure for every 358 U.S.  more...

Classified Ventures names new president of real estate business

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Classified Ventures LLC, a joint venture owned by six leading media companies, today announced the appointment of Tim Fagan to president of Classified Ventures Real Estate.

An eight-year veteran with Classified Ventures, Fagan has been serving as senior vice president and general manager of Apartments.com, a division of Classified Ventures.  more...

Slight dip for overnight real estate rates

By Inman News, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower on Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 5.01 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average decreased to 6.1 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate slipped to 5.77 percent. The 1-year adjustable was unchanged at 5.19 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield fell to 5.09 percent.

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

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...

Lenders, brokers get creative in slowing mortgage market

By Jack Guttentag, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

(This is Part 1 of a three-part series. See Part 2 and Part 3.)

Because the mortgage market has slowed in recent months, loan providers (lenders and mortgage brokers) find themselves with excess capacity. Rather than go out of business or fire loan officers, many have taken to purchasing mortgage leads.

Mortgage leads are packets of information about consumers who loan providers can hopefully convert into borrowers.  more...

Home buyers take action after finding undisclosed defects

By Dian Hymer, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

Recently, a home buyer found out after the house was his that the seller failed to tell him about a drainage problem. During rainstorms, muddy runoff accumulated in the swimming pool. The buyer found it hard to believe that the seller hadn't known about this.

The property is in California where disclosure laws require sellers to disclose material facts about the property to prospective buyers.  more...

Adding family to real estate title has its drawbacks

By Robert Bruss, Sunday, April 23, 2006.

DEAR BOB: A few years ago I added my daughter's name to the title to my home. At the time, I was very ill and she took good care of me. However, I recovered. She moved away from the area and is no longer close to me. I want to sell my home so I can afford to move into a lifecare retirement home, but she refuses to agree to the sale unless she gets half of the sales proceeds when my house sells. How can I take her off my title? --Ramon V.

DEAR RAMON: Sorry, there is no easy way to take your daughter's name off the title to your home.  more...