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Lockheed Martin renews office lease

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Transwestern's Houston office on Thursday announced the 89,805-square-foot lease renewal of Lockheed Martin at the Clear Lake Central I Building in Houston.  

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Located at 555 Gemini in the city's NASA/Clear Lake submarket, the building is a two-story, 124,908-square-foot, class B office building.  more...

Inwood Business Center acquired

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Grubb & Ellis Co. recently announced it brokered the sale of the 127,000-square-foot Inwood Business Center in Farmers Branch, Texas.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

TA Associates purchased the property from HRC Group. The complex is located at 14305-14339 Inwood Road and 4601-4611 Langland Road.

Los Angeles-based Grubb & Ellis Co. is a full-service commercial real estate organization operating worldwide.

Behringer Harvard buys Texas office space

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Behringer Harvard REIT I Inc. on Thursday announced its acquisition of four office buildings situated on a 21-acre site at the Terrace, a master-planned, mixed-use park in Austin, Texas.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Built between 1999 and 2002, the Terrace office buildings were 97 percent leased at the time of sale and provide a total of 619,026 rentable square feet. Anchor tenants include law firm Vinson and Elkins and Cirrus Logic, a developer of integrated circuits for consumer entertainment devices.  more...

Realtor dies, others injured in boat crash

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Sunday, June 25, 2006.

A boating tragedy last week at Lake Barkley in western Kentucky left two people dead, including a Realtor for a Century 21 office.  more...

Real estate foreclosures rise in May

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

The number of U.S. properties entering the foreclosure process gained significantly in May from a year ago, according to an industry report released today.

A total of 92,746 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during the month, up 1.7 percent from April and 28 percent from May 2005, according to RealtyTrac's May foreclosure market report. The report shows a May national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 1,247 U.S.  more...

Correction

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

A June 23 Inman News story, "'Freaky' side of real estate economics," should've read that author Steven D. Levitt later said that he had received questions from lawyers with the MLS of Northern Illinois about his real estate research that relied on MLS data, not lawyers from the National Association of Realtors as previously stated. Inman News regrets the error.

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What's your opinion?  more...

Fidelity National Financial restructures business units

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Fidelity National Financial today announced a restructuring plan that will merge Fidelity National Financial with Fidelity National Information Services, a software and information technology company.

Under the plan, Fidelity National Financial's corporate existence will cease and the company will be merged with Fidelity National Information Services.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

After this merger, Fidelity National Title, a title insurance unit of Fidelity National Financial, will change its name to Fidelity National Financial and change its N  more...

Investors less bullish on real estate market

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

About 63 percent of surveyed investors expect economic conditions in the U.S.  more...

New York real estate sales cool

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Sales of existing single-family homes in New York fell in May from their year-ago level, while the median home price posted double-digit growth, according to preliminary single-family sales data accumulated by the New York State Association of Realtors.  more...

Nuclear Family implodes as condo crowd grows Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Sunday, June 25, 2006.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Nuclear Family is so 1950s.  more...

Overnight real estate rates advance

By Inman News, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up again Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 5.23 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average inched up to 6.35 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate increased to 6.04 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.42 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 5.25 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...

Reducing title costs easier said than done

By Jack Guttentag, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

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

Last week I pointed out that most borrowers don't shop for title insurance, accepting the recommendations of their Realtor, lender or builder.  more...

Creating the perfect real estate purchase offer

By Dian Hymer, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

Deciding how much to offer a seller for a home you'd love to own is rarely easy. Ideally, your offer price should not be above what you think the property is worth or what you can afford, but tempting enough to the seller that he can't refuse to accept.

Arriving at that perfect offer price is harder in some markets than others, and it depends on a lot of factors that are beyond your control. For example, in buyers' markets where there is a lot of inventory, you may find more realistic sellers who understand that they need to be flexible if they want to sell.  more...

Unrecorded quitclaim deed could benefit former homeowner

By Robert Bruss, Sunday, June 25, 2006.

DEAR BOB: How can I find out the details of a quitclaim deed I signed in an attorney's office in 1990? I found out recently it was never recorded. The attorney at whose office I signed the quitclaim has since retired and I don't remember his name. The quitclaim was for a property that belonged to a bank, which has since gone out of business. The property title is now held by the city. What should I do next? --Andrea F.

DEAR ANDREA: A quitclaim deed conveys whatever title the grantor owned in that property. But it provides no warranties or guarantees.  more...