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Jan

15
2007

More the merrier Job Title:

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.
More the merrier Job Title: Product Manager Description: This position is based in Silicon Valley for a startup building a consumer oriented real estate portal. The company is currently in stealth mode. Team members presently work from home and meet...  more...

Minnesota MLSs tear down data

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.
Minnesota MLSs tear down data walls A group of 14 Realtor associations, which represent 10 regional multiple listing service providers and the majority of for-sale property listings in the state, have created a data-sharing system (see Inman News article). The...  more...

Reverse Discrimination As an advocate

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.
Reverse Discrimination As an advocate of the benefits of providing full service brokerage, I am deeply disappointed to see the DOJ continue with its lawsuit. The truth of the matter is that "the horse is out of the barn." You...  more...

Predatory Lending Legislation Can Prey

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.
Predatory Lending Legislation Can Prey on The Responsible Extracted from a post by Brian Brady at BloodhoundBlog:New Minnesota Attorney General, Lori Swanson, vows to put an end to predatory lending. She formed an 11-member task force to come up with...  more...

Web 2.0 Woes Dan Fost

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.
Web 2.0 Woes Dan Fost of the San Francisco Chronicle's "Tech Chronicles" asks whether the second generation of the dot-com bust has arrived. In an article titled "Deadpool 2.0," Fost notes that some companies -- while they "aren't quite dead...  more...

Bristol Marketplace sold

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Sperry Van Ness negotiated the sale of a 107,687-square-foot shopping center in Santa Ana, Calif., for $20.5 million.

An Albion, Calif.-based private investor purchased the property from an Oxnard-based private liability company through a 1031 exchange with an apartment property.

The property, located at 1800 N. Bristol St., was built in 2005 and was 100 percent occupied at the time of sale by tenants that included Kohl's, Sprint, UPS Store and Countrywide Home Loans. Ralphs, CVS Pharmacy and Target shadow-anchor the property but were not part of the transaction.  more...

KBS adds to Boston portfolio

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

KBS Realty Advisors acquired a 133,731-square-foot office building in the West Cambridge submarket of Boston for $29.6 million.

The three-story building, located at 625 Mount Auburn, is situated approximately 1.25 miles west of Harvard Square.

At the time of sale, the property was 96 percent leased, according to a press statement.

The purchase boosts KBS Realty Advisors' regional Boston-based portfolio to approximately 1.3 million square feet. KBS owns six other assets in the Boston metropolitan region.

L.A. retail, industrial deals sealed

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Voit Commercial Brokerage recently closed three transactions involving 77,151 square feet of retail and industrial space in Los Angeles, the company reported Thursday.

The total value of the transactions was $10.1 million.

In the first deal, Hugh and Barbara Smith acquired a 12,000-square-foot retail property in West Los Angeles for $6 million. Westgate Center LLC was the seller.  more...

DOJ details plans in lawsuit against Realtors

By , Monday, January 15, 2007.

If the antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S.  more...

Some Democrats still hoping for mortgage-assistance program

By , Monday, January 15, 2007.

After nearly a decade of trying, Democrats will again push for legislation this year establishing an assistance program to help families on the verge of foreclosure make their mortgage payments for up to three years.

The program, which would apply only to government-insured mortgages such as FHA- and VA-backed loans, would allow borrowers to keep their homes by making monthly payments not to exceed 35 percent of their incomes.  more...

D.C. real estate slowdown continues

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Home sales in the Washington, D.C., metro area fell further in December as prices in many areas reported double-digit declines from 2005, according to statistics released by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

Sales in Washington, D.C., last month were 14.8 percent below their December 2005 level, falling from 697 to 594, and the city's median home price -- at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less -- sank 13 percent during the period to $388,250.

Fewer property owners listed their homes for sale in the District of Columbia in December, as jus  more...

Housing weakness will continue this year, says Fitch report

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Weakness in the housing market should continue in 2007, as issues of affordability, oversupply and poor buyer psychology dominate, and housing starts and home sales are weaker than expected entering the year, Fitch Ratings analysts noted in the latest "Chalk Line" report.  more...

Minnesota MLSs form data-sharing co-op

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Fourteen Realtor associations, representing 10 regional multiple listing service providers and the bulk of residential for-sale listings in the state of Minnesota, have announced the creation of a data-sharing system.

The Data-Sharing MLS Co-op system is a Web-based property-search tool that allows members of the systems to find properties throughout most of the state without the need to join multiple MLSs and pay multiple membership fees, according to an announcement by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.  more...

More gains in overnight real estate rates

By Inman News, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Long-term mortgage interest rates pushed higher Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.77 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average gained to 5.77 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate was up at 5.54 percent. The 1-year adjustable edged up to 5.36 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.86 percent.

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

Home-loan servicing gone awry

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, January 15, 2007.

Recent years have seen a flurry of proposals and legislation directed toward predatory mortgage lending. The focus, however, has been almost entirely on loan originations. Aside from a few well-publicized lawsuits, predatory servicing has attracted little attention, yet in many respects it is more vicious, and the adverse consequences are more far-ranging.

The loan origination market is a minefield for borrowers, to be sure, but they do have choices. Exercising intelligence and care, and with a little homework, they can find a loan provider who will treat them fairly.  more...

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