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San Diego County industrial space sold

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial brokered the sale of a 106,139-square-foot industrial/R&D building in Carlsbad, Calif., for $13.5 million.

The property, located at 2840 Loker Ave. East, is situated on a 6.24-acre parcel in the Carlsbad Oaks Business Center.

H.G. Fenton Co. sold the asset to Bixby Land Co., a private real estate investment and development firm with a portfolio of more than 50 properties throughout California.

At the time of sale, the property was 100 percent leased.  more...

Transwestern fund lands skyscrapers

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Transwestern Investment Co.'s equity fund, Aslan Realty Partners III LLC, acquired two interconnected office towers in Boston's Financial District for an undisclosed price, the company announced Wednesday.

The property, located at 75-101 Federal St., comprises approximately 810,000 square feet of class A space. The tower at 75 Federal St. rises 21 stories, while the 101 tower rises 31.

BeaMetFed Inc., a joint venture between Equity Office Properties Trust and the General Motors Pension Fund, sold the property at 90 percent occupancy.  more...

Concrete co. relocates Illinois headquarters

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

JRT Realty Group Inc. negotiated an industrial lease agreement with a supplier of concrete and masonry construction products for 230,768 square feet of space in Elk Grove Village, Ill., for an undisclosed price.

The Symons Concrete Forming Group of Dayton Superior Corp. will use the property, owned by TIAA-CREF, as its new headquarters.

The two-story property, located at 2400 Arthur Ave., includes more than 203,000 square feet of warehouse space, 27,426 square feet of office space, 20 interior docks with levelers, an expandable drive-in door and ample on-site parking.  more...

Ex-police officer sentenced, fined $1.1 million for mortgage fraud

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

A former Indianapolis police officer who moonlighted as an appraiser was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Wednesday and ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution after he was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering and wire fraud charges related to inflated mortgage loans.

Michael C. Smith, 45, who was fired from the police department after a jury convicted him in September, was one of three people sentenced this week in two mortgage fraud schemes in which 15 people have been sentenced to federal prison.  more...

The subprime tsunami

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Editor's note: The following excerpt from the Inman News Blog examines aspects of the subprime mortgage market, what fueled its growth, and what could be in store for this segment, which has grown at a rapid pace over the last few years. Inman News welcomes your comments on what is happening in the subprime market.  more...

Connecticut issues cease-and-desist order to MLN

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Connecticut authorities have issued a temporary cease-and-desist order to Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc., claiming the company made at least 97 loans in the state at the end of December that it did not fund or failed to fund in a timely manner, imposed excessive charges on five loans it refinanced, and employed at least 40 loan originators not registered with the state.

The cease-and-desist order said that beginning in July, MLN also failed to fund 1,409 loans in other states in a timely fashion, a  more...

His 'n' hers real estate hunting

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Builder confidence grows at snail's pace

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Builder confidence rose two points in January to a six-month high in response to increased buyer interest, but most builders don't expect a surge in activity anytime soon, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released Wednesday.  more...

PropertyInfo to offer Web-based title searches

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Title agents will be able to use a Web-based search engine that taps into public and private data sources for title searches as the result of PropertyInfo Corp.'s acquisition of a proprietary technology already in use at the county government level.  more...

Overnight real estate rates advance

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Long-term mortgage interest rates continued higher Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.74 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average inched up to 5.78 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate was up at 5.55 percent. The 1-year adjustable held at 5.38 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.84 percent.

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

Lennar Corp. to cut home production by 20%

By Inman News, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Home builder Lennar Corp. lost nearly $200 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, but said it will boost earnings this year by cutting expenses and slowing the pace of home building by 20 percent.

Lennar's fourth-quarter losses of $195.6 million, or $1.24 per share, compares with $581.2 million in profits in the same quarter of 2005. Earnings for the year ending Nov. 30 totaled $593.9 million, or $3.69 per share, down 56 percent from $1.34 billion in 2005.  more...

Demise of the real estate ATM machine

By Bernice Ross, Friday, January 19, 2007.

(This is Part 1 of a six-part series.  more...

Unsightly house features find new home

By Arrol Gellner, Friday, January 19, 2007.

In the early 1930s, the Pennsylvania Railroad hired the famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy to restyle its exceedingly ugly electric locomotives. True to form, the Parisian-born Loewy came up with the GG-1, a stunningly fluid design sheathed in streamlined steel. The railroad gamely built a prototype, stitching it together with thousands of rivets in the usual manner of the time. When Loewy was first presented this real-life embodiment of his concept, he demanded in his strong French accent: "What are all those buttons?"  more...

Kitchen facelift starts with cabinets

By Paul Bianchina, Friday, January 19, 2007.

Once upon a time, cabinets were site-built by the carpenters building the house. Today, in addition to the custom cabinets offered by cabinet shops, you can take advantage of the many lines of beautiful modular cabinets being offered by home centers, lumberyards, kitchen shops and other retailers.

Modular cabinets are individual pre-manufactured cabinets that are joined together to form a complete kitchen.  more...

Clarifying tax savings on vacation home

By Robert Bruss, Friday, January 19, 2007.

(This is Part 2 of an eight-part series.  more...