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Midwest multifamily sale tops $60M

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

A large apartment complex in Indianapolis has recently sold to an out-of-state investor for more than $61 million.

Norfolk, Va.-based Harbor Group International purchased the 740-unit Lakeshore Apartments from an unidentified seller.

Harbor Group International, or HGI, plans to invest additional capital into the property, but has no immediate plans to develop the additional 22.8 acres of undeveloped land included in the sale.

Maysville Market Square sold to developer

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Real estate developer Midland Atlantic has acquired Maysville Market Square, a 126,000-square-foot retail center in Maysville, Ky., for $8.7 million.

The property, purchased from Kimco Realty Corp., is located at 381 Market Square Drive. Built in 1993, the property was anchored by a Kroger grocery store at closing, along with JCPenney, Fashion Bug, Hallmark, RadioShack and GNC.

Midland Atlantic is planning capital improvements for the property, including building enhancements, parking lot improvements and landscaping.  more...

Gilbert Tech attracts Texas buyer

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Gilbert Tech, a three-building office property in Gilbert, Ariz., has been purchased for more than $13.7 million.

The property, located at 2288, 2290 and 2328 Guadalupe Road, contains approximately 80,000 leasable square feet and was occupied by the State of Arizona at the time of sale.

Houston, Texas-based Americus Real Estate Fund IV Ltd bought the asset from CSM Equities LLC, an affiliate of CSM Corp., which developed the project last year specifically for Arizona's Department of Economic Security.  more...

Foreclosure data provider addresses criticism over numbers Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Responding to critics who say its reports overstate the magnitude of the housing downturn, RealtyTrac next week plans to begin providing quarterly, state-by-state breakouts of the number of unique households that are in some stage of the foreclosure process, while continuing to provide its monthly reports on total foreclosure filings.  more...

Trulia born out of frustration with online real estate

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Pete Flint co-founded real estate search company, Trulia, with Sami Inkinen in 2004 while they were studying for their MBAs at Stanford University.

Flint and Inkinen say they worked closely with real estate agents and brokers to understand their needs as well as leading computer scientists to build the service.

Flint was born in London, and has also worked for LastMinute.com, Europe's largest online travel service, IBM and Battery Ventures.  more...

SecondSpace enters second-home market

By Jessica Swesey, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

SecondSpace, a Bellevue, Wash.-based Internet startup backed with venture funding, launched two real estate Web sites today targeting the growing vacation homes market.

With LandWatch.com and ResortScape.com, the company aims to connect people to their next second home or land for sale and also to provide information about local services in the towns where their properties are located.

SecondSpace was founded last  more...

Apartment prices climb 8% in New York

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

New York home prices continue to buck national trends, as the average and median prices in all five boroughs rose steadily in the second quarter, a new report shows.

Average apartment prices increased 8 percent citywide in the second quarter, and average prices for one- to three-family dwellings increased 5 percent, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York, a real estate trade group with more than 12,000 members.

The report found that the average sales price overall for cooperatives and condominiums in New York City was $831,000, compared with $769,000 duri  more...

Real estate rates down overnight

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 4.95 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dipped to 6.29 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate sank to 5.99 percent. The 1-year adjustable grew to 5.58 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was down at 5.06 percent.

Rates and bonds 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...

InmanTV Web site debuts

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Real estate news publisher Inman News is pleased to announce the official launch of InmanTV, a Web-based short video blog (vlog) showcasing interviews with real estate's most influential leaders, innovators, decision-makers, executives and experts.

Every week, Inman News discusses the most critical and pressing issues impacting the real estate industry in short video news segments.  more...

The housing market: How bad will it get? Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Editor's note: How bad will the real estate market get before it gets better? Inman News compiles the facts and analysis in this five-part series.  more...

Seattle Bloggers: Marlow Harris

By Inman News, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Marlow Harris, a Seattle-based real estate agent and avid blogger, discusses tips for starting and what she's learned in the process.  more...

Should escrows be required by law?

By Jack Guttentag, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

With one important exception, lenders price loans on the assumption that borrowers will include taxes and insurance premiums in their monthly mortgage payments. These payments are placed in an escrow account under the lender's control. On a payment date, the amount due is paid by the lender.  more...

Home buying's all about compromise in today's market

By Dian Hymer, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Generally, it takes longer to sell homes this year than it did in 2006. This is primarily because the inventory of homes for sale has ballooned from the record-low inventories of recent years. When the listing inventory grows, buyers have more to choose from. They can hold out for what they really want without worrying about prices rising in the meantime.  more...

Don't be misled by median home price

By Robert Bruss, Sunday, July 22, 2007.

DEAR BOB: My wife and I are considering the sale of our home. We have noticed the median sales prices of houses where we live have declined about 3 percent in the last 12 months. However, before that, home prices were going up anywhere from 5 percent to 11 percent annually. We would hate to lose our equity by not selling now. But then she brought up the question "Where would we move?" as we are not yet ready for "the old folks home." How important are these sales price statistics and trends? --Gabe R.  more...