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Jan

28
2008

Global buyers still salivate over U.S. real estate

By Jessica Swesey, Monday, January 28, 2008.
While Americans' own appetite for U.S. real estate is suppressed in many markets and market segments at the moment, global investors' appetite is growing for properties in the U.S., where their foreign money often can go a lot further. U.S....  more...

'60 Minutes' visits 'Foreclosure Capital'

By Jessica Swesey, Monday, January 28, 2008.
"60 Minutes" on Sunday reached into the housing downturn and produced a 15-minute segment on the housing downturn and foreclosure crisis. You can view the video segment here. ("House of Cards") Some interesting bits from this piece: 1. The Valdez...  more...

SoCal Gateway deal tops $48M

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.

Gateway Corporate Center, a 162,326-square-foot suburban office complex near Los Angeles, has sold for $48.5 million.

The property consists of two buildings, each totaling 81,163 square feet and situated within a well-located business park in Diamond Bar, a Los Angeles County suburb.

DB Gateway Corporate Inc./Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors purchased the asset from Gem Gateway.  more...

Affordable-housing complex sells in California

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.

Brokerage Holliday Fenoglio Fowler today announced that it closed the sale of Heritage Park, a 328-unit affordable-housing community in Roseville, Calif.

St. Anton Partners purchased the property from MMA Financial Inc. for $30 million, using tax-exempt bonds and low-income-housing tax credits.

Heritage Park is located at 1098 Woodcreek Oaks Blvd. in a Sacramento suburb. Heritage Park has two-, three- and four-bedroom units averaging 946 square feet each.  more...

Developer unloads Durango Commerce Center

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.

A California-based developer recently sold the Durango Commerce Center in Phoenix, Ariz., for a price of $43.5 million.

The property, which was just completed, features two buildings with a total of 695,266 square feet of space. They are located at 2155 and 2255 S. 75th Ave.

Sacramento, Calif.-based Panatonni Development Co. sold the property vacant to ING Clarion.

Fate of plan to raise conforming loan limit in doubt Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Monday, January 28, 2008.

A proposal to increase the $417,000 conforming loan limit faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where an influential Republican is questioning the wisdom of allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up or guarantee what are now considered jumbo loans.

House leaders and the Bush administration tentatively agreed last week to boost the conforming loan limit and to raise caps on FHA loan guarantee programs as part of a $150 billion economic stimulus package (see Inman News story).  more...

Due diligence provider will tell all in N.Y. probe Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Monday, January 28, 2008.

The nation's largest provider of due diligence reviews of mortgage loans packaged up for sale to Wall Street investors has agreed to cooperate with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's sweeping investigation of industry practices.

The agreement, first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by company officials, gives Clayton Holdings Inc. immunity from prosecution in New York.  more...

International property search site debuts in U.S.

By Joel Burslem, Monday, January 28, 2008.

Editor's note: The following article also appears at the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, written by Joel Burslem, who also is the social media manager of Inman News.

It seems like for much of the last year we have been so busy watching the U.S. market that we've been ignoring many of the moves being made overseas.  more...

New-home sales tumble 26% in 2007

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.

The Commerce Department today reported that 2007 sales of new single-family homes fell at their sharpest clip since 1963, the year it first began tracking these figures.

An estimated 774,000 new homes were sold last year, down approximately 26.4 percent from 2006 when 1.05 million homes sold.  more...

Real estate rates up overnight

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates rose again Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield sank to 3.56 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 5.47 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate jumped to 4.98 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate, however, dropped to 5.09 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was down at 4.27 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...

Video lessons in real estate Premium Content

By Alison Rogers, Monday, January 28, 2008.

I have been writing this column for about two years now (don't worry, I'm still a Rookie, and every time I learn my lesson from one beginner mistake I end up making a new one) and I think last week's video topic may have brought me the most mail that I have ever gotten. (See, "What to do this year? Video video")  more...

Evaluating market psychology in real estate

By Inman News, Monday, January 28, 2008.
Inman Connect - NYC 08 - Dr. Michael Schermer
 more...

Home seller quandary: Fix up house or offer credit?

By Dian Hymer, Monday, January 28, 2008.

Sellers who anticipate losing money if they sell their home may wonder why they should spend a dime fixing the place up for sale. Isn't this throwing good money after bad? Even sellers with plenty of equity in their homes often figure the way to get the most out of the sale is to cut sale costs to a minimum.

This attitude is directly contrary to the notion that the way to make the most money on the sale of a home is by pricing the property appropriately for the market, and by making cost-effective improvements that will result in a higher sale price in a shorter time.  more...

'Creative financing' tactics to lure home buyers

By Benny Kass, Monday, January 28, 2008.

DEAR BENNY: I recently retired and am planning to move out of the country. I own a single-family house in a desirable area. I owe only about $70,000 on my current mortgage. The value of the house before the recent market crash was about $470,000. Despite the current market, numerous people have looked at the house, but only one has made an offer (a very lowball offer). I am not desperate to sell, but I want to move on with my retirement plans. The house is older, but has recently had about $30,000 in improvements in order to appeal to buyers.  more...

Understanding simple-interest mortgages

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, January 28, 2008.

"I am perplexed at what appears to be a nomenclature problem that the mortgage industry has created with its definition of 'simple-interest mortgage.' Aren't most monthly payment mortgages simple interest?"

They are, and I agree with you that the existing nomenclature can be confusing to borrowers.  more...