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Date

Mar

19
2008

Connecticut MLS connects with public

By , Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Connecticut Multiple Listing Service, a broker-controlled MLS sponsored by the state's Realtor association, this week launched a public property-search site at CTreal.com. The site features interactive mapping and "Sherpa," a drawing tool that allows users to select a home-search area by drawing a series of lines.  more...

Nearly $45 million in leases signed at Windingwalk

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Five major leases totaling approximately $45 million have been signed at a shopping center under construction in Chula Vista, Calif., the property's developer announced this week.

Shea Properties inked leases for The Marketplace at Windingwalk, an approximately 106,000-square-foot retail center located in the city's Otay Ranch neighborhood.

The leases include:

 

  • Vons Supermarket's lease of 55,985 square feet for 20 years;

       more...

Chicago bank invests in out-of-state apartments

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Representing a Chicago financial institution, Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. has brokered a $9.5 million multifamily portfolio sale in Shreveport, La.

First Bank of Illinois sold the four-property, 576-unit portfolio to New York-based Platinum Management.

The properties include:

  • "Villa Norte," located at 1620 Fullerton St., which comprises 13 two-story buildings totaling 200 units that were constructed in 1972. The complex features a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with approximately 500 parking spaces.  more...

Milliken, Brea Canyon deals close in SoCal

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

CIP Real Estate this week announced the sale of two Southern California business parks for a total price of nearly $37.3 million.

The properties, Milliken Business Center in Ontario (San Bernardino County) and Brea Canyon Business Park in Walnut (Los Angeles County), offer onsite parking and flexible unit sizes, and were sold to CRP-2 Acquisitions LLC, an affiliate of Colony Realty Partners.  more...

Thornburg Mortgage creditors agree to one-year breather

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Thornburg Mortgage Inc.'s five largest creditors have agreed to give the "super jumbo" lender a one-year reprieve from margin calls if it can raise nearly $1 billion in seven business days.

Thornburg is offering 12 percent interest to anybody willing to buy notes that will mature on April 1, 2015. The notes would be convertible into common stock at 75 percents per share, the lender said in a regulatory filing.  more...

Connecticut statewide MLS launches public site

By , Wednesday, March 19, 2008.
Screenshot from CTreal.com

A statewide multiple listing service in Connecticut this week launched a public property-search site that features about 31,000 property listings.

CTreal.com features interactive mapping for home searches including a drawing tool called "Sherpa" that allows users to define a specific home-search area on its Google-based mapping platform.  more...

Zillow lands first MLS deal

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Seattle-based Zillow.com scored its first partnership with a multiple listing service to feed for-sale property information to the national real estate site.

MLS Property Information Network, a privately owned MLS serving the New England area, will begin feeding listings to Zillow on a daily basis, the companies announced today.

MLS PIN has about 30,000 participants, and the organization manages a database of approximately 60,000 homes for sale.  more...

Regulators relax capital requirements for Fannie, Freddie

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Federal regulators say they're giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac additional leeway to buy up to $200 billion in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities by relaxing stringent capital requirements put in place in 2004 in the wake of management and accounting scandals.  more...

California sees dwindling home sales, prices

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Although February home sales across Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area picked up from January, they posted huge declines from a year ago and median prices tumbled.

According to real estate information service DataQuick, home sales last month in the six-county Southern California region limped along at the slowest pace ever for a February -- with just 10,777 new and resale houses and condos changing hands. That's a 39 percent decrease from the 17,680 sales reported in February 2007, but an 8 percent jump from 9,983 sales in January 2008.  more...

Home loan apps fall in weekly survey

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Despite a considerable drop in long-term mortgage rates, borrowers last week were not breaking down the doors of lenders trying to get a piece of the action, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

According to MBA, home loan application volume fell 2.9 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, led by a 4.6 percent decline in the refinance index and a 1 percent drop in the index that tracks purchase loans.  more...

Overnight real estate rates sink further

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates continued to fall Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 3.49 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dropped to 5.66 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate fell to 5.04 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate, however, rose to 5.34 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.35 percent.

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

Help-U-Sell management restructures

By , Wednesday, March 19, 2008.
Steve Ozonian

Steve Ozonian, the much-traveled real estate executive who took a leading role at flat-fee brokerage company Help-U-Sell in 2006, has resigned from his management role to serve as an adviser.

In a message to Help-U-Sell brokers this month, Ozonian detailed other corporate management changes, including the formation of a new board of directors.  more...

Remodel rids closet of musty smell

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

Q: Our 1920s bungalow has a small front closet that is punched out from the wall of the house so that the box of the closet extends past the exterior walls. This leaves the three walls and floor in direct contact with the outside damp air. We use this as a coat closet, but because of the outside dampness and lack of insulation in the lath-and-plaster walls, clothes get musty.  more...

Reverse mortgage bails out seniors facing foreclosure

By Tom Kelly, Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

George A. Downey, a longtime reverse-mortgage lender, walked into a seminar designed to help people explore creative financing alternatives in an attempt to avoid default and foreclosure.

"There were some older folks in the room, but nothing was ever offered about a reverse mortgage being a possibility," said Downey, founder of Braintree, Mass.-based Harbor Mortgage. "The numbers have to work, but if they do, it can be a godsend for them. The current mortgage is paid off; they keep the house; and they have no future payments. …"  more...