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Mar

21
2008

BlueRoof spins off 360 brand

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Friday, March 21, 2008.

BlueRoof, a Salt Lake City brokerage company with a slick Web site and map-based property search tool that launched in 2006, has spawned a new company that focuses on Web design, lead management, networking and consulting: BlueRoof360.  more...

VSE leases warehouse to store, auction off goods

By Inman News, Friday, March 21, 2008.

Defense contractor VSE Corp. on Thursday announced it has signed a long-term lease for a 256,390-square-foot warehouse in South Brunswick, N.J., where it plans to store and auction off merchandise obtained by federal agencies.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

VSE will take occupancy of the space, located at 111 Herrod Blvd., by summer. Forsgate Industrial Partners owns the warehouse, which features 36-foot clear ceilings on a 19.6-acre site.  more...

Foreign investor pays $42M for SoCal building

By Inman News, Friday, March 21, 2008.

Falcon Real Estate Investment Co. LP on Thursday announced the $42 million acquisition of a mid-rise office building near a major university in San Diego, Calif.

The purchase of University Pacific Centre, which comprises 96,581 square feet, was made on behalf of GEM University Pacific LLC, an overseas private investor in a 1031 exchange.

San Francisco, Calif.-based Alecta Real Estate USA LLC sold the property, which is located at 8899 University Center Lane near the University of California, San Diego. The building has two levels of underground parking.  more...

Baum Realty Group sells retail near Chicago

By Inman News, Friday, March 21, 2008.

Baum Realty Group on Thursday announced the sale of the Norwood Square retail center in Park Forest, Ill., for an undisclosed price.

The 15-acre, 129,000-square-foot shopping plaza sits at the intersection of 26th Street and Western Avenue.

Nassimi Realty Corp. purchased the property and plan a major multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the property and have committed to spending $1 million in the first 12 to 15 months of the project in order to revitalize and re-lease Norwood Square as a destination shopping center.  more...

MLSI settlement with FTC final, despite NAR objections Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Friday, March 21, 2008.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has finalized the settlement of an antitrust complaint against Multiple Listing Service Inc., a Realtor-operated multiple listing service based in Wauwatosa, Wis., despite objections by the National Association of Realtors trade group.  more...

Top number crunchers

By Matt Carter, Friday, March 21, 2008.

When USA TODAY asked experts at the Atlanta Fed to analyze the accuracy of predictions made by 37 economists who fill out a quarterly survey published by the paper, they determined five of the top 10 were employed by companies or associations in the fields of real estate, home building, mortgage lending or finance.

The list:

1. David Berson, PMI Group
2. Nariman Behravesh, Global Insight
3. Lyle Gramley, Stanford Washington Research Group  more...

Mortgages cheaper this week as gold, oil lose value

By Lou Barnes, Friday, March 21, 2008.

Some progress this week by the authorities has helped mortgage rates fall to the 5.75 percent area for the first time since January. However, the improvement is limited to vanilla "agency" loans, the jumbo and even agency ARM markets still broken. The credit crunch is still alive, growing tighter, and the financial system is unstable.  more...

Bargain hunters: MBS today, housing tomorrow

By Matt Carter, Friday, March 21, 2008.

The headline on this AP story looks like welcome news: "Pension plans take chance on mortgages."  more...

The media blame game

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Friday, March 21, 2008.

Maybe it's natural for real estate industry frustrations to intensify in an enviornment with slowing sales and falling home prices. Worries about media coverage of the housing market downturn have in some instances boiled over into industry uproar about "negative" news and its impact on consumer perceptions. In some cases, industry professionals have suggested that the media is contributing to the downturn by feeding into consumers' fears of market conditions.  more...

Nightly real estate rates lower

By Inman News, Friday, March 21, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates fell Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 3.33 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dipped to 5.62 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate sank to 5.08 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate rose to 5.53 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield slipped to 4.17 percent.

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