Home

Welcome to the new Inman News! Premium Content

By Jessica Swesey, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Inman News today debuts a shiny new Web site, culminating many months of work spent behind the scenes building new channels, new community features and more feedback functionality to the site.

The goal was ambitious, but clear. We set out to tear down the front and back-end of the old Inman News site, which includes over 10,000 real estate articles written since 1995. We had to do this in order to bring the front door of Inman up to speed with how news is being reported and consumed today.  more...

Texas deal tops 600,000 square feet

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

A joint venture between an AmREIT-affiliated fund and JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund has paid an undisclosed price for the Shadow Creek Ranch Town Center in Pearland, Texas.

Sold by Shadow Creek Retail LP, the 616,372-square-foot retail center was nearly 80 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants that included H-E-B Plus!, Academy Sports & Outdoors, Ashley Furniture, FedEx Kinkos and Hobby Lobby.

The property was developed in January 2006, according to a press statement.  more...

Joint venture sells 206,000 square feet in Houston

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Brokerage Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. recently announced that it closed the sale of Oak Park Office Center II, a 206,362-square-foot office building in Houston, Texas.

GE Real Estate purchased the class A property from Realty Associates Oak Park II L.P. for an undisclosed price. The seller is a joint venture between TA Associates Realty and Myers, Crow & Saviers Ltd.

The property is situated on 18 acres at 6380 Rogerdale Road in the Oak Park Business Park close to the Westpark Tollway and Sam Houston Parkway.  more...

S.F. Bay Area portfolio purchased

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Westcore Properties LLC has acquired an 11-building mixed-use portfolio including office, restaurant, industrial and artist space in Sausalito, Calif., for a price of $26.1 million.

The buildings include 134,812 square feet of space on approximately 5.4 acres. The addresses are 150, 160-170, 200, 310 and 360 Gate Five Road; and 401-413, 413-439 and 441-475 Coloma St.

The purchasing entity, Westcore Marin LLC, acquired the portfolio from Marin Freeholders.  more...

Realtors question Web site name restrictions Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Monday, March 3, 2008.

A new section in the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice that relates to Web site names has rankled some members who say the language is overreaching.  more...

Paulson says servicers, interest rates helping ARM borrowers Premium Content

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Cuts in short-term interest rates have reduced the payment shock of adjustable-rate mortgage resets, and although foreclosure starts continued to grow in January, loan servicers increased the number of loan modifications at a faster pace.

That was the word from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday, as he restated the Bush administration's arguments against a government bailout of mortgage lenders before the National Association of Business Economists.  more...

HomeGain invites bloggers, controversy to corporate site Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Monday, March 3, 2008.

HomeGain opened its virtual doors to the praise, criticism and everything in between when it invited prominent real estate bloggers to discuss such topics as "The Case Against Blogging" and "The Failed Promise of Real Estate 2.0" at its company blog.  more...

Home prices sink in 20 metro areas Premium Content

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

The price per square foot of homes fell in 20 of 25 U.S. metro areas tracked in December compared to the same month in the previous year, according to a monthly index report by real estate research and analytics company Radar Logic Inc.

Sacramento, Calif., had the largest index decline during a 28-day period in December 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, with the price per square foot falling 23.7 percent, according to the RPX index report by Radar Logic.  more...

Fannie, Freddie agree to adopt new appraisal standards Premium Content

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Lenders who want to do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will no longer be allowed to use in-house staff appraisers or appraisal management companies they own or control under an agreement with regulators.

Fannie and Freddie have agreed to new standards designed to ensure the independence of the appraisal process, and will provide $24 million in funding over a five-year period for independent monitoring of the new standards.  more...

Home construction spending falls for 23rd straight month

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

The rate of residential construction spending fell for the 23rd consecutive month and hit its lowest rate in about five years in January, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending on private residential construction projects was $455.75 billion in January, down 19.7 percent compared to the same month last year. This rate is a projection of a monthly total over a 12-month period, adjusted to account for seasonal fluctuations in construction activity.  more...

Nightly real estate rates continue downtrend

By Inman News, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates fell again Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield was down at 3.52 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average declined to 5.8 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate dropped to 5.16 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate dove to 4.59 percent.  more...

Week in the life between closings

By Alison Rogers, Monday, March 3, 2008.

Friday: I make plans for a renter to come in. He is relocating from, dig this, Iceland. This to me is so exotic that I could just die, because I grew up in Arkansas, and Iceland to me is as far away and exotic as the moon. I have a client who's a moon man; I will be excited just to meet him.  more...

Mortgage industry struggles to manage default risk

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, March 3, 2008.

An enormous amount of ink has been spilled on the mortgage market crisis, and I have contributed my share. Yet I am now convinced that the most important factor underlying the crisis, which has been in plain view all along, has been overlooked. It is the way in which the mortgage industry manages default risk.

There are, in fact, two systems for managing default risk. In both, the borrower pays a premium scaled to estimates of the risk of the transaction. But, while one system has worked well, the other has been a disaster.  more...

Borrower fights lender's late charge

By Benny Kass, Monday, March 3, 2008.

DEAR BENNY: My loan, with a failed institution, was sold by the FDIC. After two years of servicing my loan, the new lender demanded payment for an alleged late-charge balance transferred with my loan. However, it also stated that there were no history records. I was never late, and this year the new lender admitted the late charges were not verified and made a partial refund. The FDIC has been in the loop. Who's at fault in this scenario and what are my legal options? --Carl  more...

It pays to sell home before buying another

By Dian Hymer, Monday, March 3, 2008.

An Oakland, Calif., couple had wanted to change their lifestyle for years. Like many people who want to make a move from the home they own to another they hope to own, this couple put the cart before the horse. They started by researching what it would cost to buy the next home before investigating how much cash they would net from the sale of their current home.  more...