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Mar

5
2008

'McMansions' charred, builders blame ELF

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

The debate over super-sized homes and urban sprawl flared up in the Pacific Northwest this week with the torching of several multi-million-dollar show homes. The National Association of Home Builders is blaming the Earth Liberation Front for a series of fires that destroyed four new homes in a Seattle suburb.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper reports that fires destroyed three homes in Woodinville, Wash., and a sign at the scene bore initials "ELF."  more...

RealSure launches RealEstateWiki.com

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

RealSure, a company that offers real estate consulting and publishing services, today announced the launch of the latest real estate wiki, or industry-focused user-generated encyclopedia, at RealEstateWiki.com.

The new site, launched in beta in January, features abut 3,000 definitions for real estate terms, about 1,000 answers to frequently asked questions, about 400 biography pages for industry luminaries, and a list of about 500 real estate acronyms, among other resources, according to the announcement.  more...

Thou shalt not disclose 'days on market'

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

The Associations of Associates Representing Sellers (AARSTEAM), a just-launched for-profit corporation that is open to membership by independent, non-Realtor agents and brokers who work with sellers, promotes an "Oath of Actions" that may rubsome buyers (and their agents) the wrong way.

Sellers who pay the annual fee to join the association must "solemnly swear to abide and uphold" this oath, according to the association's Web site. As members, they:  more...

New group launches for independent listing agents Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

The National Association of Realtors has a Code of Ethics that its 1.3 million members agree to abide by. The Association of Associates Representing Sellers (AARSTEAM), a new membership group created by the CEO of a New York real estate brokerage company, offers an alternative called the "Oath of Actions."

Realtor-affiliated for-sale property information databases are known as multiple listing services, or MLSs, and millions of Realtor-listed properties are displayed at NAR-affiliated Realtor.com.  more...

SoCal office building slated for conversion

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Venture Corp., based in northern California, has acquired a class A office building in Woodland Hills, Calif., where it plans to convert suites into for-sale office condominiums.

Locally based Ashrad LLC, a consumer electronics trading company, sold the building for $14.2 million.

The property, located at 5900 Canoga Ave., is a four-story, 46,244-square-foot, multitenant office building that was built in 1979.

Venture Corp. plans to refurbish the property with renovations and dub the new space Venture Warner Center.  more...

Orange County office, industrial space fills up

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Voit Commercial Brokerage on Tuesday announced it recently closed four lease transactions totaling $12 million in Orange County, Calif.

In the first transaction, Walker Zanger signed a 10-year lease on 60,000-square-foot industrial building for $6.8 million. The property, owned by SKB Cos., is located at 1702 Edinger Ave. in Tustin.

In the second deal, Preferred Hotel Group Inc. signed a multiyear lease on a 9,992-square-foot office building for $2.5 million. The property, owned by The Irvine Co., is located at 26 Corporate Plaza in Newport Beach.  more...

Wells REIT II buys Wells Fargo building

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II on Tuesday announced its first purchase in Wisconsin: a 230,000-square-foot office property in Milwaukee.

Washington Mutual sold the three-story facility, which is fully leased to Wells Fargo until 2006.

The boomerang-shaped, 230,000-square-foot building, located at 11200 West Parkland Ave., was built in 1990 and recently renovated.

According to a press statement, the property was acquired at a price "below the projected replacement value."  more...

HUD releases new California loan limits

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.
HUD released the new FHA loan limits for California today -- the rest of the country will get theirs tomorrow -- and median home price data that allows you to calculate the new conforming loan limit for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (it's 125 percent of the median home price, or $417,000, whichever is more, up to a maximum of $729,750).

All told, 14 California counties saw their loan limits for FHA, Fannie and Freddie bumped all the way up to the $729,750 cap. Most were in the San Francisco Bay Area or northern California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara) with five more in the L.A. area (Los Angeles, Orange, San Benito, Santa Barbara, and Ventura).  more...

Home loan apps rise amid cheaper costs

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Falling interest rates help push mortgage application volume up 3 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

According to MBA, the index that tracks refinancings led the increase with a 4.5 percent gain (seasonally adjusted) from the week before, followed by a 1.4 percent rise in the purchase-loan index.

As a result, the refinance share of applications grew to 52.4 percent last week from 52 percent the week before. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity rose from 15 percent to 17.3 percent.  more...

Going low with REO

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

A post at the Trulia Blog features a map with stats on the median price of bank-owned properties that were acquired through a foreclosure process vs. the median list price of typical homes.

Bank-owned properties, also known as real estate-owned or REO properties, carry a lower list price in all of the U.S. regions, though the differences vary widely by region.  more...

Real estate rates climb overnight

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates continued higher Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield was up at 3.62 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.9 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate gained to 5.27 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate jumped to 4.56 percent.  more...

Judge throws out ban on down-payment assistance Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Federal regulators have not adequately explained their decision to reverse a policy allowing seller-funded down-payment assistance on FHA-backed loans -- or provided sufficient responses to suggestions on ways to mend, rather than end, the practice -- a federal judge has ruled.  more...

RE/MAX sees net growth in franchise offices

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Despite the tough market, RE/MAX International reported on Tuesday that the company sold 940 franchises in 2007 and boosted its net office count by 4 percent compared to the prior year.

The company had 7,016 offices at the close of 2007. Texas, the Carolinas and Florida had the highest franchise growth in the United States, and Italy, Portugal and the Czech Republic led overseas franchise sales, the company announced.  more...

IRS rule makes it easier to swap property

By Tom Kelly, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

The Internal Revenue Service has handed investors and second-home owners a new gift in the form of a safety net that provides a "safe harbor" for taxpayers who wish to swap the property via a Section 1031 tax-free exchange even though they have enjoyed personal use of the property.  more...

Prevent deck collapse with proper upkeep

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

Q: Our 35-year-old house has a 7-foot cantilevered deck on the top floor -- about 25 feet above ground level. The untreated fir joists feel solid but have large black areas on the sides -- especially on the outboard end (the area closest to the house is protected by an overhang). I intend to remove the decking to repair any rot on the tops of the joists; I was told by a pest control guy to pressure-wash the black areas on the sides. I guess that is a good idea.  more...