|
|
Silverstein Building in ‘Imminent Default’ |
|
| Another New York office building is in “imminent default." |
|
|
An Extreme Makeover Home’s Mysterious Raffle |
|
| It appears that a family that received an Extreme Makeover home in suburban Atlanta has resorted to raffling off their supersized house to avoid foreclosure. |
|
|
Can Your iPhone Tell You Which House to Buy? |
|
| For those seeking bargains in today’s bombed-out housing market, it helps to have strong nerves and a big wad of cash. But do you also need a fancy cellphone? |
|
|
Despite Looming Fed Exit, Mortgage Rates Stay Low |
|
| The Federal Reserve is almost done buying mortgage-backed securities, which has helped lower mortgage rates to near historical lows for much of the past year, but rates appear to be holding steady: they ended the week at a still low 5.01% last week, up slightly from 4.95% the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. |
|
|
Forget Granite Countertops, Here Comes Electric-Vehicle Charging |
|
| Charging up the car in the garage might seem like something from the Jetsons cartoon, but builder KB Home is making that a reality Tuesday. |
|
|
Whatever Happened to Leona Helmsley’s Dog? |
|
The canine in question is Trouble Helmsley, the beloved Maltese poodle left behind by the late Leona Helmsley who died in 2007.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
J.P. Morgan: Foreclosure Sales Could Be Higher in Three Years |
|
| Efforts to modify loans and delay foreclosures may have helped hold down the stock of foreclosures for sale in the second half of 2009, fostering home-price stabilization. But that cure could require different medicine: an elevated level of foreclosures for sale over the next three years. |
|
|
Shiller: Should We Keep Subsidizing the Housing Market? |
|
Is the government's massive support of homeownership nothing more than a "sacred cow in American society?"
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Boston Mayor Blasts Vornado’s Roth Over ‘Blight’ Speech |
|
| Frank comments from Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Roth have sparked a political uproar in Boston over the stalled redevelopment of the Filene's Basement site. |
|
|
The Loneliest Condo Dweller in Florida |
|
| Anyone remember Victor Vangelakos? He's the loneliest condo dweller in Fort Myers, Fla.--and he can't take it anymore. |
|
|
California Receives $700 Million in Federal Housing Aid |
|
| California will receive $700 million and Florida will take $400 million in federal aid to begin designing programs to ease foreclosures, under the Obama adminstration's latest effort to ease the housing crisis. |
|
|
FHA Study Says Technical Issues Understate Loan Risks |
|
| We wrote today about this paper from economists at the New York Federal Reserve and New York University that argues that the Federal Housing Administration may be missing certain warning signals in its annual audit that could underestimate losses. |
|
|
Frank Talk: Why You Can Expect More Of It |
|
| Rep. Barney Frank again made comments that sent ripples through bond markets on Friday when he suggested that the U.S. might force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bondholders to take a haircut. |
|
|
Goldman Predicts ‘Muted’ Mortgage Rate Increase |
|
| In a research note out Wednesday, Goldman Sachs analyst Sven Jari Stehn says that after the Fed pulls out of the mortgage market, the mortgage rate increase may be more muted than some expect--if the Fed doesn't make a big deal out of it. |
|
|
Saks Fifth Avenue Pulls Out of Westchester Development |
|
| It appears that Saks Fifth Avenue doesn’t think the other tenants in a planned Westchester real estate development are up to snuff; at least enough for the upscale retailer to open its only store in the county. |
|
|
Did Weather Hurt Housing? You Decide |
|
| When January's home resales fell 7.2% from December and new-home sales plunged to a record low, winter weather became the fall guy. |
|
|
Friday Diversion: Rush Limbaugh and Tiki Barber Sell Manhattan Apartments |
|
| Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh lists his penthouse on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue for $13.9 million. Mr. Limbaugh paid $5 million for the 10-room home, which overlooks Central Park. |
|
|
Video: GGP’s Nolan on ‘What’s Taking So Long’ |
|
| The WSJ’s Mike Spector and Simon Constable interviewed Nolan about the recent takeover battle, what it means for U.S. retail and where GGP goes from here. |
|
|
Steve Roth Deliberately Leaving Filene’s Site Vacant? |
|
| Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is pushing to fill the hole in the ground that was once the Filene’s Department store, may raise his eyebrows at some recent remarks from the chairman of developer Vornado Realty Trust. |
|
|
Thursday Diversion: ‘Twilight’ House Architect’s First Solo Project |
|
Fans of "Twilight" know the name Jeff Kovel because the architect designed the home occupied by the Cullens, the featured vampire family in the film. But back before Twilight groupies started sending him fan mail, Mr. Kovel designed a home in the Portland Heights area of Portland, Ore., featured Thursday as "House of the Day" on WSJ.com.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Hovnanian Heads to Inland Empire |
|
| Builder Hovnanian Enterprises is beefing up its presence in California's Inland Empire, one of the regions hardest hit by the nation's housing crash. |
|
|
Renters Poised to Lose Upper Hand |
|
| Renters--the ones with jobs anyway--have been having a good run the past year or so. But the party may be drawing to a close. The evidence, apartment operators are gearing up to build new rental units. |
|
|
Live Blogging: Hovnanian on Hovnanian |
|
| Builder Hovnanian Enterprises stunned the market late Tuesday as it swung to a first-quarter profit of $2.97 a share--ending 13 consecutive quarters in the red--a big improvement on the year earlier loss of $2.29 a share. |
|
|
Mortgage Rates Hover Around 5%, For Those Who Can Qualify |
|
| Policy makers have helped spur a wave of refinancing by driving mortgage rates to record lows for much of the past year, but high rates of negative equity, tighter lending standards and falling incomes have made it much harder for a wide swath of borrowers to take advantage of those rates. |
| Harvard University's $26 billion endowment is looking to unload a chunk of its real-estate portfolio, but that hasn't stopped it from doing new deals to take advantage of property distress. |
|
|
Buying Foreclosed Homes With a Mouse Click |
|
| For daring investors who are itching to get in on the foreclosure action, a Web site due to be launched this week offers what it says is an easy way to buy homes from banks--with the click of a mouse. |
|
|
Toll Brothers Pulls Out of Gowanus |
|
| Following the EPA's designation of New York's polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn as a Superfund site Tuesday - a label that ensures it will be cleaned - builder Toll Bros. said it will not go forward with a proposed project there. |
|
|
Mermaids in Times Square? |
|
| We reported last month that a Toronto developer wants to build an aquarium in Times Square. Today, PETA announced a counter-proposal: How about costumed mermaids instead? |
|
|
Buried in Fannie’s Filings: Signs of Improvement |
|
| Buried in Fannie Mae's federal filings that reported an eye-popping $72 billion annual net loss for 2009 are some signs that the mortgage crisis that began three years ago is easing. |
|
|
Buffett Predicts: Housing Problems Behind Us Within the Year |
|
Saturday we got this forecast from the Oracle of Omaha.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Freddie Mac Abandons Ship on Interest-Only Loans |
|
| Freddie Mac said on Friday that it would stop buying and securitizing interest-only loans in September because those mortgages have performed so poorly. |
|
|
Why Existing Home Sales Are Flat, Not in Free Fall |
|
| Ignore today’s headlines on U.S. home resales. If you strip out the effects of tax credits, the underlying trend looks about flat. |
|
|
Friday Diversion: Cher’s House Sells to GoDaddy CEO, James Franco Sells in L.A. |
|
| Home resales fell 7.2% in January, here's a look at some high-end sales and listings from February. |
|
|
Starwood and Lennar Bet Florida Is Back |
|
| Starwood recently finalized the purchase of nearly 5,500 residential lots - and 36 model homes - from TOUSA, a Florida builder that filed for bankruptcy in 2008. |
|
|
KB Home Is a ‘Buy,’ Despite the Rodney Dangerfield Thing |
|
| Home builders are a hot topic this week, with luxury developer Toll Bros. reporting a narrowed-quarterly loss, just as the Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales plunged to a record low in January. |
|
|
Better to Wait Until Home Buyer Tax Credit Expires? |
|
| The home builders and Realtors are jazzed for the home buyer tax credit's remaining weeks. It's tempting for home buyers to get caught up in the hype. But perhaps you're better off waiting? |
|
|
Groping in the Dark Toward Foreclosure Remedies |
|
| Some of the most eagerly attended sessions at this week’s annual convention of loan servicers--sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association at a hotel in San Diego--have been those featuring representatives of the Treasury, the Federal Housing Administration and other government-related bodies. |
|
|
Don’t Hold Your Breath on Fannie, Freddie Overhaul |
|
| The Obama administration confirmed on Wednesday that it will wait until next year to put forward legislation on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. |
|
|
On New Home Sales It’s Builders vs. Government |
|
| Home builders say the market is improving, the commerce department's new home sales numbers tell a different story. |
|
|
Macerich: ‘Consolation’ Prize for Losing General Growth Suitors? |
|
| Speculation is mounting that General Growth Properties won’t be the only big shopping-center owner in play this year. |
|
|
Live Blog: Toll on Toll’s ‘Choppy Waters’ |
|
| Live blogging Toll Brothers quarterly conference call on Feb. 24. |
|
|
Analyst: Pressure Will Build on Fed To Extend Mortgage Program |
|
| The elephant in the room is the Fed's planned exit from the mortgage market, and analysts expect rates to rise by anywhere from a quarter-point to a full percentage point or more. |
|
|
Facing ARMageddon Borrowers Grapple With Refinancing |
|
| That means many borrowers who use adjustable-rate mortgages have a big decision to make: refinance now into historically low fixed rates or stick with an ARM that's currently even lower? Here's some tips on what to do. |
|
|
Nearly One in Four Borrowers Underwater on Mortgage |
|
| Nearly one in four U.S. homeowners with a mortgage owed more than their homes were worth at the end of 2009, underscoring the challenges facing any sustained recovery in consumer spending and housing. |
|
|
Highlights from Home Builder ‘Survivor Conference’ |
|
| I've spent much of Tuesday tuned into the "2010 Wells Fargo Securities Housing and Building Products Conference." At times it was like listening to a group therapy session with a bunch of trauma survivors. Still, a theme emerged: Builders are looking past their depression and thinking about the future. |
|
|
Case-Shiller Adds to Confusion on Housing Market |
|
| Tuesday's latest home-price reading shows that momentum slowed at the end of 2009 for the housing market, adding to the confusion about where prices are headed from here. |
|
|
Credit Suisse Asks: Why Rent? |
|
| We've previously wondered if the housing crisis will result in more people renting for longer. But Dan Oppenheim, a home-building analyst with Credit Suisse, wants to know: "Why rent when homes are this cheap?" |
|
|
Already Glacial, Foreclosure Process May Get Even Slower |
|
| Lenders are taking more than a year to complete foreclosure cases against many struggling home-mortgage borrowers. Now that process may get even slower. |
|
|
Miami Condo Vulture Sees Success |
|
| Is the Miami's troubled condo market coming back? One recent case shows that there is again money to be made there. |
|
|
Obama’s Small Step Toward Principal Reduction |
|
| The Obama administration hinted Friday that it may be closer to accepting the idea of prodding banks to forgive mortgage principal for many Americans. |
|
|
Take Three: Will Congress Extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit? |
|
| It’s that time of year again: time for lobbyists to convince Congress to extend the home buyer tax credit. |
|
|
Is the End of the Foreclosure Crisis in Sight? |
|
| The Mortgage Bankers Association had some surprising news today: Fewer people fell behind on their home-mortgage payments in last year’s fourth quarter than in third quarter. |
|
|
For Pulte, A Lavish Retirement |
|
| Building giant Pulte Homes had a $1.2 billion net loss last year and $1.5 billion in 2008. That doesn't seem to have dented founder William J. Pulte's retirement package. |
|
|
New Housing Aid Tackles Negative Equity, Second Mortgages |
|
| One year and one day after President Obama rolled out the most ambitious federal effort yet to stem foreclosures, the president is announcing a new round of housing aid during a townhall event this morning in Las Vegas, the nation's foreclosure capital. |
|
|
Israel’s Red-Hot Housing Market |
|
| WSJ.com's Martin Himel reports that prices in Israel have climbed more than 30% in dollar terms in the past two years. |
|
|
Gr-8 News: Jon and Kate Sell Home |
|
Tabloid-fixtures Jon and Kate Gosselin finally sold the Pennsylvania house that served as the backdrop for the early part of their popular reality TV show "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Zillow.com reports.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Mortgage Rates Flat at 4.94% |
|
| Mortgage-loan applications dipped 2.1% for the week ended Feb. 12, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. This comes as the mortgage rate for 30-year fixed loans remained flat at 4.94%, with a slight increase in points. |
|
|
Home Builders Are Back, Kinda |
|
| The good news continues rolling in for home builders, who hope they've hit bottom and are in recovery mode. But, as we've told you before, headwinds remain for the beleaguered sector. |
|
|
For Farkas, Centerline’s Appeal Is In Special Servicing |
|
| As New York real-estate investor Andrew Farkas is close to taking over the loan-servicing unit of Centerline Holding Co., the company will likely be split in two parts. But Mr. Farkas is clearly most interested in just one of those parts. |
|
|
General Growth Gets Snippy with Simon Property |
|
| Bankrupt mall owner General Growth Properties Inc.’s response late Tuesday to Simon Property Group Inc.’s unsolicited, $10 billion buyout offer earlier in the day wasn’t short on subtle barbs aimed at the suitor.
To say that General Growth execs are a tad irritated that Simon has pressured them by going public with its offer isn’t a stretch. The tactic is commonly known as a bear hug, in which an acquirer publicly states an offer in the hope that interested parties, like creditors or |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Simon’s GGP Grab: Isn’t the Shopping Mall Dead? |
|
| Simon Property Group is poised to own nearly 50% of America’s malls at a time when the Golden Age of department stores and the iconic shopping mall has long been on the wane. |
|
|
Home-Price Reductions Stabilize, For Now |
|
| Home sellers must be feeling confident: Just 21% of listings on the market as of Feb. 1 had at least one price chop, down from peak levels late last year, according to a report from real-estate Web site Trulia.com released Tuesday. |
|
|
Paulson’s Take: What To Do With Fannie and Freddie? |
|
| Henry Paulson offers his take on what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: shrink them, dial down their focus on housing mission-related goals, and using a public-utility model, turn the firms into mortgage-credit guarantors that provide a credit guarantee on certain mortgages and mortgage-backed securities that have an explicit federal backing. |
|
|
Credit Suisse: Five Threats To Housing |
|
| Spring selling season should be a good one this year, but one analyst posits five threats to the housing system. |
|
|
Friday Diversion: Tom Hanks Buys $26 Million House, Conan Sells NYC Penthouse |
|
| In an attempt to attract home buyers looking to take advantage of the tax credit, home builders are increasing speculative construction. Here's a look at some existing high-end homes making news this week: |
|
|
Why Mortgage Rates Could Move Down (Modestly) |
|
| Mortgage rates fell this past week, and there’s reason to believe that rates could dip a little more in the coming weeks. |
|
|
Can Martha Stewart Save Florida’s Housing Market? |
|
| Builder KB Home is turning to Martha Stewart to sell homes in Florida, one of the states hardest hit by the housing crash. |
|
|
Will the Mortgage Lender Grab My iPhone? |
|
| If you walk away from your mortgage can the lender come after your car, savings or other investments? State laws vary immensely, as does lender appetite to pursue deficiency judgments. |
|
|
California Estate Linked to Edra Blixseth Listed for $75 Million |
|
| The 249-acre Rancho Mirage, Calif. estate linked to Edra Blixseth, a founder of the billionaires’ resort the Yellowstone Club in Montana, is on the market for $75 million. |
|
|
Citi Ups Incentives for Borrowers to Give Back Homes, Nicely |
|
| CitiMortgage, a unit of Citgroup Inc., announced Wednesday a pilot project that will let some delinquent borrowers remain in their homes without making mortgage payments for six months if they voluntarily transfer ownership to the bank. |
|
|
Something Fishy Coming to Empty Times Square Tower |
|
| After months of head-scratching, there’s finally some clarity as to who will occupy Times Square’s new office tower: sharks and lawyers. |
|
|
Home Builders’ Latest Strategy: Building Houses |
|
| Given the state of housing, it seems like builders wouldn’t start a home without a signed buyer. But that is exactly what they’re doing: They’re ramping up speculative construction to attract last-minute home buyers who want to tap the soon-to-expire tax credit. |
|
|
N.Y. Governor Paterson’s Aqueduct Problem |
|
| Rumors have been swirling in New York this past week about Governor David Paterson. Apparently, an upcoming story in the New York Times may reveal some sort of salacious scandal about the governor. That possibility is beginning to pale in comparison to the storm around Mr. Paterson's dubious pick to build the Big Apple’s first casino. |
|
|
Ritz-Carlton Exits (Woebegone) Lake Las Vegas |
|
On the shores of woebegone Lake Las Vegas, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC and the hotel’s owner, lender Deutsche Bank AG, this week set May 2 as the 349-room hotel’s last day of operations. Continuing to run the hotel, which opened in 2003, was “no longer economically viable,” said a Deutsche Bank spokesman.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
FHA Loan Defaults Surpass 9% |
|
| Officials at the Federal Housing Administration take every opportunity they can to assure the public that the agency is weathering the housing downturn just fine. |
|
|
Talking ‘Aboot’ Canada’s Housing Bubble |
|
| In the U.S. we're still mucking around at the bottom of the crash (or the false bottom), but in Canada recovery has been so rapid that some there are worrying about (aboot?) a bubble. |
|
|
Pay Borrowers to Pay Their Mortgage? |
|
| How do you get borrowers to avoid walking away from homes that are deeply underwater without encouraging more to follow by writing down principal balances? One idea: Pay them to keep paying their mortgage. |
|
|
Mortgage Bankers Mum on How They Fixed Their Own Mortgage Woes |
|
| Is the Mortgage Bankers Association embarrassed by the way it resolved its own mortgage mess? In any case, officials of the trade group are refusing to provide details on that question. |
|
|
4Kids Entertainment CEO Purchases Madoff Penthouse |
|
| Toy magnate Alfred R. Kahn has bought Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan penthouse, according to a person familiar with the deal. |
|
|
Hedge Funder Battles to Keep Park Ave. Rent at $380 |
|
| A Manhattan hedge funder is fighting to hang on to what has to be the best rent in the city: $380/month for a Park Avenue duplex. |
|
|
Trouble on South Beach: Achenbaums Sue Over Gansevoort Hotel |
|
| Miami vice, indeed. The strife at the trendy Gansevoort South Hotel on Miami’s South Beach continues. |
|
|
Manhattan Skyscraper Proves a Tough Sell for SL Green |
|
| The would-be buyer of a major interest in a $500 million Manhattan skyscraper has sued the seller, SL Green Realty Corp. alleging breach of contract. |
|
|
Madoff’s Penthouse Goes Into Contract |
|
| Bernard Madoff's Manhattan penthouse has gone into contract for an undisclosed price. It was originally listed for $9.9 million in September and later was cut to $8.9 million. |
|
|
UPDATE: Got $40 Million? A Florida Development Needs You |
|
| The Forkosh Development Group wants millions of dollars worth of help in suburban Miami. |
|
|
Friday Diversion: DreamWorks’ Katzenberg Buys, ‘Jersey Shore’ House for Rent |
|
A Beverly Hills company plans to sell floating homes on a cruise ship that is set to launch in 2013. Here is a look at some land-based homes making news this week:
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Starwood Takes Its Lumps in Time-Shares |
|
| The time-share industry has been shrinking since the latest recession began. But only now are we seeing the full extent of the pullback among the industry’s biggest players. |
|
|
Zell Takes a Bigger Bite Out of the Big Apple |
|
| Just after announcing on Monday it was snapping up ailing developer Harry Macklowe's last three rental towers, Equity is coming back for more. In its earnings conference call Thursday, the Chicago-based company said it plans 111 market-rate apartments and nearly 10,000 square feet of retail space in the Chelsea neighborhood at the southwest corner of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street. |
|
|
Are Second Mortgages the Achilles Heel of a Housing Recovery? |
|
| Housing analysts are drawing more attention to one big problem that's making loan modifications less successful and drawing out efforts to pursue short sales and other foreclosure alternatives: The presence of second mortgages such as home equity loans and lines of credit. |
|
|
Nevermind: Starwood Pulls Unfinished Corus Condos Off the Market |
|
| A Starwood Capital-FDIC partnership halted its offering of Glencoe Lofts, a luxury California condo project it inherited from the failed Corus Bank. New plan? Finish the complex and resell the units, industry newsletter Real Estate Alert reports. |
|
|
Home Supply Posts Modest Rise |
|
| The number of homes listed for sale rose only modestly in many parts of the U.S. in January, contrary to the usual big increase during the month. Analysts had been expecting more for-sale signs because of new foreclosures. |
|
|
Hotel Foreclosure Watch: iStar Reclaims its Peach |
|
| IStar Financial Inc. is gambling there’s more peach than pit at Atlanta’s posh, Robert A.M. Stern-designed Mansion on Peachtree hotel, which the lender seized at foreclosure auction this week. |
|
|
Mortgage Rates Steady; Applications Surge |
|
| Here's some good news for housing: Weekly mortgage applications surged 21% for the period ending Jan. 29, returning to pre-holiday levels as buyers take advantage of the lows - rates and prices - and the federal tax credit. |
|
|
The $100K House: Builders Go Cheap To Compete with Foreclosures |
|
| Home builders, battered from losing half of their market share in the past two years, are fighting back against business-stealing foreclosures. |
|
|
More Arguments Favor Walking Away from a Mortgage |
|
| No homeowner wants to be a sucker. More reports are surfacing of mortgage holders with the means to pay who choose default. |
|
|
Commerical Real Estate’s Bright Spot: Prisons |
|
Demand remains strong for one type of real estate: prisons.
Related Articles
We were unable to find any related articles.
REOWN.com - Filtering creative real estate news -- getting the juice!
|
|
|
Horton Ponders Life After Homebuyer Tax Credit |
|
| In order to get the homebuyer tax credit, buyers have to agree to buy by April 30. The market will likely soften after that, something builder DR Horton discussed in its first-quarter earnings conference call Tuesday. |
|
|
Wilbur Ross: LeFrak Is Ideal for Stuy Town, Trump’s ‘Not Interested’ |
|
| It might not be a political office, but there's still campaigning under way to run New York's sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complex. |
|
|
How to Revive Securitization? A Toilet Brush May Help |
|
| Members of the ASF fear that Congress, the FDIC and other regulators will impose such harsh restrictions on securitization that they will prevent it from regaining a major role in the provision of credit to Americans. |
| Could the downturn be hitting home for luxury builder Toll Brothers?
Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Toll took a pay cut in fiscal year 2009, the Horsham, Penn.-based company disclosed in a securities filing Monday. |
|
|
Macklowe Selling Off New York Rental Business |
|
| Ailing New York City developer Harry Macklowe is selling the bulk of his New York residential business, unloading three rental towers to Equity Residential for $475 million. |
|
|
