Real Estate Prices » admin

Home prices up for 1st time in 3 years

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:21:58 +0000

The value of U.S. homes grew on a monthly basis in May for the first time in nearly three years, according to 20-city index released Tuesday.

The month-over-month increase was 0.5%, according to the report from financial data company Standard & Poor’s and economists Case-Shiller. It was the first increase in the monthly index since July 2006.

On an annual basis, home prices in the 20 cities fell 17.1%, but it was the second straight month that the year-over-year decline lessened.

Zell’s Equity International May Open Brazil Real Estate Unit

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:18:44 +0000

Sam Zell’s Equity International may open a real estate financing company in Brazil as record-low interest rates in Latin America’s biggest economy boost demand for alternative investments.

Equity International is seeking partners to grow Brazil’s “still nascent” real estate financing market, Chief Strategic Officer and Vice President of Investments Thomas McDonald said in an interview in Sao Paulo. The real estate investment company hasn’t found a partner yet to begin those operations and may open its own company to provide financing to real estate developers, he said.

Brazil is the “number one country in the world for investments,” billionaire investor Zell said in a CNBC interview July 28. A 5 percentage point cut in Brazil’s Selic interest rate this year to 8.75 percent and a 34-billion real ($18 billion) housing stimulus plan announced by the government in March have boosted demand for residential and commercial real estate investments, McDonald said.

Price correction encourages Gurgaon real estate market

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:17:23 +0000

Encouraged by price correction and lowering of interest rates the real estate market, after a period of relative inactivity lasting the first
few months of the year, witnessed improved levels of activity on the part of retail investors in the residential sector, especially in the low to mid-end housing segment, said experts as well as market analysis reports of the second quarter in 2009.

CBRE Market View, India Office , published for the second quarter, said: “Level of enquiries went up and, more significantly, transaction velocity also increased marginally as compared to Q1 (first quarter) of 2009… However with most of the activity confined to smaller format offices, vacancy levels remain high. Most developers.

deferred plans for launching any new projects, the focus being on deploying the scarce resources on completing projects in hand.”

Read full news at ET

NY to launch mortgage probe

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:56:15 +0000

he Supreme Court ruled Monday that the New York attorney general’s office can investigate whether national banks discriminated against minorities seeking mortgages.

The justices overturned part of a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that entirely blocked the state office from investigating or enforcing the fair lending laws against national banks because they are subject instead to federal regulation.

In the court’s main split opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia concluded the state attorney general cannot issue subpoenas, but can bring judicial enforcement actions.

In 2005, Eliot Spitzer, then the state attorney general, began investigating possible racial discrimination in mortgage lending. He sent letters of inquiry to mortgage lenders

Qinetiq wins $39M GSA real estate contract

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:50:56 +0000

QinetiQ North America subsidiary ITS Corp. has won a contract worth up to $39 million from the General Services Administration to provide a new inventory system to help manage GSA’s real estate.

Under the five-year contract, QinetiQ will develop new inventory management software to replace GSA’s Public Buildings Service’s existing inventory system, which is being used to manage 354 million square feet of office space and other property.

QinetiQ’s Reston-based Mission Solutions group will develop the software. The new software will operate on a service-oriented technology platform that QinetiQ designed for GSA’s Public Buildings Service. Such platforms allow various software operating on it to communicate to perform certain tasks.

Airways Business Center sells for $7.27M

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:20:26 +0000

Owners of a warehouse at the Airways Business Center in Aurora have sold the property for $7.27 million, according to Adams County real estate records.

County records show that the building, located at 2460 Airport Blvd., includes 162,000 square feet of space and was completed in 2007.

The buyer is El Prado Inn LLC of Santa Barbara, Calif. The four sellers are led by Pacifica Commercial Real Estate Group, also of Santa Barbara, as Pacifica Airways II LLC. Pacifica’s portion of the sales price was $4.75 million.

The three other sellers were California entities located in Altadena, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, which each sold its part of the property for $843,300.

The partners acquired the warehouse in 2008 for $8.56 million from Principal Development Investors LLC of Des Moines, Iowa.

Hypo Real Estate needs more state aid

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:08:04 +0000

Stricken German bank Hypo Real Estate will need more state support even after a capital increase the German government is pushing through to take full control of the lender, its chief executive said.

“There is a need for more capital after the capital increase that the general meeting will address on Tuesday,” Axel Wieandt told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Sunday paper.

The exact amount had to be agreed with the government’s SoFFin financial sector rescue fund, he added. Caught out by the debt market crisis that exposed its refinancing weakness, loss-making HRE has become Germany’s biggest casualty of the financial crisis.

It has already been propped up by 102 billion euros ($142.7 billion) in guarantees, mostly from the state, for fear its collapse could have a domino effect on the financial system.

Chinese find opportunity in U.S. real estate slump

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:41:34 +0000

BEIJING — Amid a downturn in real estate prices, some wealthy Chinese are signing up for home-buying tours to the U.S., and Chinese media tout the trend as another sign of the strength of what’s now the world’s third-largest economy behind the U.S. and Japan.

“The real estate prices in America have gone down drastically,” said Yin Guohua, a partner in a law firm who recently returned from an 11-day U.S. tour with a group of Chinese elite. “It’s a good option for Chinese people who want to buy for investment.”

In prime time last week, China Central Television’s popular Oriental Horizon program dedicated half an hour to the topic of house-hunting tours to the U.S. The tours also have been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, some of them suggesting that the buying power of newly rich Chinese might help salvage U.S. real estate woes.

“We’ll probably take more than 10 groups this year,” said Vincent Mo, chairman of SouFun Holdings, one of two companies known to be organizing the house-buying trips. “There are more than 500 people applying to go with the SouFun team to look at property in the U.S.”

Not all of those on the tours are serious property investors. Some want a quick look around the U.S. Others want a son or daughter to obtain a U.S. education and think that buying property will get a foot in the door.

Mo acknowledged that he doesn’t know if anyone among the first group of 40 Chinese investors, who traveled in February, bought U.S. property.The U.S. real estate slump has made property in major U.S. cities seem cheaper than in China’s larger cities, real estate professionals said.

“If you take a brand new apartment in a first-tier city, like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, you can buy a lot more equivalent in the United States,” said Anna Kalifa, a vice president of business development at GTC Real Estate China, a development arm of the Kardan Group, based in the Netherlands. In a city such as Washington, she said, “you can get more bang for your buck, square meter per square meter.”

Luo Jie, a tour organizer for those wanting to buy U.S. property, concurred: “You can buy a much better home in America for $400,000 or $500,000 than you can buy here.”

Weichert Sees New Housing Bill Aiding an Already Improving Real Estate Market

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:33:39 +0000

Weichert Sees New Housing Bill Aiding an Already Improving Real Estate Market

At the start of the year, James M. Weichert, president and founder of Weichert, Realtors(R), one of the nation’s largest privately-held real estate companies, called upon Congress to take action to stimulate the struggling economy amid growing national concern.

Specifically, Weichert proposed a tax credit for home buyers to rejuvenate the slowing housing market. A little more than 6 months later, Weichert’s proposal has become policy as the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was signed in to law.

“I want to commend Congress and the President for their quick passing of this important legislation. I was particularly pleased to see that this bill included a tax credit for homebuyers. This was something we knew was a critical component in terms of our economic recovery and we lobbied hard, along with the National Associations of REALTORS(R) and others, to make it a reality.”

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act is expected to bolster the housing market – one of the largest and most vital sectors of the overall economy – by providing added incentives and opportunities for homebuyers. The bill provides for a $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers while also permanently raising loan limits to increase buyers’ ability to get the financing needed to purchase homes in higher-priced markets.

“The passing of this legislation is great news, particularly for anyone thinking about buying their first home,” said Weichert. “The current market already presents a great opportunity for first-time buyers when you consider interest rates remain historically low, home prices continue to be more affordable than in recent years and there is a large supply of homes to choose from. Now with the added incentive of a sizeable tax credit, it would be hard for me to resist if I was a first-time buyer.”

The new legislation also addresses several issues that have hampered the mortgage industry for the past year and in turn had a negative impact on housing. The recovery act will provide assistance for more than 400,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure to stabilize the housing supply. In addition, the housing bill provides greater financial backing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

SOURCE: Weichert, Realtors

Weichert
Doug Hoekstra, 973-397-3578
dhoekstra@weichertrealtors.net

BioMed Realty Trust Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:21:34 +0000

BioMed Realty Trust Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Rental revenues for the quarter were $54.2 million, representing a 9.6% increase versus the second quarter of 2007. Same property net operating income increased 6.1% on a cash basis for the second quarter of 2008 compared to the second quarter of 2007.

Total revenues for the quarter were $70.8 million, compared to $68.4 million in the second quarter of 2007. Net income available to common stockholders for the quarter was $14.1 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared to $14.2 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2007. Net income available to common stockholders for the second quarter of 2007 included $1.3 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, in income from discontinued operations and $2.9 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, in lease termination fees.

FFO during the quarter was $34.5 million, compared to $33.8 million in the comparable period in 2007. FFO per diluted share was $0.47 for the second quarter of 2008 versus $0.50 in the second quarter of 2007. FFO for the second quarter of 2007 included $2.9 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, in lease termination fees.