Archive for September 9th, 2008
Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
Buying pre-construction comes with risks. For one thing, you’re trusting that the finished product will resemble the model on display in the sales office.
A Russian tycoon is accusing the owner of the Plaza Hotel in New York of playing “bait and switch” with the two penthouse condos he agreed to buy “sight unseen” for $53.5 million. He says the condos look more like an “attic” than luxury homes. He is suing El-Ad Properties and demanding it refund his $10.7 million deposit and pay $20 million in damages.
El-Ad told The Wall Street Journal that the claims are baseless.
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Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
Last month’s June pending home sales report showed a surprising 5.3% increase in home-sale contracts signed, giving some analysts reason for hope (The increase was later revised to an even better 5.8%).
Pending sales index is considered a leading indicator because contracts are usually signed a month or two before closings, which are tallied in the National Association of Realtors’ existing home sales reports.
Lawrence Yun, the senior economist for the Realtor group, which also puts out the pending home sales index, said at the time: “This is welcome news, because a rise in contract activity is necessary for an overall housing recovery.”
But it looks like June might have been more a blip than the start of a recovery. The Realtors reported Sept. 9 that pending home sales fell 3.2% in July. The truth is that the pending home sales, which have bounced around a little bit throughout the year, have really not budged much since the credit crunch began last August. Pending home sales increased just 0.81% since August 2007.
“I’d describe housing market as stuck in malaise, but it’s not getting materially worse either,” said Mike Larson, real estate analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. “We are in a slow bleed phase rather than in a fresh renewed collapse.”
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September 9th, 2008
Today, the word “greenish” can think anything from the description of a product to the description of a lifestyle. All the same, many surveys survive arrogating to have graded the top dark-greenest cities in America despite this term’s lack of definition. Hence, how can the top “greenishest” cities be numerically rated when the “dark-green” concept [...]
Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
Last year Rick and Suzanne Pepin moved from the four-bedroom 3,400-square-foot house in Minneapolis where they lived with their three (now grown) kids to a luxury condo that’s a third smaller and offers only a Murphy bed for guests. Still, the couple couldn’t be happier.
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Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
Days after news emerged that Millbrook Properties had acquired the 445,200-square-foot Aviation Plaza retail property in Linden, N.J., in a 1031 exchange transaction, CB Richard Ellis Inc. has revealed it was the source behind the attainment of $60 million in financing for the transaction. Read more »
Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
According to the Portland Business Journal, LaSalle Investment Management, through one of its funds, has taken 85 percent of the million-plus-square-foot U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland Read more »
Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has announced the opening of Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village. Read more »
Continue Reading September 9th, 2008
ARCWheeler has unveiled plans to purchase, rehab and add an adjacent hotel to the 80-year-old Boyd Theatre in Downtown Philadelphia, all at an estimated price tag of $95 million. The seller of the property is current owner Live Nation, a major live events company and concert promoter. Read more »