Archive for October 16th, 2008
Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
A somewhat overlooked player in this whole mortgage meltdown is the appraiser who is supposed to offer up unbiased opinions on the worth of a property before a loan is made.
A group of Idaho appraisers claims that industry leader Countywide, swallowed up by Bank of America earlier this year, has forced them to generate artificially high appraisals that helped Countrywide sell more loans on Wall Street. The suit claims Countrywide punished appraisers who did not comply by blacklisting them for up to a year.
The suit, filed by the Seattle plaintiffs’ firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, claims more than 2,000 appraisers appear on Countrywide’s Field Review List, which is given out to mortgage brokers working with the firm. The suit claims this is essentially a “do not use” list.
Those appaisers on the list were denied work, the suit claims, because any appraisal submitted to Countrywide from a blacklisted appraiser went to LandSafe, Countrywide’s in-house appraisal operation, for review. Those reviews typically found problems with the reports.
This is not the first lawsuit against Countrywide involving appraisals. Earlier this year a former Countrywide mortgage exec claimed he too was pressured to use infalted appraisals provided by the company’s LandSafe unit.
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Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
Atlantic City has issued a request for proposals for the development of Bader Field, a 150-acre former municipal airport. The site, the city states, is the premier gaming and resort development parcel in North America. Read more »
Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
Despite this year’s nationwide economic downturn, the credit crunch and the recent banking industry implosion, the building frenzy in New York City continues. As per a new report by the New York Building Congress, 2008 will be a banner year, and 2009 won’t be too shabby, either. However, even a town with one of the strongest commercial and multi-family real estate markets in the country will not completely escape the nation’s economic ills. Read more »
Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II has scooped up the remaining four office buildings at Park Avenue at Morris County–a Class A, six-building complex located at the Columbia Turnpike exit of Route 24 in New Jersey’s Essex/Eastern Morris County submarket. Read more »
Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
Kennedy Associates has taken the 22-story office tower at 185 Franklin Street in Boston off the hands of Verizon Communications Inc. in a deal valued at $192 million. But Verizon is not walking away from the six-decade-old property completely. The telecommunications company will continue to own 100,000 square feet of the building, which has a total 700,000 square feet of rentable office space, and will lease back the remaining 600,000 square feet from Kennedy under a short-term agreement. Read more »
Continue Reading October 16th, 2008
FirstService Corp. has announced the completion of its previously reported purchase of a 65 percent interest in New York-based GVA Williams Real Estate, with senior management retaining the balance of equity. Read more »