Archive for October 30th, 2008
Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
In another sign that even the rich are suffering in this crisis, a deal to purchase the Kaufmann House, a famous modernist design by architect Richard Neutra, fell apart recently. The Palm Springs home was promoted as a work of art and sold last May at auction house Christie’s for $19 million.
But that deal came undone. It’s listed now for $12.9 million. Edgar Kaufmann, by the way, was a department store mogul from Pittsburgh who also commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater. He knew something about markdowns.
According to a recent account in the Los Angeles Times, the present owners, a divorcing couple–he’s a big wig at bond giant Pimco, have invested about $11 million in the property.
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Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
The government is expected to announce soon that it will devote up to $50 billion to directly address the source of the financial crisis: bad mortgages and millions of homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
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Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
First American CoreLogic, a data supplier, says that in the July-September period, 18% of all properties with a mortgage were underwater–that is, worth less than the outstanding debt.
The company’s data includes over 80% of all mortgages.
Here are some points from the press release:
• Over 7.5 million mortgages or 18% of all properties with a mortgage were in a negative equity position as of the end of September 2008. There are an additional 2.1 million mortgages that are approaching negative equity. These are defined as mortgages within 5% of being in a negative equity position. Negative-equity and near-negative equity mortgages combined account for over 23% of all properties with a mortgage.•
The distribution of negative equity is heavily skewed to a small number of states. Nevada and Michigan have the highest percentages of negative equity - Nevada led the nation with an estimated 48% and Michigan was second with 39%. Five other states have negative equity shares in excess of 20%: Florida (29%), Arizona (29%), California (27%), Georgia (23%), and Ohio (22%).
. New York has the lowest share of mortgages in negative equity at 7%, followed closely by Hawaii (8%), Pennsylvania (9%) and Montana (10%).
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Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
The investment sales market has hit a rough patch due to the credit freeze-up, but despite this, Lee & Associates announced today it is launching an investment sales arm, to be dubbed Lee Investment Services Group. Read more »
Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
A 58-story Waldorf=Astoria Hotel and Residences has been announced for Philadelphia, set to open in 2012. The $420 million mixed-use project will be co-developed by Mariner Commercial Properties Inc. and Gatehouse Capital Corp. Read more »