Archive for May 2008

London–London’s property market saw the most widespread price drops in 14 years in April due in part to a financial services sector decline and reduced lending, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.The number of residential property agents and surveyors who found prices declined surpassed the amount that reported growth by 94 percentage points…

Washington, D.C.–Central Republican and Democratic Senate negotiators said that they have not been able to reach agreement on a plan to help fix the U.S. mortgage crisis, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.Aides to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and the senior Republican on his committee, Richard C. Shelby, Ala., have been discussing…

Horsham, Pa.–Luxury builder Toll Brothers Inc. said Tuesday that its preliminary fiscal second quarter results indicated homebuilding sales had fallen 30 percent, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.”The just-completed spring selling season was quite weak in most markets as buyers remained on the sidelines,” chairman and chief executive officer Robert I. Toll said.The Horsham, Pa.-based homebuilder announced…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorSan Diego–Steadfast Villa Nueva LP purchased the 390-unit Villa Nueva Section 8 affordable housing apartment complex in San Diego from Villa Nueva for $41.2 million.When owners of the property received an unsolicited purchase offer, Kevin Mulhern of CB Richard Ellis’ San Diego Multi-Housing Group and Jim Lampman of CBRE’s HUD…

Washington, D.C.–Facing rising gas prices and a slowing economy, consumers reduced their spending last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.Retail sales fell 0.2 percent in April–the second drop in three months, the New York Times reports. The decline was prompted by a 2.8 percent auto sales drop–which was the sector’s biggest decline in 10 months.Department…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorDenver–Behringer Harvard, an Addison, Texas-based real estate investment company, announced its investment in Trammell Crow Residential’s 400-unit rental community, Alexan Prospect. “The site is strategically located in the strongest rental submarket in the Denver area, thus fitting nicely with our transportation-oriented portfolio,” Mark Alfieri, senior vice president of Behringer Harvard, tells…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNorfolk, Va.–For Rent Media Solutions, a division of Dominion Enterprises, has opened its “If Only Your Apartment Furniture Could Talk” video contest, in which participants are asked to creatively express through the eyes and voice of their current apartment furniture why they should win $10,000 towards new furniture. Videos must…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–Demand for apartment homes remains strong, but the continued credit crunch is causing the volume of property sales to slow sharply and making it more difficult for apartment firms to access the debt and equity markets, according to the National Multi Housing Council’s (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of apartment market…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorBarnegat, N.J.–Walters Homes has broken ground on Whispering Hills, an eco-friendly residential community situated on 85 acres on Rose Hill Road, between Barnegat Avenue and Route 9, in Barnegat, N.J. The development will feature a total of 258 units, including 52 apartments affordable to people earning low to moderate incomes,…