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 Services/Affordable Housing Group in Seattle took the sales assignment to market the property on behalf of the non-profit owner, Villa Nueva.The primary challenge in completing the transaction was overcoming U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s policy restrictions impacting non-profit ownership rights. Faced with many…

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 store sales declined 0.1 percent in April, suggesting the weakening economy is causing consumers to bargain hunt at discount stores, the Times said.The Commerce Department also said that business inventories rose a slight 0.1. percent in March–the smallest growth in a year.

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 MHN. The community’s plans include 367,433 sq. ft. of rentable space. Construction is expected to begin Oct. 1. Located in the Central Platte Valley, a 120-acre area immediately west of Denver’s central business district, the property will provide easy access to Interstate 25. Additionally, the…

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 be original and two minutes in length or shorter. “Social media is a proven promotional tool which enables us to build our brand effectively,” says Brock MacLean, vice president of national sales and development for For Rent Media Solutions. “With this contest, we are reaching…

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 conditions.The Market Tightness Index, which measures changes in occupancy rates and/or rents, improved significantly from 33 in January to 44, as more respondents reported tighter apartment conditions—and fewer reported looser conditions—than three months earlier. (A reading above 50 indicates that, on balance, conditions are improving;…

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, 107 townhouses and 99 single-family homes. Move-ins into the apartments are expected to begin next summer.The three-bedroom townhouses range from 1,983 sq. ft. to 2,188 sq. ft and the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments range from 900 sq. ft. to 1,250 sq. ft. Average  rents…

Washington, D.C.–In addition to a probable presidential veto, the housing bill passed Thursday by the House faces another obstacle: A similar proposal from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn.The House’s bill will help only a small amount of homeowners prevent foreclosure and would cost taxpayers $2 billion–less than original estimated, according to CNNMoney.com.Passed by a 266-154 margin, the bill sponsored by House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., is unlikely to advance past the president, according to members of the Bush Administration.The new housing plan would let the Federal Housing Administration guarantee a new loan if the lender agrees…

Seattle–Real estate agents are offering information online for free on sites such as Seattle-based Zillow.com and Trulia.com because of the declining market–and it’s changing the entire home buying and selling process, the New York Times says.The era where sellers had to list their home with a broker in order to reach buyers is over; the U.S. now has about 900 multiple listing services.In the past, Web sites were often not allowed to show M.L.S. listings next to for-sale-by-owner homes, foreclosed properties or homes lacking agent representation. But while sites such as Zillow, ZipRealty and Redfin don’t have all the M.L.S….

London–London-based bank HSBC–one of the first to be affected by the subprime mortgage market collapse–said Monday that the U.S. housing slump could continue through 2009, the Financial Times reports.”We don’t think this is a 2008 event, it’s a 2009 event,” said Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan.HSBC also announced it had earmarked $5.8 billion because of first-quarter credit issues and had set aside $3.2 billion in bad debt provisions–twice the amount it had set aside in the first quarter of 2007.Half of the provision involved mortgages; the rest was related to the bank’s rising credit card and car loan defaults.Because HSBC lends…