Washington, D.C.–After three months in a row of contraction, the U.S. service sector grew last month, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing composite index grew to 52 from 49.6. A reading over 50 indicates expansion.The service sector’s growth may be an indication that increasing costs and reduced demand are failing to cripple the economy, according to the Financial Times.Because services companies comprise roughly 70 percent of the economy, their capacity to weather economic troubles is key to the U.S. avoiding a recession.

Washington, D.C.–The federal investigation of the mortgage industry has increased in recent weeks, the New York Times reported Monday.A task force created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal division–which includes federal prosecutors in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlanta–is studying mortgages that were issued with minimal or no proof of earnings or assets, according to an anonymous government source.Formed in January, the task force has increased its pace. The current investigation is larger in scope than the F.B.I. mortgage lender investigation that is also underway, the Times said.The new group is examining…

New York–New York landlords want to raise rents for the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized tenants to offset higher energy and other costs, the New York Daily News reports.Landlords say they need a 10 percent minimum rent increase to fund higher heating oil, water and sewer bills and the general cost of maintaining older buildings. Roughly 25,000 landlords rent stabilized apartments in New York.The rent spike would mean an average increase of $78.20 for stabilized apartments. Renter advocates are against the rise because they feel it could force the lowest-income renters out of their units.The Rent Guidelines Board is scheduled to…

Taipei–Real estate in Taiwan is booming due to expectations that money from mainland China will soon spread to the area.Once considered one of Asia’s poorest investment opportunities, the Nationalist Party’s win in the March 22 presidential election helped buoy Taiwan’s markets, The Wall Street Journal reports.Incoming president Ma Ying-jeou has said he will open the country’s real estate market to Chinese investors.Home prices in Taiwan have increased 30 percent since the election and could, by the year’s close, be 60 percent higher, according to Billy Yen, general manager for property brokerage DTZ Taiwan.Since the vote, luxury apartments in the Taipei…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPortland, Ore.–Opus Northwest recently broke ground on Park, a mixed-use, 101-unit apartment building in the historic Alphabet District of Portland, Ore. The 94,727-sq.-ft. project will feature studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, 2,600 sq. ft. of retail space and 63 below-grade parking spaces.Located at 1830 Northwest Hoyt St. and 510 Northwest 19th Ave., the six-story project will mimic the low-rise historic buildings in the area and be developed in accordance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s green building rating systems Silver ertification requirements.“This is one of the few new buildings in this neighborhood, which…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corp., the housing developer of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, in conjunction with Enterprise, the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) recently completed the full rehabilitation of 10 affordable senior housing buildings located in Brooklyn and Queens, New York.Rehabilitation of the buildings, most of which were built in the 1970s, was made possible by a $170 million pooled refinancing package. The buildings received upgraded boilers, security systems, intercoms, fire alarm systems and window replacements. The…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorLas Vegas–RealPage Inc., a Carrollton, Texas-based provider of on-demand services to the multi-housing industry, has selected BitBand, a Netanya, Israel-based provider of video content delivery solutions for broadband Internet Protocol (IP) networks, as its affiliate vendor for implementing on-demand IPTV (IP television) services and offering triple play options to apartments.“This recent project with RealPage stands in line with the shift BitBand sees in the market, toward looking at the subscribers and the content as the service provider’s major assets,” says Erin Leibovici, CEO of Bitband.  “With this in mind, a great emphasis is placed on two…

Washington, D.C.–U.S. employment dropped for the fourth consecutive month in April, but fell at a slower pace than in the months prior–indicating the economy may be leveling out, according to government data released Friday.Factory orders grew beyond forecasts in March; services employment recovered, but manufacturing and construction firms continued to reduce jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports.The results also included an unexpected drop in the jobless rate.Nonfarm payrolls fell 20,000, according to the Labor Department. In March, they dropped 81,000; in February, nonfarm payrolls fell 83,000. Both were revised to indicate bigger declines.Construction employment fell by 61,000–the 10th-consecutive drop and…

Washington, D.C.–The U.S. and European central banks announced a new plan to battle global dollar money market issues, the Financial Times reported Friday.The Federal Reserve plans a 50-percent increase for its credit auction facility–the Term Auction Facility, which gives one-month loans to banks. As a result, the facility will increase to $150 billion.To increase the dollar supply in Europe, the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank also plan to increase the scope of dollar currency swaps by nearly 50 percent to $50 billion and $20 billion.The plan was created to affect the interbank money market’s high…