New York–Single-family home prices were down 11.4 percent in January from a year ago in 10 major metropolitan areas, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes released Tuesday by New York-based Standard & Poor’s.The overall 20-city composite index dropped 10.7 percent from 2007 in January, The Wall Street Journal reports.Home prices in Miami and Las Vegas showed the largest decline, dropping 19.3 percent in January from the year before. Phoenix posted an 18.2 percent drop and Washington and Minneapolis fell 10.9 percent and 10 percent. Separately, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Tuesday that home prices dropped 3 percent…

Philadelphia–Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton presented a plan Monday in during a speech at the University of Pennsylvania to slow foreclosures, increase lender transparencies and allow for $30 billion to assist homeowners and communities.Clinton said federal government should use resources similar to those it used to bail out Bear Stearns to help individuals, according to the Washington Post. “Let’s be clear: When families are losing their homes, that’s also a financial crisis,” Clinton said. Clinton’s main competitor, Barack Obama, also has proposed measures to help troubled homeowners. However, the two Democrats differ on whether or not to cap mortgage interest…

Washington, D.C.–Consumer confidence sunk to a five-year low in March, increasing concern that the economy could be sliding into a recession, according to the Conference Board’s confidence index.Driven by consumer concern about the weak labor market and higher food and energy costs, the index dropped from 76.4 in February to 64.5 in March, the Financial Times reports. Economists had expected a smaller decline to around 74. “Consumers’ outlook for business conditions, the job market and their income prospects is quite pessimistic and suggests further weakening may be on the horizon,” said the Conference Board’s Lynn Franco.The index is at its…

Athens, Ga., Lancaster, Pa.–KeyBank Real Estate Capital has recently closed a $200 million Fannie Mae structured credit facility on behalf of Campus Apartments. The credit facility has a 15-year term, and Campus Apartments has two years to make advances from the facility. At closing, Campus Apartments made two advances: $12,565,000 for the acquisition of Abbey West Apartments (pictured), a 568-bed property located at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., and $26,425,000 for the acquisition of College Row, a 393-bed property located at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. Both fixed and floating rate advances are available.

Milwaukee–The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), Martin Luther King Economic Development Corp. (MLKEDC) and Enterprise Community Investment Inc. recently celebrated the opening of King Commons II, a 24-unit affordable housing project located on nine scattered sites between 2nd and 4th St., near Martin Luther King Drive and West Hadley Streets in Milwaukee.Mayor Tom Barrett, Antonio Riley, executive director of WHEDA, and Ben Johnson from the MLK Economic Development Commission were present at the opening. The project includes duplex units, three-family units and single-family homes, all with garage parking. Rents range from $450 to $650 per unit.“It’s very rewarding…

Washington, D.C.–The multifamily mortgage market faces limited exposure to refinance risks stemming from the current credit crunch, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. MBA’s Research DataNote reports that relatively few multifamily mortgages will mature in the next two years.  “There’s been a general impression that a large volume of multifamily mortgages are coming due this year and next,” says Jamie Woodwell, senior director of Commercial/Multifamily Research at MBA. “The reality is that 2008 and 2009 will see a relatively small volume of maturing mortgages, with the majority of CMBS loans not maturing until 2015 or later.” Capturing data from JPMorgan and…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–Average condo and co-op prices across the country have been falling in the last year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2008 research on existing home prices.While the average price for condos and co-ops went up from 2005 to 2006, it decreased by 2.7 percent from January 2007 to February 2008. The average price of condos and co-ops in 2005 was $260,800, which increased to $264,300 in 2007. However, in February the average price was down to $251,900.While single-family home prices fell by an average of 7.5 percent, condo and co-op prices faced…

Washington, D.C.–The Economic Stimulus Act includes a bonus for landlords and commercial tenants, according to MSNBC.Congress has upped the amount of construction costs allowed for write-offs in the first year for commercial or residential rental property improvements to help the troubled real estate industry. Just 2.5 percent of improvement costs were allowed to be written off since 2006–the remainder needed to be spread out over 39 years.The new schedule is similar to the depreciation rules put in place after Sept. 11. Landlords and commercial tenants now can deduct 50 percent of the cost for “qualified leasehold improvements” in the first…

Washington, D.C.–To help stabilize struggling mortgage markets, regional U.S. banks will be able to increase mortgage-backed securities holdings by more than $100 billion, according to the New York Times.The Federal Housing Finance Board voted Monday to allow banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank system use existing capital to increase their holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities.Effective immediately, the banks will able to increase their holdings for two years. The 12 Federal Home Loan banks have been a rare liquidity source during the recent credit market tightening, offering affordable real estate loan “advances” to member banks that hold…

New York–Signs of weakness in the U.S. housing data due this week–along with consumers’ reduced faith in the financial markets–could lessen consumer confidence, the Financial Times reports.On Tuesday, the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas–published monthly by New York-based Standard & Poor’s–is expected to reveal home prices have dropped further, possibly falling from 9.1 percent in December to 10.5 percent last month. The National Association of Realtors report released Monday showed that home sales had fared better than was expected, rising in February. Analysts had forecast home sales would drop from 4.89 million in January to 4.85 million.However, on…