By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorCleveland–Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES) has entered into a partnership agreement with Bostonpost Technology, a Bedford, N.H.-based company specializing in comprehensive software, services and support for apartment units funded through affordable housing programs. The partnership will allow IRES to offer its customers a streamlined hosted solution for all of their affordable housing and tax credit compliance and administration.IRES, a division of Intuit Inc., provides real estate management, portfolio management and accounting software solutions to the global real estate industry. Their current solutions include end-to-end property management in real-time for all affordable housing types including HUD…

Phoenix–HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) has secured a $27.75 million construction-perm loan for Central & Bell, a 228-unit multifamily development at the northeast corner of Central Avenue and Bell Road in northern Phoenix. The loan to the developers Greystone Group and WestStone Communities includes six years of interest-only payments.When it is completed in 2009, Central & Bell, a Class A property, will have eight buildings across 10 acres of land with one- and two-bedroom units averaging 804 sq. ft. each. Some units will have detached garages with additional parking in carports and surface spots, and community amenities will include a clubhouse…

By Keat Foong, Executive Editor  Orlando, Fla.–While uncertainty swirls over the credit crisis in the financial markets, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo opened on a note of good spirits, evident in the general session address by Kieran Quinn, MBA chairman.  Quinn said the “golden age” of real estate finance, characterized by abundant capital and the lowest interest and cap rates in the memory of many players, came to an abrupt end on August 15th, 2007. “Golden ages are also defined by their endings,” he noted. And this financial golden age, he said,…

Kent, Wash.–GE Real Estate has provided a $32.5 million, on-book loan to the Bellevue, Wash.-based Longwell Co. for its acquisition and repositioning of the 382-unit Avante Apartments in Kent.Avante is a garden style-property spread across 17.61 acres, located between the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. The area is one of the largest warehouse distribution and manufacturing centers in North America with 45 million sq. ft. of industrial space.The Class B property was built in 1978 and has recently undergone renovations and upgrades. The Longwell Co. plans to invest more than $2 million to complete additional exterior and interior property renovations.GE…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C–The Bush Administration is seeking a budget of $38.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the year 2009. This represents a $3.2 billion or nine percent increase over the President’s proposed budget for FY 2008 and $1 billion more than HUD’s current budget authority.In revealing details of the proposed spending blueprint, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson noted that the 2009 budget includes significant increases for housing counseling, homeless assistance and affordable housing programs.“This budget demonstrates President Bush’s commitment to protecting homeownership by helping families facing foreclosure, while recognizing the…

Washington, D.C.–The fiscal 2009 budget released Monday by the Bush administration suggests that the housing slump will be an ongoing problem for the U.S. economy this year, the Wall Street Journal reports.According to budget documents, “it now appears that the effects of the housing slump on real (gross domestic product) growth will persist into 2008, holding down growth and delaying the expected rebound in activity.” However, the administration said that beyond 2008, housing “should cease to be a negative influence on growth.”The budget also indicates that, because of major bank consolidation, the banking sector may see significant damage from the…

Detroit–Loan provider GMAC said it posted a loss of $724 million for the fourth quarter of 2007, mostly due to its troubled home mortgage division, the Guardian reported Tuesday.In the fourth quarter in 2006, Detroit-based GMAC, a former unit of General Motors, saw a profit of more than $1 billion.The company’s home loan division, Residential Capital, lost $921 million in the quarter–its fifth consecutive quarterly loss. GMAC has reduced risky lending and cut 5,000 jobs and said it may sell all or part of the division.Citing “continued disruption in the mortgage, housing and capital markets,” GMAC saw a net loss…

Philadelphia–The Philadelphia Housing Authority has filed a lawsuit that accuses the federal housing secretary of ordering the city to hand a $2 million property over to a politically connected developer, The New York Times reported Tuesday.According to the lawsuit, housing secretary Alphonso R. Jackson threatened to deny millions of dollars in federal aid after the city failed to provide the property. However, Department of Housing and Urban Development officials denied the charges this week and said Jackson had no prior relationship with the developer, songwriter and producer Kenny Gamble.Gamble’s company, Universal Community Homes, is part of a joint venture that…

New York–Financial and homebuilder stocks declined Monday as news of the weakening employment sector increased fears that consumer credit will continue downward, the Financial Times reports.Concern that rising loan delinquencies and falling home prices would dampen corporate earnings didn’t help; retail stocks also lost ground as investors looked to sell after last week’s jobs report, which indicated a U.S. recession has become more of a reality.Mid-Monday, the S&P 500 was down 0.8 percent at 1,384.81. The homebuilder sector was down by 5.3 percent and the financial sector by 2.2 percent. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8 percent to 2,393.33; the Dow…

By Suzann D. Silverman, Editor-in-Chief, Commercial Property NewsCommercial/multifamily mortgage originations ended last year down, thanks largely to the credit crunch, the Mortgage Bankers Association announced on Monday at the annual Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo. And while solid fundamentals provide promise for the future, when the economy does return, certain aspects of the real estate financing business will be different, according to a presentation by MBA senior vice president & chief economist for research and business development Douglas Duncan (pictured) and senior director of commercial/multifamily research Jamie Woodwell. “Location, location, location (will be) mattering again,” noted Woodwell,…