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The Bush tax cuts extension that Obama has very skillfully prepared for, and sheperded through, a Democratic Congress now awaits his signature. Joined-at-the-hip to unemployment benefits extension and middle class tax cuts, a long list of measures in the bill are pretty favorable to the real estate industry. The carried interest tax will remain at 15 percent. However, the housing industry failed to obtain an extension of the TCEP program that allows states to trade a portion of unused Low Income Housing Tax Credits for affordable housing grant dollars. Treasury rates increased in expectation of higher budget deficits and economic…

The final proposal from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was shot down at the end of this week. But don’t worry, at least some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as probably the President himself, are eager to keep the the package’s ideas alive through next year.     Recommendations from the President Obama-appointed co-chairs include: eliminating or limiting the mortgage interest deduction, taxing dividends and capital gains as ordinary income‑and eliminating the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.   The proposal of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform co-chairs got only 11 votes, not the supermajority 14 votes…

Like almost every other facet of development, the protracted process of obtaining project approval is not for beginners or the faint of heart.

Is a disconnect developing between the level of unemployment and the health of commercial real estate? The nation’s unemployment rate remains stuck at about 20 percent, if you take into account people who have given up looking for a job or are working part time because they cannot find full-time employment. At the same time, many sectors of the commercial real estate industry are starting to look good, with the multifamily sector leading the way: Apartment occupancies have been rebounding rapidly across the board, in both top and bottom markets alike.   At the National Association of Real Estate investment Trusts…

The chairmen of the president’s commission to reduce the federal deficit released their proposals yesterday.   Meanwhile, the release of the full committee’s recommendations is scheduled for Dec. 1. Congress is expected to vote on the recommendations. Some say the commission’s package of proposals to reduce the federal deficit would include recommendations to shelve the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

Will apartment property values be affected by uncertainty over the fate of Fannie and Freddie? Hessam Nadji, managing director of research and advisory services at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, does not seem concerned, at this point at least. He tells MHN he does not think members of Congress can realistically propose to remove government support from the secondary mortgage market. “It will be a mistake,” he says. But Alabama’s Spencer Bachus, who is expected to be Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) replacement as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that the GSEs ought to be liquidated and…

The word is that special servicers are so inundated with defaulted loans that often, they can barely return the borrowers’ calls. Well, if you think there are a lot of loans defaulting currently, this is not even the peak year of CMBS loan maturities. According to data from reserach company Trepp, L.L.C., only $9.3 billion in CMBS loans are maturing this year—compared to $44.7 billion in 2011 and $57.6 billion in 2010! “The real refinancing hurdle for the market will not take place until the 2015 to 2017 time period,” says Paul Mancuso, vice president of product management. “During this…

The National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NHRA) in association with the National Trust Community Investment Corp. has honored eight historic buildings in its annual awards ceremony. The properties are located in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Kentucky and Iowa. The awards were presented at NHRA’s Fall Developers Forum. “It is a privilege to honor these innovators who are so skilled at preserving the charm and values of the past in their communities while at the same time providing housing and economic development that fulfill contemporary needs,” says Thom Amdur, executive director of NHRA. One of the winners was a…

There is now bubbling under the surface the possibility of another banking crisis, a home foreclosure-generated crisis. Big banks that face possible legal action from mortgage bond investors for improper mortgage documentation have seen their shares drop last week. There are fears they will be forced to buy back the mortgage bonds from the investors. The root of the problem: foreclosures have been improperly filed by the servicers, and/or servicers cannot produce the mortgage documents that they were required to keep. But there are calls for foreclosure moratoriums also because some homeowners are also being erroneously foreclosed on by the…