Finance & Investment

SPECIAL REPORT: Educational Sessions at MBA Conference Track Mortgage Bankers’ Concern with Problem Loans

Las Vegas—Master servicers are witnessing greater numbers of borrowers trying to force the transfer of their loans to special servicing, according to Kevin Donahue, senior vice president of PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Services Inc. “Borrowers are becoming a little savvier” in pursuing their alternatives, said Donahue. They understand that the master servicer cannot perform “material modifications” on the loan, he said.

MBA Voices ‘Serious Concerns’ Over Consumer Financial Protection Bill

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said it has “serious concerns” with the legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee that would create a consumer financial protection agency.

EDITOR’S NOTE: FHA Watch

Will the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) be next to need the government to keep it afloat?

REITs Amass Capital Raised on Public Markets

REITs have been raising capital on the stock market in earnest since the beginning of this year.

Perspective: How Central Policy Extended the Recession

The timing of this recession could not have been worse. The National Bureau of Economic Research puts the start at January 2008. This coincides with the final leg of the lame-duck Bush Presidency. Regardless of your politics, it is clear that the Bush administration a) lacked the political power to produce apic1n all-encompassing response, and b) realized after Lehman’s demise that the complex, global recession developing was going to require a long-term solution.

Apartment REITs Register Total Returns of 38% in 3Q

New York—REITs posted their best-ever quarterly gains since the NAREIT indexes’ inception in 1972.

REIT Troubles Subside: CWSG Capital Markets Update

The REIT tsunami that struck the industry in late 2008 and continued into 2009 has officially subsided. During the past five months, the REIT industry has raised $20 billion of new debt and equity, and even companies whose very survival was in question are now raising unsecured debt at attractive pricing.

Investing in Apartments Today

Investing in apartments is a multi-part effort that involves determining return expectations, seeking apartments, conducting due diligence and exiting the investment. The economy and financing conditions have changed, and that impacts the apartment investment process.

Sycamore Urban Properties Revives Distressed Inland Empire Asset it Purchased from a Bank

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.— Sycamore Urban Properties, a multifamily investment and development company based in Irvine, rescued a troubled 41-unit townhome development in a successful demonstration of its model for acquisition, stabilization and rapid revival of financially distressed real estate.

N.J. Multifamily Investment Market: Slower but Holding its Own

Over the last few generations, a handful of local old-line families controlled New Jersey’s multifamily inventory. However, in the early 2000s, the popularization of Northern New Jersey’s Hudson Waterfront (Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, West New York and Edgewater) and the entry of institutionally backed builders paved the way for a liquid investment market that took hold in 2004.