News

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,…

By Suzann D. Silverman, Editor-in-Chief, Commercial Property News“Prudence Took a Vacation, and Then She Came Back” is what moderator Shekar Narasimhan, managing partner of Beekman Advisors Inc., nicknamed the multifamily session “The Music Stopped: Who Has a Chair?” at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo, and it was a fitting title. Generally, the speakers agreed that while the commercial and multifamily markets can expect some pain, especially given a number of unknowns to come, the credit crunch and single-family fallout have proven to be more of a much-needed wakeup call than anything else. That’s…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor Washington, D.C.–Enterprise Community Investment, Inc., Jubilee Housing, Jubilee JumpStart and PNC Bank will rehabilitate the Ontario Court affordable housing apartments, located at 2525 Ontario Rd. NW in Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan community. All 27 units on this property will undergo renovations and a 24-hour child-care center will be built. Ontario Court is owned by Jubilee Housing and will continue to be affordable for low- to moderate-income families earning up to 80 percent of area median income (AMI). More than half of the apartments will be affordable to those earning 30 percent or less of AMI.“Enterprise…

New York–Although the average Manhattan home has doubled in value in the past decade, the housing market has begun to affect the Big Apple, reminding some economists of the housing decline that trailed the 1980s real estate boom, The New York Times reports.Rents in Manhattan decreased last month by more than 7 percent in some areas, according to a report by the Real Estate Group New York.Some expect the current situation to worsen: James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University–who has tallied the New York City real estate market…

Washington, D.C.–As the $150 billion stimulus plan hits the Senate for approval, lawmakers are suggesting housing needs more help, the Financial Times reported Monday.The home foreclosure rate has remained high, despite attempts to encourage the private sector to reduce it–prompting Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd to say last week that “to the extent this economic crisis has a face: it’s housing. And to the extent there’s a face on the housing crisis, it’s the foreclosure crisis.”The Hope Now Alliance, a group of mortgage lenders, servicers and counselors formed In October to help subprime homeowners refinance and avoid foreclosure, has…

Beijing–The central bank of China ordered commercial lenders to ease loan restrictions for affordable housing developers, the Economic Times reports.The People’s Bank of China said last week that banks are able to extend loans for affordable housing if the developers raise 30 percent of the total capital–previously, the requirement for more expensive homes was 35 percent.As China’s real estate market has grown, the government has been trying to offer incentives for builders to provide affordable housing. The central bank raised the lending period from 3 to 5 years and said that banks now can lend to affordable housing developers at…

Tempe, Ariz.–As home sales and construction declined, U.S. service industries most likely grew at the slowest pace in almost a year in January, economists forecast Monday.A Bloomberg News survey of economists said that the Tempe, Ariz.-based Institute for Supply Management index of non- manufacturing businesses–which comprise nearly 90 percent of the economy–will have fallen from 54.4 to 53, Bloomberg reports. ISM’s non-manufacturing report will be released on Tuesday.Another report may indicate the number of Americans purchasing pre-owned homes dropped for the second consecutive month in December. The housing decline is affecting builders, retailers, wholesalers and financial firms: Unemployment and decreased…

Orlando, Fla.–Commercial and multifamily mortgage bankers’ loan originations fell on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations, released at the MBA Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Housing Convention and Expo that opened in Orlando today. Fourth-quarter originations were 16 percent lower than during the same period last year. The year-over-year decrease was seen across most property types and investor groups.“The slow down comes directly from disruptions in the capital markets, although a few remaining large portfolio transactions continued to buoy the numbers,” says Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s senior director…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorIrvine, Calif.–NWP Services Corp. (NWP), an Irvine-based financial transaction-processing services company for the multifamily industry, has launched its enhanced service-offering package, consisting of Resident OneBill, Resident ePay and UtilityPay Manager Services.Resident OneBill is a billing solution that enables property owners to provide a monthly statement to every resident itemizing all charges including rent, and displaying their total balance due. Resident OneBill also incorporates utility charges as allocated and assessed by NWP’s utility cost recovery service, which allows property owners to transfer the cost of utility usage to residents. Resident ePay, NWP’s enhanced resident payment processing…