News

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–The commercial/multifamily originations market grew 19 percent in 2007, with mortgage bankers closing $507.7 billion in commercial/multifamily loans, according the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2007 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance: Annual Origination Volume Summation.“Despite the slowdown, 2007 saw a record high in originations because during the first half of 2007, originations were going strong,” Jamie Woodwell (pictured), senior director of commercial/multifamily research at MBA, tells MHN. “The numbers were 38 percent ahead of 2006.”The credit crunch had a significant impact on conduit financing, but GSEs and multifamily lending was strong, said Woodwell. He said the 2007…

Washington, D.C.–After three months in a row of contraction, the U.S. service sector grew last month, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing composite index grew to 52 from 49.6. A reading over 50 indicates expansion.The service sector’s growth may be an indication that increasing costs and reduced demand are failing to cripple the economy, according to the Financial Times.Because services companies comprise roughly 70 percent of the economy, their capacity to weather economic troubles is key to the U.S. avoiding a recession.

Washington, D.C.–The federal investigation of the mortgage industry has increased in recent weeks, the New York Times reported Monday.A task force created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal division–which includes federal prosecutors in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlanta–is studying mortgages that were issued with minimal or no proof of earnings or assets, according to an anonymous government source.Formed in January, the task force has increased its pace. The current investigation is larger in scope than the F.B.I. mortgage lender investigation that is also underway, the Times said.The new group is examining…

New York–New York landlords want to raise rents for the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized tenants to offset higher energy and other costs, the New York Daily News reports.Landlords say they need a 10 percent minimum rent increase to fund higher heating oil, water and sewer bills and the general cost of maintaining older buildings. Roughly 25,000 landlords rent stabilized apartments in New York.The rent spike would mean an average increase of $78.20 for stabilized apartments. Renter advocates are against the rise because they feel it could force the lowest-income renters out of their units.The Rent Guidelines Board is scheduled to…

Taipei–Real estate in Taiwan is booming due to expectations that money from mainland China will soon spread to the area.Once considered one of Asia’s poorest investment opportunities, the Nationalist Party’s win in the March 22 presidential election helped buoy Taiwan’s markets, The Wall Street Journal reports.Incoming president Ma Ying-jeou has said he will open the country’s real estate market to Chinese investors.Home prices in Taiwan have increased 30 percent since the election and could, by the year’s close, be 60 percent higher, according to Billy Yen, general manager for property brokerage DTZ Taiwan.Since the vote, luxury apartments in the Taipei…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–Glory Capital recently acquired seven apartment buildings in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, for $18.3 million.Fort Greene is known for its historic, prewar buildings and the multitude of restaurant options along Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue. Fort Green stretches from Park to Atlantic avenues, between Flatbush and Franklin avenues. Vanderbilt Avenue divides Fort Greene to the west and Clinton Hill to the east. According to Martin Ben-Dayan, director at Glory Capital, rents in the acquired properties are roughly 60 percent below current market value. “This transaction continues Glory Capital’s transition from…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNewton Square, Penn.–Balfour Beatty, a London-based international engineering, construction, investment and services group, recently acquired GMH Military Housing, the former military housing division of GMH Communities Trust, for $350.5 million.The military housing business of the company will now be managed under Balfour Beatty Communities, and will continue providing military housing. The entire executive management team, as well as existing corporate and project-level military housing employees, will remain part of the new company.Balfour Beatty Communities, based in Newton Square, Penn., maintains interests, primarily through joint ventures with the Department of Defense, in 12 military housing projects…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPortland, Ore.–Opus Northwest recently broke ground on Park, a mixed-use, 101-unit apartment building in the historic Alphabet District of Portland, Ore. The 94,727-sq.-ft. project will feature studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, 2,600 sq. ft. of retail space and 63 below-grade parking spaces.Located at 1830 Northwest Hoyt St. and 510 Northwest 19th Ave., the six-story project will mimic the low-rise historic buildings in the area and be developed in accordance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s green building rating systems Silver ertification requirements.“This is one of the few new buildings in this neighborhood, which…