News

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorSan Francisco–The Essex, an 84-unit green affordable housing redevelopment project, recently opened in San Francisco. Originally a mixed tourist and residential hotel, the property was rehabilitated for homeless adults with disabilities.Citi Community Capital and Enterprise Community Partners financed the project, located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.“It’s a neighborhood with a large number of homeless people, low-income and immigrant families, who, 10 years ago, were on the street and in really terrible SRO (single room occupancy) units,” says Rich Gross, vice president of California initiatives at Enterprise.“Anytime any of the SRO hotels are developed into housing, it’s…

London–To soothe the British financial markets, the Bank of England announced Monday that it would let banks exchange mortgage-backed securities valued at about $100 billion for government bonds, the New York Times said.Banks will deposit the securities–which have become hard to sell since credit markets began contracting last summer–in the central bank as collateral at a discount. To increase lending among banks, they in exchange will receive easy-to-trade government bonds.If the securities drop in value, the banks will have to weather the loss; however, there is no “arbitrary limit” on how much can be lent. Banks had suggested previously that…

Charlotte, N.C.–Hurt by higher credit costs and writedowns, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said Monday that its first-quarter earnings had fallen nearly 80 percent to $1.2 billion, the Financial Times said.Bank of America–which is the largest U.S. bank by market value–said home equity, homebuilder and small business loan issues caused its provision for credit losses to increase by $4.78 billion to $6.01 billion.Fallout from the credit and U.S. housing market collapse has hurt the investment bank. With $1.47 billion in writedowns on its collateralized debt obligations and $439 million on its leveraged loan commitments, Bank of America’s numbers were down…

Baltimore–Smaller banks–such as Provident Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore–may experience some of the losses that larger banks have suffered during the subprime crisis, according to The Wall Street Journal.Provident posted a $17.6 million quarterly net loss last week after cutting its dividend and issuing $115 million of new securities to fix a balance sheet filled with real-estate securities. Plainfield, Ind.-based Lincoln Bancorp.’s first-quarter $181,000 earnings were lower than previous forecasts because more than a dozen borrowers–including commercial real estate developers–showed difficult financial conditions.During the economic boom, many small- and mid-sized banks started working in new markets and offered new products; some…

Washington, D.C.–The FBI will investigate more corporate fraud cases in connection with subprime mortgage issues, FBI director Robert Mueller says.In a speech to the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C. on corruption and white collar crime, Mueller confirmed that the FBI is investigating 19 subprime-related institutions and the financial and investment vehicles the firms used, ABC News reports.”We likely will see more corporate fraud cases in the months to come because of the ripple effect of the subprime crisis and its impact on the credit market,” Mueller said.The FBI is targeting accounting fraud, insider trading and deceptive sales practices, which…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorSan Antonio–Daniel Markson, senior vice president of development at the NRP Group LLC, recently received the Cesar E. Chavez Eagle award at the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Educational Scholarship Recipients dinner awards, held at the La Villita Assembly Hall in San Antonio.“This award is given to special individuals who are fighting in the spirit of Cesar E. Chavez for the poor people,” says Jaime P. Martinez, chairman, Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice.Chavez was a farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist in the 1950s.“The new frontier of civil rights is affordable housing,”…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (S. 2636), recently passed by the Senate, has received mixed reaction from the multifamily industry. The Act provides $3.92 billion in emergency funding to enable states and cities to work with local nonprofits to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed homes.“The passage of the Foreclosure Prevention Act will help mitigate the growing problems brought on by the foreclosure crisis,” says Doris W. Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners. “Productive occupancy of foreclosed homes will help stimulate economic activity and help prevent further loss of home equity in struggling…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–The Environmental Protection Agency’s fourth annual National Sustainable Design Expo features more than 50 college teams from across the U.S. displaying innovative solutions for an environmentally sustainable future. The Expo is being held at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 4th Streets, until April 22, which is Earth Day.The Expo will feature solar panels made out of natural chlorophyll from plants instead of silicon, low-cost technologies that can provide clean drinking water to developing nations and green buildings, as well as technologies that generate electricity from flying kites and produce plastics…

New York–Average Manhattan home prices hit a new high in the first three months of the year, according to the Real Estate Board of New York.Co-op, condo and townhouse prices rose 41 percent in the first quarter in Manhattan, the New York Daily News said. Across the city, average price of a New York home, condo or co-op increased 28 percent to $853,000. In the first quarter of 2007, the average price was $669,000.Apartments in the SoHo and Tribeca neighborhoods sold for $2.3 and $2.2 million; the cost of an average Upper West Side apartment skyrocketed 96 percent to $2.1…