Regions

Washington, D.C.–Proposed housing legislation may reach the Senate floor this week, according to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).Democratic leaders–who hope to wrap up the issue before the Fourth of July holiday–currently are trying to finalize Medicaid legislation, but if they can’t, “energy and housing legislation would be the two most likely” bills to come next this week, Schumer said.Designed to help prevent foreclosures, the housing bill would create a fund and institute new rules for federal regulators to monitor Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CBS News reports.Proposed by Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill passed in the committee…

Alexandria, Va.–Four of the biggest U.S. homebuilders agreed to pay $4.3 million in fines in connection with allegations of stream and lake pollution, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.The builders had been accused of polluting the waterways with construction site dirt mixed with stormwater runoff, which is one of the largest threats to Georgia’s water system.Filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., the consent decree concluded a six-year federal probe of hundreds of construction sites in 34 states. Georgia housed 71 of the sites.Georgia housing developments built by Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Pulte Homes, Los Angeles-based KB Home and Centex Homes, based…

Washington, D.C.–Because energy and food expenses forced some companies to raise prices the economy has stayed “generally weak,” according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent tally of business conditions.Released Wednesday, the Fed’s report highlighted two major issues facing the U.S.–reduced economic activity and costly food and energy. Increased energy and food prices threaten to raise inflation and slow total economic growth, the New York Times said. As a result, “consumer spending slowed … as incomes were pinched by rising energy and food prices,” the Fed said. In addition, manufacturing activity was “generally soft” and the housing market continued to be stagnant.

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorBlackwood, N.J.–The Community Preservation Corp. (CPC) recently closed a $2.3 million loan through its Trenton office to fund the acquisition of the Scenic Falls Apartments, a 1000-unit garden-style apartment complex located in Blackwood, N.J. Scenic Falls was developed in 1996 as a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) project.CPC, a non-for-profit mortgage lender, provided the permanent loan for the acquisition of the property by a Brooklyn-based real estate developer and manager. The property also has a $845,000 second mortgage assumed by the developer through the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA), which extends the…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor Washington, D.C.–An alliance of apartment organizations have joined forces to file a “friend of the court” brief asking the United States Supreme Court to decide whether states and localities can force property owners to participate in the federal Section 8 program by passing laws that make it illegal to deny voucher holders based on their source of income.“When Congress created the Section 8 program, it explicitly made the program voluntary because it recognized that there are costs and burdens imposed on property owners who choose to participate,” says Jim Arbury, NMHC/NAA senior vice president of…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPhoenix–La Siena, a 190-unit high-end independent senior living facility located in Phoenix, will open next week.“Phoenix has always had the retiree demographic but lately it has become a high-growth city for senior housing,” John Boyd, Opus West senior director of real estate development, tells MHN.Opus West Corp. and RED Group LLC, in partnership with Seattle-based Leisure Care LLC, developed the four-story community, located on 6.2 acres at the site of the former Bud Brown’s Barn at 909 E. Northern Ave., just east of 7th St. in north central Phoenix. It is open to people 65…

By Anuradha kher, Online News EditorCollege Station, Texas–Asset Plus has broken ground on The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek, an 8.6-acre mixed-use student housing development located in the Wolf Pen Creek Corridor in College Station, Texas. The community will open in the summer of 2009.The luxury 679-bed pedestrian-oriented student housing community features a four-story stucco and brick structure and offers a mix of 253 stacked apartments and 11 townhouses. The property also includes three landscaped courtyards, a seven-level structured parking garage, community center and a 9,000 sq. ft. retail center.“We have had a long standing relationship with the A&M University…

Adrienne Faulkner (pictured) is the founder of Dallas-based Faulkner Design Group. Her passion for design is rightly inherited – her grandfather, architect George L. Dahl, FAIA, was the creator of Dallas’ famed 1936 Fair Park Centennial Expo. She is also the president of Architectural – Images, an art company showcasing Dahl’s artwork. Faulkner has completed work on more than 600 projects since 1991, and currently works on 40 projects annually from Manhattan and the Canadian provinces to Santa Monica and Los Angeles. She is a registered interior designer with the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners and an Allied Member of…

Washington, D.C.–The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a new plan Tuesday for disaster housing that gives governors the right to use units that exceed FEMA’s new formaldehyde standards and accept or refuse travel trailers.Washington, D.C.-headquartered FEMA says that, with the state governor’s permission, it will use trailers only when absolutely necessary on private property containing homes that can be repaired within six months, the Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.Any new trailers FEMA buys must meet strict air quality requirements, testing below .016 parts per million. States can use existing housing units with higher formaldehyde levels, which FEMA will test for the states,…

New York–The banks most exposed to bond insurers Ambac and MBIA–Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS–could see further losses of up to $10 billion because the bond insurers lost their triple A credit ratings last week, the Financial Times said Wednesday.The banks used New York-based Ambac and Armonk, N.Y.-headquartered MBIA–which were downgraded by Standards and Poor’s last week and are expected to be downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service–to hedge holdings of complex bonds, including mortgage-backed securities. Ambac and MBIA guarantee more than $1,000 billion of bonds.Any additional bond insurer-related writedowns-also called monolines–could increase panic about the U.S. financial market and European…