RealEstateRama

New York, NY - December 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Rev. Al Sharpton will rally with hundreds of New York City office cleaners today as 32BJ SEIU and the Realty Advisory Board (RAB) move into the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan for round-the-clock negotiations

Albany, NY - December 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- New York State November home sales increased nearly 3 percent from last November, while the median sales price dipped slightly compared to November 2010, according to preliminary singlefamily sales d...

DETROIT, MI - December 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Detroit 2.0 movement took another step forward today as a group led by Quicken Loans Founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert announced that it has completed the acquisition of three additional properties in Downtown Detroit – the historic Wright-Kay brownstone, as well as the Lane Bryant and the Arts League of Michigan Buildings.

NORFOLK, VA - December 23, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- For Rent Media Solutions™ (FRMS), a leading resource for apartment searches nationwide and a division of Dominion Enterprises, today announced the selection of Senior Vice President Brock MacLean as one of the year’s Most Influential Real Estate Leaders by Inman News.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 23, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago named Leo Ries Vice Chair of the Affordable Housing Committee for their Board of Directors. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago is a $73 billion wholesale bank serving the needs of member housing finance institutions located in Illinois and Wisconsin. Executive Director of LISC Milwaukee since 1999, Ries has served on the Federal Home Loan Bank's Board of Directors for three years.

NEW YORK, NY - December 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Christian Louboutin will open its first men’s boutique in the US at TF Cornerstone’s 808-10 Washington St. in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. RKF arranged the long-term, 1,035-square-foot ground-floor retail lease for the new store at the base of TF Cornerstone’s luxury rental apartments, located between Gansevoort and Horatio Streets. Scheduled to open in late spring 2012, the boutique will be steps from the High line Park and upcoming Whitney Museum.

San Francisco, CA - December 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, Redfin launched Redfin for iPad, a home-buying app that combines the best real estate data with an industry-first "swipeable" interface. This app follows on the success of Redfin for Android, the highest-rated real estate app in Android Market.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today’s Department of Justice fair lending settlement with Countrywide Financial is welcome news in a housing market still reeling from the costs of rampant predatory lending. Countrywide was the largest of the rogue mortgage lenders that caused the current crisis. Regulators’ lax lending rules and loose oversight allowed these bad practices to flourish.

NORFOLK, VA - December 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- For Rent Media Solutions™ (FRMS), a leading resource for apartment searches nationwide and a division of Dominion Enterprises, today announced the upgrade of its Marketplace Expert social media offering to Marketplace Network 2.0, a move which reaffirms the company’s commitment to community development, building relationships and fostering resident retention.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Department of Justice today filed its largest residential fair lending settlement in history to resolve allegations that Countrywide Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in their mortgage lending from 2004 through 2008.<

ROCHESTER, NY - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Attorney Anastasios “Taso” Kolokouris, 28, of Avon, N.Y., has been arrested and charged by Criminal Complaint with violating the Clean Air Act asbestos work practice standards involving a...

San Francisco, CA - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) --Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced that the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded San Francisco $18.9 million in HUD’s Continuum of Care grants to fund a wide variety of progra...

Norwalk, CT - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have announced they will host a series of public roundtable meetings—including one in the United States—to discuss their proposals to improve and converge financial reporting by setting forth consistent criteria for determining whether an entity is an investment company. The U.S. roundtable will also include a discussion about the FASB’s proposed Accounting Standards Update, Real Estate—Investment Property Entities (Topic 973), which develops accounting guidance for entities focused on investing in real estate properties. The roundtables are designed to provide interested stakeholders the opportunity to engage in dialogue with FASB and IASB members and staff about the proposals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The New Haven mayor will join building cleaners rallying for fair wages at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the corner of Church and Elm streets downtown. The rally comes as the December 31st contract expiration date ticks closer for the more than 2,000 building cleaners in New Haven and Hartford represented by 32BJ. Building cleaners began their contract talks with employers in mid-November. But with the two sides still far apart, the building cleaners voted last week to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if a fair agreement cannot be reached.

INLAND EMPIRE, CA - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Voit Real Estate Services’ San Diego office has successfully directed the $8.5 million acquisition of Margarita Center, a 60,390 square-foot retail property located at 39520-40 Murrieta Ho...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Senator Robert Menendez; State Senators Ray Lesniak (D-Union) and Ron Rice (D-Essex); and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) will join a rally of New Jersey building cleaners in Newark today to call for employers to agree to a fair contract for the 7,000 men and women who keep New Jersey office buildings clean, safe and sanitary. The brief rally will be held outside the Hilton at Gateway Center in Newark during a break in contract talks going on inside the building. Elected officials are taking a public stand six days after 2,000 building cleaners from around the state marched through downtown Newark and voted to authorize their union's bargaining committee to call a strike if a fair agreement is not reached before the union contract expires at 12:01 a.m. on January 1st.

WASHINGTON, DC - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global research and education organization dedicated to responsible land use, celebrated 75 years of leadership in community building last week with a series of events in communities throughout the United States – including meetings with the mayors of Washington D.C. and Philadelphia -- that highlight the institute’s legacy of shaping and enhancing the built environment.

Funding supports Obama Administration strategy to prevent and end homelessness WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded $1.47 billion...

LAGUNA HILLS, CA - December 20, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- From rental restrictions to electric vehicles and electronic meeting notices, Californians living in homeowners associations will see several new laws governing their communities starting Janua...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 20, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 made statutory changes to how income limits are calculated for LIHTC and bond-financed properties. HERA protected owners from rent decreases in 2009, and established a new system for owners to hold their income limits and rents harmless beginning in 2010.