RealEstateRama

WASHINGTON, DC - May 4, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors, released its March 2011 loan modification data, which shows that an estimated 210,000 homeowners received permanent, proprietary loan modifications from mortgage servicers for the first quarter of 2011. This estimate does not include loan modifications through Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), and industry totals will be updated once official government reports are published.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - May 3, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Shelby, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I am honored that President Obama has nominated me for this position, and I am deeply grateful to Secretary Geithner for his confidence in me.

LAGUNA HILLS, CA - May 3, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Muller Company, a full service real estate company specializing in management, investment and development of commercial real estate in the western United States, announced today that the leasing team at the Taj Mahal Medical Center located in Laguna Hills, Calif. has signed its first medical lease since the start of construction and the official rebranding of the project in March, 2011

May 2, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- USAA Real Estate Company announced the sale of a Single Tenant Net Lease Retail Portfolio, consisting of 16 properties spanning several U.S. markets. The portfolio was purchased by an affiliate of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate and finance groups. Details of the purchase agreement were not disclosed.

San Francisco, CA - May 2, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Jim Beitzel, Paul Christopher, Harry Clark, and Jan Medina are busy logging hundreds of training miles and raising thousands of dollars for the 10th Annual AIDS/LifeCycle, June 5 – 11. They and 3000 other riders will be spending seven days on their bicycles, and sleeping on the ground at night, riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They are all agents with Zephyr Real Estate.

Des Plaines, IL - May 2, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Spring is in the air, and homeowners are starting to plan their dream home remodeling projects. To commemorate May as National Home Improvement Month, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) offers homeowners a few words of advice for getting the most value out of your remodeling investment

NORFOLK, VA - May 2, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- For Rent Media Solutions™, a leading resource for apartment searches nationwide and operator of ForRent.com®, a division of Dominion Enterprises, today announced an exclusive partnership with VaultWare, an online marketing and leasing solution provider for the multifamily housing industry. The integration between For Rent Media Solutions and VaultWare’s free website solution, VaultWare Places, will provide most existing For Rent customers with a free of charge, self-service website beginning May 2, 2011. The launch markets to receive their free website will be Columbus, Kansas City, San Diego and San Francisco.

RESTON, VA - April 29, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- MERSCORP, Inc. today announced the appointment of mortgage industry veteran Bill Beckmann as president and chief executive officer of MERSCORP, Inc., and the Reston-based company’s subsidiary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.

San Francisco, CA - April 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Glen Park News, a quarterly publication distributed in the Glen Park neighborhood, has added a new real estate column to its regular format. Bill Berry, a real estate agent with Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco will write the column, sharing his expertise and insights on the real estate market in San Francisco

IRVINE, CA - April 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Award-winning KTGY Group, Inc., Architecture and Planning, is pleased to announce that Craig T. Chinn, Studio Director for KTGY's Retail and Commercial Studio, has been invited to participate as a roundtable facilitator at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ (ICSC) annual RECON, The Global Retail Real Estate Convention held from May 22-25, 2011, in Las Vegas, NV. Chinn's breakfast roundtable discussion, which will be held on Monday, May 23, at 7:00 a.m., will focus on repositioning retail and commercial centers.

St. Paul, MN / Washington DC - April 28, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Fannie Mae and the Minnesota Home Ownership Center today announced a partnership to accelerate the response time for struggling Minnesota families with loans that are owned by Fannie Mae.

Charleston, WV - April 27, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) announced today that affordable housing projects in Fairmont, Fayette County, Huntington, McDowell County, Wheeling and White Sulphur Springs have been awarded nearly $800,000 in Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grants.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 27, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing is recognizing states and localities with innovative public policies and practices in workforce housing development through a major new award program, the Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award.

NORFOLK, VA - April 27, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- ForRent.com, anchor website for For Rent Media Solutions and a division of Dominion Enterprises, has seen a dramatic increase in traffic just one month after introducing the exclusive new partnership with Marketplace on Facebook.

San Francisco, CA - April 26, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Zephyr Real Estate, a long-established market leader in San Francisco, has made the leap across the Golden Gate and opened a new location in Marin County. With a number of agents whose market expertise extends north, the new location in Corte Madera connects Marin County and San Francisco to better serve client interests on both sides of the 1.7-mile span.

COLUMBIA, MD - April 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Right in time for Earth Day, Enterprise Green Communities (Enterprise) has awarded $150,000 to owners of affordable housing for resident engagement programs. The programs will provide residents with practical and cost-effective practices for everyday usage that will extend the benefits of their green homes. Through a grant from The Home Depot Foundation, Enterprise awarded six organizations $25,000 each. Awards will be used to develop tools to encourage residents including children and seniors to properly operate and maintain their green homes.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has just released national data showing that the number of homeless people was essentially unchanged from 2009 to 2010. The number, based on counts conducted by localities and states across the nation in January 2010 (called Point-In-Time [PIT] counts), went from 643,067 to 649,879, an increase of one percent. However, there was a three percent increase in the number of homeless people who were unsheltered.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- A Las Vegas man was arrested yesterday on charges that he defrauded distressed homeowners in Las Vegas who were attempting to refinance or adjust their home mortgages, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden for the District of Nevada.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM - April 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- United States Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales announced that this afternoon, a federal jury convicted Albuquerque real estate agent Kevin Powers, 51, of 17 counts of wire fraud in connection with an unlawful scheme to defraud mortgage lenders and to obtain over $5.5 million in loan proceeds through false pretenses, misrepresentations, and omissions. At sentencing, Powers faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum $250,000 fine on each count of conviction. Powers remains on release under pretrial supervision pending his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for July 18, 2011.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Eighteen national, regional and local lenders will participate in a new two-year pilot program that will offer qualified borrowers living in certain parts of the country low-cost loans to make energy-saving improvements to their homes. Backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), these new PowerSaver loans will offer homeowners up to $25,000 to make energy-efficient improvements of their choice, including the installation of insulation, duct sealing, replacement doors and windows, HVAC systems, water heaters, solar panels, and geothermal systems.