Yearly Archives: 2014

Washington, D.C. - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning that President Obama unconstitutionally bypassed the U. S. Senate by appointing Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terrence Flynn to fill National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vacancies

WASHINGTON - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez today announced grants totaling $36,710,368 awarded to 156 organizations nationwide to provide more than 12,000 veterans with training to help them succeed in civilian careers. The grants are being awarded under the department's Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program (HVRP), administered by the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS)

WASHINGTON - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced that it is making renewed funding available to 25 organizations in 11 states that provide transitional housing and supportive services to homeless Veterans with special needs. The Grant and Per Diem Program (GPD) Special Need Grants – totaling $5 million to grantees – will allow the organizations to continue providing housing and necessary services to homeless Veterans from any or all of the following groups with special needs: women, frail elderly, terminally ill, chronically mentally ill and individuals who care for minor dependents

WASHINGTON - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today a Conciliation Agreement between the Connecticut Fair Housing Center (CFHC) and respondents Lil-1 Associates, AllPoints Realty and realtor Lillian Polak. The real estate companies will pay more than $24,000 to settle allegations that they published discriminatory listings and advertisements for condominiums specifying that children were not permitted.

Chicago - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are over 8,100 farmers markets nationwide, a jump of almost 5,000 from the previous decade. At farmers markets most produce vendors use simple, generic white canopies that need to be light weight and portable, which also means that vendors have to get creative when they anchor them to the ground (no stakes allowed). Most vendors can’t afford a custom tent, so they are all white, with flimsy signage. The AIA’s Small Project Practitioners Knowledge Community developed the Pop-Up Project Design Competition with the goal to re-imagine the farmer’s market canopy pop-up booth to make it easier for produce vendors to set up and transport their canopies and produce, while also

Chicago –- June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) convention delegates gave final approval to a plan that restructures the Institute’s governance. Bylaw amendments adopted by them will reduce the size of the Institute’s Board of Directors and augment the AIA’s governance structure by adding a new body, the Strategic Council, which will inform the Board and other Institute bodies of important professional issues.

WASHINGTON - June 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- ConsensusDocs is announcing a new package aimed for design professionals who want to use fair and balanced contracts. Design professionals will receive a comprehensive set of standard contract documents on the ConsensusDocs Microsoft Word-compatible technology platform that allows either online or office usage. This package is at a lower cost than an AIA contract documents subscription

New York, NY - June 27, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Brown Harris Stevens is pleased to announce that five agents based in their New York City offices were named as top agents in the country by The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends today. John Burger was ranked the top individual agent in New York City. Lisa Lippman was #2 and Kyle Blackmon #4 in Manhattan.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - June 27, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Charles Dunn Company, one of the largest full-service regional real estate firms in the western United States, has completed the $7.85 million sale of a 17-unit multifamily property located at 1520-1522 South Hayworth Ave. in the Faircrest Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. The property sold for nearly $462,000 per unit, a record high price for the neighborhood (per CoStar for multifamily properties with eight units or more)

NEW YORK - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Brown Harris Stevens, the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, is pleased to announce that Manhattan Real Estate Broker Danielle Grossenbacher has been elected 2015-2016 World President of The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI). She will be inducted on May 30, 2015 at the FIABCI World Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Currently, Danielle is also a representative of FIABCI to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

DALLAS - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the City of Austin for receiving $400,000 in grants to assess up to 20 blighted properties and fuel redevelopment and revitalization. These properties, called brownfield sites, are abandoned or under-utilized properties where reusing the land potentially has been complicated by previous use of hazardous chemicals, pollutants or contaminants.

CHICAGO - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- As part of his ongoing budget review, Governor Quinn today announced that the state of Illinois had again cut property leases to save an additional $55 million by continuing to downsize the space it leases ...

LOS ANGELES - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Higher home values continued to fuel more equity home sales, which have made up more than 80 percent of all home sales for the past 11 consecutive months.  Meanwhile, pending home sales fell in May as ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 18.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units in May, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the highest rate since May 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has selected Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE: BDN) as the 2014 Developer of the Year – the association’s highest honor.

WASHINGTON - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that Brotman Enterprise, LLC, a Philadelphia-area real estate company, will pay $25,000 as part of a Conciliation Agreement resolving allegations that its agents discriminated against African-American prospective renters. The Brotman employees allegedly steered white testers posing as rental applicants to neighborhoods they described as safer, while directing black testers to areas agents considered “rough.”

New York, NY - June 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- In the first Rent Guidelines Board vote of the de Blasio administration, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board voted 1% for 1-year leases and 2.75% for 2-year leases for New York City's rent-stabilized tenants. After a historic opportunity to correct the course of unjustifiably high rent increases under Mayor Bloomberg's administration, the Board voted for rent hikes for low and moderate income tenants

Washington, DC - June 23, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- This Sunday, June 22, will mark the 70th anniversary of the GI Bill, which has given returning veterans a hand up with educational benefits, home loans and other services. The GI Bill has been one o...

WASHINGTON - June 23, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Existing-home sales rose strongly in May and inventory gains continued to help moderate price growth, according to the National Association of Realtors

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - June 23, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- May Illinois home prices rose 8.3 percent and home sales decreased 9.4 percent compared to May 2013, while the trend continues of recent month-over-month sales gains, according to the Illinois Ass...