Yearly Archives: 2016

In real estate, there are a lot of expenses associated with buying and selling homes – especially if you’re an agent. Luckily, there are a number of tax write-offs that can be used to offset the cost. You just have to know what deductions and credits real estate agents can claim and how to claim them.

Forty-three states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between February 2015 and February 2016 while construction employment increased in 27 states between January and February, according to analysis of Labor Department data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the pullback in energy prices and farm income appeared to be dampening demand for construction in some states while firms in other states continue to expand

Analysts at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used detailed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data for 128 cities nationwide, along with improved data analysis methods and simulation tools, to update its estimate of total U.S. technical potential for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis reveals a technical potential of 1,118 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and 1,432 terawatt-hours (TWh) of annual energy generation, equivalent to 39 percent of the nation's electricity sales

The Mortgage Bankers Association Opens Doors Foundation was named an Official Charity Partner of the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon. The race will take place on Sunday, November 6, 2016.

Comcast today announced a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) ConnectHome initiative to dramatically reduce the digital divide for public housing residents. Eligibility for Internet Essentials, Comcast’s high-speed Internet adoption program, will be immediately extended to public housing residents in Miami-Dade County and the cities of Nashville, Philadelphia, and Seattle. This is the eighth time in five years Comcast has expanded eligibility for Internet Essentials.

Members of the National Apartment Association (NAA) and nearly 170 affiliated associations this week turned out for their largest ever advocacy campaign, both on Capitol Hill and in congressional districts from coast to coast. Telling lawmakers that apartments work, industry members emphasized that lawmakers must enact public policies that promote rather than obstruct the industry’s ability to provide housing and jobs.

The Gap: The Affordable Housing Gap Analysis 2016, a new report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), paints a bleak picture of the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis. The reports finds that there is a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental units for America’s 10.4 million extremely low income (ELI) renter households, those in the bottom 30% of income in their communities.1<

Rapattoni Corporation and Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) have jointly announced that Rapattoni customers may be among the first real estate professionals with instant access to live listing data and other MLS resources through RPR's Advanced Multi-List Platform™ (AMP™).

Chapman is a home building veteran who started his own custom home building firm, Jim Chapman Fine Homes, in 1998. From 1998 through 2005, his firm primarily built custom homes in Buckhead and Alpharetta, Ga., and Highlands, N.C. In 2005, he began to also build and develop an active adult portfolio under the brand of Jim Chapman Communities. Currently, he is building under both his Jim Chapman Fine Homes brand and his Jim Chapman Communities brand throughout Buckhead, Vinings, Cobb, Forsyth, Fulton, Cherokee, Paulding and Douglas counties.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced in Seattle this afternoon her intention to introduce legislation to expand Low Income Housing Tax Credit authority by 50 percent and to make other changes to strengthen the program. At the same time, the ACTION Campaign, a group of about 1,300 affordable housing stakeholders that NCSHA and Enterprise Community Partners co-chair, transmitted to every member of Congress a national sign-on letter, endorsed by more than 1,300 organizations representing all 50 states, ca6lling on Congress to increase the Housing Credit cap by at least 50 percent. Cantwell also referenced this letter in her remarks

NAA has partnered with Entrata to provide NAA Click & Lease users with free, unlimited document storage services. This service will allow NAA Click & Lease users to scan, upload and store lease forms and pertinent notices or images to a resident file.

The Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC) has concerns with the final rule on respirable crystalline silica released today by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It appears, upon initial review, that the 1,772-page final rule contains some of the same problematic provisions that the CISC previously identified and shared with the agency. CISC has been a highly engaged participant in the rulemaking process since OSHA put forth the proposed rule two and a half years ago.

LBG REAL ESTATE COMPANIES, LLC (LBG), a Southern California-based investor in retail real estate, announces that the firm has completed the sale of a prime, newly-redeveloped retail center in Huntington Beach, Calif. to a private investor based in Orange County at a sale price of $18,555,000. The sale of the property was brokered by Ed Hanley, Bill Asher and Eric Vu of Hanley Investment Group in an off-market transaction

Ed Brady, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Bloomington, Ill., today issued the following statement regarding the housing finance reform plan, A More Promising Road to GSE Reform, put forth by a group of private sector experts.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 2 percent in February from an upwardly revised January reading to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 units, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Architecture Billings Index saw a dip into negative terrain for the first time in five months in January, but inched back up in February with a small increase in demand for design services. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the February ABI score was 50.3, up slightly from the mark of 49.6 in the previous month.

The State of Our Schools: America’s K–12 Facilities report, released today by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the 21st Century School Fund and the National Council on School Facilities, shows that the nation faces a projected annual shortfall of $46 billion in school funding, despite significant effort on the part of local communities.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA) today released a new report titled Cognition and the Housing Behavior of Older Americans. The report find a strong correlation between housing behavior and the cognitive decline of older Americans. Importantly, normal cognitive aging also correlates to a potential borrower's ability to make decisions relating to their own housing and financial situation.

WASHINGTON - March 24, 2016 - (RealEstateRama) -- Mortgage applications decreased 3.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers...

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and Mortgage Banking magazine will award nine industry innovators with the Mortgage Banking Tech All-Stars award at MBA's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo 2016, taking place April 3 - 6 at JW Marriott LA Live, Los Angeles, CA