Yearly Archives: 2017

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has announced the finalists for its 2018 Best of 55+ Housing Awards, the premier design and marketing competition for the 55+ housing industry. A total of 111 entries were chosen as finalists and are eligible for either a gold or silver award from NAHB's 55+ Housing Industry Council. Those winners will be announced on Jan. 9, 2018, during the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.

Ginnie Mae announced that its mortgage back securities (MBS) issuance totaled $504.58 billion for FY17, which is an all-time annual issuance record. Issuance in FY16 totaled $466.6 billion.

ultifamily lending was up 8 percent year over year in 2016, with nearly three thousand different multifamily lenders providing a total of $269.2 billion in new mortgages for apartment buildings with five or more units, according to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The Muller Company, a full-service real estate company specializing in the investment, development and management of commercial real estate in the western United States, announced today the formation of a joint venture with an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”), a global leader in alternative investing, for the recapitalization of the firm’s three-property, 841,036-square-foot office portfolio in Orange County, California

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, and the President of the Association, Art Daniel, released the following statement in reaction to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s announcement that the agency will no longer negotiate new regulatory requirements with specials interest groups that file “citizen suites” hoping to negotiate settlements that will tie the agency’s hands

Aeris has upgraded Mercy Loan Fund (MLF) from AA to AA+ on the standard Wall Street scale, putting MLF in the top 15% of rated Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). MLF’s rating has increased three levels in the past two years. Aeris Financial Ratings asses capitalization, asset quality, management, earnings, and liquidity to evaluate the financial strength of CDFIs.

Michael D. Bellaman, president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), today issued the following statement on the passage of a budget by the U.S. Senate. “This important step by the Senate keeps the process on track to produce once-in-a-generation tax reform.

The National League of Cities (NLC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) today announced that mayors from four cities—Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Virginia; Salt Lake City, Utah and Tucson, Arizona—have been selected as the 2018 class of Daniel Rose Land Use Fellows by the Rose Center for Public Leadership. Mayors Andrew Ginther, Levar Stoney, Jackie Biskupski and Jonathan Rothschild will lead teams from their respective cities who will receive technical assistance on a local land use challenge from NLC, ULI and their peers from the other fellowship cities.

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) announced the promotion of Téa Gennaro to Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She will be responsible for managing and directing the accounting, finance and facilities functions at ABC and its affiliated organizations—the ABC Political Action Committee, ABC Retirement and Savings Plan, Construction Legal Rights Foundation, Trimmer Construction Education Foundation and ABC Services Corp.

If confirmed, Leonard Wolfson of Connecticut will serve as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Wolfson has served as Associate Vice President of Legislative Affairs for the Mortgage Bankers Association, where he helped the real estate finance industry recover from the financial crisis by advocating for a return to safe and sustainable lending.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for September 2017. Building Permits: Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,215,000.

After three straight monthly declines, existing-home sales slightly reversed course in September, but ongoing supply shortages and recent hurricanes muted overall activity and caused sales to fall back on an annual basis, according to the National Association of Realtors®

Mortgage applications increased 3.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 13, 2017. This week's results included an adjustment for the Columbus Day holiday.

Meridian, a full-service real estate developer and owner of medical real estate, is pleased to announce that the firm has closed escrow on the purchase of The Laguna, a 57,057-square-foot medical office building in Orange County, California. This acquisition expands Meridian’s footprint in Southern California coming on the heels of last year’s purchase of Cotton Medical Center, a 115,000-square-foot, $49 million medical office complex in Pasadena, California, adjacent to the recently completed Shriners Hospitals for Children and near the Huntington Memorial Hospital.

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced today that Executive Vice President Jeremy McChesney has completed the sale of a single-tenant net-leased retail property occupied by Circle K at 5850 W. Indian School Road in Phoenix, Arizona. The purchase price was $1,300,000, which represented a cap rate of 4.62 percent, the lowest recorded closing cap for a Circle K in the U.S. in 2017, according to CoStar.

 Nationwide housing starts fell 4.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.13 million units, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department. Nationwide single-family production fell 4.6 percent to 829,000 units due to a 15.3 percent decline in the hurricane-ravaged South. All other regions posted gains in the single-family sector, and nationwide single-family permits increased 2.4 percent

Warner Pacific Properties, a real estate investment and development company, announced today the opening of a new T.J.Maxx/HomeGoods combo store at the newly repositioned Monrovia Landing at 735 and 737 E. Huntington Drive (Historic Route 66) and S. Shamrock Avenue, in the City of Monrovia, California. The new store will celebrate its grand opening on Sunday, October 22nd, at 8:00 a.m.

The majority of Realtors® self-initiated their career in real estate and identify strong people skills as the most important trait to be a successful agent, according to the National Association of Realtors® new research report, Choosing a Career in Real Estate: A Perspective on Gender, Race and Ethnicity