Articles About Residential

Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
11.11.2009

Mr. Obama’s Neighborhood

You can be President Barack Obama’s Chicago next-door neighbor for just $1.85 million. That’s the listing price for the 17-room 1906-vintage brick house at 5040 South Greenwood Avenue owned by Bill and Jacky Grimshaw since 1973. The house had been on the market for an unspecified sum since September, but a price had to be […]

Read More ›
Author:
Mike Ochs
Posted:
10.29.2009

Federal Mortgage Modification Program Hits Target

The federal government’s program to help homeowners facing foreclosure has reached its target of 500,000 mortgage modifications by November 1.  “There is a lot of work left to do,” said Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  “Today’s announcement is a good step forward, but we are nowhere near the finish line.”  The long-term […]

Read More ›
Author:
Matt Ward
Posted:
08.31.2009

Downtown Chicago Rental Apartments Thriving

Downtown Chicago apartment buildings – especially Class A properties – are seeing a resurgence in occupancy and rental rates as residents apprehensive about the condominium market choose to rent rather than buy.  The average effective rent of downtown apartment buildings climbed to $2.17 PSF in the second quarter, a 2.4 percent increase over the first […]

Read More ›
Author:
Mike Ochs
Posted:
08.10.2009

Home Sales, Values on the Rise; Consumer Confidence Down

Sales of new and existing homes rose in June for the third straight month, due primarily to low prices and attractive mortgage rates.  Home sales also rose 11 percent over the previous month. The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers helped to drive the uptick.  Additionally, home prices rose for the first time in three […]

Read More ›
Author:
Chris Manheim
Posted:
07.15.2009

Economic Development: Packaging A Loan in Today’s Market

Economic development organizations are stepping in to help plug the credit hole.  We all know what the economy is like today, and it is unlikely that the industrial and commercial real estate markets will soon turn around. As an economic developer, I see another side of the economy where both communities and businesses are seeking opportunities […]

Read More ›
Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
06.25.2009

Investment Banking in an Economic Meltdown

Investment banks are hunkering down to preserve capital, primarily because there are grave concerns about current property valuations, says Charles Krawitz, Senior Loan Sales Asset Manager, Fifth Third Bank, in an interview for The Alter Group podcasts on real estate.  Banks are reluctant to lend $10 million to a property that might be worth only […]

Read More ›
Author:
Kurt Rosene
Posted:
06.01.2009

Las Vegas Underwater

Las Vegas may be in the middle of a desert, but right now it’s underwater.  Fully two-thirds of the once fast-growing city’s housing stock is underwater,  meaning that the owners owe more on their mortgages than the home is worth. According to www.zillow.com, borrowers who are underwater totaled 20.4 million at the end of the […]

Read More ›
Author:
James I. Clark III
Posted:
05.26.2009

Ginnie Mae Taking the Lead on Backing New Mortgages

At a time when the CMBS market has contracted by 60 percent, a story that hasn’t gotten much attention is that fact that one slice of the securitized real estate market is doing phenomenally well. Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage Association) has provided $124.18 billion of liquidity to the secondary mortgage-backed securities market during […]

Read More ›
Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
05.21.2009

“The Giant Pool of Money”

$70 trillion dollars.  That’s all the money in the world, or to get technical, the subset of global savings known as fixed-income securities.  And it almost doubled from $36 trillion in just six years.  How did this happen? The Federal Reserve presided over the creation of what we have learned (the hard way) is a […]

Read More ›
Author:
Tom Silva
Posted:
05.18.2009

Dad’s Dorm Was Nothing Like This

Even during a steep recession, the demand for the right niche product like student housing remains strong because people know they need education and training to compete effectively in a fast-shrinking job pool.  At a time when universities have seen their endowments and investment revenues decrease because of the state of the equity markets, private-sector […]

Read More ›

Categories

Archives