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Real-estate calendar
Protect Your Investments Overseas with International Title Insurance
Featured Speaker - Rodolfo Rivera Regional Counsel, Fidelity Title International Holding Company
SEATTLE King County REALTORS®
12410 SE 32nd Street, Suite #100, Bellevue, WA 98005
Only 50 seats available in a first come first serve basis
August 4, 2011
Time : 10:00am—1:00pm
Cost : FREE
RSVP : cheryl.mcivor@markoagroup.com
CREDAA, FIABCI Networking event
Shindig in Kent
222 1st Ave S ~ Historic District ~
Kent, WA 98032
September 13, 2011
Time: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Limited to the first 50 people
RSVP : cheryl.mcivor@markoagroup.com
Local
Top 5 real estate deals in King County
Despite a rough period for real estate deals, some big transactions took place last year in King County.
Colliers Hires New Managing Director
Colliers International, the Seattle-based real estate services firm, hired Bill Condon away from Grubb & Ellis to head its Seattle office. Condon will fill the vacancy created when Peter Truex recently stepped down from the position to return to brokerage work.
Lodge at Peasley Canyon Development Sells for $52M
FEDERAL WAY, WA-A real estate investment partnership connected with Swiss bank UBS has purchased an apartment complex in Federal Way. The partnership has bought the 339-unit complex this week for an amount of $52 million.
Westwood Apartments in Seattle Changes Hands for $11M
SEATTLE-Seattle-based Paragon Real Estate Advisors Inc. has closed the sale of an apartment complex in Seattle. Westwood Associates LLC has sold the Westwood Apartments, an apartment complex consisting of 84 units near the University of Washington.
Lakeland Town Center Sells for $39.4M
Loja Real Estate LLC acquired the Lakeland Town Center at 1400-1418 Lake Tapps Parkway E. in Auburn, WA for $39.4 million, or about $309 per square foot.
Loja Makes First Buy Outside CA
AUBURN, WA-Loja Real Estate LLC has purchased Lakeland Town Center for one of the firm’s separate accounts. The sale price for the property is $39.4 million.
Starbucks expands in China, its second 'home market'
Starbucks Corp.'s expansion in China — it now has 450 locations there today and expects that number to triple in the next four years — will be fueled by its new partner and placing more of an emphasis on the customer experience.
How land-use laws drive away jobs
The old saying in real estate is “location, location, location”. Reality is the most important factor in real estate is market timing. Those with the fastest feet and right product will have success in attracting and retaining companies that create living wage jobs…..
Red Lion closes on $71M Seattle Fifth Avenue hotel deal
Red Lion Hotels Corp. said it's closed on its sale of its downtown Seattle hotel on Fifth Avenue for $71 million to Lowe Enterprises.
Everett's new Providence medical tower opens, treats first patient
The $460 million Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett officially opened at 5 a.m. on Tuesday and 10 minutes later, it was treating its first patient.
Seattle selling Aurora Avenue land for $20M to state
The city of Seattle is planning to sell 1.7 acres it owns on Aurora Avenue North near the Battery Street Tunnel to the state of Washington for $20 million, or $7 million more than its appraised value.
Developer Goldfarb's insolvent estate sparks big bank battle
This story should have had a completely different outcome.
It was the story of how 12 banks across Washington — large and small — amicably, and unusually, reached an agreement over how to restructure tens of millions of dollars of debt held by well-known Seattle developer and former Carpet Exchange
owner, Michael J. Goldfarb, who died earlier this year.
Regence puts downtown Seattle HQ on the market
With a third of its building unoccupied, Regence BlueShieldhas put its downtown Seattle headquarters up for sale.
National
BRIDGE Housing Unveils 240 Units at Armstrong Place
Affiliates of nonprofit BRIDGE Housing have opened Armstrong Place, a two-component housing development at 5600 Third St. in San Francisco totaling 116 affordable seniors apartments and 124 affordable townhomes, called Armstrong Place Senior Housing and Armstrong Townhomes. Armstrong Place Senior includes 7,600 square feet of commercial space, community services and retail shops, with 23 of the apartments are set aside for formerly homeless seniors participating in San Francisco’s Direct Access to Housing program……
Pittsburgh Is Remade as Steal City
Pittsburgh, once written off as a dying steel town, has turned into one of the most resilient office-rental markets in the U.S., prompting a flurry of building sales as some longtime owners take profits.
Sam Zell, the storied "grave dancer" who scooped up hundreds of discounted assets during the real-estate collapse of the early 1990s, is taking a much more selective approach this time around.
Casino Developments Get a Boost
The Obama administration removed a hurdle for Indian tribes wanting to build casinos far from their ancestral land, setting the stage for new development.
Under pressure from many tribes throughout the country, the Interior Department, which runs the Bureau of Indian Affairs, rescinded a Bush-era directive that said tribes could develop casinos off their reservations only if they were within commuting distance. The Bureau will return to a policy that considers off-reservation casinos on a case-by-case basis.
Property Investors Face Losing Their Shirts With Strip Malls
The recent strip-mall rally may not have legs.
The past two years have seen valuations of "strip" shopping centers soar. The sector was hit harder than most commercial property during the 2008-09 financial crisis, as bankrupt retailers shut and survivors scaled back expansion plans. But after bottoming in 2009, strip-center valuations have jumped 45% and are now just 10% below their 2007 peaks, according to Cedrik LaChance of Green Street Advisors.
Nontraded REITs Are Put on Notice by SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission is intensifying its scrutiny of the booming business of real-estate investment trusts that aren't traded on a stock exchange, SEC officials say.
Mogul Digs Hotels Out of Debt, Disaster
After several years battling disasters—both natural and man-made—at Michael Dell's resorts in Hawaii and California, the investment fund that manages the billionaire's personal fortune is trying to reboot his hotel empire.
International
Starbucks expands in China, its second 'home market'
Starbucks Corp.'s expansion in China — it now has 450 locations there today and expects that number to triple in the next four years — will be fueled by its new partner and placing more of an emphasis on the customer experience.
The Easy Credit That Fueled Brazil's Boom Now Imperils It
RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazilian policy-makers have fueled their country's economic boom through a state-owned bank that keeps business flush with credit. Now the engine that has helped the nation become a global player in beef, oil and mining is colliding with another policy imperative: battling inflation.
Best Buy Europe strategy under review
Best Buy is poised to put its European expansion plans on hold, a move that could raise questions over its commitment to electricals retailing in the UK. Best Buy Europe is unlikely to make a final decision by the time Carphone Warehouse, which owns 50 per cent of the venture, announces its final results on Tuesday.
Ailing Greece Tries National Tag Sale
ATHENS—Debt-strapped Greece is about to hold an epic yard sale.
For the taking: four wide-body Airbus jets, a state lottery, a state horse-racing concession and sports book, stakes in a casino, several ports, a national post office, two water companies, a nickel miner and smelter, a munitions maker, electricity and gas monopolies, a telecommunications operator, shares in a half dozen banks, hundreds of miles of roads, a defunct airport, old Olympic venues and thousands of acres of land, including magnificent stretches of Greece's famed coast.
The “Father” of the BRIC includes Mexico, South Korea and Indonesia as mature markets
BEIJING (Notimex) — A una década de haber acuñado el acrónimo 'BRIC' para referirse al potencial económico de Brasil, Rusia, India y China, el banquero Jim ONeill yGoldman Sachshan añadido a Corea del Sur, Indonesia, México y Turquía al conjunto original
, que ahora denominan "mercados maduros" y ya no mercados emergentes.
Mexico Property Investment 2011 Country to Attract $20 Billion
Mexican President: Now is the Time to Invest
Mexican President says that, in the current international environment, Latin America will be the area that registers the greatest growth.
Credit Markets HSBC Rolls In With $1.25 Billion Covered Bond
HSBC on Tuesday sold a $1.25 billion covered bond backed by U.K. residential mortgages, the bank's first such deal and the latest signal U.S. investors are warming to the securities, long a staple of European and Canadian asset funding.
Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Delinquency Rates Mixed in First Quarter
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 8, 2011) - Delinquency rates among different commercial/multifamily mortgage investor groups were mixed in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Commercial/Multifamily Delinquency Report.
Investors Moving Foreclosures Faster Than Banks Along West Coast
Debt Hamstrings Recovery
RE Trends
Hotels Offer More Than Just Rooms
How about an iced caramel mocha with your hotel room key?
NAR Backs Comprehensive GSE Reform
Two States Ask if Paperwork in Mortgage Bundling Was Complete
The real-estate industry's growth and survival depend on buyers trading up to more-expensive properties. Now, faced with economic uncertainty, tighter lending and a glut of properties, homeowners are hunkering down, forgoing dreams of dens and great rooms, fourth bedrooms and second staircases.
More Vacancies at U.S. Malls
Vacancy rates at U.S. malls and strip-mall centers continued to rise in the second quarter as small-store owners struggled with the sluggish economy and malls grappled with follow-on store closures.
NAHB Builder Confidence index increases in July, Still Depressed
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports the housing market index (HMI) increased to 15 in July from 13 in June. Any number under 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good.
The living bubble cities of California
The weak jobs report signifies more trouble for housing. Even though the official headline unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percent the broader U6 measure went up 0.4 percent. The fragile housing market is walking on eggshells and employment is directly tied to the health of household income. Moving forward if we are to see any….
