July Newsletter - Featuring International Title Seminar

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 BlueShield has 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 Turns Selective

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'

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

Mexico property investors can look forward to increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) coming into this country during 2011, reaching a projected total of $20 billion USD. The Mexico real estate market has enjoyed many benefits from growing foreign investment in the country.

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.

Distressed

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.

Foreclosures fall in May.

Banks repossessed 66,879 homes in May, down 4% from April and 29% from a year earlier, data from real estate firm RealtyTrac shows. The number of foreclosure filings decreased 2% from April to 214,927. The drop in activity is due to processing delays and weak buying demand, as this gives lenders little incentive to seize new homes if they can't sell previously repossessed ones. The backlog is likely to lead to further declines in values as foreclosed homes sell at a discount, bringing prices down in the wider market. As RealtyTrac Senior VP Rick Sharga said, "it's going to take that much longer for the housing market to recover."

Investors Moving Foreclosures Faster Than Banks Along West Coast

Third-party investors are reselling foreclosure properties they’ve scooped up at auction at a rapid pace in states along the country’s Western seaboard. In fact, they’re moving distressed homes faster than lenders, according to a local tracking firm.

Debt Hamstrings Recovery

The Federal Reserve is just days away from ending one of the major steps to aid the U.S. economy—but the effort has done little to solve the original problem: The government and individuals alike are still heavily in debt.

RE Trends

Hotels Offer More Than Just Rooms

How about an iced caramel mocha with your hotel room key?

Hotel chains seeking to accommodate guests' changing lifestyles are retrofitting their lobbies to look and feel more like a Starbucks coffee shop as they entice guests to hang out and have a beverage.

NAR Backs Comprehensive GSE Reform

The National Association of REALTORS^®supports comprehensive reform of America’s housing finance market that protects taxpayers and ensures the availability of affordable mortgage credit today and into the future.

Two States Ask if Paperwork in Mortgage Bundling Was Complete

Opening a new line of inquiry into the problems that have beset the mortgage loan process, two state attorneys general are investigating Wall Street’s bundling of these loans into securities to determine whether they were properly documented and valid.

Costly Rush Away From Risk

A tumble in mortgage-bond prices set off a race by Wall Street to exit from money-losing trades in recent months, depriving banks of a source of profit and leaving some firms potentially nursing losses.

Home Resales Slide 3.8%

PHILADELPHIA—The housing slump has reined in Americans' once-insatiable appetite for bigger and better homes.

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.

C(RE) BLOGS

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….

May 2011 Newsletter from Scott Miller

Local

Seattle is No. 4 office market in USA
A series of big office leases has popped the Seattle area office market into the top five nationally, according to a new report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment, an Encino, Calif.-based real estate services firm.

Seattle 654-unit apartment complex planned
A new 654-unit, twin 24-story apartment complex is planned for the corner of Lenora Street and Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle.

Kirkland's Plaza at Yarrow Bay sells to Kilroy Realty for $100M
In the biggest office deal so far this year in the Puget Sound area, HAL Real Estate Investments Inc., in Seattle, sold the Plaza at Yarrow Bay office campus in Kirkland to Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp. for $100.2 million, or $363 a square foot.

199 Blaine DJC - Alexandria Real Estate Equities' new biotech building at 199 E. Blaine St. is part of the transformation of South Lake Union into a technology center.

Westwood Town Center in West Seattle sells for $78.1M
Westwood Town Center, a shopping center located at 2600 S.W. Barton St. in West Seattle, has sold for $78.1 million.

Key Center in Bellevue up for sale
In a move that could be seen as a test of the Bellevue office market, Beacon Capital Partners has put the 23-story Key Center office tower up for sale.

Bellevue Galleria sold for $87.5M
Thor Equities said it’s purchased the Bellevue Galleria shopping and office center for a reported $87.5 million.

Red Lion sells Seattle hotel for $71M
Red Lion Hotels Corp. has sold its downtown Seattle hotel on Fifth Avenue for $71 million.

Aegis Living doubles pace of assisted-living projects to meet demographic demand
With a growing population of senior citizens who need daily assistance with dressing and meals, Redmond-based Aegis Living is on a growth spurt.

Kidder Mathews Named New Agents for Kent Valley Portfolio
Kidder Mathews will take over leasing for two business parks owned by Principal Real Estate Investors LLC, the Northwest Corporate Park and Kent North Corporate Park.

National

Lehman Puts Stakes in Projects on the Block
When the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. real-estate engine was chugging during the boom years, the firm teamed up with developer LCOR Inc. on dozens of projects.
Now, as real-estate development begins to stir in a few markets, Lehman's bankruptcy estate is preparing to put its equity stake in about 10 of those projects on the block, according to people familiar with the matter.

Setting a Record in New Jersey
The high investor demand that has been seen for top-quality office buildings in Manhattan is beginning to cross the Hudson River to the New Jersey waterfront.
Hartz Mountain Industries Inc. this week sold twin 12-story office buildings in Jersey City's Colgate Center in a deal that values them at about $310 million.

Developer Lets a Bet Ride
Never one to retreat when he can attack, Related Cos. Chief Executive Stephen Ross is doubling down on the furniture-mart business.

Commercial real estate's improving health exceeds forecasts
The once-dismal commercial real estate market is turning around far more quickly than analysts expected, with troubled loans falling, occupancy rising and office building sales surging in the largest markets.

Never Too Late To Go Retro The FDIC Finds Buyers For Pool of Small Loans Sliced Up Into Bonds
Two decades after a U.S. government agency helped pioneer the creation of the commercial-mortgage-backed securities market, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is getting into the act

Apartment-Building Foreclosures Piling Up
For more than three years, Fannie Mae has faced surging foreclosures on deteriorating home loans. Now, it also has to deal with an uptick in souring loans backing apartment buildings made as the market peaked four years ago.

Stalled Projects Revive
The strength of Washington, D.C.'s office market, which has lifted the values of some properties to boom-era levels, also has helped busted developments in the nation's capital.

Hey, Malls Here! Get Your Used Malls Here!
It is spring selling season for U.S. mall landlords.
Mall giants Westfield Group, Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties are marketing 40 malls across the country, an unusually large number for any one time. The sellers are hoping to take advantage of the slowly improving economy and commercial-real-estate market.

Silicon Valley Office Market Booms
When San Francisco developer Jay Paul left town for a Pacific Ocean yacht voyage about 10 weeks ago, his shiny new office complex in Sunnyvale, Calif., had been sitting mostly empty since it was completed in late 2008.

Emeritus buying 24 assisted-living centers
Emeritus Corp. said it's buying 24 assisted-living centers worth $310 million from a partner.

International

Housing Bubbles Percolate Far From Crises Elsewhere
Housing prices are rising rapidly in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, South Africa and Sweden.
Housing prices are flat—or falling—in Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the U.S.
Welcome to the two-speed global economy.

A Real Estate Plunge on Tokyo's Waterfront?
Developers in neighborhoods near Tokyo Bay, where apartments are often built on reclaimed land, are halting sales after Japan's earthquake in mid-March turned some of the landfill into mud, shattered pipes, and severed water lines. While most of Tokyo avoided major damage in the Mar. 11 quake because of stringent building codes, some bayside areas experienced liquefaction, a phenomenon in which violent shaking causes soil to fragment and lose its strength. That in turn allows water to well up and create a quicksand-like mess. The most affected suburb was Urayasu, one of only three residential areas in greater Tokyo where land prices rose last year and the home of the Tokyo Disneyland resort.

Cuba publishes awaited details of economic changes
HAVANA -- Cuba made official on Monday what had been rumored for weeks: It is legalizing the sale of real estate and cars and expanding the ranks of private cooperatives that could serve as engines for the sputtering economy, among other major changes.

Ronesans sets price for up to $374 million IPO
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish commercial real estate firm Ronesans is offering its shares for between 5.0 and 6.4 lira each in a planned Istanbul listing next month which could raise as much as $374 million.

Distressed

Commercial Real Estate Distressed Asset Association

Loan Middlemen Become a Big Draw
With tens of billions of dollars in underwater commercial real-estate loans coming due by the end of next year, some savvy investors are trying to get to the head of the line in the race to snap up distressed properties.

SALES VELOCITY: Surge In Total Office, Hotel Sales Provide Huge Boost in First Quarter Volume

First-quarter data from CoStar Group shows investment sales activity for commercial property continuing to increase. For all property types, first-quarter sales totaled more than $47.86 billion. That amount is significantly higher (more than $16 billion in some cases,) than the amount of property sales reported for the same period by other analytic firms in the past two weeks.

CRE Distress Brings Down Another Five Banks
This past week, three banks picked up the assets and deposits of five failed banks (two in Florida, two in Georgia and one in Michigan) with FDIC assistance.

Banks Whittle Away at CRE Assets While Waiting To Jump Back Into Lending
Coming out of the first quarter, most U.S. banks still view commercial real estate as an anathema to be further banished from their books, or at least kept off their rolls. However, for the first time in a long time, they have started talking about the day when that won't be the case. And that day could come sometime in the second half of this year.

FDIC Completes Its First CMBS Offering
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) closed on the sale of a commercial mortgage-backed securities backed by approximately $394.3 million of performing commercial and multifamily mortgages from 13 failed banks.

Commercial Real Estate Clouded by Delinquencies
Barely a few minutes after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about banks finally opening the "spigot for commercial real-estate," the folks over at Trepp issued their monthly report on the delinquency rate for commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS); let's just say it isn't good.
C(RE) Trends

No Place Like Home for Banks
Just a few years ago, banks in industrial states made ill-fated bets on piping hot markets in Florida and Nevada in search of growth. Now, they are finding it in their own gritty backyards.
Banks like Fifth Third Bancorp, M&T Bank Corp. and Huntington Bancshares Inc. are among a number of banks this quarter to show marked improvement in commercial lending as manufacturing companies in industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania show signs of growth. Once-sluggish heavy industry is leading the slow rebuilding of troubled loan books.

Commercial Real Estate Update: A Tale of Two Markets
With property values rebounding, greater availability of debt financing and a slew of significant recently completed merger-and-acquisition and individual property transactions, commercial real estate investors might be tempted to believe that a robust market recovery is underway. However, a closer look reveals a highly bifurcated market with enough potential future roadblocks to cause investors concern. Much like the broader economy, the ongoing recovery of the commercial real estate market is expected by many to be uneven, inconsistent across asset types and geographies, and occur at a halting rather than a steady pace through the remainder of 2011.

One-third of homes sold for a loss in March
One-third of homes sold in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties were sold for a loss in March, according to online real-estate website Zillow, The Seattle Times reported.CRE BLOGS

There’s Stinky Gas Inside Of This Mini-Housing Bubble, You Don’t Want To Be Around When It Pops!
Yesterday, I revisited the US employment vs inflation situation, which itself was an extension of my warnings on Employment and Real Estate Recovery. In the second post, I included the story from a BoomBustBlogger who was an investor of a large multi-family properties.

Bubble, Bubble, Real Estate Toil and Trouble: Macro Climate for Real Estate Still Sucks, Despite New Bubbles
A reader wrote me complaining about the nonsensical bubble blowing in multi-family properties before the last bubble was even finished bursting. I feel his pain. Let’s run through a quick pictorial of how I see the macro climate for real estate as of right now…Everybody is getting squeezed, businesses, consumers, homeowners… Everybody!

Inflation + Deflation = Stagflation ~ Lower Real Estate Values!
as I see it and China is primed for a hard landing – at best. The US, EU, and UK face stagflation. After the AP excerpt below is a clip from my recent keynote presentation at the ING Real Estate Valuation seminar in Amsterdam on this very timely topic.

Zillow on Negative Equity: 28.4% of all single-family homes with mortgages are "underwater"
Note: The most recent Negative Equity report from CoreLogic showed 11.1 million, or 23.1 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010. With falling house prices, CoreLogic will probably show more homeowners have negative equity in Q1.

CRE Podcasts

Commercial Real Estate Lending and Deals with Sam Freshman

State of Commercial Distressed Assets from the Bank Prospective - Raymond Lowe Managing Director Wells Fargo Banking Group

Commercial Real Estate Private Money and Loan Workouts - Brian Shniderson and Marc Benezra

April Newsletter from Scott Miller

Local

Qwest Field north lot project may break ground this year

The first part of the redevelopment of a parking lot at the north end of Qwest Field may break ground later this year.

Pioneer Square tussle over building heights

Developers and Pioneer Square preservationists are squaring off over a proposal that could increase maximum building heights in the historic Seattle neighborhood to up to 18 stories

Developer asks Tacoma for $3M

The developer of a luxury mixed-use development at an old smelter site on Commencement Bay in Tacoma is asking for a $3 million cash advance from the city.

Amazon, Schnitzer West sign big lease

Amazon.com has leased approximately 460,000 square feet of space at Schnitzer West’s 1918 Eighth office tower in downtown Seattle, the companies said in a release today.

West Seattle Fauntleroy Place dispute heats up

The long-running legal dispute over West Seattle’s failed Fauntleroy Place mixed-use project has taken yet another twist.

Zillow planning IPO?

Seattle online real estate company Zillow.com Inc. has hired CitiBank to handle a planned initial public offering of its stock, according to a report.

Seattle considers new landlord rules for ex-criminals

Landlords in Seattle wouldn't be able to deny housing to renters who have previously been arrested or charged with a crime under new rules under consideration by the city of Seattle.

Tiny 'pod' rooming houses spreading

The Seattle developers who built a 21st-century version of the old rooming house have several more in the pipeline.

Seattle Times business staff

The Seattle developers who brought you a 21st-century take on an old idea — the rooming house — must be pleased with how their first projects have been received:

Point Ruston development to house 12-screen movie theater

Commercial interest in a major development on the site of Tacoma’s former Asarco copper smelter is warming up after two years in the deep freeze.

Zillow leases 3 Russell Center floors

Zillow.com has signed a lease for three floors, or 66,000 square feet, in the 42-story Russell Investments Center on Second Avenue in downtown Seattle.

Amazon shows off new South Lake Union digs

Seattle city officials got a look at Amazon.com Inc.'s new South Lake Union headquarters on Tuesday.

Wealthy buying homes

Wealthy buyers are starting to return to the luxury home market, flashing positive signals to the broader Puget Sound housing sector.

DuPont apartment project aims to grow with Lewis-McChord

Following some delay, a Spokane developer has set April 4 as the date to break ground on a $33 million apartment project in DuPont Station, in Pierce County.

BioMed Realty Prices $400M Public Offering

BioMed Realty L.P., the operating partnership subsidiary of life sciences real estate REIT BioMed Realty Trust Inc., has priced a public offering of $400 million of Senior Notes that will bear interest at an annual rate of 3.85 percent

National

Archstone Looks Likely to Go Public Again

The sharp rise in the value of rental-apartment buildings is raising the likelihood that Archstone, one of the companies that became a symbol of the commercial real-estate downturn, will be resold to the public this year in what could be the largest real-estate initial public offering ever.

Blackstone Wins Bidding for Centro's U.S. Assets

Debt-laden Centro Properties Group agreed to sell its 588 U.S. shopping centers to private-equity giant Blackstone Group LP for $9.4 billion in a deal that will allow Centro's Australian operations to continue as a stand-alone company, according to people familiar with the matter.

Health Care Property Megadeals Announced By Ventas, Healthcare REIT Inc.

Executives and analysts have predicted continued merger and acquisitions activity in the booming health care and senior housing real estate sector, as reported by CoStar Group last week. Monday brought two more blockbuster transactions in the health care sector, including a deal for Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTN) to acquire Nationwide Health Properties (NYSE:NHP) for $7.4 billion in stock, including debt; and Healthcare REIT Inc.'s (NYSE: HCN) agreement to acquire the nursing and other acute-care assets of privately owned Genesis Healthcare for $2.4 billion.

Are Rule Makers Backing Off New Accounting Standards For Leases?

Two international accounting authorities appear to be moving to scale down proposed new standards that would require landlords and tenants to account for real estate and equipment leases as assets or liabilities on their balance sheets. Many in the commercial real estate industry regard the new rules as onerous, dramatically increasing the complexity of leases for both landlords and tenants.

Lehman Said to Seek Partner for 75 Real Estate Developments

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sent requests to at least six homebuilders and developers seeking partners for 75 real estate projects in 19 states, according to executives at three companies who reviewed the solicitations.

Sand and Surf Help Spur Real-Estate Revival

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Office occupancy rates in this seaside city have soared in an otherwise lackluster Los Angeles market, fueled by an entertainment-industry expansion. The move is part of an uneven recovery in the property market benefiting certain pockets of cities and metropolitan areas.

Supreme Court Rejects Banks' Bid to Shield Fed Lending Data

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Reserve Board said it intends to release emergency lending-data from the peak of the 2008 financial crisis after the Supreme Court rejected a bid by major banks to keep the information secret.

Government Cuts Clip Office Market Smaller government means less demand for office space, and that is acting as a drag on the recovery of the commercial-real-estate market.

In Washington and elsewhere, government leasing has helped prop up demand in tough times. But now cash-strapped governments are moving to cut back on office space, even as commercial real estate struggles to recover.

10 Real Estate Markets to Watch in 2011

Washington, D.C., was one of only two markets to see year-over-year gains in the most recent Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index report, which tracks 20 U.S. metro areas nationally. While 11 of the 20 markets tracked posted new index lows in December, home prices in Washington, D.C., rose 4.1 percent year-over-year.

Muni Woes Hinder Projects

The troubled municipal-bond market could force the developer of a skyscraper at the World Trade Center to pay higher interest rates to investors in order to avoid a potential construction shutdown.

BioMed Realty Prices $400M Public Offering

International

Housing Operators Put Focus on China

The number of Chinese over 60 years old is on pace to exceed the entire population of the U.S. by 2050. The big change has caught the eye of U.S. senior-housing developers, which are pouring into China in search of the opportunity—and maybe the risk—of a lifetime.

Deutsche Bank Sells Headquarters for $835 Million

FRANKFURT—Deutsche Bank AG said it would sell its Frankfurt headquarters, a pair of reflective glass towers that have dominated the city's skyline for a quarter-century, in a deal worth roughly €600 million, or about $835 million.

UPDATE 1-Barclays to sell property assets to CreXus

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L)has agreed to sell a portfolio of real estate loans to property investment trust CreXus (CXS.N) for $586 million, as part of the British bank's plans to trim its non-core property book.

U.K. Property Deal Puts Focus on Secondary Markets

LONDON—In a deal that demonstrates the interest in secondary property markets in the United Kingdom, a fund operated by AEW Europe and Tristan Capital Partners has agreed to acquire a portfolio of three shopping centers for £145 million ($236.5 million).

Spain's Bank Rescue Hits Headwinds

LONDON—Spain's plan to rescue its regional banks is running into headwinds as private investors, who are being asked to pour in cash, and ratings firms raise questions about whether the lenders have admitted to all of their real-estate losses.

Hui Xian REIT Seeks $1.7 Billion in IPO

HONG KONG—Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust, the Beijing-focused real-estate investment trust controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, plans to raise up to 11.2 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) from its Hong Kong listing, the company said Sunday, in what is set to be the first yuan-denominated initial public offering outside mainland China.

Distressed

SEC Probe Examines Bank-Loan Practices

The Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing U.S. banks that have restructured troubled loans in order to make them appear healthier than they really are, according to people familiar with the situation.

Officials at the SEC are seeking information from an unknown number of regional and community banks with large concentrations of commercial real-estate loans, these people said.

FDIC's Tab For Failed U.S. Banks Nears $9 Billion

U.S. banking regulators have paid out nearly $9 billion to cover losses on loans and other assets at 165 failed institutions that were sold to stronger companies during the financial crisis.

AIG, Fed in Subprime-Bond Standoff

American International Group Inc. is trying to force the hand of the Federal Reserve on a large portfolio of subprime-mortgage bonds it wants to repurchase, putting the central bank in the position of weighing taxpayers' interests against those of the government-controlled insurer.

Barclays Considers Bid for US Securities

Barclays is among a group of investors weighing a rival bid for a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities that has already drawn a $15.7 billion offer from AIG, people familiar with the matter said.

Hotel REITs Go Upscale

Publicly traded real-estate investment trusts have emerged as goliaths in the acquisition market for hotels as the hospitality industry continues its rebound from the recession.

Case in point: LaSalle Hotel Properties Inc., owner of 35 upscale hotels, last week paid $80.1 million for the Viceroy Santa Monica hotel on California's coast. The purchase was LaSalle's seventh of an upscale, trophy hotel in a little more than a year, amounting to $596 million in spending by the real-estate investment trust, or REIT.

Malls Face Surge in Vacancies

Even as the economy picks up steam, many of the nation's malls and shopping centers are suffering a hangover due to changing consumer habits and the fallout from a massive building boom.

C(RE) Trends

Commercial Vacancy Rates to Decline

A stabilization trend is taking place in commercial real estate sectors, but in most markets rent will remain soft except for multifamily rentals, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Timing Is Ripe for Negotiation

More than two years before his firm's five-year office lease was due to expire in 2013, Robert Finlayson told his landlord he was interested in renewing, but wanted some incentive to stay put.

Foreclosure Filings Hit Three-Year Low as U.S. Servicers in `Dysfunction'

U.S. foreclosure filings fell last month to the lowest level in three years as lenders under legal scrutiny struggled to process a backlog of defaults and put new systems in place for home seizures, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Housing Risk in Mortgage Forgiveness

For a change, banks aren't crying wolf.

Over the past two years, financial institutions have often fought financial reform, hoping to maintain the status quo, and their profits. So it is easy to think opposition to a proposed settlement of alleged mortgage-servicing abuses is more of the same. This time, though, there is good reason for them to balk at some provisions.

Freddie Mac’s Former Chief May Face S.E.C. Action

The former chief executive of Freddie Mac may face a civil action as the government ramps up an investigation of disclosure practices at the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, people briefed on the investigation said.

Goldman Looks to Sell Its Litton Mortgage-Servicing Unit

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has decided to sell its Litton Loan Servicing LP unit after the mortgage-servicing operation failed to deliver as much business as the securities firm hoped when it bought Litton in 2007.

Housing Gloom Doesn't Extend to Rentals

Not all real estate is in the dumps. Housing data due this week aren't likely to be encouraging. Figures Monday are expected to show sales of existing homes fell nearly 4% in February from January. On Tuesday, the government's index of home prices is forecast to register its seventh drop in eight months. And on Wednesday, economists anticipate new home sales in February will post a monthly increase of about 2% monthly increase, which will do little to dent January's nearly 13% decline.

PIMCO raises $1.5 billion to target bank assets: report

(Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO), the manager of world's largest bond fund, has raised more than $1.5 billion for a new fund to buy assets from banks looking to strengthen their balance sheets, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge of the fundraising.

Real-Estate Firms Make IPO U-Turn

Equity Capital Management LLC., a private-equity firm focused on real estate that owns single-tenant office, retail and warehouse buildings, told the world last summer it planned to become a publicly traded company.

Sales of new homes plunge

The spring home buying season is looking bleak for home builders.

CRE BLOGS

Household Deleveraging Continues As Net Worth Jumps On Stock Market Gains; UBS Sees Stagflation Coming As Real Estate Values Drop To Q4 2003 Levels

Today the Fed released its quarterly Flow of Funds report which is traditionally used to keep track of household net worth and general leverage. While the far more important use of this data, namely tracking shadow banking data is never in the headlines (we will present an updated version later today), the media is more than happy to present any simplistic information without much thought.

Q4 Flow of Funds: Household Real Estate assets off $6.3 trillion from peak

The Federal Reserve released the Q4 2010 Flow of Funds report this morning: Flow of Funds.

According to the Fed, household net worth is now off $8.8 Trillion from the peak in 2007, but up $8.1 trillion from the trough in Q1 2009.

Hotels: Occupancy Rate improves in Latest Survey

Here is the weekly update on hotels from HotelNewsNow.com: STR: U.S. ADR on the rise

Stake in office portfolio on block

Walton Street Capital LLC in Chicago is poised to grab a big share of the Puget Sound area office market, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this weekend.

Inflation Misconceptions Hide A Downright U-G-L-Y Real Estate Landscape! – Part 1

Here’s a quiz for you. An ages old correlation that has pretty much remained rock solid is now upon us. Real estate has been highly correlated to inflation and has acted as an inflation hedge for a very long time. This makes sense, since hard assets that both throw off income and have an actual demand for physical use (in other words, they have have intrinsic value) that hold when fiat currencies assimilate toilet paper in both value and use as input prices skyrocket. The question du jour is, “What happens when you have a glut of unused real estate supply abound in a tight credit environment, a guaranteed increase in rates AND higher input prices?”. Of course the smart people out there (in other words nearly everyone with the impetus to read BoomBustBlog) are then forced to challenge the thesis, “So is this time different? After all Reggie, you have been bearish on real estate.”

CRE Podcasts

Commercial Real Estate Private Money and Loan Workouts Video with Brian Schniderson and Marc Benezra, Esq

Brian Shniderson of B and A Capital Partners and Marc Benezra, Esq, partner at Baker and Hostetler talk to us about Private Money and Loan workouts at the Distressed Real Estate Summit Los Angeles 2011

Commercial Asset Preservations - Marc Insul

Mark Insul talks to us about Commercial Asset Preservation, LLC, ("CAP") which was formed to meet the need for a national provider of general maintenance, preservation, and inspections/evaluations of abandoned and nearly vacant commercial, industrial and multi-family real estate

State of Commercial Distressed Assets from the Bank Prospective - Raymond Lowe Managing Director Wells Fargo Banking Group

Commercial Distressed Real Estate from the Banks Prospective, Raymond W. Lowe, Sr. Managing Director Wells Fargo Bank Commercial Lending Group Los Angeles, CA

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Protect Your Investments Overseas with International Title Insurance

Featured Speaker - Rodolfo Rivera Regional Counsel, Fidelity Title International Holding Company

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CREDAA, FIABCI Networking event

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September 13, 2011

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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.

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.

International

Developers and Pioneer Square preservationists are squaring off over a proposal that could increase maximum building heights in the historic Seattle neighborhood to up to 18 stories

Commercial interest in a major development on the site of Tacoma’s former Asarco copper smelter is warming up after two years in the deep freeze.

International

C(RE) Trends

A stabilization trend is taking place in commercial real estate sectors, but in most markets rent will remain soft except for multifamily rentals, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

(Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO), the manager of world's largest bond fund, has raised more than $1.5 billion for a new fund to buy assets from banks looking to strengthen their balance sheets, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge of the fundraising.

Brian Shniderson of B and A Capital Partners and Marc Benezra, Esq, partner at Baker and Hostetler talk to us about Private Money and Loan workouts at the Distressed Real Estate Summit Los Angeles 2011

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