7.5 million homeowners ‘underwater’
At least 7.5 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth, according to a real estate research firm's report released Friday.Kaufmann House Deal Undone
In another sign that even the rich are suffering in this crisis, a deal to purchase the Kaufmann House, a famous modernist design by architect Richard Neutra, fell apart recently. The Palm Springs home was promoted as a work of art and sold last May at auction house Christie's for $19 million.
But that deal came undone. It's listed now for $12.9 million. Edgar Kaufmann, by the way, was a department store mogul from Pittsburgh who also commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater. He knew something about markdowns.
According to a recent account in the Los Angeles Times, the present owners, a divorcing couple--he's a big wig at bond giant Pimco, have invested about $11 million in the property.
U.S. weighing new mortgage plan
The government is expected to announce soon that it will devote up to $50 billion to directly address the source of the financial crisis: bad mortgages and millions of homeowners at risk of foreclosure.Lots of homes ‘underwater’ on mortgages in U.S.
First American CoreLogic, a data supplier, says that in the July-September period, 18% of all properties with a mortgage were underwater--that is, worth less than the outstanding debt.
The company's data includes over 80% of all mortgages.
Here are some points from the press release:
• Over 7.5 million mortgages or 18% of all properties with a mortgage were in a negative equity position as of the end of September 2008. There are an additional 2.1 million mortgages that are approaching negative equity. These are defined as mortgages within 5% of being in a negative equity position. Negative-equity and near-negative equity mortgages combined account for over 23% of all properties with a mortgage.•
The distribution of negative equity is heavily skewed to a small number of states. Nevada and Michigan have the highest percentages of negative equity - Nevada led the nation with an estimated 48% and Michigan was second with 39%. Five other states have negative equity shares in excess of 20%: Florida (29%), Arizona (29%), California (27%), Georgia (23%), and Ohio (22%).
. New York has the lowest share of mortgages in negative equity at 7%, followed closely by Hawaii (8%), Pennsylvania (9%) and Montana (10%).
Lee & Associates Launches National Investment Group
The investment sales market has hit a rough patch due to the credit freeze-up, but despite this, Lee & Associates announced today it is launching an investment sales arm, to be dubbed Lee Investment Services Group.$420M Waldorf Coming to Philadelphia
A 58-story Waldorf=Astoria Hotel and Residences has been announced for Philadelphia, set to open in 2012. The $420 million mixed-use project will be co-developed by Mariner Commercial Properties Inc. and Gatehouse Capital Corp.Centerline Closes $131M Loan Package with Fannie Mae
Centerline Capital Group, a subsidiary of Centerline Holding Company has announced it closed the last of nine multi-family housing loan transactions. All loans were done with Fannie Mae under its DUS program on behalf of a single borrower for a total of $131 million.Thompson Joins Grubb as SVP, Industrial Group
Grubb & Ellis Co. said today that Jeffrey Thompson has joined its downtown Los Angeles office as a senior vice president with the industrial group.LowerMyBills lowers its bills (on advertising)
Guest blog from BusinessWeek's Mara Der Hovanesian:
The latest sign that the exuberance has ended: the Web’s dancing cowboys have all but disappeared. In the housing boom’s go-go days, LowerMyBills.com, one of the Internet’s biggest advertisers, plastered the Internet with banner ads that featured animated roof-top dancers and knee-slapping cowboys to grab the attention of consumers comparison-shopping for mortgages.
But who feels like dancing a jig these days? In early October the company, a unit of credit agency Experian, quietly pulled those slightly surreal images for another: a grainy video clip featuring a screaming woman holding a baby. The inspiration for the new ad was “to tap into the Halloween spirit,” according to a company spokeswoman.
Ad spending by LowerMyBills.com ballooned from $79 million in 2006 to $128 million in 2007 before subsiding to $30 million in the first half of 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
The company is a unit of the credit agency Experian
Bridgepoint Education Leases 250,000 SF at Sunroad Centrum in San Diego
Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial, Grubb & Ellis Co.'s San Diego affiliate, represented Bridgepoint Education in its 11-year lease for office space totaling nearly 250,000 square feet at Sunroad Centrum in San Diego’s Kearny Mesa area.:: Next Page →